God has graciously forgiven our debt against him through his Son Jesus, and not because of anything we have done.
The message of every other religion, philosophy, or Do-It-Yourself spirituality is that you do things to earn forgiveness. You do spiritual acts (or “good deeds”) so that you will be granted forgiveness by your god.
The Gospel says the opposite. The Gospel says there is nothing you can do to earn forgiveness because the offense is so great. Out of his great love for you, God has chosen to forgive you and cancel your debt against Him. The Gospel says we don’t do good acts to get forgiveness from God. Rather, we do good things because we have already received forgiveness from God through Jesus. Knowing and accepting this truth should have major implications in how we now live our life! We live a life for God out of thankfulness and joy.
Hard Questions:
One of the over arching assumptions in this passage of Scripture is that we all need forgiveness for our offenses against God. What is your response to that claim? Does that offend you? Does that seem to match up with reality?
Do you see yourself as someone who is close with God? What leads you to believe that?
When it comes to loving Jesus, do you love much or do you love little?
God has lavishly forgiven us of all our sins through Jesus Christ. Do you have difficulty accepting that forgiveness? Why or why not?
What is one thing you would do different in your life if you understood the forgiveness Jesus has given to you?
Here are some follow-up questions to use as you go deeper with the Lord. Answer them honestly and let God speak to you through out the day.
Hard Questions:
Jesus claimed to give sight to the blind- implying that people are born spiritually blind. Is that statement easy or difficult for you to accept? Why is that?
What is an area of your life that God is showing you your blind spots?
After hearing/reading about the Gospel (God has freely given sight to spiritually blind people), how are you reacting to it?
embracing/accepting (like the blind man- “thank you”)
defensive/rejecting (like the Jewish leaders- “I’m not blind”)
confused but stirred up.
Next Step:
Take a minute to pray to God. Ask him to further reveal truth to you throughout the day. Ask him to reveal your blind spots to your eyes.
So I decided to turn this site into a more personal “pastor’s blog”. There were a few factors that helped me in this decision:
the church has a new website. Relokate was using this as their online presence to get info out to all the members since we didn’t have a page on our church website. The new website fills that void much better now.
i really wanted everyone (especially new folks) going to the website for info and updates about what is happening in Relokate, yet we still owned the domain for this blog. I figure, “Hey, why not use it for something?”.
i wanted to make a resource available for those that want to dig deeper in their relationship with Christ. This blog is for those that earnestly want to find their ultimate satisfaction in God.
i wanted a way for you guys to get to know me better and hopefully trust my leadership in a transparent way.
I lead through writing and preaching. I will be challenging you through this medium; hence the title: “fan the flame”.
personally, i like to write. Hopefully this will make me better at it. You can be the judge of that, I guess!
Some Honesty
I have to be honest with you. I am not big on putting my name and face on the internet (i think psychologist use the word “paranoid”). I am especially not big on putting my opinions and thoughts on display for an anonymous audience. That’s part of the “risk” for me. I know a lot of 20’s pastors would jump at the chance to spend time in their week blogging.
Not me.
Too risky.
But I felt God subtly challenging me with this thought. “This is how most young adults communicate, and what are the implications of using the Internet for the spread of the Gospel?”
The idea that somehow God could use this to challenge us (myself included) to grow in our love and devotion to him really excites me. The thought that hundred or even thousands of young adults could hear/understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ instantly for free really, really, excites me!
Sometimes we need to take risks for the sake of the Gospel. I hope as I step out of my place of comfort to take a risk for you all (and the Gospel), you guys will be challenge to take risks for the sake of Christ in your situations as well.
Feel free to leave comments below…
Join us for a Soul Food lunch on Sunday, October 11, 12:00pm in The Mix.
We’ll be enjoying “family style” food and conversations about how God is working in your life. Feel free to bring along your favorite side dish to share. Contact Chad for info (chad.lengyel@fbclife.org).
RSVP to Becca (becca.murdaugh@fbclife.org, 823-7496 ext 2000).
Relokate is taking serious the mandate by Jesus to “love our neighbor”.
We want to invite you to our monthly service effort to love our neighbors through acts of service.
On Friday, September 25th we will be serving dinner at the Springfield Victory Mission. We will meet there at 6:15pm. This is a great opportunity to get to know the homeless in our city and go into their neighborhood, just like Jesus did for us. There is a parking lot next to The Cooks Kettle. We hope you will join us. Contact Chad for more info (chad.lengyel@fbclife.org).
We are having a Yard Party Thursday, June 4th from 6-8pm at Living Memorial Park (by the Nature Center). We will be grilling out, hanging out, and playing yard games. If you have questions contact Ashleigh Yoder at ashleigh.yoder@fbclife.org
