Hebrews 4:16

Have you ever met someone and felt an immediate and unexplained kinship with them? The connection between you and your new friend provides the opportunity to relate in unique ways. 

About a decade ago, I was attending a fairly large church and looking for a small group Bible study to become involved with. The church had an online catalog of all the small groups that met and I chose to visit one that coincided with my demographics - single and thirty-something. 

Within minutes of meeting the existing members of the Bible study group, it felt as if we had known each other for years. We talked about ourselves and eventually our conversation turned to where we had grown up and gone to school. We discovered that two of us had attended the same high school - I was just a few years younger. While we didn't know each other back in the day, we realized that we had a few mutual friends. Our instant familiarity now made sense. 

There's something special about the people that you grow up with - even if you don't know them at the time. You share common experiences, mutual friends, and an general understanding of the community that helped shaped you as an individual. 

For my friends and I, we were able to share more deeply, quickly and our friendships are still some of the most important more than 10 years later. 

Hebrews 4:16 starts off with "Let us THEN approach the throne of grace with confidence..." What allows us to do this? What's the THEN there for? We need to back up and read verses 14 and 15 to be clued in. We can approach the throne of grace with confidence, because the one who sits on the throne is able to sympathize with weaknesses because He had been tempted in every way, we are, yet was without sin. 

Jesus is familiar with what it's like to live on this earth with all of it's guts and glory because He's done it Himself. Jesus is not a high priest who is oblivious to our situations. Our confidence comes from the knowing that He can relate to us. The mercy and grace that we are offered is because Jesus first walked in our shoes. He knows what we need, when we need it, how we need it and why it's needed. 

What an incredible gift this is to us! To know that our Savior is approachable because He can relate to our needs is such a comfort. 

So let this be your reminder that there is nothing too big or too small for you to bring before the Son of God. You will find all that you need to sustain you. Have confidence in this Good News.

Romans 5:8

Ugh. Today I have to tell you something that I really don't want to confess. So please be kind and gentle and understanding and forgiving as I share how God is working on me...

Last week I posted this on my Facebook page:

And it occurred to me yesterday on my (almost) daily 2 mile walk that lately, God has been telling me to "pull myself together", after all, I am a child of the Most High God. 

So here's the deal, a few weeks ago, I was reviewing another memory verse, Psalm 139:2-24:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Now usually, I focus on the "anxious thoughts" because, well, I tend to have anxious thoughts sometimes. But on this special day, my mind wandered over to the "offensive way" portion of the passage. And so I dared to ask God, is there any offensive way in me?

Me: God, is there any offensive way in me?

God: You want to know what I find offensive? I'll tell you what I find offensive - the words that come out of your mouth. 

Me: That?

God: Yeah, that. What about that other verse you've memorized...Ephesians 4:29-32?

Me: Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

God: Go on...

Me: And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

God: Go on...

Me: Git rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. 

God: You want to be my witness? Work on this. You are my child. I love you. 

And so as I work on becoming more conscientious about the words that are coming out of my mouth, I am also processing Romans 5:8. 

Knowing that I am a sinner, knowing that I'd have imperfect issues, habits, behaviors, and thoughts...Christ still died for me. That is mind-blowing. He didn't die for me because I was already righteous or even a good person (Ro 5:7). He died for me precisely because I wasn't those things; because I needed him to die in order to be made right before God. 

God is a good, good Father (title of a great song by Chris Tomlin, by the way...) and there is no end to his mercy - not giving us what we deserve - and grace - giving us what we certainly do not deserve. 

His forgiveness is gentle and healing and draws us in to a deeper relationship with Him. 

His love cannot be measured or matched. And it is because of this love, that he disciplines his children. He instructs us and guides us, so that we can experience as the Psalmist writes, the way everlasting. 

So, if you happen to stumble upon this post and you haven't yet taken God up on his offer of eternal life because you think that you're not good enough, let me tell you that you'll never be good enough, but God definitely is. And that's all that matters. 

Let God love you and forgive you. Accept that you are one of the ones that Christ died for. Yes, even you.