About Me

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Saginaw, Michigan, United States
A sinner who may come before God because of Christ

Saturday, January 02, 2016

5 Years of Learning.

Five years ago was my last posting on this blog because it was not going in a direction that I had wanted and because time was needed for more urgent matters in my life.

I believe the Lord has shown me much in these last five years and has grown me in wisdom and love and the desire to truly express His grace to this world.  How we respond to that grace is more important than how we respond to the ideas of the world.  To Him we are to give our utmost attention, not to the daily issues of life.

In those five years perhaps the most important thing that the Lord has taught me is that I am not here to impose Him onto others.  This means that I should be more surprised when sinners don't sin then when they do.  I should expect sin.  I should expect people to be unloving, unkind, selfish, and centered on what is best for them.  I should expect people to act out of that selfishness even in doing good.  It goes to motivation.  It goes to doing based on feeling rather than on obedience or command.

My motivation is the love and grace of Christ.  At least that is what I hope is my motivation.  The great definition of God's love in 1 Corinthians 13 describes the ultimate attributes of what it means to be loving.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (ESV)
4  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6  it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 
7  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

As CS Lewis so aptly stated:   Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.

In other words, the truly loving act is doing that which is best for another, and it is motivated by one's desire for the other person to have that which is best for them.  

My hope for the remaining years of my life is to show that love to others as best as I am able.