The Gospel in and through my cracks.

 

There is power in the name of Jesus. The Gospel is power.

Preach the Gospel to yourself every single day. And let the Holy Spirit work. God’s word is alive and active. My life is proof of that. The Spirit is in us… the same power that conquered the grave and the same love that rescued the world… lives in us!! And He is opening my eyes to who God is, Jesus is, who the Holy Spirit is, what the Gospel is, and who I am in Christ. I wanted to share my revelation that helped me to know God better. My revelation about my cracks.

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 1:17-20

My revelation: The extent of my depravity. The light has found the darkness deep down in my heart. I am totally needy. I need help, rescued, a savior, every day. I’m a little idolater. Basically I am depending on something to save me… the question is what/who is it? However, the Holy Spirit is helping me to rely more on God’s love and less on my false, functional, pseudo saviors. Maybe I will blog about idols later. Hmm...

It’s a good thing to realize you suck.

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).

I am more wicked than I ever dared believe. I realized I am so weak that I need a savior who died for me. I’m so bad that nothing less than the death of the son of God could save me. God’s grace has become so much more precious to me as I have been given this revelation of my need. Even my best efforts and greatest accomplishments are filthy rags. I’m a ragamuffin. The truth is… older brother or younger brother … we are all equally lost! The best thing in the world is to know that, and to know there is only one way to be saved. His name is Jesus.  And so often we reject Him. We reject our Father’s free gift of the grace and turn to worthless idols. But the Gospel…. Is power. It’s Jesus, the way, truth, and life. May we depend more on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

“We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:9).

God created us in His image. Like a piece of pottery. The Potter’s hands molded us like clay. But something happened to us… Sin entered the world… now we are all cracked pots.

I’m not perfect. I’ve been hurt. I’m broken, wounded, bruised, damaged, scarred… Some of it is from the people and events that I had no control over when I was growing up. Some things are my own fault, and some things became my fault by not taking responsibility for them. But the truth is... we can't save ourselves and we can't fix ourselves. We are all just broken people; we are sheep, doing the best we can. Left to our own devices we will fail and fail and fail again.

Satan wants to condemn my woundedness. He wants to take my hurts and keep me chained in their bondage so I keep hurting and hurt others. “Therefore there is now, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). If we aren’t careful our cracks will become our identity. If we let power, control, approval, success, relationships, career, etc. define us- we will be devastated because those things will never satisfy. We were made with a hole and longing and there is only one thing that fits!

Jesus is our total rescue. Even though we will continue to be broken here on earth, Jesus is our help for eternity and for today, every day! Because of Him, I am a chosen, accepted, adopted, child of God. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

In the dirt, ashes, decay…. God takes our dying, cracked selves and He breathes on us and revives us. He breathes His Spirit inside of us and gives us life, new life. We were dead in our sin but now we get to live as new creations with our identity in Christ. As sons and daughters of our Father God. Even though we will still be cracked, God loves us to wholeness by His Spirit inside of us. My identity isn’t about me anymore… it is all about Christ.

In my brokenness, I've discovered the amazing power and love of God is immeasurable! God's high, wide, long, deep love for us reaches us EXACTLY where we are. While we were sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). That you may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ (Eph 3:18). God is a perfect Father, and He loves perfectly. 

As I start to believe, receive, and experience God's love and grace through the Holy Spirit I am being healed. God is healing me. He is loving me in the depths of my wounds and revealing truth where the lies have been planted. I’m not limited by my chips and cracks in outer shell… I have a treasure inside! Jesus is the light inside of that fractured jar healing the hurting places on the interior, then shining through the broken places so that the world could see.

The way God shines out of broken people like me, is through my cracks. As the Holy Spirit transforms me and my wounds heal, I will share my story, which is a part of The Story; My experiences and encounters with the power of the Gospel. God shines His light through my cracks, not just healing me, but allowing that light to lead others straight into His loving arms and the truth about who they are. If I didn’t have those cracks people wouldn’t be able to see God’s light shining out; people wouldn’t be able to see where Jesus was strong and covered my weakness. Jesus makes my imperfections and adversity in my life beautiful, for God’s glory, to shine God’s light. My brokenness leads me to Jesus. #adversitytoministry

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

In my bleeding, wounded, broken heart, God’s grace is sufficient. I pray others would accept this gift that has saved my life. Because I am loved, I’m able to love. I pray I would love others to wholeness, not that I would complete them or make them whole, but that Christ would be formed in them. I pray children and young people would trust me because I understand their pain, and because of the light and love that is inside of me that comes only from Jesus. #discipleship

God makes beautiful things out of the dust. Beauty from ashes! So let us delight in hardships, weakness, suffering, pain, adversity... When we are at the end of ourselves- we go to God and he satisfies. We can do all things through Him not ourselves! For when we are weak, then we are strong. When we have cracks- Jesus shines through! My grace is suficient for you; for my power is made perfect in weakness.

There is NO GREATER LOVE than God’s love. Any other love will just leak from our broken hearts.

Now I pray that God would send us in His power.

“We’ll be that city on a hill burning brightly. We’ll be a light to the world, shining Your glory!”