Moments in Grace

So the kid down the street, the teenager we bring to church, he punches my son in the face….again. And this kid with no mother, and hardly a father, this kid who gets suspended from school at the drop of a hat because he….well, he punches everyone in the face who gets in his way, and how do you keep reaching the lost and the broken when they beat you up over and over again? This dilemma is not new. This is the struggle of every person who has ever set out to love lost and broken people in Jesus' name. Sometimes you get your nose bloodied. Sometimes you get wounded, because hurting people will hurt you .   It is not a matter of maybe.   It is only a matter of when and how.   It doesn’t mean that it is not hard.   Oh, yes it will be hard to love unlovely people.   It will be painful.   It will cost you something.   It will be ugly at times.   You will wonder if it is worth it.   You will want to quit. You will ...

So maybe the winter that never ends is really starting to get to you.   And after four solid months, now becoming five, of snow on the ground and biting wind and temperatures below freezing, you are longing for sun and trips to the park and just some warmth again.   It can be easy to start to complain.   It can be easy to start to whine a little. It can be easy to think of all the things you wish were different. And in these March days, maybe like me, you are reading through the Bible in a year and once again you come across this story in Numbers, this story of a people who found themselves complaining. And maybe you read these words and see yourself for a moment.   You look into the mirror of the Word and you see the ugly and the true and you realize that these words are an alarm for maybe…you. Because right there in the book of Numbers, is the story of the Israelites and their trip into the wilderness and how they got deliv...