Theology of Grace

The church I'm working for, Grace North Atlanta, takes that word "grace" very seriously.  One of the core values of the church is a "theology of grace", meaning, all of the teaching in the church is done with grace at its foundation.  Grace North strives to be a church that cannot get over God's grace.  In today's sermon John Hardie, the lead pastor, hammered away at how we are constantly looking for other paths to satisfaction.  All of us are wounded very deeply.  Sin, family, work, society.  All of these things wound us because everthing is broken.  In response to this we constantly try to fix ourselves.  In America one of our most popular ways of "fixing" ourselves is through Christianty.  How ironic that the religion of grace and unmerited favor is easily twisted into a Pharisaical system.  Any given Protestant has said to himself multiple times "I just need to try harder" or "I can do better than this".  The message at Grace Northa Atlanta is one of grace.  We don't have to try, we don't have to work.  Christ is our only prophet, priest, and king.  Nothing we do can fix our misery.  Only Christ can.

Sometimes we think the gospel is only for the non believer.  That's not the case though.  If someone is truly in love with God's gospel of grace, then how could he ever get over it so quickly?  Rather we need to learn it and then relearn it and then relearn it.  Because in the end, we will never truly "get it."  We can always go deeper.  We can always learn how much more deeply sinful and broken we are.  We can then always learn how much greater God's grace and love is than we ever thought possible.

I'm excited to be immersed in a church that focuses on a theology of grace.  The teaching always goes straight to the heart.  It is this teaching that is much needed in Alpharetta.  The culture here is one of performance.  Most people here think that they need to perform on the athletic field, or at work, or at home, or at school in order to heal themselves.  May God open my eyes and the eyes of the people in Alpharetta to understand and to marvel at the depths of his mercy and grace.

Check out John 5:1-18 and read what happens when a lame man tries to heal himself but ends up being healed by Jesus instead.

Meet and Greet

I hate meeting new people.  Chinese water torture would most likely be more enjoyable for me.  However, through the years, God has worked on me, showing me that the reason why I am afraid to meet people is because I am terrible prideful.  I don't have the best social interactions with new people, therefore I am self concious (ie. vainfully worried about my image) and because of this pride, I hate meeting new people.

Thankfully during my first three days in Georgia God has done two things.  One, He's shown me that as an adopted son of God, my only identity is found in Christ my Savior.  Because of this, I don't have to carefully prune my image.  Two, He's placed some great people in my life who I know are going to be great to live and work with.  I've met plenty of people who love Jesus here in Atlanta and I pray that many more would come to know Him.