People Matter to God

“People Matter to God” is one of the core values at The Bridge.  As a younger Christ-follower, I don’t think I held that value the way I do now.  I was much more judgmental of people, quick, at least in my heart, to judge whomever for whatever faults I might find in them.  I don’t think I was self-righteous, but I don’t think I had fully grasped the depravity of my own heart.  Through my daily devotional (My Utmost for His Highest), I’ve encountered a couple of powerful quotes from the author.  Oswald Chambers writes:

• “I have never met the man I could despair of after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God.”
• “…you know there is no criminal who is half so bad in actuality as you know yourself to be in possibility.”

To paraphrase the Bible, “we all our sinners.’  Bad ones.  I know I am.  I can really despise myself sometimes.  And I realize now, much more fully than ever before, that I am no better than any man or woman.  My finger of judgment is more likely to point at me than at any other.  And that has helped me to more fully believe that “People Matter to God.”  He loves me, you, and everyone else because of his choice.  He chooses to love us.  We matter to Him, not because we are good, or doing better, but simply because we matter.  He values us. 

At The Bridge, we want to exude that value.  People matter to God.  They matter to us.  There should be no finger of judgment that extends to anyone that makes The Bridge a part of their week or life.  There should only be open arms of love, grace, forgiveness and acceptance.  People matter.  No matter where you are in life, know that God loves you.  He loves you too much to leave you where you are.  He wants to transform your life.  You matter to Him.  You matter to us.

Disturb Me

I was relistening to a sermon that I heard at a conference last.  The speaker was Craig Groeschel of lifechurch.tv.  I don’t know a lot about him, but I was convicted by his message.  Anyway…as part of the conclusion to his message, he quoted from the poem below and prayed that our lives would be “disturbed.”  I do pray that God would “Disturb me” to the point that I truly rid my life of self and leaving to please me but to truly fulfill God’s call on my love to love and serve Him and my “neighbors.”  Disturb me God.

“Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,

When our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little,

When we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess

We have lost our thirst for the waters of life;

Having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity

And in our efforts to build a new earth,

We have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas

Where storms will show your mastery;

Where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.

We ask You to push back the horizons of our hopes;

And to push into the future in strength, courage, hope and love.”

Sir Francis Drake

Quote of the Day

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”
- Benjamin Franklin

Quote From Chambers

The quote below is from today’s reading in My Utmost for His Highest. Thought it went well with what I wrote earlier about our worth.

“If the Spirit of God has ever given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He will only do this when His Spirit is at work in you), then you know that in reality there is no criminal half as bad as you yourself could be without His grace.”
- Oswald Chambers