Messy

Written by cycleguy on March 12th, 2017

Well…I did it again.

NO…I DIDN’T HAVE ANOTHER BICYCLE ACCIDENT!

Saturday night I told Jo not to be surprised if I scrapped the sermon for something else. I felt God nudging me about it while I was studying. In fact, I almost went back to the office Saturday evening. I didn’t. But Sunday morning, in spite of the Daylight Savings Time shift, I was up and in my office and cranked out a sermon to preach.

I called it Messy Grace. It was a follow up to last week’s sermon when I opened up about my wilderness journey. I needed to  bring some closure to that sermon and “felt led” to address the issue of messy grace.

Sometimes grace is messy. Sometimes grace is rubbing shoulders with people who are not like us. Jud Wilhite, a pastor in LasVegas and the author of Stripped tells the story of a lady who said she was leaving the church because she didn’t like the type of people who were showing up and “you never know what you might get from those type of people.” I suspect God was more grieved over her comment than “those type of people” attending church.

Grace was extended to me by my family this past week. The people of OVCF extended grace to me by their texts, emails, comments, and phone calls. I’d like to close with this picture of a wall hanging Jo and I bought shortly after Christmas. Little did I know how much it would be appropriate to us.

 

7 Comments so far ↓

  1. Grace may be messy, but it’s always beautiful in the end. I’m sure your sermon went well, Bill. Know I’m continuing to pray.
    Blessings!

  2. Ed says:

    It’s funny how one little word can often carry such a big impact.

  3. TC Avey says:

    Life is messy, only makes sense that grace can be messy too. God isn’t scared of a little (or big) mess. He can make beauty from the messiest of ashes. He’s a grear creator!

  4. Linda Stoll says:

    hope you’re mending well, body and soul, Bill …

  5. Ceil says:

    Hi Bill! God is truly working in you, and you are listening. What more could God ask of you? I think it’s wonderful that you are in tune to the spiritual nudges you are getting, and your phone calls and comments are support that you are on the right track. Thank you for sharing your faith in action!
    Continued prayers for your healing my friend. I didn’t know about your February accident, and I read a little of it in your past post. This has been a really challenging time for you and yours. God bless you all.
    Ceil

  6. floyd says:

    Knowing God and avoiding His grace is like trying to walk on water…