ch.4 a

This next chapter starts out with the story of a gay man offering a christian (Rich Mullins) a ride to a camp while he was on a long hike. After riding for awhile, the gay man told Rich that he was gay, and Rich told him that he was a christian. And than began to tell him the gospel. He explained to his own surprise that you dont go to hell for being gay, any more than you go to hell for being a liar, a racist, or a thief. You go to hell because your rejecting Jesus free gift (A lot of this is taken right from the book) of grace that is sufficient for alllllll sins! Im hitting this head on. I had the blessing of meeting a young man named Isaac Peterson! Hes a drug dealer, he commited arm robbery, he slashed a guys face with a blade. But hes got a great heart!!! He was only trying to survive. Hes from the bronx, hes hurting, in jail. He tried to kill himself. After hearing the story, someone that I love a lot overheard me talking to a friend about him. As I declared hes a good guy, this person declared, how can he be a good guy? Hes a drug dealer! That angered me, I guess the true answer is that none of us are "good guys" like Isaac, and this unnamed gay guy, we are sinners. Sinners that God died for! Your past, present, and future sins have been paid for! God loves you! God can declare you righteous and holy, set apart for Him by His blood. All you need to do is accept Jesus as your savior and repent in true belief!

This next part talked about how sins have so much power when we keep them in the dark. God knows this of course, and His word talks about it in James 5:16.

" Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

See we all struggle with some type of sin! We are not alone in our failures! God knows your failures, and loves you anyway! And if we bring our sins out in the open to mature brothers and sisters in Christ, it will be an amazing blessing to you! There is freedom when we confess to God, and those we trust. A group of people in the ministry got together for the sole purpose of having a private time of confession. NOT FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS!!! God forgives, and you confess DIRECTLY to Him, please dont get me wrong on that. But in the book after the meeting, this is what the author James Smith had to say. "Our faces looked different after that time. They shined. Later that night I thought about how all of us-literally all of us- struggle with sin. One thing was strange: even though I could remember their faces, I could not remember their sins. I suppose God couldnt either." What an awesome thought! God is truly forgiving, He truly throws our repented sins as far as the east is from the west. Its gone, His love sets us free :-)

ch.3 cont'd

On page 46 its talking about what Gods love is like. And one of the lines is amazingly encouraging to me. Sometimes I doubt myself. But God knows He made me fearfully and wonderfully with amazing care. He knows if I give my all to Him what I could be in Him! "God hopes and believes- He sees our potential even when we doubt and despair of ourselves." Hes basing this off of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.

I find this very exciting!!! "If God is this way with us, then as extensions of His life in us, we, too, can offer this kind of love to those around us." :-) Thats awesome!

Angie :-) I know your reading, this is one you highlighted that I agree is a very cool quote! "The branch is able to bear the fruit because it is attached to the vine, not because of its effort." It feels so good to be attached to the vine!

"It is not we who love, but it is God who loves them in us. Jesus is the vine, and we are merely the branches. (talking about John 15:5) Apart from Him we can not love"

This is a good thought "A large part of acceptance is letting people be who they are, with all of their uniqueness, all of their beauty, all of their flaws."
-Im so thankful for the people in my life who accept me like this!!! They have had the most impact in my life. Its obvious why, we need to treat others like this!

"I do not want my brothers and sisters to excuse my sin...to accept me as I am, and than leave me as I am is not love, but apathy."
-Just an interesting thought. reminds me of another quote. "A true friend stabs you in the front." Sometimes we need to grow, and we will not grow if we are not confronted when we are sinning without repentance! Sometimes the Holy Spirit is that true friend who steps in and convicts you. Sometimes God wants to use each other, to lovingly confront one another.

"⁷ But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." 2 Corinthians 4:7 Great picture! I liked this verse, he brings it up at the end of the chapter :-)

"We may not feel like we have the capacity to accept one another unconditionally. We are right. We do not have the ability to love as God loves. But thank God we do not have to conjure up this kind of acceptance. All we have to do is carry Gods acceptance to the people around us."



(I apologize, this has been a loooooonnnnnnggggg break. But Im excited for the next part of the book :-) Its titled Receiving God's forgiveness!

ch. 3

- Chapter 3 starts off with a story about a lady the author knew as a young kid. He was friends with the ladies boys who he had hung out with all the time. After 10 years of them not talking with him or his parents, she called looking for his mom. She told him that her son had passed away after fighting aids recently. He wondered why after all this time of not talking she would try to call his mom. And the lady said "I just needed to talk to your mom. She was always so accepting. No matter what happens I know I can always call her and she will stand by me. I love your mom so much."

I think thats awesome that because his mom always showed love NO MATTER WHAT, even after ten years she still loved his mother, and knew she could still go to her. She went through hoops to find her. Thats the type of impact we can make on people when we show them Gods love!!! She could actually be honest with her, and I think its awesome! Cause we can always be honest with God :-)


Unfortunately I do have to get my brother to a guitar lesson, I will finish this soon!

ch.2b

- I actually have a question. I was wondering what people thought of 1 John 3:19-21. Its referenced in the book.

- "We may feel deep shame, and we may condemn ourselves unmercifully, but God does not. And if God does not condemn us, than who are we to condemn ourselves."

- "Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly." I think thats an amazing statement. At first I was thinking, well... thats just a fun little saying that makes you smile cause its kinda cute. But than I thought about it a little more. If we would just get over ourselves, focus completely on Gods strength and what we could be through Him. And not what our actions make us appear to be, we could "fly high." :-)

- "We have already been accepted by the One whos acceptance really matters." I do believe that statement. It is only Gods acceptance that we need. My struggle is that I want to be accepted and loved by a young lady, whomever God would choose to bless me with. That gets in my head, and sometimes I want that more than I want to follow God. And thats not right. So thats just a prayer request! Please pray that following God would be my one focus, and not the other.

Embracing the love of God notes ch.2

-"We are not what we do...but rather, we are who God says we are."

That is something that I struggle with. God says I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. And sometimes I believe Him, and sometimes if I'm honest, I don't. But it is a relief to know that no matter how bad we mess up... in Gods eyes we are still righteous based on Jesus' blood. We are still people of such potential to do mighty things through the power of the Holy Spirit. I struggle to cling to this and live that way. Happy with who I am. But ya know, God can work in my heart. And if you struggle with the same thing, He can work in yours as well!

-"we want so badly to think well of ourselves, not knowing that the answer to our struggle is to let go of the need to feel important."

- St. Francis of Assisi was asked how he could say he was the worst of all sinners when he was such a moral, well to do man. His reply "If God had blessed them with such great mercy as He has blessed me, they would acknowledge Gods gifts much more than I do, and serve Him better than I do, and if my God would abandon me I would commit more misdeeds than any other man."

I thought that was an interesting reply. I love the honesty in his answer!

- "The truth that we must accept if we are to be healed is the truth that we are weak and broken and imperfect, for that is who we are."

Thats why we need our amazing Savior! We can't really do anything good on our own without Him :-)

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer "It is the grace of the gospel which is so hard for the pious to understand, that it confronts us with the truth and says: You are a sinner, a great and desperate sinner; now come, as the sinner that you are, to God who loves you. He wants you as you are; He does not want anything from you, a sacrifice, a work; He wants you alone. My son, give me thine heart (Proverbs 23:26). God has come to you to save the sinner. Be glad! This message is liberation through truth.... You do not have to go on lying to yourself and your brothers, as if you were without sin; you can dare to be a sinner."

That last part should not be understood as its ok to sin... but that its ok that you are not perfect! God knows you are not perfect. He knows I for sure am not perfect. But He loves you and I very much regardless. And we can rejoice that though we are a sinner, and we know were a sinner, we don't have to hide it. We are loved anyways :-) What a sweet sweet God we serve!

There is more to chapter two that I will post later. I'm exhausted. But I hope this is a blessing and encouragement to whoever reads it. I'm glad to post it, its a good way for me to take notes, and share it at the same time :-) "I am weak, but He is strong!"

Embracing the love of God notes

chapter 1:
pg. 13 he quotes 1 John 4:10 "¹⁰In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Than he makes this awesome comment. "Even when I was far and distant from God, God loved me first. Even when I was unbelieving and angry with God, God loved me first. Even when I was serving a false God, God loved me first." I thought that was awesome. No matter what we have done, or will do, God knew it all, and still He loved us first! :-)

Theres so many good quotes and thoughts in this book by James Bryan Smith, Unfortunately I cant quote them all, but this is an excerpt from a prayer that James had found. "...When I withdraw from the distractions of the day and turn my soul toward You, You are there first and thus forever. And we speak ungratefully as if You have loved us first only once." I would encourage you guys to pick this book up, or borrow it as I am so that you may read all of it.

This is cool, he begins to talk about creation. And how in creation, Gods love is shown. But he quotes G.K. Chesterson who made a great point. Scientists like to talk about all these laws of nature. But he claims there is no laws of nature :-P Its cool, check it out "He pointed out that nature is not a system of necessity. Yes, the sun will probably come up tomorrow, but it need not. Perhaps each day God says to the sun, "Arise! Go forth!" Yes grass is typically green, but it need not be. God could make it purple if He wished. There are no "laws" of nature. God can do whatever He wishes. Frogs jump and birds fly and water flows down hill. Not because of "laws," but because God wishes them to do so. He notes, "It is not a necessity, for though we can count on it practically, we have no right to say that it must always happen." " (pg.15)

this quote is hard core in the awesomeness category!!! "...I have never used anyone but sinners to share my good news, and I have never had it preached to anyone but sinners. The message is not about you, it is about me." (pg.20)

"I thought of God's acceptance as something I could lose by my behavior. It was not logical for me to think this, since I did not do anything to gain Gods acceptance in the first place. How can we lose something that we did not earn?" (pg. 21)

And chapter 1 ends with this sweet prayer! If you are reading these notes and my favorite parts of chapter one. Please pray this prayer for me, as well as yourself. "Dearest Lord, let your holy love possess me wholly."

Drumming and praying through songs of lifes lessons

As I sit at my drum set, Ill start to mess around, and than slow it down. And than I begin to sing out... no prewritten songs, nothing, just whats on my heart. And as I prayed to God through song, I began to think on things. Why did God say no?

Im learning that God says no to some very good things. Things that are a blessing, people even. And that hurts. But though He shuts the door, He does not leave us to wallow in the pain. He reminds us of how great His love is. And He continues to bless me with this person... even though its not going to go as I wanted it to. He gently keeps me reminded that He knows a whole lot more than Ill ever know. And that He loves us, and has a perfect plan. That even though it hurts, He's working in a positive way. And that is indeed a blessing and a half! When God shuts a door that I would LOVE to have open, He gives me a drum set to get my focus off the problem and what could be. Not just for me, but for the other person too. God has got big big big plans and I still get to see them unfold :-)

Ill stay with my "God of this city theme," and say again, "there is no one like our God!"