Embracing God’s Grace in Every Season

If I was briefly willing to think about a time in Christian history when Christianity was getting it right, it would have been perhaps in the days after Pentecost. Pretty much after that we see Paul, and the other Apostles correcting, recorrecting and probably recorrecting the Church.  Ah, the wonderful work of grace!
God loves his church. It was His idea after all. The imperfect people that make up the body of Christ.

For now, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  Romans 8:1
What a wonderful promise. Jesus loves you and me despite the fact we daily don’t get it right. Despite our best efforts we continue to find ourselves with wrong attitudes or just in plain old school sin.
He loves us, because the Father loves us. The Father sees you not as you see yourself, but as a child of God, who’s sins are covered with the blood of the Son.
That is good news to me. I’ve lived nearly half a century and have had plenty of time to accumulate sin after sin, had bad attitudes and done the hard trial of growing up in areas I kicked and screamed to stay in. God loves me. God forgives me and calls me His beloved. I’m attracted to that love. One I certainly don’t deserve and I’m a pastor. A professional Christian if you will. But I’m as flawed as the next person. I just carry a mantel that means I will be judged by God for the responsibility I carried amongst His beloved bride – the Church.

While we all have seasons where God may seem distant or we aren’t as engaged, I believe God’s idea of church was there as the best support network we would ever need. Our own attitudes betray us at times when we focus on what we are (or aren’t) receiving when we attend church.
Church is the gathering of God’s people where we come together and bring our gifts and talents, our daily walk with Jesus and like a good potluck dinner we enjoy the richness of diversity God has laid before us.
The last couple of chapters of Revelation have this beautiful picture of people from every culture and tongue coming together to worship God. Funny how church is a foretaste of God’s coming Kingdom. So how do we look at embracing the goodness of God’s idea in the different seasons we find ourselves?

Let’s quickly look at three areas we talked about on Sunday:

1. Remember that the Church is Jesus’ beloved bride. God’s idea, His cherished people who He gathered as His family. It precious to Him so let’s not slag her off.
2. Each of us is gifted with the ability to be us. Only we have the gifts and talents we are blessed with that we can bring to church. Look for who God wants to use you for to bless in His gathering. (It’s about what you bring, not what you get out that counts).
3. God will actively take opportunities to speak to you every Sunday if you’re actively listening and Looking for Him. – He can’t help it, you’re His beloved who He has been pursuing for some time.

 
Being actively involved in your local community is about being the blessing God designed you to be. There is No mistake you’re in the church you’re in right now, if you allow yourself to be used of God, you might find your walk with Jesus starts to reflect the Rabbi you’re following, the Lord Jesus himself.
 
Blessings 
Dave M