There is no pain quite like the sting left in the wake of self rejection. Yet, our own failures open the door to the possibilities discovered in the feeling and knowing of regret and guilt. It is bravery of the highest degree to plumb the depths of our own secret wars. "To thine own self be true."Freedom is sweetest once we are released from the dark dungeons of denial and depression. It begins while allowing pain to push us toward the light found only in the brutal, honest, fearless, inventory of our‑self. Beyond that veil we begin to discover the boundless realities of Grace! And after such glorious discovery we begin to move toward the bright light of who we truly are in Jesus!"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, BUT shouts to us in our pain." C. S. LewisGod shouts Grace, Grace to us in our pain! Only the shouts of Grace drown out all the other voices. Beginning to listen more to the shouts of Grace, "we find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand‑‑out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise."We discover in the midst of all these shouts of grace that "He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway...God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him." (Romans 5, Msg.)The unconditional love and acceptance of Jesus arrives right on time, in the midst of our failure and deepest denial. "And that's not all. We throw open our door to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us." And in the open door of Grace, we are flooded for the first time with the light of true self‑discovery!What follows is almost too good to be true. This constant Grace awakening reveals our authentic identity and purpose in Christ. We really are Sons and Daughters of Heavenly Father and that adoptive position is tethered only to His righteousness, not our performance!“While my own doing completely disqualified me; his doing now defines me. I am what I am by the grace of God. I am because he is! His grace was not wasted on me; instead I am inspired to labor beyond the point of exhaustion, more than anything I ever did under the law of performance; whatever it is that I accomplish now has grace written all over it. I take no credit for it.” (1 Corinthians 15:10, Mirror)“This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God’s way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels! (Ephesians 3:7-8, Msg)Could it be? Do you suppose there’s something bigger going on in your journey than previously known? But; that is the rest of your life’s story! Ron Ross
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