Rooted in love and grace - Participation solicitation!

Please read to the end... I'm asking for input from YOU!

About a month ago I wrote a blog post called Even Keel, in which I explained how the Lord had steadied me in my relationship with Him through growing in understanding His faithfulness, love and grace in my life. In response to that post, I received this message from a woman:

I'm reading your post on even-keeled and just struck by it... so I wanted to personally jot a message rather than comment. It overwhelmed me - to the point of tears, actually.

I have been sooooo up and down spiritually.... I always know I love God, I always know God loves me... but I get so defeated in the Christian life... I don't pray enough, I don't give enough, I'm too selfish....

Yet, I know it isn't about what I do, but about what Christ has done.

I want [my daughter] to grow up knowing that - and to have it deeply inbedded in her.... and yet, I don't get it. I get caught up in the legalism that has plagued me my entire life...

What got you from being caught up to fully understanding rooted and established in Grace. I get so frustrated, because even when I hear you and Kap talk on the program, I am still thinking "but what about.... (fill in any legalistic thing we are supposed to do)" I don't want to be there. I don't want to waver back-and-forth with the feeling of God's presence or not feeling... or all that - I want it deeply imbedded. In fact, even in saying this I'm wondering what I can DO to make this happen....

Anyway - thoughts?

I replied back and shared some thoughts about the process through which I began to get rooted and grounded in God's love and grace, and about how I'm still growing. I then asked for permission to share her words because I think that a whole ton of people can relate to all this, and perhaps I could use her words to ask what other people think.

So let's have it! What do you think? Have you been through any of this? Are you going through any of this now? What has your experience been? What have you struggled with, or what has hindered you? How have you overcome? How has the Lord established you in His grace? Do you have words that can possibly help others as they desire to get out of legalism and be rooted and established in God's love and grace?

Whether you are a "lurker" here, or someone who comments a little, or a lot, this is open to you. (Also, feel free to spread the word). If you'd like to share, my thoughts are that you could either share some brief thoughts in the comments section here - or write about it on your own blog or website and link to it here. Go in whatever direction your heart takes you. This isn't about "right answers." The main thing that I'm personally thinking about is encouraging one another in growing in God's grace, as well as sharing honest struggles and victories that we have along the way. Maybe we can all help each other out.

Depending upon the amount of activity this does or doesn't generate, I'll tentatively plan on gathering together the comment highlights as well as the links to other blogs, in another blog post here in a couple of weeks.

Satan, Bite the Dust

All right, all right... I know this video is somewhat cheesy and not necessarily scripturally solid in all points (at least in my opinion)... but it's nevertheless inspiring to me in a few ways, if for no other reason than the overall picture is the defeat of the devil, our identity in Christ and the victory in Him that we can confidently live by.

Not to mention, this is truly a Christian "classic." :)

Carman - Satan, Bite the Dust

"Permisson to be Human" - Darin Hufford

On his blog, as a preface to a blog post called "Permission to be Human," Darin Hufford writes, "Taking a big chance posting this. We'll see what happens...."

What is his post about, in which he's taking such a chance? To me, it's a raw look at the contradictory ways in which Christians live their lives, written in the first person from Darin's own perspective. Now... before I post the link to it, I want to affirm adamantly my belief that focusing on all of this inconsistent, contradictory behavior in the life of the Christian (and believe me, Darin doesn't hold back when sharing his own self-observances in his post!) is NOT what our life in Christ is about! In fact, focusing on it can be very detrimental to the living out of our daily lives in Christ. We can understand the reality that, for example, we think pure thoughts one moment and then the next moment we're all caught up in lustful thinking... without letting the truth of those contradictions steal from us the truth of our identity in Christ that is based not upon how we behave but upon the fact that by faith God has given us an identity that is righteous, holy, blameless and pure. We walk by faith in Christ, not by self-observance!

But I'm linking to this because I know that I know that I know that I know that sometimes an individual can feel as if they're the only Christian on the planet who deals with behavior that isn't always consistent (an understatement, of course), and I think that Darin simply comes out and says candidly what many Christians deal with daily, but are hesitant to speak about. Some of my blogging friends have posted similar blog posts in the past, and I always appreciate the honesty!

What is left out of the post, in my opinion (or at least it's what I would have gone on to say had I said the same things myself) is the truth about victory being a gift from God that He has already given us and that we walk in by faith, and by His grace - and that we don't need to stay locked into a mindset that the daily Christian life is simply a matter of putting up with fluctuating behavior.

That said, that obviously wasn't the point Darin was trying to make. So... I invite you to follow one of the links below and allow Darin to say all the things you've always wanted to say as a Christian, but were too afraid... and know that you're not alone. :) And I just want to add - Thank you, Father, for the victory that we have in Jesus! Thank you that we follow you and love you and obey you... not based upon our own abilities or efforts to do any of these things, but based upon Your faithfulness and Your love and Your own working that you work in us as we rest in You.

"Permission to be Human"
Darin's Myspace post
Darin's website blog post