Tag: Grace

Posted on

People of the Second Chance

There’s been a buzz around Twitter today. Here’s what its all about. Keep your eyes open for this: I Copied this from POTSC –


potsc_logoToday something starts anew.

It is the first small step into officially beginning People of the Second Chance (Website).

What is People of the Second Chance? Truthfully, we’re still sort of figuring that out.

But we do know this…we have dreamed for years about a movement of people that would let radical integrity and radical grace consume them in their life and leadership.

And in God’s perfect and ironic timing, People of the Second Chance is no longer just a nice concept with some stickers and tee shirts, but the very story we are living out right now.

In the past few weeks of learning, loss, tears, and experiencing a significant valley in our lives, we are more certain than ever that God does his best work in brokenness.

But let us be very clear here. This isn’t about us. It never has been. You see we have this simple belief that deep inside of all us we are desperately wanting grace, forgiveness, second chances and a fresh start.

We realize this is a little sloppy, unclear, and a bit rough around the edges. Even so, we still want to humbly and with sincerity invite you to join us.

Every journey must begin somewhere. This is our very simple somewhere. Welcome to the People of the Second Chance

Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite

Posted on

Blogging: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

Today I had a pastor point out to me the dangers of blogging, especially when there is little to no context given behind certain posts. He brought to my attention a couple of posts I had written several months back and revealed to me a little bit about the attitude it seems I was portraying, or maybe the underlying messages I was giving off hidden beneath my words. I am fortunate this pastor wants to talk about it in a couple of weeks when I get back from California.

To be honest before I even speak with this pastor, I went back and read two of the posts he referenced to me and I have to say, they were pretty bad. I allowed some things that were happening in my life, along with some discontentment to mold my thinking and corrupt my heart towards God’s most precious creation, people. I also allowed those things to produce a critical attitude of views and practices within the church just because I choose to do differently. I am always promoting the church working together and being ONE, putting aside petty differences to see the lost brought to Christ, and while I was shouting from the roof tops that the church should be acting in this manner, I was being hypocritcal. I personally find this humbling, but in a sad way humerous, since my pastor just asked me to preach on October 19th with a theme of loving the hypocrite. I guess I should be asking how people are able to love me, it may just make the perfect message. On top of the areas where I personally strayed, there were some things that had no context or understanding for the reader and so it was easily misunderstood by the reader. Blogs can be very good and healthy, but when things like this happen, it makes them bad and really ugly in many ways.

To those who have read my blog, if you read this post, I apologize if I wrote some things that were misunderstood, but also some things that were completely wrong from my end. I desire to live a transparent life and in doing so, your going to catch me mess up and sin, but I am thankful for people such as this pastor who will step into my life and point me in a healthier and more productive direction for my life. My desire is to shine Jesus to the world, and if there is anything in my life that dulls that light, I want to get rid of it. I deleted the posts that were brought up to save any additional issues in the future after I am able to grow from this experience. I am very aware of one thing; I am 27 years old and though I would like to think I have some things figured out, I know that I am far from it! I am thankful for men, such as this pastor, who do not mind getting their hands dirty and helping a yound man such as I, because God knows I need it.

So today, I am thankful for grace, people who know how to love a hypocrite, and people who want to see me become all that God wants me to be. Its good to have people in my life who are living Christianity out. I look forward to growing from here in the next several weeks.

Humbly,

Nick

Join the Conversation: Have you ever said or did anything where you looked back months later and regreted or changed and thought “How Stupid of Me?”

Posted on

Final Thoughts on Messy Spirituality

I finished reading Messy Spirituality today. It was probably the fastest book I’ve finished besides “The Barbarian Way” by Erwin McManus. I could have finished it a couple of days ago, but I have been delayed from reading it over the past few days due to my schedule.

Here are my final thoughts from chapters 3-8. I have selected random quotes that stood out to me during my read. There were more than this, but I only have room for a select amount:

* “Christianity shows itself most powerfully in the unnoticed life, the inconspicuous servant, the unrecognized saint, the invisible disciple.”

* “The body of Christ can be mean.”

* “It’s ironic: we stumble into a party that we weren’t invited to and find the uninvited standing at the door making sure no other uninviteds get in. Then a strange phenomenon occurs: as soon as we are included in the party because of Jesus’ irresponsible love, we decide to make grace “more responsible” by becoming self-appointed Kingdom monitors…”

* “Religious people love to hide behind religion. They love the rules of religion more than they love Jesus. With practice, Condemners let rules become more important than the spiritual life.”

* “Rejection. The paralyzing experience of disapproval, repudiation, exclusion, ostracism. Religion has been good at rejection. Rejection keeps us at arm’s length and stamps us with the label “loser.” Which should be good news for you and me because, guess what? Jesus is attracted to losers. Jesus’ losers are great candidates for spirituality.

Continue reading “Final Thoughts on Messy Spirituality”

Posted on

Messy Spirituality

Photobucket

I was going to start with Holy Discontent, but I had Messy Spirituality on my reading list, so I started it.

It looks like it will be a quick and easy read. However, it is very timely. I got a MySpace message from an old student’s mom that he was in jail for the second time. I hate news like that! I sat down and wrote him a letter today and simply shared how much Jesus loved him and wanted his heart and love back. I also shared how he is already forgiven and that God has a huge plan for his life. I really didn’t know much more to say.

I am going to try and take him a paperback copy of the PD Life, make sure he has a modern translation of the Bible and visit him. Besides prayer, that is the best thing I can do right now, but I believe the book is fitting. I am sure I will share some of what I learn throughout the book with this student in other letters.

I have a strange bond with this student. I was the one that caught him and a friend doing cocaine in the parking lot of my former church. I was there as the cops took him away, but I have never judged him and have accepted him as I have all other students…I wonder if that is why he asked his mom to have me writet him a letter? If you read this and you are a prayer…please pray for this student. I am not sharing his name for privacy to him and his family. God knows who he is. And God will use this teen, messy and all.