Skip to main content

We are in the same boat

His love has the first and last word in everything we do. Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

His love has the first and last word in everything we do...
How true are these words in your life? I'd have to admit to you that Christ is not always the one in control of my actions - sometimes I just plain take over and cast his sage wisdom aside in pursuit of something I want to do. I deliberate over my actions and sometimes still choose the wrong path. Anyone else here with me? The good news is that if we are in Christ and he is in us, his LOVE has the first and last word in everything we do - even when we get a little out of control sometimes. His love pulls us back - not once, but repeatedly. For some of us, that 'repetitive action' in our lives is kind of 'shameful'. We see the frequency of our departure from his control in our lives and we get down on ourselves. Before long, the guilt of our wrong choices begins to make us feel 'full of shame' - as though we had a 'new identity' because of our wrong actions. The opposite is quite assuredly the truth - our identity is based upon OUR actions, but HIS.

Everyone is in the same boat...
All are included in his death because all deserved the same judgment for their sin - regardless of how 'big' or 'little' that sin is, how frequently it is committed, or how 'bad' one feels. His death included all so all could be included in his life. There is no lie the enemy of our souls can tell us that will keep us from that life - no lie we can tell ourselves about how 'unworthy' we are to experience his love. Everyone is in the same boat and it isn't a sinking ship! It is a very 'sea-worthy' vessel because he built it and he captains it! We have not gone too far - nor are we too lost. His love has the first and last word not only in what we do, but in who we are!

A couple of things for us to think about today:
- We make wrong choices, sometimes more than others. We make right choices, sometimes less frequently than we desire. Even in the midst of this 'up and down' kind of existence, God remains the same. We are not going to be tossed to the side and declared unworthy of his love just because we fall from time to time. His love is what actually picks us up, cleans us up, sets us right again, and helps us actually begin moving in the same direction with him. Not once, but each and every time we choose unwisely and need his forgiveness and restoration.
- We may not realize how much we are loved, but that doesn't make us any less loved. We may not appreciate fully his grace, but that doesn't mean we aren't showered with the blessings of grace over and over again. His love has the first and last word - that word is grace. We don't deserve grace - we don't earn grace - we don't even want it sometimes. We just receive it and experience the intensity of his love when we do.
- We don't realize just how messed up we are, but we see how messed up others are all around us. Why? Shame turns the eye away from our sin and it sees the magnitude of sin in another - oftentimes the same sin as we are trying to avoid seeing in ourselves. Shame makes us critical of others - grace helps us see the sin in ourselves and it brings it to the foot of the cross. The 'same boat' means we aren't unique in our struggles - it means we are all equally in need of this grace! Just sayin!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What did obedience cost Mary and Joseph?

As we have looked at the birth of Christ, we have considered the fact he was born of a virgin, with an earthly father so willing to honor God with his life that he married a woman who was already pregnant.  In that day and time, a very taboo thing.  We also saw how the mother of Christ was chosen by God and given the dramatic news that she would carry the Son of God.  Imagine her awe, but also see her tremendous amount of fear as she would have received this announcement, knowing all she knew about the time in which she lived about how a woman out of wedlock showing up pregnant would be treated.  We also explored the lowly birth of Jesus in a stable of sorts, surrounded by animals, visited by shepherds, and then honored by magi from afar.  The announcement of his birth was by angels - start to finish.  Mary heard from an angel (a messenger from God), while Joseph was set at ease by a messenger from God on another occasion - assuring him the thing he was about to do in marrying Mary wa

A brilliant display indeed

Love from the center of who you are ; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply ; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. (Romans 12:9-12) Integrity and Intensity don't seem to fit together all that well, but they are uniquely interwoven traits which actually complement each other. "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it." God asks for us to have some intensity (fervor) in how we love (from the center of who we are), but he also expects us to have integrity in our love as he asks us to be real in our love (don't fake it). They are indeed integral to each other. At first, we may only think of integrity as honesty - some adherence to a moral code within. I believe there is a little more to integrity than meets the eye. In the most literal sense,

Do me a favor

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (Philippians 2:1-4) Has God's love made ANY difference in your life? What is that difference? Most of us will likely say that our lives were changed for the good, while others will say there was a dramatic change. Some left behind lifestyles marked by all manner of outward sin - like drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, or even thievery. There are many that will admit the things they left behind were just a bit subtler - what we can call inward sin - things like jealousy,