July 26, 2007

Deflating the Puffed Up Church

No, this is not my own original title. It is the title of CJ Mahaney's message that he preached back in March. I tend to read his wife and daughter's blog, GirlTalk, and yesterday they had a very dear family in their church lose their young son. In this sermon he talked about this family. I decided to listen to the sermon and boy was I blessed and challenged. I encourage you to download it and hear his words, I pray it will unpuff you and challenge you to share it with your friends. Some major points that he made were:

#1) Grace produces humility and
#2) Grace prepares us for suffering.

One thing that he said really gripped my heart and just made me tear up because of my inadequacy in living this way. He said "The genuinely humble are not surprised when they suffer. Humility recognizes God’s sovereignty and trusts His goodness." He then said "When suffering comes, you don’t have to have all the answers. Being perplexed is a part of life. But what you do understand, understand fully: that God is sovereign and God is good." This latter quote made me smile because that is the one truth that we can cling to when we don't have all the answers. I pray that I will continue to see God's grace in my life and that I will call it and thank God for it. I pray that I will be humble and see suffering in a different light.

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