GIG 200 - Special Celebration Edition - Highlights Part 1

We're celebrating our 200th Growing in Grace Podcast with a look back on highlights from the past programs that have led up to this memorable occasion! It's been a lot of fun to have you sit in with us on our casual conversations as we discover together what true freedom is all about. We'll continue with our celebrating for the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned for more highlights to come, and of course we're looking forward to many more great chats in the future!

gigcast.graceroots.org

I'm so thankful for His grace

I was just sitting here thinking about the many, many conversations I've had with people over the years that have revolved around God and our relationship with Him. I was thinking about all the ways in which I've been taught by others and the ways in which I've taught. I was thinking of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, James and all the other writers in the Bible. All the words that have been shared by them and me and others.

I was thinking about how I've got a lot of doctrine about God. So much of it is really great! I'm very thankful that I have a doctrinal understanding of God and His grace, and that I'm still learning and growing. I was thinking about this, and I was overwhelmed for a few seconds with the wonderful sensation that even with all that I know about God, and even with the way that I've come to know Him personally and relationally, I DON'T HAVE HIM PEGGED, not even for a minute! I don't have Him figured out at all! And that's a good thing.

The truth is that we've been made new creations, and we have a brand new identity in Him, and we are one Spirit with Him. We have a communicative relationship with Him, in which He speaks to us, and us to Him, and He interacts with us, and we can know Him intimately... and it's ALL good!

But yet with all that I know, and with all that you know, and with all that all of humanity knows about God, and with the ways in which people know God intimately... and with all our doctrinal understanding, no matter how true or accurate it is... there is soooo much about God that we either think we know that isn't really so, or that we just plain don't know at all, and we hypothesize and we extrapolate and we articulate and we dialog and we share and we proclaim and we lecture and we listen and we infer and we establish doctrines and so on and so on - you get the point. And all the while, even in the midst of all our God-knowledge and all our God-ignorance, He loves us unconditionally and is full of grace toward us, every single second of our lives!

By all means let's keep up the dialog! Let's keep on sharing and learning and extrapolating and all that good stuff! We can most certainly be bold with what we believe, even with the understanding that we really hardly know a thing about God! He's revealed Himself to us in many ways, and I believe He wants us to communicate all of that with one another. I think what I'm saying is simply that I'm humbled that this wonderful God, who has a billion true and false things said about Him every single day, even from the likes of you and me, continues to love and adore us, and keep us in His limitless grace!

This also gives me humility in sharing truth with others. Holy cow... anything that I know that is true isn't a result of my wonderful thinking powers! He's GRACIOUSLY revealed it to me, and I want to be very gracious and loving in my sharing with others. I want to speak with clarity and boldness, and with great patience, kindness and love... and always with my heart and mind open to what God has to say to me through others, even if that means it penetrates and cracks open my own preconceived ways of seeing and understanding things.

Where the blog...

So where the blog have I been lately!!! I'm used to posting pretty frequently but lately my posts have been 'few and far between' --- whatever that means!

Well, for one I spent this morning digging out of the nine inches of snow we got overnight! And I'll tell you the truth... I LOVE it! I really do - I'm not kidding, exaggerating or trying to act 'nice' about it. I really love the snow! There's just something about getting my Spirit snow blower out and just plowing through the stuff! And as for my job - driving - I'm not exactly a "daredevil," but I generally love driving through the stuff as well! There have been times when I'd rather be off the road, but overall I dig it.

I've been busy with a few other things as well, but I guess the main reason I'm posting this particular blog is to point to a couple of other blog posts that have had some really good conversations going on in the comments section (see links below). There have been some agreements and some disagreements... and that's all great! I don't mind disagreements, especially when people can talk things out without getting upset and angry, and I think that's what's been going on in these two posts.

Here are the links to the two posts that I'm talking about. If you're interested, please take some time to read through the comments. There are so many good things said by various people!

Fake it till you make it (51 comments so far)
Sanctification is the living out of a love affair (also 51 comments as of the time of this post)

Stages/The conversation goes on...

Nicole posted a great blog called Life Is a Story and it got me thinking about how in many ways life is also an ongoing conversation. What I mean is, the "conversation" of life is part of the process but the conversation is never really "over." We're all growing, we're all doing, we're all waiting, we're all... at different stages in our own personal journeys, and part of the various processes that we're all going through includes discussions and conversations with each other.

Well, my thoughts here aren't exactly turning out like they had been in my head a few moments ago. :) But I think that one thing I'm trying to say is that I've learned that what I have to say or what someone else has to say about any given subject is never the "final word" on the matter. Of course, sometimes the conversation of life does indeed lead to decisive and final action, but I just mean that the conversation of life continues even so.

Arghh. It's still not coming out right. :) But that's one thing I like about blogging... and comments! Sometimes I can just "put it out there" and see what happens. Just like in "real life" conversations you have several people speaking together, working things out together, contributing various thoughts, I think the whole idea of blogging and interacting through comments is wonderful. I may have something on my mind, or you may have something on your mind, and we may blog about it and then others join in the conversation. When I posted my What would you say... blog yesterday, for example, I had a specific point I was trying to make (pointing out the difference between how Jesus interacted with a certain woman and how I've seen many in the church today interact with women in similar shoes). But then in reading the comments from others I realized that there was a much wider array of angles from which to view the whole scenario, and I really enjoyed reading the comments.

I can think of a thousand more examples, but I guess that what I'm trying to really get at is that we have much to share with each other and much to learn from each other.

Speaking of "Stages"... hehehe... This is really just an excuse for me to play one of my favorite videos from the 80's! It's from ZZ Top. There's nothing like two synchronized sunglass-wearing, feet-tapping, guitar-playing, long-bearded men and a non-bearded drummer with the last name "Beard" in a futuristic setting, with the band's Space Shuttle-ized Hot Rod making a brief cameo!

ZZ Top - Stages