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by Mark Malcolm

You are who you are, and God still loves you anyway. Human beings lack perfection. If you thought you were perfect, you wouldn’t still be reading these weekly devotions this far into the year. You recognize the human need for salvation based on our flaws and misdeeds. The great news is that God recognizes that need too, so He sent His Son to help us out.

Read verses four and five again. “…holy and blameless…” and “…in Love…” are the words used. We are far from blameless but to Him we are so long as we come to Him through Jesus. He loves us which is why He would go through this for us. This is not something we’ve earned as verse seven proclaims in “…His grace…” the grace of a gift unearned but freely given as verse six says.

Freely given. What is freely given any more? What do we charge people for the grace of Jesus Christ? Do we levy a fee on people in an emotional way by putting up barriers of acceptance to who they are as a qualifier to join us in worship? Do they feel as though we are freely accepting of who they are to come into the same place of worship we occupy to give thanks to God for what He has done for them? How easily do we forgive the trespasses of others as we hope to be forgiven ourselves?

God loved us and loves those around us too. Our message we project is not just one of what we say but of how we act and behave. Our personal gospel message is shared whether we speak it or not. What message do our actions and our attitudes and our behaviors send? Do we share a gospel of action to others that demonstrates that we are sealed with Him with the Holy Spirit of promise with a view of redemption? Whose praise are we reflecting to those who see us, God’s glory or our own?

Bio from my web site :

Mark Malcolm is a child of God, husband, father, project manager, technical writer, gamer, fiction writer, Marine (’87-’91), has practiced Shao Lin Kung Fu and Tai Chi, been published in magazines and newspapers (editorial anyway), and seen the Southern Cross.

The goals he has currently are to more accurately identify the path God has for him to walk, continue to provide for his family, establish a solid web presence, build a career writing novels through both traditional and independent publishing, and learn to better relate to the people around him.

http://www.firstchevalier.com/about-the-cavalier/