His Grace Is Sufficient

I read a talk recently that I wanted to share, but I haven't had time to get to my blog lately. Work has been crazy busy! The good news is that it seems to go in cycles, so it should slow down eventually; and I foresee a badly needed day or two of vacation coming for me soon ... after a big deadline in the next week or two.

Anyway, back to the talk. I thought it was a great Easter message, so maybe the timing worked out well since Easter day will be here in about an hour. Here's a video excerpt of the talk; you can find the text of the entire talk here. I recommend reading the whole talk, but I'll post the excerpt here for the visual learners among us.



Since I was a child, I have heard people refer to life as a test. While that may be a useful paradigm for understanding why we're here on this bouncing ball, I have for many years considered it insufficient and potentially misleading. I prefer to look at life as an education. That may be just my addiction to education talking, but I think that's a useful way for thinking about the purpose in our lives here. I think God wants us to become like Him and with His help, we can do that. But not without His help. That divine help is often called Grace and that Grace was embodied many years ago in a man called Jesus Christ.

Christ's sacrifice offers us a gift to overcome our natural state and become something different - something more like God. And on the day (or at the time I'm posting, the eve of the day) when we celebrate His triumph over sin/evil and death, I think it's appropriate to spend some time thinking about the magnitude of His gift and what it can mean for us personally. I think Brad Wilcox offers some great insight on it, so if you have a few minutes, take a look at the video, or better yet, read the entire talk (here it is again in case you missed the first link) and think about what Christ's Atonement means for you.

It isn't just about salvation - from sin, from evil within and without, and from death; ultimately, for me, it's about transformation. It's about becoming pure in heart, becoming filled with a pure love for others, having no more desire to do evil. It's about becoming like Christ.

Happy Easter!

The Riddle

I discovered the music group Five for Fighting a year or two ago. I had heard a couple of their songs many times and always loved their sound.

One of the lesser known songs is called 'The Riddle'. I love the message. Their songs are so poetic and beautiful. And the video's kind of fun to watch too. :)