Grace

   Pastor Fred continued the sermon series by preaching out of Galatians 2:11-21. One of the things that jumps out at me in this passage is how Paul is correcting Peter, along with a number of the other disciples and the church in Galatia. Often this correcting leads to conflict, but I challenge each one of us to find healthy Godly ways to deal with conflict. It reminds me of the times when people have come along side me and helped me me to embrace healthy conflict to point out some of my actions, thoughts and or speech, not to condemn but to spur on change and Godliness

  My first observation is that we are justified by grace and not by our works. How often do we think that the things we do or say will either make God love us more or less or even decide our fate on eternal life. It doesn’t work this way, because if it did, Jesus death on the cross is pointless. It means that the rules of the Old Testament, especially the Ten Commandments are good enough to save us and that our salvation is about what the rules I can follow instead of Jesus death and resurrection. Why would Jesus subject Himself to suffering and death if there was another way? 

  My second observation is do we treat Gods grace as meaningless. There is this concept that the German theologian and pastor by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer coined which is Cheap Grace. It is the concept that we accept Gods forgiveness without repentance, transformation or obedience. It’s essentially telling our spouse or friend that we are sorry and either not mean it or do nothing to change our attitude or behavior. As kids we are all guilty of this when we were made to apologize to someone. We may say the words, but there is no meaning or actions behind those words. So how do we turn this unmerited favor from something that has no real effect in our lives to something we not only live for, but grow and be transformed by?

  My third observation is how often we do things to other people and not give it a second thought, or how many times are we hindered by the things that have either been done to or said to us? We tend to say and do things and not give them a second thought how it impacts other people and then we are perplexed on why our relationships go south. How many of us have that one friend we often to tell other people that they may come across as a jerk, but they have a good heart once you get to know them. This doesn’t give that person a right to be a jerk even if they have a “good heart.” When we are in a jerk or snarky mood, we tend to either be oblivious to how are words and actions affect other people, or we do know and just don’t care. That makes us a jerk and we should spend sooner time in prayer so that we can be more aware of how our words and actions affect other people and to seek forgiveness. Pastor Haven asked the youth group recently the question of “How responsible are we in how other people see and respond to us?” In essence, how responsible are we for the opinion that other people have of us? In other words, are we taking our words, thoughts, actions and even our intentions captive so that we are glorifying God with them?

  The other side is that when we are offended, do we carry that hurt for years while letting it fester and to grow like  wild fire and have it turn our lives upside down. Yes we meet to forgive and to have healthy boundaries, but we also need to develop heathy confrontational skills. It is the ability to point out and express things that are either hurtful or sinful in a Godly manner. I have coffee on Monday mornings with a group of people and we all have such a relationship that we can say things to each other that I would not say to anyone else.  To be honest, when we say those things, how strong is the sarcasm in those statements. We know each other’s intentions and when we cross the line and take it too far, we can call it out and take care of it right there. My final question is when we do this, are we doing it with the intention of seeking forgiveness and restoring a relationship, whether to us or with God or are we looking to be vengeful and to destroy a person and or relationship to make a point?

Grace and Peace,

Tom Boustead