Sour GRACE
A while back I heard a very convicting sermon based on the second chapter of the Book of Revelation. For many who have read the Bible, this final book can be intimidating and/or hard to understand. One thing it is very clear on is how our Creator knows how His Church is doing and how all of us are doing regarding our “first love”. I’m speaking about our first love for our Creator.
I remember when I first believed (for me in Jesus) how passionate I was to learn more about Him and how to talk to others about Him. Then 3 kids came along, a new career, and other things popped up that caught my attention. As I became more filled with Bible knowledge, I became more passionate about what I was learning (doctrines/theology) than about my relationship to the ONE who inspired it.
The level of GRACE I was willing to give to others often soured. What this meant was I was quicker to pronounce judgement than to offer grace to those in my sphere of influence, thus I had lost my “first love”. This is a danger not only in one’s faith, but in our relationships. We tend to forget what led us to our first loves in the beginning of the relationship. We stop dating that person, perhaps get stuck in the daily routine, and lose that passion we once had.
Be careful my friends, do not lose that original passion you may have had for our Creator, what He did for all of us, and the passion for your loved ones.
Luke 18:10-14, Luke 14:11, Revelation 2:4-5
TSK
A while back I heard a very convicting sermon based on the second chapter of the Book of Revelation. For many who have read the Bible, this final book can be intimidating and/or hard to understand. One thing it is very clear on is how our Creator knows how His Church is doing and how all of us are doing regarding our “first love”. I’m speaking about our first love for our Creator.
I remember when I first believed (for me in Jesus) how passionate I was to learn more about Him and how to talk to others about Him. Then 3 kids came along, a new career, and other things popped up that caught my attention. As I became more filled with Bible knowledge, I became more passionate about what I was learning (doctrines/theology) than about my relationship to the ONE who inspired it.
The level of GRACE I was willing to give to others often soured. What this meant was I was quicker to pronounce judgement than to offer grace to those in my sphere of influence, thus I had lost my “first love”. This is a danger not only in one’s faith, but in our relationships. We tend to forget what led us to our first loves in the beginning of the relationship. We stop dating that person, perhaps get stuck in the daily routine, and lose that passion we once had.
Be careful my friends, do not lose that original passion you may have had for our Creator, what He did for all of us, and the passion for your loved ones.
Luke 18:10-14, Luke 14:11, Revelation 2:4-5
TSK
