The following is the "welcome message" that I have on my Grace Roots website. I've had the same message there for several years now, partially due to laziness (not taking the time to keep it "fresh"), but also partially because I simply like the message.
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Welcome to Grace Roots! If you're tired of striving and struggling to make your life worth something to God, then my hope is that you'll find some rest and peace here. I believe that what God wants from you more than anything else is... you! As a Christian, you have an unbreakable bond with God Himself (see 1 Cor. 6:17, Rom. 8:35-39), and as you become more and more established and solidified in His unwavering love, commitment and faithfulness to you, this relationship naturally results in fruit that fleshly struggling and striving can never produce.
In order for any plant to grow and thrive and to bear good fruit, it needs to dig its roots deeper and deeper into good soil. Grace is the fertile soil in which real life and godly nutrition for the Christian are found. It takes time for our roots to become firmly established in the fertile soil of grace. In one particular Psalm, we find a great description of what can happen in the lives of those who grow in God's grace over a period of time: They shall flourish like a palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall bear fruit and they shall be fresh and flourishing! (See Psalm 92:12-14).
Does the above description fit your life? If not, what should you do? Should you try harder to get yourself "right with God?" Perhaps you've got a list of things to do or resolutions to keep or steps to take or principles to follow or (you name it) in order to make your life more in line with God's ways. But yet you've been there, done that! You've tried and failed so many times you've lost count.
I offer you a suggestion. STOP trying! I know you want to bear godly fruit. (Or perhaps all the obligations of Christian 'duty' have left you so worn out and indifferent and calloused that you don't give a rip anymore). The point is, you don't need to try harder. You need rest and you need peace!
So remove the mask. Stop the charade. Stop faking it! End the struggle. Jesus isn't struggling with you! He's calling you to rest and peace. He says, "Come to Me and I will give you rest." Stop trying, and instead find the rest you need in Jesus, and get your roots established in the fertile soil of His love and grace. Let go of the notion that you need to do great things for God, and instead start trusting that He is the only one capable of doing anything great with your life! And He will if you quit trying!
...it is good that the heart be established by grace... (Heb 13:9 NKJV)
...grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ...
(2 Pet 3:18 KJV)
Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught...
(Col 2:7 NLT)
- Joel Brueseke, Grace Roots
Grace Roots Blog
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
When Behavior Isn't About Rules, but Is About Dignity and Worth
God has created us with such a great deal of value. His love, value and acceptance of us is magnificent! He has bestowed upon us great dignity and worth. Psalm 8 says that "He has crowned us with glory and honor." Other scriptures show how God has made us holy and righteous. He has seated us with Him in heavenly places. He has placed an astounding value on us! All of this has nothing to do with our behavior. It's simply how God has fashioned us, through His love and grace. Psalm 8 also says that He has made us a little lower than Elohim. That is, a little lower than Himself! A little lower than God is a very, very, very high place to be!
We are worth a lot. We are highly valuable creations. We have been created by God with much integrity, much grandeur, much dignity, much worth, majesty, significance, beauty, prestige, renown, glory, honor, nobility. We are royalty - children of the King of kings and Lord of lords!
With all of this in mind, along with the good news of the gospel of God's awesome grace, our behavior isn't so much a matter of right and wrong, but it's more a matter of living as the creatures of glory and honor that we have been created to be! When we engage in ungodly behavior, such as sexual immorality, covetousness, deceit, gossip or whatever, it's not that we're condemned or judged or looked down upon by God, but rather it's that we're living below the true worth and value and glory and honor that God has lovingly and masterfully created us with.
Obviously none of us consistently lives as the holy, righteous, beautiful, astounding creatures that God has made us to be, so we have no right to judge one another. We only judge ourselves when we judge others. But the point is that when we intentionally decide to live in these ways, we are intentionally degrading the beautiful, majestic, noble, prestigious creations that God has made us to be. We are deeming ourselves as worth-less. That is, we are esteeming ourselves as being worth far less than the magnificent value and glory and honor that God Himself has created us with! We unfortunately view ourselves as so much lower than how God views us, and when we do, we act accordingly. We treat ourselves - and others - according to this low view that we have.
We all fall short in the things we do, and so this isn't about judgment and condemnation. This is about esteeming ourselves as the honorable and noble creations that God has made us to be, and reminding ourselves of this as often as we can so we can rise above the mediocrity of living beneath the reality of who we truly are. The foundation of who we are - of all that God has truly made us to be, by His grace and not by our deeds - is vitally important to know and understand. It takes away the "law" and "rules" aspect out of behavior and it makes it about the dignity and worth that God Himself esteems us with.
When we realize more and more the true glory and honor with which God Himself has lovingly and splendorously crowned us, we will naturally want to live accordingly - treating ourselves and others with honor and glory, dignity and worth - and we will find the power to do so by God's grace.
We are worth a lot. We are highly valuable creations. We have been created by God with much integrity, much grandeur, much dignity, much worth, majesty, significance, beauty, prestige, renown, glory, honor, nobility. We are royalty - children of the King of kings and Lord of lords!
With all of this in mind, along with the good news of the gospel of God's awesome grace, our behavior isn't so much a matter of right and wrong, but it's more a matter of living as the creatures of glory and honor that we have been created to be! When we engage in ungodly behavior, such as sexual immorality, covetousness, deceit, gossip or whatever, it's not that we're condemned or judged or looked down upon by God, but rather it's that we're living below the true worth and value and glory and honor that God has lovingly and masterfully created us with.
Obviously none of us consistently lives as the holy, righteous, beautiful, astounding creatures that God has made us to be, so we have no right to judge one another. We only judge ourselves when we judge others. But the point is that when we intentionally decide to live in these ways, we are intentionally degrading the beautiful, majestic, noble, prestigious creations that God has made us to be. We are deeming ourselves as worth-less. That is, we are esteeming ourselves as being worth far less than the magnificent value and glory and honor that God Himself has created us with! We unfortunately view ourselves as so much lower than how God views us, and when we do, we act accordingly. We treat ourselves - and others - according to this low view that we have.
We all fall short in the things we do, and so this isn't about judgment and condemnation. This is about esteeming ourselves as the honorable and noble creations that God has made us to be, and reminding ourselves of this as often as we can so we can rise above the mediocrity of living beneath the reality of who we truly are. The foundation of who we are - of all that God has truly made us to be, by His grace and not by our deeds - is vitally important to know and understand. It takes away the "law" and "rules" aspect out of behavior and it makes it about the dignity and worth that God Himself esteems us with.
When we realize more and more the true glory and honor with which God Himself has lovingly and splendorously crowned us, we will naturally want to live accordingly - treating ourselves and others with honor and glory, dignity and worth - and we will find the power to do so by God's grace.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
You are really judging yourself when you judge others
Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge another; for in passing judgment upon him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. Rom 2:1
In the second half of Romans 1, Paul talks about various acts of unrighteousness and ungodliness that have been committed by mankind, including wickedness, greed, evil, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossips slander, arrogance, boastfulness, etc.
Unfortunately, many people have used Paul's words here to point fingers at *others* and to judge and condemn others. But that's not why Paul wrote those words. In fact, his reason was exactly the opposite. He wrote them to show how we're all in the same boat - "ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" - and therefore we ALL need the same Savior.
When we point the finger at others, we're really only pointing the finger at ourselves, because we're all equally as guilty. Fortunately we can all come freely to God and receive His forgiveness and life, by His grace, through faith.
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