repeat post - A celebration of a day

I've copied and pasted a post from last February because I thought it appropriate. My birth into life was made manifest after this day in 2007 when I was 27. When John Wesley was converted to Christ in 1738 -- years after a works-righteous religion in the Anglican Church -- this priest celebrated his conversion at Aldersgate every subsequent year of his life -- thus I celebrate it every year, as an admirer of Wesley's understanding of God's will and Holy Spirit manifested in the world and the person. I think all Christians would do well celebrating their conversion -- God's greatest gift.

Influential people

I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. (Psalm 116:1-2).

If I was making a list of the three most influential people in my life, one of those people would be someone I have never met. He resides in a state I have only been to once, and is 30 years my elder. His dad died when he was young from one of the most devastating diseases certainly of the 21st century, ALS. He become a preacher in Oak Hills, Texas, and has since become one of the leading Christian voices in contemporary evangelism. He is the person whom led me to understand what everyone who is convinced that there is a Creator of the Universe needs to understand - that this Creator is intimately involved in His Creation, and always has been. And he led me to Scripture as the revelation of this Creator to His most-prized creation (on Earth at least) - human beings.

I was brought to Christ when these truths and others permeated through me; I was brought to Christ in a prayer similar to this. I thought it only appropriate to share it. I write and think about others places in God's family - and Jews, and Hindus and Buddhists. I have come to know almost as many uncoverted Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Agnostics and Atheists as I have Christians. We can speculate about the mercy and love of God for those that die uncoverted. But we can never forget that if we actually believe in a Holy Creator, which Christians and Jews do, then we can never forget about Holy justice.

This is how I was first convinced, and now am sealed with conviction, that the only way back to our Creator God is through Jesus Christ. Forget about all the religion in the world. Jesus Christ has nothing to do with ceremony and religion. Our Creator is absolutely clear in Scripture - the only way back to Him is through repentance towards Christ Jesus, a free gift from God.

This is the prayer I said (it would be of course completely useless to rehearse this prayer unless you felt similarly in your heart) that converted me to Christ after years of legalism and trying to work my way, at least in part, back to God. And i have no doubt if I outlive Mr. Lucado, He will be one of the first to greet me in Paradise.

http://www.maxlucado.com/pdf/salvation.plan.pdf

Our grave offense of ingratitude

In everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessolonians 5:18).

The sin of ingratitude, must be, alongside disbelief, some of our most offensive work as human beings. Consider this:
Is there anything more offensive to God than when we entertain the thought that the mountains He created were an accident, marginalize the Crucifixion with indifference, and watch our neighbor suffer because we want more than we have? Is there anything more offensive to God when we decide to save time by not worshiping Him on Sunday morning, when we take a breath of morning air without acknowledging the source, when we pick up our child without the total marvel of de novo life? And even worse -- when we complain.

We complain about our ankle and don't give gratitude that we can walk and, some, run, at all; we complain about our workloads and our hours and don't give gratitude that we can work or think or initiate and coordinate extraordinarily complex actions, at all; we complain about the mother who shows favortism to a different sibling, the illusiveness of finding "the one" in our life, the conditional love we seem to only find in this life, yet we don't give gratitude that we can even love at all; we complain about the theology of other believers and even condemn them yet we don't give gratitude that we will be in harmonical eternity with these fellow believers; we complain about traffic and headaches and not having as much free time and money as others to "enjoy life", when we don't give gratitude every moment of every second of life that we have been given.

Forget about relativity to other humans and all that non-sensical basis for any complaint -- our relativity as humans is this: we were but nothing once, and now we have been formed, created and breathed into by the giver of Life. And our relativity as Christians: we were doomed to (maybe) enjoy this life for a short time, and destined to die forever, or worse, and now we have the free gift of life and joy eternal because of the obediance and love of Jesus Christ -- yet, and I can speak for myself, walk in constant ingratitude.

I read once about a Christian who had some terribly debilitating neurological disease. First, she lost control of some of her fingers. Then her hand. Then her other hand - her toes, her foot, her other foot, her mouth, her ears, her eye. She had lost everything except control of one of her eyes. And what did she do. She praised God for allowing her to see the beauty around her that He created! This is how every Christian should live.

I have been reflecting on Phillipians 4:4 the last week. When i do this with Scripture, I like to write it down and read it throughout the day. Usually, I get little to nothing out of it, until, in one moment or another, it speaks.

In Phillipians 4:4 Paul writes to the believers in the Phillipi Church -- "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"

May we rejoice for the fellowship of His Body, all believers, through the Holy Spirit, the sealer of Life; may we rejoice for creating out of nothing everything; may we always rejoice for He showed us what Love was -- by Loving us first ( 1 John 4:19). May we rejoice for our suffering which brings perseverance, character and hope (Romans 5:2). And may we rejoice because we can, as regenerated believers, be full of God's joy and love for eternity, because of the Love He chose to bestow on us (1 John 3). Whatever our lack of comfort in this world at any moment, or cumulatively is, no matter how much regret or pain we may live in this world at any moment, or cumalatively, let us rejoice. And let us rejoice in Him -- for we have a mediator in Christ Jesus and He knows all that we go through by His perfect suffering (1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 2:17-18). And let us rejoice in Him because when we are found in Him when we die, we will be blameless and pure, in perfect, fearless love (1 John 4:18).

Whatsoever our circumstances in this world are or become, whatever our scars and bruises may be, a healthy body or one working eye -- let us rejoice in Him, the One who has began us, maintained us, and, ultimately, can save us from ourselves. Rejoice in Him, while we still can, while the kingdom of God is still at hand, while the door of eternal life is still cracked open. Rejoice in Him for every sense, every sunset, every smile, every breath. And, most of all, rejoice in Him for He has given us the choice not to, He has offered us every chance to live life without Him, outside of Him, and in gratitude of something much different than Him. Rejoice in Him for this freedom of choice -- perhaps the most perfect expression of unconditional love one can conjure up -- and He will give us an eternity through Jesus Christ, to thank Him.