While away, I’m still reading and listening to people who have quite a bit to say. Some of my favorite quotes from last week are…
“It is a sin to be good when God has called us to be great.” –Thom Rainer
“If you are big enough for your dreams, then your dreams are not big enough for you.” –Erwin McManus
Talking about today’s church, “We tend to be a kingdom of complainers more than a kingdom of dreamers.” –Mark Batterson
But here was my favorite from John Burke: “If you saw a Rembrandt covered in mud, you wouldn’t focus on the mud or treat it like mud.”
Here’s what he’s talking about…we are like that, our lives covered in mud (mistakes, pain, sin, regrets). But God, the ultimate artist, has made us. We are his masterpiece, his work of art. So when we see another masterpiece, covered in mud, let’s not focus on the mud, but on the one God has us living near, working with…or going to church with right here at Community. Let's be a place where God's grace is clearly in place!
2 comments so far
having a place to bring my mud-encrusted carcass - a place where i can praise and worship, and be treated with love and kindness, is worth more than any earthly thing for me. CCC has always been at least that.
i haven't had the opportunity to join you in service for a while, but am hearing all kinds of good stuff - stuff i've been praying about... exciting!
Quote contribution: "God gives every bird its food but He doesn't throw it into its nest." J. G. Holland
I found this verse from I John 4:10-11:
"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us, we also ought to love one another (NIV)"
The Lord has shown me through this series that the Lord loved us so much and did not even look on the outside and all its flaws but on the inside.
Thank you to this church and by the Word of God I am now looking at life through the Lord's eyes and not through my own. I need to love everyone even if they say remarks that would, at one time make me mad, but now I love and pray for them even more.