Life is complicated.
From my previous post I have had a little bit more time to absorb the complications of life. The bible is relatively black and white about some things. Some things are grey or never mentioned, so you have to look at the black and white to discern the grey and not mentioned areas.
There are also things that we desire to see as green, red, blue or another colour instead of the black and white. We justify stuff to meet our colours. Not good.
Compared to most people I think, I think relatively different to them. I am very much a realist, not a skeptic, but a realist. That is why the very thing I hope in is in Christ alone, that he died and rose again so that we may live for his glory. That is real and God does not lie or fail on his promise. In his great mercy...
Life is complicated, there are many variables such as emotions, history, people, culture, nature etc etc. The thing I love about engineering is it is challenging and ends up more complicated than it begins. But that's what makes it interesting and keeps someone on their toes! Sure it can be frustrating too, but more fulfilling at the end when the task is completed!
I suppose the same goes with relationships.. conflict and complications keeps you on your toes. It screams at you to not become complacent. It challenges you to think about God's love and how to act it out genuinely (even if it may not begin as something genuine). It pushes you to look for solutions, to serve the other person/s and to resolve the conflict. Only then does the relationship grow ten fold! Only then you grow in Christ too!
The relationship the body of Christ, 'the bride' will have with him on that day, will be intensely amazing because of his great love, demonstrated by the amazing rescue of his people from darkness to light. Because there was a problem to start with, rebellion and disobedience against God, and because there is the solution, grace, the end result will be glorious!
Extending from the above basis, and knowing that we live in a fallen world, I acknowledge that is why conflict exists. However in this world, without conflict we would not have the opportunity to solve it together and therefore not really grow genuine relationships.
What is my point to this post? I think this is where I’m heading:
1) Conflict is real, it’s not good, but it is an opportunity for a solution to arise for a good outcome. Just like rebellion and sin is not good, but an opportunity for the greatest outcome ever.
2) That outcome, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3, NIV).
a. Grace trumps everything!
b. Grace trumps baggage.
c. Grace trumps your old way of life.
d. Grace trumps your sinful nature.
e. Grace trumps current sins.
f. Grace trumps future sins.
g. Grace motivates you to saturate your life with Christ, the King!
h. Grace gives everlasting life, a real relationship with our Creator.
i. Grace ended the war between us and God, and brought peace!
j. Grace gave us freedom from slavery to sin!
3) Colours, black and white. Knowing 1) and 2) therefore let us seek out God and colour our very lives by his living Word. As free men, live as slaves to Christ. Throw away your old pencils and use the ones branded by Grace.
Wherever you come from in your stage of life, remember that whatever conflict you had to face, and will face, Grace trumps, even before you’ve worked through it he stamped it out. How amazingly in charge of time God is!
Just don’t get complacent and return to your old pencils…even the ones that you were not aware of.
PS. If you have read this far, let me acknowledge that I am no saint. Words are one thing, actions are another.
To saturate my life with Christ is absolutely difficult. Especially when I hope for so much more in this lifetime when it is already more than sufficient that grace and a life with him has been given freely.