Political Mess - by Candace

I felt the need to put by Candace because Patrick has been blogging so much lately.
I just felt the need to vent a little about my frustrations about all of the political drama. My family has always been big into politics so I find it hard to turn off that switch in me. I get so riled up between the campaigns and I check the news every minute for updates. My big plan on Friday night was watching the debate with Patrick. I was pumped about it. But a person whose blog I stalk really has hit me hard. I would link it, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Anyway, she made the point that God doesn't care about this election. The reason why He doesn't care, is because He already knows who wins. He has already known who would win this election from the beginning of time. But, what He does care about is our hearts. He does care about where we will spend eternity. I know where I will spend eternity, but I am not so sure about some of my friends. And, how I handle this election and what happens and my opinions, could affect the way my friends feel about Christians and Christ. I have to keep my eye on the big picture, the main goal. My goal cannot be - have my team win this election. My goal has to be point to and glorify God in all that I do. So before I get up on my high horse and say "I am right and you are soooo wrong", I have to think about does this glorify God? It is so hard. Especially since, I think my team is going to lose.

confession time

Confession: I love my wife. She is beautiful, not just outside, but inside too! (I know that's a cheesy cliche, but its true) She cares about and thinks about things that don't even cross my mind. I guess it's true that opposites attract, because in all the ways that it really counts she really does help bring focus to things that I would not even notice.

a heart epiphany

Colossians 1:22 says, …”He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.” This was the key verse we talked about at Cluster group the other night…and I had a heart epiphany today as I listened to "The Way I Am" on my playlist.com stuff. (I call it a heart epiphany because it was one of those moments that connected something I have known in my head for a long time and something my heart had not felt in a long time.) God loves me right where I am; just like I am, and doesn’t want me to try to be perfect. He wants me to embrace the freedom he has given me and experience life free from accusation. The hard part for me is the simple part of the Gospel…Accept what God unconditionally offers.

Here’s the epiphany. Paul uses the word reconcilED…past tense!!!

The hard part for me, on my journey with Christ, is really understanding that the reconciliation is not a continual process. I have been reconciled. Once I chose to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior the reconciliation was sealed. I don’t have to live up to a standard. I just need to heed the words Paul writes to the Church at Colosse(1:23): “continue in your faith established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel…”

That’s the launching point for everyone’s faith journey. We have to accept that God has already done all the work for reconciliation. It has already been accomplished. All we have to do is accept it, and if we continue in our faith established and firm, we will see a change in how we react to the world around us. We won’t be perfect. We will mess up, but the good news is that we don’t have to continually be reconciled. We are reconciled, and always will be. That is where true freedom lives.

So today I choose to be free!!!

My cluster group says I am not shallow!

So my cluster group says that I am not shallow and that I can post on this blog. I redeemed myself by saying "Jesus came to put a face on God, and we (Christians) are here to put a face on Jesus". I cannot take credit for this statement. I just heard it somewhere and it stuck with me...and it applied to what we read tonight.
Anyway, hopefully this will bring Candace Queen back to the blogosphere.