Forgiveness: Grace or Goodness?

Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector's booth. "Follow me and be my disciple," Jesus said to him. So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.
Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi's fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them. But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus' disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with such scum?"
 Jesus answered them, "Healthy people don't need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent."
~Luke 5:27-32

It is shameful that Christians (including me) try to present themselves as better than the "sinners" of the world. Every time that we do it, we are caught in our own hypocracy. We are no better than anyone else; we are no more "good". As Jesus himself said, no one is good except God alone. This is proven over and over. Christians are not better than any other sinner in the world.

What sets us apart is that we are sinners who have found grace. As dirty and shameful as we are at times, God loves us and looks on us with grace when we come to him in faith. It is a gift that we do not deserve... ever...

"Christianity is like one beggar telling another beggar where to find Bread" ~Vance Havner (famous southern pastor)

Love & 24

I love 24... not the TV show...
-My newfound affection is focused once again on an apple product... their new 24inch iMac.
This will come as no surprise to most of you, who already know about my obsession with the world of mac... but here is the issue... I have so many computers already that I can't figure out what I would do with it. I sorta wish it came with a battery... I could call it my 500gig iPod Jumbo... then at least it would fill some new function in my life.
Here is the other thing... I am sorta afraid to buy it (which I can't do anyway because I have no money) because every time I buy an Apple product, a week later they come out with something so cool that I hate whatever obsolete worthless piece of Apple that I bought...
Ok... that is an exaggeration... I still love my iMac and powerbook... they are just so 2005.

Brandons everywhere....

I had the opportunity to be led in worship by Brandon Grissom at two conferences this summer. In addition to having a cool name, he is also an awesome songwriter. Check out his tunes.

http://www.purevolume.com/brandongrissom

Wind and Hail

A few weeks ago, while driving to Hibbing Minnesota, I was caught in the worst storm I have ever seen. We drove under a cloud that was do dark it felt like night, and I mentioned to Emily that I thought it was a tornado waiting to happen. Just after I thought we had made it out from under the dangerous cloud, it started to hail... and I mean really hail. Luckily, there was an overpass right where we were so we quickly drove under it... for a few minutes we watched in awe as the hail fell like a blizzard.

In our safe spot under the overpass I remember telling Emily to keep her seatbelt on, because we might get hit by another car trying to find safety...

It was frightening... but then it got worse... much much much worse.

No hail was hitting our car where we were parked, but then it started blowing under the overpass completely horizontal. I saw the trees bend over sideways before a wall of rain and water and wind began slamming into the front of our car.

I closed the visor that covers the sun roof... I was pretty sure that the window was going to break. As wind violently shook the car, I realized we were directly under more than a hail storm... and only an overpass was seperating us... What can you do... I just prayed that the Storm and Wind would not break completely through the window.


After about ten minutes, it slowed down. The entire freeway was covered in hail...tons of it...

A woman got out of her Suburban truck parked next to us and walked toward our car... she was shaking... I made her sit in our car... Her front window was shattered she kept saying... She said... "I just kept praying that it wouldnt suck me up..."

She sobbed in our car.

It made me think. We forget how awesome the world is. We forget how small we are. We are powerless against the fury of a tornado... or a thousand other "acts of God." and nature.

Powerless. Yet not without hope.

The power of the storm, is nothing compared to the power of the one who made all of this.
It made me glad that I would never have to face his fury because of the hope that he has provided for us.