Dare you to move

I headed to Johnston lounge tonight with the intention of studying. I sat down and realized that I needed to be alone with God. I have a copy of the ESV Study Bible on my computer so I opened the link and went to my favorite passage:

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do... You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness... For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” ...For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God... For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience... And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I cannot count how many times I've read these words of hope, love, and forgiveness and yet each time I read them, I am struck by how much I need God's grace. This is my goal for this blog:

It is my sincerest wish to bestow grace and mercy upon my fellow man just as Christ has bestowed mercy and grace to me. This will be my account - my successes, my failures. I would like you to reprimand me (in love) when I fail and encourage me when I am frustrated and pray that I would succeed, with God's help.

So, that said, I would like to talk a little about some things I have learned recently.

1) I have learned (to my shame), that the only religion I have a hard time accepting, is Islam. When learning about it in my religious studies I could feel something akin to hatred welling up inside of me. There was so much tolerance in the room and when Christianity was brought up, that tolerance was immediately gone. I want to scream at the unfairness of it all!

2) I am an all or nothing person. I hate this about myself and thus the attempt to bestow grace and mercy. It amazes me when I see my roommate, who is plagued by some terrible people (in my opinion), show grace! She loves them anyway while I make my distaste for people visible. What did Christ say about forgiveness? Because of my pride and my unwillingness to accept everyone else's imperfections, I'm endangering one of the most important relationships in my life.

Well, I think this will be all for now. I do want this blog to be a blog of hope ... My mom is so fond of reminding me that humility is remembering the bad and the good. Only remembering one or the other is pride. Ooops. :) I love my mom.