Grace for Grace

Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books. It is so comforting and so convicting.  Ecclesiastes makes it clear that all of our attempts at meaning or achievement are fleeting and flammable. It will all burn up. It doesn't matter what we do, we all die the same. Generations have come and go and no one remembers them. But a quiet life in pursuit of God, in pursuit of wisdom and love, will also die the same and no one will remember you. "All things come to all." It is all the same here. But: "I know it will be well with them that fear the Lord."  We are valuable, yes, and we can have a lasting impact on the kingdom of God, but we are also dust, only given value by Jesus, by the breath in our lungs and the hands that formed us.  We assume so much. We have our limited, human perspective, and we can't even understand how limited it is, and we rationalize God's actions through our filters and assumptions. We put our own crap on God, we try to figure out what He ...

 I think I am naturally inclined to most forms of hyper-spiritualism because I like to feel unique, like I somehow stand out by being more spiritual or close to God. The Holy Spirit has been convicting me that I really am not special, so I've wanted to take a look at forms of hyper spiritualism.   There is a trend in a lot of modern Christianity to use language that sounds good but that says very little. I myself have been guilty of using it and thinking that I somehow understand more than others because what I say sounds more spiritual. It's so stupid. It's a form of gatekeeping and it's self-righteous and ultimately man's words.  My journal Bible has gone through three versions of me. The first one was just figuring out God's love and who God was, writing down excitement and the sweet obvious statements of who God is. The second was super well intentioned, and I did grow and learn a lot, but I listened to others words more than I listened to God's. I didn...