The God I live I believe in

The issues I have been wrestling with today and over the past year have made me very uncomfortable. I have moved from this idea that the gospel is mainly about going to heaven when I die and about a particular decision I made in elementary school where I ask Jesus to come into my heart; from that place I have moved into a Jesus that wants to save me from myself today. To a Jesus who's message has just as much as an impact on my life today because of the grace and mercy he shows me. To a Jesus who has already forgiven the sin that I will commit tomorrow. I am at a place now in my walk with Jesus that I have moved from a place of right doctrine as a premium in my life, and into a place where what I live is actually what I believe in. I am understanding now that Jesus seems to care more about the broken and oppressed than he does about the righteous and those who have all the answers. I am beginning to see a world where the people who continually live as though they systematically have God figured out are the ones who do nothing with their faith. I have seen people that care care only about making the life here on earth as good as they can for themselves, and in comparison am seeing a Jesus who leads us into an uncomfortable life of sacrifice. Don't get me wrong here- my salvation experience and right doctrine are important because they have grounded me. What I see though are people who care more about being grounded than they do about living out the kingdom of God.

So I have started to feel uncomfortable lately because of all of this in comparison with the life that I lead. I live in a nice house, have Christian friends, go to a nice Christian church but am literally making little to no impact on the broken world around me. Yes I can point to little things that I do here and there that may impact the kingdom of God, but am I actually living as though that is what I believe my mission is in this life? I don't think so. My neighborhood is full of people that don't know Jesus. There are widows, kids with no moms or dads in the home and other people that don't even know my name. There are families within walking distance of me that had no roof on their heads during Christmas and I did not do anything about it. I could potentially live in one of the most diverse areas in Atlanta and I have literally zero impact. I have done nothing to spread the kingdom of God where I live.

Truly the God I live I believe in. I repent from this life and that God for the mercy and grace he has shown me by making me uncomfortable in the way I live my life. He is starting to show me areas in my life where there needs to be change if I am going to be a follower of Jesus. It is not the God I say I believe in that matters so much, but the God I live I believe in that will make a difference in the kingdom of God.

Romans 2:23-24

Romans 2:23-24
You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

This passage makes me reflect on my own leaning to live by the law and how so many people that don’t know Jesus react to the Church because of the standards we put on them. I think it is in a lot of us to relate to God by a list of activities that we need to do in order to superficially satisfy our conscience before God. In other words, we think that God is happy with us when we obey a certain standard. In our effort to obey this standard, we impose this standard on others and in doing that we are boasting in that standard. We are saying to others that this is how you make God happy with you. This is not possible because it is impossible to hold up this standard all the time and when others see that, it dishonors the name of God. When the name of God is dishonored by those who wear it, the people who do not know God will be turned away because of this hypocritical lifestyle.

What is the solution? What is the alternative to this life so that the name of God will be honored by the way His Church wears His name? The answer is GRACE. Grace does not allow us to point to us in anything we try to do, therefore giving God all of the glory and making His name great. This is the only way his name can be held up for all of the glory it deserves. That is, when His children live by grace alone, by faith alone as the only standard for living. How can His name be blasphemed when the Church points to God’s grace and not their ability to make things right by their own strength?

This grace has come to us by the name of Christ. In Christ alone can we find the grace to know God.