Wallow in Grace

I haven't written for sometime now but here goes. At our Home Circle group we have started a new DVD series by Louie Giglio called "The Other Side of Grace". I must say that in the first episode "The Homeboy is Holy", there was so much to digest that it is hard to put a finger on the key truths.

Let me start with a quote from Louie at one of the Passion concerts "The greatest cause of atheism is Christians acknowledging Jesus with their lips but deny him with their lifestyle. That’s what this unbelieving world finds unbelievable."

Louie's core message in this DVD is Grace on one side and Fear on the other. Through the amazing grace of God we are forgiven. The slate wiped clean. Louie states that we tend to galvanize into two groups. One group makes Jesus our "Homeboy", our buddy while the other group separates themselves out of the world to be holy.

The Homeboy Group:
"God is Love. He only wants to bless us with all we need and want." How easy it is just wallow in grace and not be holy? While we enjoy all the blessings that come through grace, we must remember the Messiah is not another friend or homeboy. He is the same God yesterday, today and forever. Grace takes dead people and makes them alive. Not for our own enjoyment but for good works.

The Holy Group:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. What is the fear of God? A good definition I found is "The acute awareness of the presence of God's power that produces in me a sense of awe and calls forth from me honor, respect and reverence." Grace gets us real close to someone who is terrifying and righteous. We must not be so out of touch with the world that God can't use us.

Louie said that we must be in the middle of the two. If someone says to you "I don’t fear God, I love God" is out of touch who God really is. In other words, they don't even know God. Don't tell me that you love God. Show me! Be in the world but not of the world. As a Christian, the unbelieving world is watching you. The homeboy is Holy.