Not so with God. God is bigger than the stars, He could obliterate us with a blink of his eyes. After all, Psalm 8 teaches that the universe is just the work of His fingers. But not only is He that great, unlike the stars, He is close to us. He is near. He is with us right now. Though that power and greatness should cause reverential fear and awe, it should also bring us comfort.

Why should something that could be seen as scary bring us comfort to the Christian? Because the Father tells us He loves us. Because Jesus says He will never leave us alone. Because the Spirit is in us working even now. That great power that isn’t far off is working for our good, that we may be continually formed into His image. That means we don’t have to be great and powerful because we serve a God who is. We don’t have to control every circumstance in life. Our emotions and well-being are not beheld to if we’re doing good or doing bad. God has chosen to set His love upon us, and that’s what can bring us rest. Now we can have the freedom to be who we were created to be: human.

Nevertheless, the biggest thing that came to my mind is this is representative of how we are as people. You see, some of us leave and noone notices, while others of us leave a mark that impacts those who come behind. And while I may not appreciate those marks left on the seat, I do appreciate that we have people who make an impact in real life.

I’ve heard it said that midgets standing on the shoulders of giants can see further than any normal-sized man. While you may or may not appreciate that visual, the reality is that those who leave behind a mark are valuable for multiple reasons.

This also got me to thinking. Not just about how we should use the wisdom of those who have gone before us (as I will now shamelessly plug the fact that you can come to Stan’s Sunday School class on the London Baptist Confession of 1689), though that is very important. If you don’t know what the church believes, there is at least some measure to which you are unable to fully support it. Further, you will have a harder time ascertaining when someone is espousing heresy.

If we can recognize the incredible wisdom left behind before us, we aren’t forever starting over, as with those pesky seats at the graduation party. There is a tremendous benefit to understanding the incredible wisdom that was so eloquently and nicely condensed for us.

Yet, I also feel like we should live our lives so that we leave an imprint. So that we live a life that is noticed by those who follow us. I’m not just talking about this precursor to our eternal dirt nap, but I also think we should begin ministries and work that will be seen and followed by others.

I believe there is no positive ministry going on, at any level, that cannot be traced to someone desiring to leave that kind of imprint on the chairs they leave behind. So, as I muddle through this world attempting to do things, my prayer is becoming to leave behind a warm seat, so that others may move forward with the work and not be forced to start over. If I commit to this, it impacts the way I live, the way I lead, the way I serve, and the way I view life. That’s why it is so frightening!

It’s true.

Serving in the worship band for almost three years, covenant member for one and half, of course the next logical step would be… baptism?

What?

Nonetheless, on May 19th, I will demonstrate the symbol of my spiritual unity with Christ to the brothers and sisters at Orlando Grace Church. Submerged to raised. Death to life. Wrath to righteousness.

For those still scratching their heads, I wanted to write a succinct explanation of my decision and why I feel it both honors God and blesses the body. I have stepped foot in the cold waters of a baptistry many years ago. It was the result of fear (of hell), pressure (from the culture of assumed Christianity that I’d found myself in), and wafer-thin emotion (from the thrill of “belonging” to something, anything). It did not follow the written pattern of baptism articulated in the Scriptures, following true faith in Christ.

I believe to have been regenerated from a life of unrepentant licentiousness and rebellion in August of 2010, age 19, while being pounded away by the biblical truth, conviction and glory of God in the book Desiring God. I was baptized, however, at age 14. Something doesn’t compute. This leaves me with an important decision to make.

We believe at Orlando Grace Church, as per the Scripture, that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone… not a work of ourselves (Eph. 2:8). Nothing done with our hands can save, not even something as glorious as baptism. The waters of the Holy Spirit carry the effectual blood of Christ and are the only ones clean enough to cleanse the soul from the crimson stain of sin (John 6:63). It is the outward demonstration of being washed white as snow.

But enough of me. Let’s get into some Bible.

• When the Jews in Acts believed in the word Peter had proclaimed of the gospel, they were immediately baptized as a result (Acts 2:41).

• Paul told the Philippian jailer that he must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. After this, he demonstrated his belief through baptism (Acts 16:30-33)

• Once Peter had realized Cornelius received the Holy Spirit, he was no longer reluctant to baptize him (Acts 10:47-48).

There is no biblical account of anyone being baptized prior to trusting in the Lord Jesus for salvation. So what’s the bottom line? Distilled down to a simple truth, I have not been baptized after my regeneration as the Scriptures command. Therefore I see it fit for obedience, demonstration, and love for the saints to engage this ordinance.

Our mission at OGC — and my own personal mission — is to engage peoples everywhere to pursue ultimate satisfaction in Jesus. My prayer for this beautiful ordinance is to display, in a very tangible way, the glory of Christ. Namely, His accomplished work of dying, rising and washing sinners deeply, perfectly, and ultimately of all their sin.

How were your sales?

Did you talk to anyone interesting?

Should we do it again?

How do we measure success? How should we determine if all our efforts were worth it? How do I answer the above questions?

I propose that it’s not by how much money I made in sales or how much stock I had to pack up and return to my car. It’s not even measured by how many earrings I spot dangling on the lobes of friends the next day at church. The point is, we won’t know quickly how successful we were. We won’t know immediately how many connections were made or how many people were given a different, and refreshing, impression of “church people” because of our interactions. We won’t immediately know who comes back to the church because they were invited to this craft fair. We won’t know how many shoppers went home with a treasure. We won’t know how many vendors’ confidences were bolstered after displaying their handmade, one-of-a-kind items. We just can’t gather all of that information even if we tried. But we can know this: we were faithful to the task before us. That’s our job.

We plant seeds.

That’s our responsibility. We faithfully plant and water and care about others in any ways we can and trust that the Lord provides the growth. We can’t force the growth, but we can work and pray and excitedly travel together taking advantage of every opportunity.  And be excited to see the seeds sprout and flourish and bear fruit.

But in my preliminary assessment, I thought it was a huge success! I was very pleased that it took a village to perform this event. Well done, everyone, well done. Two dozen vendors, numerous greeters and welcomers, set-up and clean-up ninjas, ladies who baked cinnamon rolls infused with love…and who could forget our fabulous sign twirlers! You guys rock Thank you to the leadership who supported this idea and helped make it a reality. Thank you to Amy for taking lead and providing space, organization, encouragement — and lunch! Thank you to everyone who shopped and chatted and was on the lookout. You represented Christ well to our neighbors.

Do you remember the butterfly card lady I met in November? She was there looking for trinkets and treasures of encouragement just as she did before. I was really excited to see her.

So we may not know quickly how successful we were, but I am encouraged and I would answer the question, “Should we do it again?” with a resounding, “Yes!”

It’s easier. There are many options. It doesn’t require much of us. It doesn’t confront the world in hard things, it doesn’t confront ourselves with hard things. We can still be the little lords over our little lives. We can have our Genesis 3 cake and eat it, too. But have you read Genesis 3? Who wants to eat that?!

In the Bible we have an incredible story of a Missionary, His people, and the mission to redeem them and the world He created. The Father sent the Son, the first real cross-culturual missionary into a hostile place, lived and died for His people. But He also rose again because death was too small to keep such a great Missionary.

We like to fall in love with the mission and forget the Missionary. That way, we can feel good about “doing the right thing” and still be in charge. Even as a culture, getting involved wth non-profits, helping the poor, caring about ethical treatment of animals, etc., is all very popular. Our culture wasn’t always like this, but it is now. And of course, just because we have a tendency to worship the mission over the Missionary, that doesn’t mean the mission is wrong. Some are good, some aren’t (by the way, all of the above can be good), but we elevate them above their proper place.

Why care about the materially poor? Why care about animals? Because we are captivated by the Missionary and His heart. Anything other than that melts His mission into an idol.

If you have a strong sense of justice, care about making change in this world, the best thing you can do is first be changed inside by loving the Missionary. Only then will our outside be truly changed, then we can really be effective.

I wish this was a simple one-time thing, but it’s not. It’s constant and I suspect God maybe planned it that way. It requires constant submission (yes, that’s not just a doctrine relevant for women!). If we give up our little missions and submit to the Missionary, we find He loves us and gives us freedom to be a part of His mission. Thanks be to our great God!

One question I had when recently reading over this passage is why does God talk about His greatness to all nations here? What’s the connection?

For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.

The greatness of God, his transcendence, is missional. If we see Him as great and worship Him as such, that will draw in others who don’t know of this great God. And this makes sense, doesn’t it? Why would someone who’s not a Christian yet be persuaded to Christianity if we don’t care about it at all? Our worship is not only good for us, not only good for other believers, not only what God requires, it’s good for others. It’s good for those who don’t know God yet to see how captivated we are with God. Only if we see God as transcendent will we be captivated.

It could be that our efforts of mission aren’t getting through because others see that we worship something very small. This is the error of putting mission above our own worship. Mission is an overflow of our own worship and community. Only a transcendent God can create an overflow.

If we see God as transcendent, that means we don’t have to organize our own happiness. We get to worship the best Thing this universe has to offer, we don’t need to have tons of cash or a dream home or the executive job for us to be happy. When other people see where our happiness and hope comes from, they are drawn to it. They are drawn to it because they were made to be.

While many commentaries will mention that it is against oaths, saying something like unto the fact that there is no reason to consider that solemn oaths in a court of justice, or on other proper occasions, are wrong (provided they are taken with due reverence), but all oaths taken without necessity, or in common conversation, must be sinful. I think there is some truth to that, and I value it. The point I keep feeling, however, is that we need to let that which we say have merit.

Of course, this is not without conflict. Primarily, where does this intersect with grace? I mean, when my children are told something in ultimatum fashion and when it comes time to enforce it, what if I decide that giving them grace would be better? Does that mean that I didn’t actually mean what I originally said? Will they learn that what I say is not actually of absolute importance?

What about other people that answer to me? When I tell someone that they need to pay rent on a particular schedule and then, due to some reason that seems acceptable, they cannot follow through with that schedule, should I error on the side of grace or should I error on the side of being someone who sticks to their word? There seems to at least be a plausible interpretation that I need to let my word stand. It seems that Jephthah saw it that way (although I think most people translate that incorrectly).

What do we make of God supposedly changing His edict because of a conversation with Abraham? I cannot give a good answer, but I think we must at least make mention of the fact that God knew the outcome before it was over. To say that He changed His edict is not a slam-dunk, especially when you consider that He did not save the city even after the negotiation.

So, where does that leave me on letting my yes or no be maintained? I believe that the key is what defines our reputation. Is our character such that we are known for what we say being believable? I currently have someone challenging me to stay ever vigilant in my upholding of the truth. While I believe the motives of this individual to be less than pure, it is still nice to be challenged for personal betterment.

When we show grace do people truly see us as carrying forward the nature of Christ or does it just seem that we are lazy in our speech? This is the thing for which we must strive. We need to live in such a way where our grace is evident and yet our yes and no are always meaning what they should. And this striving will keep us busy throughout this side of eternity.

Be on the lookout — for treasures!

You’ll be surrounded by treasures. Something delightful or homemade, beautiful or elegant or tasty.

Be on the lookout –for others. For friends within the church who you can encourage. For new faces who you can meet and show kindness.

Last fall when a friend hosted a craft fair which I was thrilled to participate in, I met a woman. She came late in the day and I was about ready to pack up. It had been raining for some time and I hadn’t really sold any product for an hour. She looked politely and turned to go, but stopped and asked, “Do you have anything with butterflies?” I began looking through all my hundreds of items. I showed her a few earrings and some cards which butterfly motifs. She chose a card with a purple and yellow butterfly and then told me the story behind the purchase. This woman works in a ministry which helps abused women. She had one client who was especially heavy on her heart and she wanted to bring a gift back for this woman who had been through so much. The woman had just gotten out of a tough situation and greatly identified with the idea of a cocoon. This shelter was her cocoon and she was anxious about leaving her “caterpillar” stage behind and venturing fully into her “butterfly” stage. This caring friend wanted to write her a card to encourage her on her journey. I stood and talked with this caring individual for a good while, hearing her heart and encouraging her in her ministry. I loved that I had the opportunity to slow down and allow my life to be hospitable to this woman. I was able to stop and talk. My heart was not frenzied — it was on the lookout for how I could help and hear another person.

She bought a card for $1. It was the best sale I made all day.

This even is more than just a display of creativity and craftiness. It is a ministry.

Be on the lookout.

As you have heard announced, OGC is hosting our first every Craft Fair on Saturday May 11th from 9am-2pm. There will be two dozen vendors all proudly displaying their treasures and trinkets! Everything from earrings to hair flair to purses to marshmallow launchers will be there, ready for you! It’s just in time for Mother’s Day. Bring a friend and shop happy!

The biggest difference between this open house and every other sale you’ll attend this year is that we’re crafting for a cause. That’s why we’ve taken the initiative and combined two of our favorite things: crafting and worship. On the flyer you’ve probably seen it says “Arts and Crafts Fair A Ministry of Orlando Grace Church.” We mean that. This is a ministry, not a money making scheme.

We’d love to share what we made, design, craft, and assemble, but it’s more than that. We want to be a part of the community. We realize that there are a significant number of people who will feel comfortable entering the front doors of a church for a craft fair who might never venture there on a Sunday morning. This is a huge opportunity. It’s way bigger than any treasure you might find within the doors. Because first and foremost, you’ll find your neighbor.

Come! Shop! Find a treasure! But make sure you engage with those around you. Welcome new faces. A perfect necklace might brighten your day, but a heartfelt conversation with a fellow shopper might change someone’s life.

Leaving my house early in the morning, I often find myself reaching for things in the dark. Right near our front door are my shoes and Christina’s shoes. When I try on my shoes, I just know they’re mine. Why is that? Without the light to guide me, I could just as easily leave wearing women’s shoes. And that’s not fashionable…yet, anyway.

I leave with the right pair of shoes (and the right amount of dignity) because when I try them on, they just feel right. Shoes begin to feel right when you go through the ritual of trying them on again and again. After a certain amount of time, you get to know how to easily slip your shoes on or off. It becomes natural, though it didn’t start that way.

We all know the darkness will come. We all know there will be periods in our life where we feel like we won’t have a bright light guiding us. If we take the time to embrace and develop our spiritual routines, we can know how to feel our way around in the disorienting darkness.

Everything from Sunday morning worship to how we get up in the morning to how we use our free time can be ordered in such a way for us to grow. Our routines don’t need to be harnesses, holding us back from our potential. They can truly be forms of our submission to God, recognizing our humanity and embracing our limits.

We don’t get righteousness from ritual. But rarely do we grow in sanctification without the aid of our “limiting” routines. Recognizing that we are human and are, therefore, subject to such limits is a grace. It’s a grace because it means we don’t have to be the heroes of our own story, but that God is the Hero of His own story, and we’ve been asked to join in with Him. And that means living our lives with all its routine and ritual included.

I may not naturally be a fan of routine, but that kind of routine is something I can get on board with. And hopefully I’ll be wearing the right shoes while I’m at it.