Spoiled, But Hopefully Not Rotten

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. Romans 3:23-25

My eleven year old son is home-schooled.  It was a decision Steve and I made a few years ago and I love it.  I love teaching my son.  I love eliminating homework from our lives, opening up the evenings for fun activities.  I love being able to go on vacation whenever we want and not having to worry about his school schedule.  

One of the drawbacks is balancing his workload and mine.  I feel like I’m constantly moving throughout the day. Between lessons, I’m doing laundry, sweeping the floor, helping my husband with a few church things, making lunch, making beds… the lists is endless.  Evan noticed all that I was doing one day and said, “Man, I’m spoiled”.  I have to admit it felt nice to have him notice.

Have you noticed how spoiled we are with God?

As I was looking up what “Grace Alone” means I came across this excerpt from Christianity.com,

“We can only stand before God by his grace as he mercifully attributes to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ and attributes to him the consequences of our sins. Jesus’ life of perfect righteousness is counted as ours, and our records of sin and failure were counted to Jesus when he died on the cross.”

Our records of sin and failure were counted to Jesus when he died on the cross. I can’t even imagine a love that would do that for me.  I am so grateful for God’s grace.  I’ve heard before that “Mercy” can be defined as not getting what we deserve and “Grace”, getting what we don’t deserve.

We did not deserve to have Jesus perfect life of righteousness counted as ours, but that’s what God will see when meet him in Heaven.  He will see a perfect sinless child because of the sacrifice of Christ.  It’s what he sees now, when we approach his throne in prayer.  And he is able to see us sinless because of our faith in Christ, which is also a gift given by our Heavenly Father.

Just as Evan saw all I do for him, I sure hope we can see all God has done for us.

Read the entire scripture here Romans 3: 20-28

History Lessons 1 Corinthians 10:1-10

My husband and I are spoiled. We really noticed this the other day when I dropped my cell phone in a cup of coffee (I know it takes talent) and was lost without it. I couldn’t call anyone, I couldn’t get on the internet with it, check my Facebook, or play angry birds for an entire day. That’s right it took twenty-four full hours for the insurance company to get me my replacement phone. Spoiled!

We have so much at our fingertips. Steve and I noticed how we act as if we are entitled to these luxuries. Can you relate? Do you find yourself impatient if you are put on hold or if you have to wait a few minutes for your triple, vente, no foam, skinny, chocolate coffee drink?

Now here’s the really rough question, do you find yourself impatient or demanding with God? Ouch, I know. Please don’t hate me; I count myself among the guilty.

Our scripture today shows Paul warning the Corinthians to not get too flippant with God. “For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea… Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness”

Paul was talking about the Israelites in the dessert. He was warning the Corinthians to learn from history or else they were going to repeat it. Let’s make a deal. Together let’s repent of the areas where we have taken God for granted and ask Him to show us how to keep life in perspective.

Read today's passage at Biblegateway 1 Corinthians 10:1-10