Uncensored Grace

Currently I am reading a book called Uncensored Grace. The author is Jud Wilhite, and he pastors Central Christian Church in Las Vegas. I heard this man speak at a leadership conference last week and was blown away by the stories he told. I had to get his book! Since I got it, I haven’t been able to put it down. The pages of this book are filled with story after story of sinful people from Las Vegas who have been transformed by God’s grace and now live a life of service and whole-hearted surrender to God. I wanted to share an excerpt of Jud’s book with you…this part I found particularly thought provoking and convicting.

“As a pastor committed to a conservative Christian faith, I have no reason to water down the message of Christ and what He came to accomplish. He came to free people who were – and still are – enslaved by sin, and it is my job to share that message, to call people to break free from the bondage of sin.

But after I call sin what it is, I want to be soft on people. I’ve learned that my assessment of others is always incomplete. Sometimes people who have it together externally are a mess internally. They hide dark secrets and addictions. I’ve known people who appear together on the outside, but sexually abuse their children or beat their spouse in secret. No matter how well-grounded my assessment of someone may be, it is still incomplete. So if I’m going to be wrong anyways, I choose to err on the side of grace. I choose to suppress the initial categories I want to put people in – rich, poor, together, not together, druggie, yuppie, rocker, loser, winner, cool, uncool. I choose to remember that I don’t know their struggle or their pain. I choose to err on the side of grace because someday I’ll stand before God, and I pray He’ll err on the side of grace with me.

The truth is we are all a mess, but God loves messy people. I turn to the Bible and see Jesus hanging out with the riffraff of society. Eventually the religious leaders accused Him of being a glutton and a drunkard. He “welcomes sinners and eats with them,” they said (Luke 15:2). We can’t overestimate how radical this was in Jesus’ culture. To share a meal meant to extend a bond of friendship…

Jesus did not simple hang out with people on the fringes of society; He took great pleasure in being around them. “Sinners” referred to those of low reputation who engaged in blatant sin – prostitutes, crooked businessmen, drunks, and rough and tumble people like the ones you see on Jerry Springer. As they sat and laughed together, He imparted meaning and purpose with His presence. He blew up the social norms and celebrated life with others…

Why did Jesus delight in these people? Certainly because they were loved by God. Perhaps also because they didn’t pretend to be blameless. There is something refreshing about those who readily acknowledge imperfections. Rather than play self-righteous games, they are stripped of pride, aware of their brokenness, and open to the message of a savior. Jesus said the religious establishment was worse off because they thought they were righteous and were blind to their own sin.

Too often we mistake grace for weakness, forgiveness for giving in. We see strength only in pointing out sin and stomping on it until its dead. But in Jesus we find someone who has no patience for those more concerned with enforcing the rules than helping others. Though He was perfect and, therefore, in a position to judge and punish all of us, Jesus showed us a different kind of strength, a strength found in grace, compassion, and forgiveness.

A paragraph by C.S. Lewis rocked me…He noted that there is someone I love even though I do not always approve of what he does. There is someone I accept, though I don’t like some of his actions. That someone is…me. I don’t like a lot of the things I do, yet I still accept myself. If I can accept and love myself in this way, I can seek to extend a similar compassion to others. This insight allowed me to love people freely, irrespective of what they may or may not be doing.”

Pastor Jud goes on to describe three situations in his church where this kind of grace was not shown:

1). I’ve known churches where people turn their nose up at the guy who steps outside to smoke after the morning service. One person told me that after several judgmental looks and a few snide remarks, he took it as confirmation that he wasn’t good enough for church or for God…and he left. He was driven away from God by the very people who were supposed to represent Him.

2). One friend of mine had his marriage shattered by adultery. When he reached out to the church for help, he was told he would be welcomed back to the church after he reconciled what happened and made it right. How does one go about doing that in isolation? Their family was in crisis, and they needed help to reconcile the situation.

3). Another lady said she was leaving the church because she didn’t like the type of people that were showing up and she did not approve of the way they dressed. As she put it, “I’m scared to even sit in my seat at church because you never know what you might get from those people.” I tend to think her comment was much more offensive to Jesus than the things those people were doing. (When Jud told this story at the conference he told us, the crowd, that he said to the lady, “Well, then don’t let the door hit you on the way out!”)

Jud finishes this chapter with this paragraph:

“I’m ashamed and embarrassed that Bible-believing churches have so often failed the people God loves by holding on to judgment and refusing to show them His grace. But it doesn’t have to be this way. It’s time to take risks to do things differently.”

Saturday in Athens

I had the great privilege of having my first full UGA football experience...meaning both tailgating and the game. Unfortunately, the dawgs lost, but the whole day was great anyways!

My Saturday began at 5:30am, waking up and getting all dressed up for the day! In Athens on Saturday, everyone looks their best! I was decked out in a little black dress, a Georgia "G" necklace, a mascot bracelet, and a little bulldog tattoo (see my right cheek). I had never been so dressed up for a sporting event before, but it was sure fun to be in a dress (plus, it made me not sweat so much in the 90 degree heat that was during the whole game).

I left the house around 7am to go to Chick-fil-A to pick of a party tray for the tailgating. I had also made some of my own homemade pumpkin spice bread for everyone to enjoy. Since I work for Chick-fil-A, I was able to see some of my co-workers that morning. I was blessed with getting the day off to enjoy the entire game, so to bless my bosses for that, I made them some of their own pumpkin spice bread to put in the break room for their own fun Saturday.

I got to the tailgating spot around 8am, and then began the real fun. It was my first time actually tailgating before a UGA game, and it was great. We all enjoyed some great food, coffee, juice (since the game was at noon, we had breakfast food at our tailgate). It was a great time of fellowship, fun, and of course, getting pepped up for the game by listening to our school's fight songs on the iPod.














Pictures from tailgating...





Around 11am, the group of us starting walking down the road to Sanford Stadium. We wanted to make sure we got there early enough to get good seats in the stadium.


We got in the Stadium, and then the game began. The first couple of minutes were great, then the halftime show was amazing as always, then the last quarter was a nail biter, but the sad thing is...we ended up losing because of a last second touchdown. Oh well, the day was still super fun!

Lessons from Nicaragua

1. Don't wave at taxis, they will stop, thinking you need a ride.
2. Don't wear red in the mountains, a bull cow will charge you.
3. Pouring skittles into your hand after putting on bug spray does not make them taste good.
4. You can always put one more person into a vehicle.
5. In the US, we can say as much as we want to, but we don't. In Nicaragua, we want to say more than we are linguistically able to.
6. Bandannas make the outfit.
7. How to flush a toilet manually.
8. You will hear Soulja Boy singing and see Britney Spears posters.
9. God reminds you in little ways that he cares about what you're going through.
10. Hearing English words from Nicaraguans means a lot.
11. The power goes out at random intervals.
12. Crystal light makes warm water desirable to drink.
13. You will see people texting while riding...a horse!
14. Your feet will never be truly clean.
15. Don't drink the water.
16. Spades and hearts never get old.
17. Mafia does...
18. There are no street lights in smaller towns so watch where you're driving or you might hit a motorcycle.

LOST in Nicaragua

Thanks to some friends of mine, I have been hooked on the show LOST. I've seen all the seasons and just finished the series a few weeks ago when it came to a end. So, inspired by my friends doing the same thing, on my recent trip to Nicaragua I decided to be on the look-out for some numbers that are a key element in the show...

...and a Dharma symbol ?

A Choice is a Limitation

This is an excerpt from Elisabeth Elliot's book "Let Me Be A Woman," a book she wrote to her daughter when her daughter was engaged to be married. I thought this was a great chapter and wanted to share it.

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Your most recent letter to me...said, "Oh Mama, it gets better and better!" You spoke of the utter peace and contentment you know when you are with him. We can believe that God has answered our prayers - mind of years' standing, "Keep her from and for the man she is to marry," ("from" meaning until His chosen time, that you would not hurry ahead of His will)-and yours to be guided to the man of His choice.

And so you wear his ring. Tertullian alludes to the ancient custom of wearing a gold ring on the fourth finger because it was believed that a vein ran from that finger directly to the heart. A woman was allowed to wear gold only there, in promise of marriage. In the medieval service the wedding ring was placed first on the thumb, "in the name of the father," then on the index finger, "in the name of Son," on the third finger, "in the name of the Holy Ghost," and on the fourth finger with the Amen.

When the wedding ring is put on your finger you will have finally sealed your choice. It is this man, and this one along, whom you have chosen for "as long as ye both shall live." There have been many revisions and improvisations in modern weddings, some of them made in the belief that words written by the bride and groom themselves are by that very fact to be preferred above old words written by somebody who knew how to write, because they are more "sincere" or "meaningful" or "honest," as though the repetition of others' words, probably clearer and more beautiful words than most of us could ever have written, cannot possibly be truthful. In one of these improvisations the phrase has been changed from "as long as we both shall live" to "as long as we both shall love." This cuts the heart out of the deepest meaning of the wedding. It is a vow you are making before God and before witnesses, a vow you will by God's grace keep, which does not depend on your moods or feelings or "how things turn out." As others have said, love does not preserve the marriage, the marriage preserves the love.

When you make a choice, you accept the limitations of that choice. To accept limitation requires maturity. The child has not yet learned that it can't have everything. What it sees it wants. What it does not get it screams for. It has to grow up to realize that saying Yes to happiness often means saying No to yourself.

Remember Dinesen's proud man: "He does not strive toward a happiness or comfort which may be irrelevant to God's idea of him." To choose to do this is to choose not to do a thousand other things. Those who made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of God, of whom Jesus speaks in Matthew 19:12, had to accept the radical limitations which being a eunuch imposed. Those who marry, Paul said, will have troubles in the flesh. Perhaps he felt that that statement was beyond dispute, that such troubles were obvious to anyone, but he did not mention the troubles in the flesh which one who does not marry may encounter. Perhaps that was too close to the bone for Paul to wish to speak of.

Last year there was a symposium of seminary women at which one women complained that everything in the seminary program was based on the assumption that the students were men. The statement was not accurate, but even if it had been, it would seem that a woman who chooses to go to seminary would know ahead of time that the majority of the students would be men and the program would naturally emphasize this. She would be prepared to be in the minority and accept the limitations imposed by this. Common sense would tell her this. I thought of John Sanders, a blind graduate of the seminary. I have never heard John complain that the whole world operates as though everybody can see. Of course the world operates that way. Most people can see. John accepts this as a matter of course, never whines or even refers to his blindness, and makes a way for himself in spite of the (to us) impossible limitations of his life.

You will remember Betty Greene, one of the founders of the Missionary Aviation Fellowship, who has flown every kind of plane except a jet. She even ferried bombers during World War II, and you were surprised that she didn't "look like a pilot." Nobody else thought she did either, and often when she would land in some foreign airfields the authorities were nonplussed to see a woman step out of the plane. "Do you fly these planes alone?" she was often asked. But long ago Betty had made up her mind that if she was going to make her way in a man's world she had to be a lady. She would have to compete with men in being a pilot, but she would not compete with men in being a man. She refused to try in any way to act like a man.

It is a naive sort of feminism that insists that women prove their ability to do all the things that men do. This is a distortion and a travesty. Men have never sought to prove that they can do all the things women do. Why subject women to purely masculine criteria? Women can and ought to be judged by the criteria of femininity, for it is in their femininity that they participate in the human race. And femininity has its limitations. So has masculinity. That is what we've been talking about. To do this is not to do that. To be this is not to be that. To be a woman is not to be a man. To be married is not to be single...To marry this man is not to marry all the others. A choice is a limitation.