Grace for Today…and Tomorrow

“God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain.” – C.S. Lewis

God uses situations and circumstances to provide and protect us for a future only He can see. His grace walks beside us and goes ahead of us.

Grace walks beside us in the tough and challenging times. It is there for us in that very moment we need it, when we’re not strong enough to go on, it carries us. God gives us His grace for the daily journey we walk. We don’t deserve it, but He gives it. Grace works to intimately care for each of our daily needs.

Grace also goes ahead of us, preparing for a future only God can see. God’s grace protects us, arming us now for the battles ahead. He allows us to journey through challenging circumstances to make us stronger for what He knows is ahead. He wraps us in His grace to protect and strengthen us – if we allow Him.

Grace begins with trusting God. Trusting Him to provide, lead, and sustain us. Grace comes from God’s immense love for us. So much love that He sent His only Son to die for our sins… and be raised to life to give us new life. He doesn’t charge us anything to receive his forgiveness and grace – and no amount of good works will earn it.

This is the grace we strive to extend to all those we serve day in and day out – a grace that provides help today, and creates hope for tomorrow. 

Do you want God’s grace? Just ask.

Do you know someone who needs to experience God’s grace? Extend it.

The Gift of Grace

Have you ever felt unworthy to be loved by our awesome Creator – that you weren’t good enough? Too many of us walk around believing this lie. We believe that we must be perfect and sinless in order to come before our holy Creator. But that simply isn’t true. Just look at the way God created…

“The beauty of a sunset is greater through the impurities and pollution in the air it reflects off of. A snowflake cannot exist without the impurities of dust and dirt. In order to make something beautiful God doesn’t need something perfect, pure or clean. From the wasted, broken, and worthless God creates beauty. If God cares enough to do this in creation, then He cares enough to do this to me!” 

God can and will use us, regardless of our own insecurities and struggles. We come to God broken, hurting, and sinful. In response, He offers us Himself – pure, holy, and righteous. He takes the ugliness that exists within us and washes us pure and clean – into something truly beautiful. That gift is called grace.
 

We must realize that God loves us in spite of our frailties and faults. We do not have to be perfect or “good enough” to be loved by God. He desires to take all our fears, insecurities, and struggles, especially the ones we think unforgivable or beyond help. Instead, He offers us love and grace – transforming us into something beautiful. All we have to do is accept it.
 

Many people live believing that grace is for everyone but them. The truth is that Christ died to rescue us all from the penalty of sin. He died so we could live with Him. He gave himself for us, not because we deserved it or had worked hard enough, but simply because He loves us. Grace is a gift that God wants to give you – will you accept it?

Life to the Full

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10 

Christ died so that we might live. And He didn’t die so we would live in mediocrity, but to live with the fullness of His love and grace. But, having a new life in Christ involves taking a risk and leaving behind the old self, with its addictions, insecurities, and challenges. When we surrender to Christ and exchange our old life for a new one, we must surrender the good and the bad to experience His riches.

Mohammed knows all too well the reality of leaving behind everything – good and bad – in pursuit of a new life in Christ. 

On a cold January day, Mohammed entered the United States, leaving behind his home, siblings, and culture to protect his children, wife, and his own life. Mohammed’s family found comfort and support through Catholic Charities’ Refugee and Immigrant Services. The services helped Mohammed’s family integrate into the Indianapolis community, providing them the tools of self-reliance. Catholic Charities’ Refugee and Immigrant Services helped Mohammed find housing, job placement, employment skills, clothing, medical attention, education, English-language classes, and community orientation. Additionally, Catholic Charities connected Mohammed with another community-based organization to create an Individual Development Account. This allowed Mohammed and his family to experience financial stability in their new home.  

Now two years after arriving in the United States with only the belongings they could carry, Mohammed’s family has purchased their own home. Mohammed’s resolve to do what is best for his family, along with the help of Catholic Charities and other local agencies, made this new life in America possible.

Are you willing to take the risk, leave behind your old life, and exchange it for a new one? Christ wants to transform your life and heart, giving you a life of freedom, peace, and security that can only come through Him. 

A New Life Awaits

“Just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” – Romans 6:4

When Christ died on the cross, He did so in order that we might have a new, abundant life – full of joy, peace, love, grace, and freedom. But if this new life is ours in Christ, why do we live a run-down, tired old life? Why do we struggle with sin and pain when we can have communion with the One who overcame it all?

Maybe the reason we do not live this new life is we don’t really believe it is for us. Instead, we see ourselves as people in process. We work on our own strength to change our bad habits and our sinful nature into goodness, but we fail. We fail because we cannot make ourselves whole and new by our own capabilities. The acceptance of Christ and His resurrection is the only thing that can bring us freedom. Sadly, we would rather live as an old creation.

Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: The old has gone, and the new has come!”

Christ has given us a new life, and He gives us instructions on how to live it abundantly in His Word. Jesus doesn’t simply want to improve us, He wants to transform us. He will put to death our old sinful nature and fill us with His presence of new life – a life of freedom. How do we get this new life? Not by working for it, reading about it, or going to church. No, we get it by simply asking and trusting in Christ completely.

Give Jesus your heart. A new life is available to you today.

A Special Aroma

Growing up, did you have that favorite food item that mom or grandma baked? Regardless of where you were – in another room, the yard, the neighbor’s house, or another state altogether – the aroma tantalized all of your senses and you were giddy with anticipation of eating that special meal.

As an adult, that aroma still triggers something inside of you – because an aroma is so much more than a scent. It evokes emotion, beautiful memories, and, if you really think about it – love. 2 Corinthians 2:15 says,

“For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”

What is this aroma of Christ? Love. You cannot be in relationship with Him without being completely consumed with this overwhelming fragrance. We are called to not simply sprinkle it on lightly, but to completely submerge ourselves in the aroma of love, so that others cannot help but catch the scent of Jesus and come running.

Jesus said, “You will know my followers by their love.” In other words, true devotion to Christ means your scent and your total identity are rooted in love. And this love is most loudly spoken without words.

A Romanian prison guard who found both his fulfillment and frustration in torturing Christians once said, 

"If we cut off their tongues and forbid the Christians speech, they love with their hands, with their feet, and with their eyes, they love always and everywhere until their last respiration. Does anybody know how to take out the power of love from these stupid Christians?"

When we are truly devoted to Christ, His love will naturally overflow from every part of our life. Do the people you encounter see, hear, and feel the love of Christ? Live a life of love and be the aroma of Christ.

Valentine's Day: The Real Story

Flowers, candy, red hearts, and romance – that’s what Valentine's Day is all about, right?

Few know the true origin of this holiday. The real story of Valentine’s Day is found in the man behind the holiday – St. Valentine. And the expression of love really isn't romantic at all – at least not in the traditional sense.

Valentine was a Roman Priest at the time of Emperor Claudias the second. Claudias detested Christians and took advantage of every opportunity to persecute the Church through his high-ranking position. As a result, he issued an edict that prohibited people from getting married, based on the belief that unmarried soldiers would fight better than married soldiers, because married soldiers might be afraid of what might happen to their wives if they died.

This edict, however, posed an immediate problem to the Christian Church. Christian marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman for life and is a right given by God. Roman Priest Valentine had a deep passion to see couples bonded in this sacred union and love, as a reflection of the union we have with Christ. So Valentine, in spite of the edict, continued to perform marriage ceremonies.

Valentine was eventually caught, imprisoned, and tortured for performing marriage ceremonies against the command of Emperor Claudius. But this imprisonment did not change Valentine’s zest to share the love of Christ with everyone he met.

While imprisoned, Valentine met a Roman judge named Asterius whose daughter was blind. Valentine shared the love of Christ with Asterius through prayer and the healing of his young girl. Asterius was so overcome with the power of love that he committed his life to Christ.

In the year 269 AD, Valentine was sentenced to a three-part execution of a beating, stoning, and finally decapitation – all because of his stand for Christian marriage. It is believed that the last words he wrote were in a letter to Asterius' daughter, inspiring today's romantic notes by signing it, "from your Valentine.”

That is the real story of Valentine’s Day. It is not simply a holiday, but a celebration of Christ’s love for us. Won’t you follow the lead of St. Valentine by celebrating this day, sharing the unconditional love of Christ with everyone you meet – no matter the cost?

How great is our God?

Have you ever just thought about how GREAT our God is? Think about it like this…

If you were to take a sharpie and make a dot on a piece of paper, that dot would be exponentially larger than size of Earth in comparison to the largest star man has ever discovered. God created that. He created the vastness, but He also created the microscopic. And, He created it all with just the sound of His voice. We have nothing that can compare with the greatness of our God and His creation. 

However, in all of God’s greatness, He made us. He could have spoken us into existence like everything else, but instead, “The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)” God got down on His hands and knees and created mankind. He didn’t leave them after that, either. No, He walked intimately beside man every day. Even after Adam and Eve sinned, God clothed and protected them.

Why? Read 1 John 4:10 – 12:

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

God has loved us from the very beginning. He put the ultimate marker of His love on us when He sent Jesus to die on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. He knows our sins, insecurities, and deepest fears – and He meets us there with His perfect love. God loves us – intimately, passionately, and unconditionally.

What if we embraced this love so much that it flowed out of us to others? What if we lived this month – and all year – loving each other with the same love with which God loves us?