Made 7

 What is it like to be the victim of prejudice and discrimination?  What would it is it like to be shut out of any opportunity to advance yourself because of a powerful opinion?  I’ve had a few experiences that gave me a chill of what being marginalized is, but have no clue what it is to be completely powerless in every area of life. But we have so much gratitude for the love we have received in Christ, extended by deep connections with our brothers and sisters in Christ. The bond we have overcomes any boundary, regardless of race, income, background or geography. 

“There is grace for the humble. Grace for those who ask for it. Instead of confessing others’ sins, you can confess your own. Instead of proudly proclaiming your own rightness, you can confess your many sins, failings, and weaknesses and ask for grace. Instead of railing against God when you don’t get what you want, you can submit yourself to God and draw near to him.” - David A. Powlison, Good and Angry

Hey rest of the world.

Not all “Christians” are antagonistic, biased, closed-minded fear-mongers.

I know it doesn’t seem like it … but a lot of us are compassionate, warm loving, welcoming people who are just as frustrated as you are.

Signed

Normal Jesus followers.

- Dave Adamson

Made 6

 What makes us drift away from the truth that God is working in us?  He wants to change us to make us different than our cultural expectations. In the last, I’ve thought God was distant, letting me figure life out on my own. But He knows each of us far more than we can imagine, drawing us to Himself through our daily experiences. When will bring about what He wants if we respond to Him. 

Lyrics, “Known”, by Tauren Wells

“It's so unusual, it's frightening

You see right through the mess inside me

And you call me out to pull me in

You tell me I can start again

And I don't need to keep on hiding

I'm fully known and loved by You

You won't let go no matter what I do

And it's not one or the other

It's hard truth and ridiculous grace

To be known fully known and loved by You

I'm fully known and loved by You

It's so like You to keep pursuing

It's so like me to go astray

But You guard my heart with Your truth

A kind of love that's bulletproof

And I surrender to Your kindness, ooh

I'm fully known and loved by You

You won't let go no matter what I do

And it's not one or the other

It's hard truth and ridiculous grace

To be known fully known and loved by You

I'm fully known and loved by You

How real, how wide

How rich, how high is Your heart

I cannot find the reasons why

You give me so much

How real, how wide

How rich, how high is Your heart

I cannot find the reasons why

You give me so much

I'm fully known and loved by You

You won't let go no matter what I do

And it's not one or the other

It's hard truth and ridiculous grace

To be known fully known and loved by You

I'm fully known and loved by You

It's so unusual, it's frightening

I'm fully known and loved by You

• Tauren Wells 

Made 5

 Will we ever come to the point in this life when we have arrived to full maturity?  I doubt I ever will because I’ve got a long way to go. Just when I think I’ve surrendered an area to His authority, when I feel all new or renewed, I discover another area that I need tk let go. It’s like wearing new clothes but the same old smelly socks that I’ve had on for weeks. The process of growing deeper in Christ never stops because His love is inexhaustible. Crowder’s song “Oh How He Loves Me” comes to mind. 

“The Christian life is a lifelong “race of repentance,” but we want to have arrived already. We don’t like having to become different, but repentance is the Bible’s word for “thorough, deep-seated, genuine change.” It means turning from old ways to new. You wake up to find yourself living in God’s universe, no longer sleepwalking through the universe of your desires and fears. A race of repentance calls for the ongoing reversal of our deepest instincts and opinions. You wake up again and again.” - David A. Powlison, Speaking Truth in Love: Counsel in Community

Creating conversations

 What I discovered was this: shame leads to intimacy. The more weakness, failure, vulnerability, and shortcomings you display in conversation, the more close conversation partners become. Why? It’s because you can experience acceptance, unconditional love, and a common bond of shared weakness. You’ll have that moment I mentioned previously from C. S. Lewis in The Four Loves about how friendship forms. You think you alone carry some personal burden, but Lewis explains the connection when you can say, “What? You too? I thought I was the only one.”

Our studies suggest that after people have conversations, they are liked more than they know.

People like you. They like you more than you know. When you speak to someone in conversation, you become your “own greatest critic” and truly “overestimate how harshly others judge [you]” when in reality, your conversation partner is rarely judging you or aware of how self-conscious you feel.

Give it to God

 Christine Caine

Sometimes we have to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. When we’ve done all we know to do, tried every option, knocked on every door, prayed every prayer, enlisted advice and support, we might just need to stop and let God work it out for us. Overthinking it is not bringing your breakthrough. Endlessly talking about it is no longer making a difference. Worrying about it is not resolving it —Perhaps putting it in the hands of God and leaving it there is exactly what you need to do right now. You can trust that God is good and does good. You can trust that he is for you and not against you. You can believe that he sees, he knows and he cares. God can make a way where there is no way. He can change hearts, heal bodies, calm tormented minds, bring peace in chaos, turn sorrow into joy, open doors, and turn things around in an instant. Rest in His love and goodness. Give it to God and go to sleep.

Made 4

 What would happen if every middle school and high school student grasped today’s devotional?  God that matter, what if every adult soaked in today’s message?  We each have struggled with our identity at various times but taking hold of who we are in Christ changes everything about us. Rick Warren recently said that if he were to start anew as a pastor, he would preach every sermon and pastor on the theme of our identity in Christ. 

I wonder if we as Christ followers truly understand the implications of our identity. Many treat the Scripture’s teaching on this issue as a fiction novel, or a fairy tale view of living in the real world. But the reality of who we are builds our faith, hope and love in everything we do. 

“You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. You are chosen, holy, and beloved. You have been made alive together with Christ. God in Christ forgave you. You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. He called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You are sanctified in Christ Jesus and called saints, together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. In all these ways, the Bible affirms that you already belong to God.” - David A. Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work?

Michael Horton

 The Holy Spirit is eternally at work within the Godhead, resting in the Father through the Son. In all of the external works of the Trinity—creation, providence, redemption, and the consummation—the Spirit makes the speech of the Father in the Son effective to complete the speaker’s intention. The Father’s speech never returns to him without effect because there is his Spirit who brings about within creation its “amen!” to whatever the Father has worded it to be in and for the Son.

We confess two chief points in the third article of the Nicene Creed: that the Holy Spirit is “Lord” and that he is the “giver of life.”1 By confessing his lordship, we proclaim that the Spirit is one with the Father and the Son both in essence and in operations. There are not three lords, but one; consequently, in everything accomplished by the triune God there is one divine work.