I'm only human..

I often explain away the times I behave badly, the times I mess up, the times I hurt others with the words "I'm only human."

'Cause surely that's excuse enough to cover over my faults? How can people expect such high standards from me, when the Bible's made it clear that I am naturally sinful and wretched? But I realized I'm going to have to rethink the way I use this phrase, having stumbled upon the following quote:

After each day of creation God declares what he has made to be 'good'. But on the sixth day God's verdict on a world that now includes humanity is 'very good'. God's work wasn't finished until there was something in the world to reflect His glory in the world. We often excuse our actions by saying 'I'm only human.' There's nothing 'only' about begin human: We're truly human as we reflect God's glory.

Yes. I am 'only' human. I do mess up time and time again because. But I think that we only tend to use this phrase in a negative sense, not recognising that being human means being God's image-bearer on earth. And that, my friend, is 'very good'.

PS the quotes from Tim Chester's You can change.
PPS Yes. You're right in thinking that we'll probably be hearing a lot from Tim Chester in the immediate future...

Mad as hell... My life has value!

I just watched a video clip, in which a man is raging against the injustices and problems of the world. At the climax of his rant, he urges his viewers to take a stand, and he shouts:

"You've got to get mad. You've got to say 'I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!'"

The irony didn't escape me. He ends up cursing the One Person who can assure him the certainty of being confident that his life has value.

Now, I've heard many comments that Christians always seem to be so down on themselves because they always refer to themselves as wretched sinners. Yes, yes, this we openly admit. We ARE sinners. Sinners = people who have rebelled against God's good and right way.

But this does NOT mean that we're these insecure drips that walk around feeling that we have absolutely no dignity and no sense of self-worth. As Christians, we have two mindblowing reason to feel immensely valued:
1) Human beings are created in God's image
2) Human beings were considered of such value by God that He sent His Son down to earth to die on the cross for us. You don't die for invaluable things...

But, yes, let's get mad! Let's get furious when others tell us that we as human beings have no value, when people tell us we are just as meaningless and valueless as the next lump of mud, when someone tries to fool us into believing that human beings are nothing. Let's get MAD!'Cause I'm a human being, praise God! My life has value!

Let's be the living models of grace

or rather, gracious. 'Cause I'm not too being gracious at times!

Last week's memory verse (how exciting, I'm doing well at keeping up with this memorizing thing thus far) was 2 Corinthians 12:9

But he said to me: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

And I was just blown away by this reminder of God's grace. But then that made me think: If we're supposed to be like God, how many people feel genuinely that they can come to us with their insecurities and weaknesses and problems knowing that we'll be gracious and gentle with them? That we're different from others who might mock them? 'Cause it's so great to be able to turn to God with our problems knowing that He is compassionate, loving, gracious and understanding. Are we the same?