No Worthy Title

Sometimes I cannot even believe how quickly I wander from the Truth. My capacity for hypocrisy is really quite extensive. Case in point:

This past week I preached on how God's sheer grace leads us to have hope that God can change anybody, that we do not need to coerce anybody, and that we have respect for everybody who disagrees with us. Objectivelly and Scripturally it makes perfect sense: if God saves us by sheer grace and NOT due to our wisdom and if He chose us so that we chose Him, then we have no leg to stand on in comparison to anyone else.

And yet, here I am again, running away from those who disagree with me. I find myself frustrated with people because I think that they should be perfect (of course, I don't expect that from myself). And instead of staying and wrestling with them (see previous post on the messy church) I run from these encounters. It's in these moments of messiness, when other don't see the disagreement as a problem and I see it as very important, that I completely lose patience and lose hope that God is working. I write people off and presume that I am wise. It's amazing how quickly I lose sight of Jesus and His glorious grace toward me, THE sinner!

Even in prayer with others, I find myself judging their prayer, as if their words and understanding of deep spiritual truth were indicative of whether or not God is working in them! I believe that corporate prayer is vital to a deepening dependence upon God and our part in His glorious redemptive plan in the world, and yet I stay away from prayer groups where the predominant prayers are different than mine. Now, I'm not saying that it doesn't matter who we pray to, it must be to Jesus (and that's the Jesus as the Bible reveals Him). However, though these are my brothers and sisters, I can't get past our theological differences. And rather than stay and wrestle for the Truth, from Scripture, I simply complain and stay away!

Oh, Jesus! Come quickly!