This was inspired by today’s sermon by Lloyd Shadrach at Fellowship Bible Church.

“. . . .I decided to write it all out for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt the reliability of what you were taught” (Luke 1:3-4).

Here are some things I know for sure, without any shadow of a doubt:

1) Jesus’ love for me will never fail me or give up on me or quit on me. People may give up on me, but Jesus will never stop wooing and pursuing and captivating my heart until I am just like Him. This I know.

2) The grace of God is always bigger than my sin, no matter how big the sin or how many times I’ve sinned or how many times I’ve repented only to fail again. His grace is greater than ALL my sin, from my very first sin to my last sin. Grace covers ALL of it.

3) I may not know much, but I do know my life is safe in God’s hands. He is totally trustworthy to lead me to places and people I never would have found on my own, but whose legacy is defining me.

4) All dark nights come to an end. No matter how hopeless the situation or how unending it feels, daylight comes streaming in sooner or later. Always.

5) I’ve read the end of the book, so I know that Jesus wins in the end. There is no force on earth, no hate, no violence, no political scheme that can defeat the love of Jesus. That means that nothing or no one can ever ultimately defeat those He has claimed as His own– namely, you and me.

6) God’s promises are true, whether I feel them or not, whether they make sense or not, whether I’ve given up on them or not. Always in His timing, He comes through EVERY single time.

7) I may be a messed up goober, but one day Jesus will complete what He started in me and I will be the way He has always wanted me to be and better than every dream I could ever have for myself. I will be just like Him.

That’s what I know for sure. What do you know for sure?

I don’t know what drives hatred to do what it does. I do know that there’s so much of it these days in every form of media outlet available. The sad thing to me is that most of the angry rhetoric and hatred comes from those who claim Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

But how can you claim Jesus and not do what He did? He chose to love the people who disagreed with Him. He chose to forgive those who put Him to death. He chose to willingly bear those nails and the agony of cruxifiction for those who would turn around and blaspheme Him with an empty faith that has no basis in their lives. He died for me and I take that for granted so much.

But one thing I’ve learned about hate and love is this: love wins over hate any day of the week. Hate may win you battles, but love wins the war. Love conquers everything. Love can break the hardest hearts and turn back the most stubborn prodigal. Love wins.

And grace trumps sin every time. No matter what you’ve done. No matter how many times you keep falling into a sin and repenting of it, only to fall again the next time. No matter how far you’ve strayed. Grace trumps sin.

Best of all, when all your props have fallen, all your security has come unraveled, when your dreams have died, and when all you hoped would fulfill you turns to dust in your mouth, Jesus will still be Lord and King. When you have lost everything that you thought would last forever and when all you can do is cry out with a broken voice, Jesus will still be Jesus. He will come to your rescue even if you can’t find a voice to call out His name.

So. love wins every time. Grace always trumps sin. Jesus will be Jesus after everything else fails and fades and falls away. When every form of media is forever silenced, the one message will still resound across the universe: “Jesus died to save sinners, of which I am the worst.” Let that love of Jesus be your heartbeat.

Amen and amen.

I’m sick and tired of my Christianity being a Facebook status that doesn’t affect the way I live most of the time. I want my faith to define me and be all over every single part of my life and my identity. If people have to ask if I am a Christian, then I have failed to live out what I believe. They should know by how I act and speak.

I’m sick and tired of being an incognito believer in Christ. I want my true God-colors to shine wherever I am, whatever I’m doing, whoever I’m with. I want to stand out, even if that means standing alone.

I’m sick and tired of being like everyone else and settling for status quo. I want to be so radically different that people notice that there’s something different in me and that something (or Someone) is Jesus. I want my actions, my words, my status updates and posts, to reflect and compliment my faith and not be a contradiction of that faith.

I’m sick and tired of being moved so many  times, but not doing anything with it. I want to be more than moved, as the song by Michael Boggs says. I want to be motivated to act out my love for Christ and show it to the world by my deeds of kindness and compassion.

I am never sick and tired of grace. Grace works every time. Grace wins every time. Grace is changing me, making me more whole and alive and radiant in Christ day by day. Even on those days when I can’t see it.

Thank You, Jesus, that You never have or ever will give up on me or stop making me more like You. Your love for me is too powerful to leave me unaffected and unmoved and uninspired. I want more of that. I want more of You.

Please come.

Let 2011 be the year that Love breaks through in you. I’m thinking of an old Keith Green song that goes, “I was lost in a fantasy that blinded me until Your love broke through.” That’s what I hope you want.

Let love break through in your world to show that there is a different and better way to live. That it’s not all about fame or money or sex or thrills or late-night partying. That love (as in the love of Christ poured into your heart and overflowing to the world) can conquer hate, fear, shame, or doubt. Love will convince people that you are for real, not correct doctrine or proper procedures and practices.

Let love break through in your life. Let your life be so radically different from the norm that people are forced to notice. Let your life be a compliment to your profession of faith and not a detriment to it. Love not just people who are like you or who are easy to love. Don’t just love the picture-perfect pretty people. Love the broken, the hopeless, the outcast, and the weak. Love those who can’t love you back. That kind of love always draws attention to Jesus, because who could love like that apart from Him?

Let love break through your heart. May you be captured and captivated by a Love that never gave up and will never quit. May Jesus become everything to you and everything else fall away. Let your heart be broken by what breaks God’s heart. When love breaks through, you change from selfishly fulfilling your own lusts and desires to learning to give your life away.

So, say YES to the love of Jesus every single day (and every single moment the thought comes into your mind). Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. Get rid of anything that distracts or detracts or takes away from the love of God being able to invade you and those around you through you.

Jesus, we will be Your feet to go to the ends of the earth, Your hands to reach out to the poor and needy, Your eyes to see the need and weep over those who suffer, and Your heart to love these people so radically that they don’t see us anymore, but You.

Amen and amen.

My child, where you see failure and disaster, I see a second chance.

Where you see yourself as inept and helpless, I see a chance for My strength to be made perfect in your weakness.

Where you see hopelessness and despair and no way out, I see that just beyond your line of sight, I am preparing something for you that will blow your mind.

Where you see yourself as unloveable, I see the person I made loveable when I set my affection on you. I thought you were worth dying for and I would do it again.

When you feel loneliness and desertion, I am silently in  your corner, on your side, singing softly over you as you sleep. Listen to my songs with ears of faith and you will hear Me.

When you feel worthless and useless and think you are not worth the effort, I show you my nail-scarred hands and feet and my spear-pierced side to declare to you, “YOU WERE TOTALLY WORTH IT!”

Whatever you are feeling or thinking, remember that those feelings and thoughts will often lie to you, but I never will. Trust in what you know. Trust in Who you know. Me.

I love the part in My Big Fat Greek wedding when Ian and Toula are talking and she reminds him that they met when she was working at her family’s Greek restaurant. She says something like, “I was going through my frumpy phase until, well, just now.” He responds, “I don’t remember frumpy, but I remember you.” I love that.

That’s what we strive for as believers. To see each other and remember not the colossal failures and fiascos and screwups, but to remember the good. To see not the messed up past of a person, but to see forward to what they are becoming and will one day be in Christ.

If we’re honest as believers, we have to admit that we are weak, broken messes who don’t have the answers and who lose their way frequently. We’re not as strong or wise as we think we are. Even our best moments are filled with fears and doubts, striving and self-loathing, hiding and excusing.

As we mature, we see not how much less we need grace, but how much more desperately we need it every single moment of every single day. We need each other. We need to forgive and be forgiven constantly, starting with ourselves. We need to be real and open and transparent with each other, carrying each others’ burdens and sharing their joys and sorrows. We constantly need to be restored and revived, to keep each other honest, and each of us need to know that we are worth the effort it takes and that no true believer ever gives up on another true believer.

As a believer, I can say through Christ, “I will be your eyes when you can’t see, your voice when you can’t speak, your light in the dark when you’ve lost your way, your friend when you feel alone and deserted, and your biggest fan when you feel most discouraged and most messed-up. I will be your burden-bearer, your hope-restorer, and your faith-rebuilder. I will do my best to show you what the love of Jesus looks like through my words and my actions to you.”

Let us love each other radically and fully. Let us show the world what true faith looks like, as opposed to those who just carry the name Christian but deny it with their lifestyle. Let us win the world by our own lifestyle of radical love, passionate faith, and unswerving hope in Jesus Christ.

I want to be a friend who never, never, never, never, never, never, never ever gives up on you. And I mean never. No matter what you say or don’t say, you can’t lose my friendship. You may give up on your end, but I will never give up on my end. Why?

Because that’s what Jesus did for me. Jesus, the Friend above all friends, the Friend who sticks closer than a brother and laid down his life for me. He never gave up on me, so I can’t ever give up on you. That’s the deal.

I know what I’m describing isn’t the norm. When someone’s harsh words cut deep, it’s hard to remain in friendship. When someone’s silence cuts deeper still, it requires something beyond myself to remain.

And so my friendship with you is really Jesus loving you through me. I can’t on my own, I will fail you every time. I will let you down, get all OCD, and tragically mess things up. I on my own will run you off.

But Jesus is the Friend who is teaching me to be a better friend. No, better yet. He’s the Friend to me who’s a Friend to you through me. It’s His power that sustains any friendship I have.

I want to be the friend that encourages and cheers for you. The one who laughs with you at times and cries with you in other times. I want to be a friend who will do whatever I can to help you, to see you become all that God in Christ meant for you to be.

I want to be someone who will lay down my life for you in a thousand small ways, to give up my rights for you, give up my own set ways of doing things for you.

That’s the kind of friend I want to be to you, and because of God in me, I am slowly becoming just that.

Thank you, friends, for not giving up on me and for seeing through my fears and false fronts and neuroses to the real me. To the Jesus in me. I will be forever grateful!