You believe in a God of love so intense that it demands justice. You think there is no justice big enough for what you did because people still have to walk in the life sentence you gave them with your mistakes. The rain isn’t strong enough to penetrate the outside and wash you on the inside. But, still, you’re out there hoping that your skin will open up and just let you drown.

God is a God of love and it’s a love so intense that it demands justice. There is no mistake in that belief. It’s just that you have forgotten Jesus. Was that not enough? Justice fell on Him so that you could come back inside.

God is not afraid of getting wet. He leaves the windows open so that maybe you’ll wash in with the rain you’re trying to drown in.

The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture. -Romans 8:34-35 MSG

But, I was a mess. Life was calling me forward and I didn’t want to go. Grace was unknown territory for me and I didn’t know the rules. I needed the rules, they made me feel safe, but I had broken them all and I was a shattered cast-out who was going to live though it.

I knew a lot about church and churchiness and what you’re supposed to do when you’re hurting. You’re supposed to praise God in the pain, for what-I didn’t know-…, but I really wanted to do something right.

My house sits up on a hill and my back deck faces the sky where all of my sins were carried out. It faces the sky that blankets all the people who I hurt. I looked at the all knowing sky, who could see everything, and I thought about God. I thought about my failure. I thought about the unknown future for all of us and I winced.

“God,” I prayed, “thank you for rebuilding me.”

I knew He was rebuilding me. I didn’t know what my new life would look like or how He was going to redeem my pathetic mess, but I still acknowledged and said it out loud.

When God talks to me, it’s a voice that seems to come from within, but I know it’s not my voice. It’s an interjected thought that is received exactly the way a spoken word would be received. God spoke up immediately…

“Serena, I removed you.”

The thought struck me as odd and foreign. His voice always quickens my heart. He uses few words and they’re profound enough to keep speaking when the words stop. I didn’t have to think about it for long because I understood it. It took me a bit to accept it, but I understood it.

Removed.

Removed from relationships. Removed from my religious community. Removed from my old life. Removed from my old comfort. Removed from my old safety…. I was removed and set down in a space of faith or die.

This stole the shame and guilt of ruining something I didn’t know how to fix. This truth gave it new meaning and purpose. My failure tangled with grace and I really didn’t know which way was up.

I once was a dried up piece of dirt until somebody planted a seed of faith. The seed took and the rains soaked me and washed me. I grew into a green sprout, drinking the sun and digging in deeper with my roots. I grew taller and stronger, even though I was surrounded by weeds. Weeds of twisted faith and oppression surrounded me and stunted my growth. Then I was ripped up and sent through a sieve. My hard covering was torn from me and I was naked and exposed. Scared to death until the Field Master’s hands scooped me up and called me a seed. The cycle of life and death continues and I morph with the will of the Field Owner.

Removed.

He removed me and replanted me and sang over me. The same voice that commanded the expanse of space to divide, and the water to fill the earth, and the land to divide the water, and the birds to fly, and the beasts to roam, and the body of Adam to live is the same voice that commanded my life to take a new form. The breath of His words filled my dead spaces and commanded me to, “Grow.”

It’s God’s grace that gives me life. It’s His choosing that gives me purpose. I am not my own and I know this because I’ve seen too much. I know better. I don’t do everything right. I stumble around with the best and worst, but I know what my purpose is. I know that my life is not my own. I was saved for a purpose and continue to try to live that out. Every breath I breathe is a gift. Every smile, every laugh, every lazy night with my family and good meal from my oven is a gift.

I was knocked down and torn to pieces by my failure. I was on the wrong track and I didn’t know it until I was blinded and disoriented. Then the voice of Jesus spoke grace into me and gave me a new purpose.

‘But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ -Acts 26:15-18

If you are like I was, lost and torn to pieces by your own failure, then consider this message. You are not abandoned or cast out. You are loved. You are being rebuilt. And maybe, you too, have been removed. Removed ‘from your people’ and from the others. You’re a traveler in a foreign land and you have a message. Give in to grace. Fall in to forgiveness. Consider the purpose. The sun will rise and dissipate this dark night that scares and torments you. I have seen the sunrise. I have felt the warmth of new life on my face and I am here to tell you that it’s real.

It’s a crazy revelation to bleed the grace of Christ as though being abhorred was a requirement. The tongue that speaks of forgiveness is the same tongue that pulled in the lip of forbidden in the kiss of sin. The contrast is a testament and a challenge. The contrast reveals the false. If false your god, then that’s all you see.

Let the mouth of the sinner sing and ignore the screams accusing heresy.

The truth will not be muffled. Every good thing that is lost, let it be lost. If you don’t sing, the rocks will. Are you not smarter than a rock? Blood cries out from the ground. Why won’t you?

“Where truth is, the lie must flee; or, if it abideth, there must be a stern conflict, for the truth cannot and will not lower its standard, and the lie must be trodden under foot.” -Charles Spurgeon

She was telling her story. He saved her, He forgave her, and she was amazed. She knew how it sounded and she knew she had witnesses. But her witnesses denied what they saw for the sake of the punishment and she was alone. They called out to Him, “Rebuke her, Father.”

‘And he answered and said unto them, “I tell you that, if [she] should hold [her] peace, the stones would immediately cry out.’ -Jesus in Luke 19:40 KJV

“As long as I have breath to lift my voice…the rocks shall not cry out in my place.”

Circumstances and reasons only mean everything to you right now because they’re all you have. When you finally do, in action, what you’ve already done in thought, you’ll see them for what they are. You’ll see them as cheap bribes and you’ll hate yourself for being so easy.

You only have excuses because you have alternate choices. The fact that you have alternate choices is proof that you are being seduced by someone more sinister than the forbidden fruit dangled in front of you. The evil seduction goes deeper than the seduction of flesh.

Grace doesn’t give you permission to hang yourself. No one can tell you what to do. I’m not offering noose wrapping lessons. I’m not your Holy Spirit. I can offer you truth when you really want the truth, but I will not offer you an excuse.

You need to struggle. You need to make your own choices and go through your own journey. The only thing I can offer you is the advice to be honest. Maybe if you’re honest, you’ll get what you think you want. Maybe if you’re honest, you can deal with reality and stop running to your escape. Honesty breaks the locks and smashes the windows. It gets the attention where the attention needs to be. Honesty is the rock thrown through the mirage so that everyone can see what is fake and what is real.

When you’re in the middle of the stupor that comes before the jump, good advice isn’t really heard. Your spiritual location can be recognized by the questions you ask and the parts of your story that you’re focused on. You are a human being doing the best you can with your situation. Grace doesn’t give you permission to be selfish.

You won’t be able to handle the hell of having to forgive yourself. If you care about your relationship with God at all, your sin will destroy you. I’m not talking about socially, though that is inevitable. I’m talking about the fact that you will not be the same person that you are even now. That fact will surprise you, so I think you should know it ahead of time. You don’t know who the ‘new’ you will be.

If someone told you to do the right thing, the flesh part of you would reject it. If someone told you to go ahead with the wrong thing, your spirit would reject it. No one can tell you what to do.

Be honest. Be honest with yourself and with God. You can’t change your heart. You can’t make yourself do the right thing and reject the wrong thing. But you can be honest. Let things play out in honesty. The truth may be destructive, but the lies are infinitely more destructive.

Evil seduces. It sounds justified. But, I promise you that you will recognize its voice when all of hell is berating you and screaming at you from the inside out. More terrifying than that? You will think that it’s God. You will believe with all of your heart that He won’t take you back.

That is the lick of deception. Hell’s goal is not to get you to sin. That’s already accomplished. Hell’s goal is to get you to believe you belong there. That’s the fight of faith.

You may not understand exactly what I’m saying, but if you jump this cliff, know that you will see things in full clarity. That means that your justifications will make you feel mocked. You won’t be able to go backward in time to lock your doors and everybody will blame you because you wore your morals too short.

If this happens, please don’t let your faith in God’s grace fail. It sounds counterproductive for me to say it now because that’s one of the things evil is saying to you, too. Deception mixes truth with lies because it makes them sound more convincing. It will be hard for you to recognize the truth in the aftermath of your sin. The truth is: Grace wins.

The fact that you will doubt God’s love and forgiveness should scare the hell out if you. Because hell is separation from God, doubting His forgiveness is the appetizer. Dessert comes first in this meal.

You have more mistakes and pain in front of you no matter which path you choose. You would know exactly what to do and have the strength to do it if there wasn’t more to come. I know that sounds ominous and it’s because it is.

No matter what, you’re going to make it. Remember that when you’re lost in the woods and can’t find your shoes.

Keep fighting back, even if you feel like you’re losing.

I’m thinking about you today. Holidays don’t make everything better, do they? Holidays only stop the routine distractions that keep you from thinking and shove the reality into your tiny tent of safety. Reality echos off the emptiness. The things you used to bake aren’t welcome on that table anymore. Life goes on without you and you’re still here to feel the loss. They have each other and you have your emptiness.

Something I learned in that tent is that all the meaning I used to give these weeks of whirl are drowned out by the deeper meaning of what they’re really about. Instead of my ability to create a magical experience, I was whittled down to complete inability to right my wrongs and fix my mistakes. When I was unable to create meaning, Meaning found me. The removal of routine distractions forced me to see what had real Meaning.

It’s a quiet voice that won’t let you die. It’s as without effort as your heartbeat and your never ending breath in and breath out. You can’t stop life no more than you can create it. You can’t will yourself dead just like the dying can’t will themselves more time. The fact that you’re still alive is proof that you still have purpose. It all has purpose. The pain of emptiness, loneliness, and brokenness have a purpose and no one can save you from it. You may not know it right now, (I’m almost positive that you don’t), but your pain is your salvation…real salvation, not sentimental salvation. No one can save you from what becomes your salvation.

The fact that you’re still here is proof that your story isn’t over. That kind of hope is stronger than your strength to make it out of the desire to make it. You know you’re at the bottom when you no longer have the desire to make it, but life won’t let you go. There is still hope of rescue when physical death won’t rescue you.

I want to challenge you to reject self-pity. I know, at times, it has become your comfort. I know that self-pity carries a cheap hope that someone will see your eyes and do something to take your pain away. But, if someone can do that for you, then it alleviates your need for Jesus. Don’t do that. Don’t look to a person to do what only He can. I promise you, even though He feels like He’s keeping His distance, just like everyone else, He’s not. Your suffering is only for a moment in the big collection of moments.

Suffering from your own failure is aggressive because there is no relief to be found in guiltlessness. Guiltlessness doesn’t exist.

This is me offering a silent nod in your direction because I recognize where you are. I know how bad it hurts. But, more than knowing the suffering, I know the rest. I know what is coming and I have no doubt in your survival. I see your suffering as birth pains. You can’t rescue a woman from labor because you would take the new life away from her. Like a woman in labor, embrace the suffering with hope. Hope is the balm for the pain.

You’re not the only ones plunged into these hard times. It’s the same with Christians all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the faith. The suffering won’t last forever. It won’t be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ—eternal and glorious plans they are!—will have you put together and on your feet for good. He gets the last word; yes, he does. -1 Peter 5:9-11 MSG

Those of us who have been through it, like women who can recount every moment of childbirth, sit and marvel at the miracle. You don’t fully understand unless you’ve been through it, and those who have love to tell the story. You’re going to have your own story soon. You’ll be able to sit around a table of Thanksgiving with new meaning and new life. All the old that you thought was real will fade in comparison.

Will you do something today? I know you don’t feel like it, I know it seems useless, but will you bake something? Bake something as a testament to the fact that you’re still alive. Eat at a table even though some of the chairs are empty. They won’t always be empty. Bake a meal as a labor of hope. It lets the wolves know that they have not yet sucked every last drop of blood from your veins.

Take this promise from God and use it to get through the next few weeks. I know it hurts, but there is hope. I know this because I have seen it. He knows where you are, that you’re in exile. He knows that everything has been destroyed, and He knows how bad it hurts. He’s not leaving you there, He’s making something new. He’ll never leave you, even if everyone else does.

This exile is just like the days of Noah for me: I promised then that the waters of Noah would never again flood the earth. I’m promising now no more anger, no more dressing you down. For even if the mountains walk away and the hills fall to pieces,
My love won’t walk away from you, my covenant commitment of peace won’t fall apart.” The God who has compassion on you says so. -Isaiah 54:9-10 MSG

The God who has compassion on you says so.

“If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too.” - C.S. Lewis

Pride has more than one side. One is the obvious straight forward side and the other is the cleverly hidden side. The cleverly hidden side is the pride of being humble. An underhanded way of pride to survive in the climate of personal failure is found in the attempt to pay the unpayable penance.

Do not drag yesterday into today as a means to openly debase yourself for the sake of those who are watching you. You are paying a debt with so much interest that it will never be paid. Even if you could reach a point when people tell you that you are free, you are trying to earn the deed to your free life from people who do not own your life. Waiting for the people around you to say that you can move forward is like paying the wrong bank for the deed to your home. They’ll take your payment, but they cannot give your life back.

After you admit your fault, rebuild the fence, and make appropriate amends, then move forward. There are certain debts that you cannot pay without the ability to go back in time and choose different actions. Any attempt to earn back your reputation and good name is only to serve a shrouded sense of personal pride. I’m specifically talking about people who run the risk of tying themselves down to rigorous religion, becoming more concerned with rules and regulations as a means to outwardly prove that the insides have changed.

The mirror is a liar.

When all of the fight and frenzy is in outward appearance, the core of the person remains untouched. You cannot earn a gold heart. You cannot perform to become. When the inside has changed, the outside has remnants. Refuse to work outward-in. Commit to an inward-out approach and keep it personal. Pride is the messenger of the soul who refuses to accept the free gift of grace.

People who have it backward end up becoming moral police and imposing judgment on everyone else. It’s a clever way of evading examination when you are pointing out the failures of others. On the other side of that, a heartbreaking way to avoid the prospect of people pointing out your flaws is to point them out for them. Stop dancing on the surface. It’s way too capricious to trust.

Not a single person on this planet would be found innocent if we were examined in a court room without Jesus as our advocate. All of the attention that a person can give to keep themselves out of court is a focus on a life where Jesus is not real. Those who understand Him and understand themselves rely on His grace as they are scrutinized. The verdict is always the same: guilty. The sentence is always going to be: served.

The scale does not measure your past against your present. It does not measure your mistakes against the mistakes of others. The scale only measures your sin, their sin, against the gift of Jesus.

The results surprised me. I was the most extreme. Not at all liberal. The essence is there are many ways to get it wrong. A difference exists between living in fear of sin and living in the freedom of grace. I’m not afraid. I know that I’ll make mistakes, but I see it as a part of life. Learning, growing, and becoming.

I’m also not afraid of someone else’s sin. I don’t feel the need to jump all over them when they’re wobbling in morality. It’s how people learn. I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit and the ability for them to be guided by it. God doesn’t panic or fly into a tirade over our failures. We shouldn’t either. Patience made possible by faith that the grace of Jesus will not exclude anyone, no matter how numerous or damaging their failures.

When a child is learning to walk, they fall down repeatedly. The job of the parent is to soften edges and remove obstacles so they can fall with as little physical damage as possible. When you’re teaching a child to ride a bike, you move your cars out of your driveway and set up a clear path for them to follow. If they run into the curb, twist their handle bars wrong, or fail to look where they’re going, they’ll learn not do those things by doing them. Next time, they’ll pay attention to what made them fall before. Those who know how to walk or ride a bike stand by and wait to pick the child up and encourage them to get back up and keep practicing.

That’s how we should be with each other. Falling down is not the danger, giving up is. Each time they get back up, they can go a little further the next time. It doesn’t take long before they can go a great distance without a catastrophe. We still fall. Scraped knees and broken arms are evidence of a person, adults included, who isn’t afraid to travel the rough terrain of life. The ways to get it wrong are plenty, but being afraid of them stunts your growth.

God continues to test us because it grows us. There is a method to the madness. He’s challenging you to make you stronger. We depend on His purpose and grace, not on our ability to not fall. Keep at it. Don’t let the pain of falling keep you from getting back up and trying again. Once you conquer this set of challenges, you’ll be on to the next. ..falling and growing, falling and growing… All for the purpose of becoming.

What do you do when another Christian knowingly disobeys God?

We all knowingly disobey God. We are always in a current state of wrong and in desperate need of Jesus at every moment. You could argue that, but you’re only arguing to reach the result of not needing Jesus in moments and spaces.

It’s so much easier to see the failures in others than it is to see them in yourself. Go ahead an argue the types of sin, but they are all equal. As bad as you make the person next to you is as bad as you are. You are not independent of the worst of them. You are their worst. It’s like your right eye trying to get all of us to join you in shaming your left eye. The left eye doesn’t bow to the right.

Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. -Romans 14:4 ESV

Even with both eyes you can’t see everything. It’s absurd and laughable for you to expect the right eye to accurately monitor the errors of the left eye.

Here is a promise: if you can see a splinter in you friend’s eye, you can be absolutely certain that there is a plank in yours. I would be really slow to start calling out the sins of others. It’s like taking a black-light to your own secrets. Things are there that you don’t even know about. Just go home and be thankful that God doesn’t show you your own crime scene photos. If you’re so bothered by the failures of others, then you’d be devastated by your own.

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. -Matthew 7:3-5 ESV

You have enough of yourself to keep you busy thanking God for grace for the rest of your lives. If you can finish being thankful and make time to start looking at the others, then something is wrong.

What does grace look like?

Let’s say you have a pretty, middle-class neighborhood of law and covenant abiding citizens. In that neighborhood, one of the family’s has a kid who is terrorizing the local cats. His behavior is unacceptable and not conducive to the environment you’re all trying to keep.

You could talk about him at your barbecues, feel sorry for his parents or drag them through dirt with him, and you can even be audible and visual about your displeasure. Taking a ride down the path of self-importance and comparison is a cheap way to cast a shadow over your poor lawn and hole digging dog. No one is paying attention to the cars illegally parked on the street because there is a bigger sinner among you. The relief you feel in not being the one not liked is enough to water down the bigger picture and strengthen your self-preservation resolve.

That bigger picture being that this kid has an issue that has nothing to do with cats. People don’t sin without there being something deeply hurting within them. A child can go into adulthood never dealing with the pain of their childhood and it manifests itself in a sin that doesn’t seem to be tied to anything but selfishness. Selfishness is a cry for love. If you would find out what hurts and fix that, then you fix the sin that is showing up on the surface.

No one can heal the hurts and brokenness of life like Jesus can. Pointing out the superficial layers only intensify the alienation and lack of love that is causing the problem in the first place. In my analogy of the kid in the neighborhood, maybe he is left alone too long because his parents are working their heads off to make ends meet. He’s bored, lonely, and needs his community to step in and take up some of the weight he and his family are unable to carry on their own.

Grace gets to the root rather than excusing and ignoring the behavior. It’s a tough job being a part of a community that is tied together by love rather than by performance and appearance. Grace always comes at the cost of self-preservation.

Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived. -Galatians 6:1-3

Do you challenge them?

Challenge them to not give up on themselves or their faith in God in spite of everything inside them that is proving how unworthy they are. Faith in God’s grace is the biggest challenge of all.

Do you keep them in your life?

Does Jesus keep you in His?

Does it appear that you are supporting their behavior if you maintain a friendship?

It doesn’t matter how it appears. Appearances are the biggest obstacle in front of a person who wants to stand up for Jesus but is afraid of what people will think. Stop worrying about what people think. You can’t please everybody. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you’ll be able to get on with the more important aspects of this life we live in Jesus. This isn’t a country club. Salvation is a messy business. If you’re too afraid of getting dirty, then get out of the way.

Give me your thoughts on being obedient to God and to His word.

For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then? -Galatians 5:14-15

Love others as you love yourself. Do you want people to give up on you because you have issues? Do you want people to talk about your dirt behind your back? Do you want to feel like you’re not welcome at your own church? Can you actually listen to these people who are in their own phase of junk? Can you put yourself in their place and take a turn walking in their crooked and ill-fitting shoes?

It’s horrible to be in the valley of your own stink. It’s terrifying to not see a way out and to watch every single person, who claimed to love you unconditionally, walk out on you. God allows us to go through the wicked hall of mirrors. He has a purpose for us seeing our worst. What’s worse than knowingly choosing wrong? If they had someone other than themselves to blame, then threshing process wouldn’t be happening.

God doesn’t leave us as victims or casualties. He allows the fire to burn holes in everything false. You can’t sit there and decide that a living, breathing person is finished with their life and they’re done for. The only person who would want to convince a wounded soldier that they are dead is the opposing army.

It’s time to take the spiritual battle for our faith seriously. Is there any sin known to man that could make God walk away from someone and never look back?

For even if the mountains walk away and the hills fall to pieces, My love won’t walk away from you, my covenant commitment of peace won’t fall apart.” The God who has compassion on you says so. -God, through Isaiah 54:10

What part of your relationship with God makes you think that you should give up on someone? When you walk away from the fallen, you are walking away from God because He is carrying them.

The risk of returning sin for sin (revenge, anger, condemnation) is too high when you’re acting in response to sin. Their sin motivates you. What good can come from a sin motivated response?

Breathe. Breath deeply for a while and stay silent so you can hear from God. If you go to Him like a tattle tale, a kid who wants to show your loyalty to the Father, you’ll be talking too much. You’ll tell Him how He feels about the situation and it will most definitely be tainted with how you feel about it.

People make the mistake of thinking, since they’re angry, God is angry. When they are hurt, they say God is hurt. When they don’t know how a situation can be redeemed, they put those same limits on God. You walk away having heard only yourself.

God has it covered.

When a person’s failure is found out, they’re closer to ‘right’ than they have ever been. They’re free to begin healing, rather than remain a slave to hiding.

You don’t know a person’s inner prayers or motivation. You don’t know why God thought it was time for them to be exposed. Exposure is evidence of God’s choice to end their slavery. Instead of being angry, be hopeful. The hiding is over. Instead of dealing with a person who has their junk hidden, you’re dealing with reality. Reality is so much better than fantasy. You can do nothing with fantasy.

I like knowing someone’s junk, not because it makes me feel better. They’d have to be pretty bad for them to match my own sins. I like knowing a person’s junk because it makes me feel like I can trust them more. It makes me feel like I can be honest and open with them.

When they’re exposed, you can’t expect them to behave any certain way. They’re in a different place than you are. What you are hearing for the first time is something they’ve already been dealing with. They’ve processed further.

When my own sin was found out, it was almost exactly 24 hours after I prayed that God would help me get out of it. I didn’t want to be where I had knowingly travelled. God answered my prayer by exposing me. It was so cruel, but exactly what I needed. He didn’t change who I was and let me put my secret behind me. He wanted me to be exactly who I was so that He could set the real, flawed, me free.

Nobody knew why I was found out, but I do. People thought I just got caught and expected me to be defiant. I was nowhere near defiant. I asked God for this and I was completely open. Instead of seeing me as someone who hated what I did, I was seen as someone they never knew.

Sometimes God lets people keep their reputation and He deals with them privately. But, sometimes God pulls back the curtain and lets them get caught. Exposure is a good thing. When God chooses to bring it out, it’s for a good reason. It’s more of an opportunity to be thankful than it is to be scared. Understanding this can make you embrace the person and encourage them in the ‘flourishing of truth.’

1 Corinthians 13 has a layout of what Love (the only way to respond to anything) looks like. In this verse:

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. -verse 6 NIV

It’s a statement, not a command. Apply that verse to someone who refuses to give up on another who sinned. People are afraid of looking like they’re supporting the sin, but they’re not. They’re supporting the fact that truth is winning. The truth is much larger than its individual parts, but one of its parts is: we all have junk and we all want it to stay hidden. The junk is there, it’s just under layers of lies. When the junk is out, so is the truth and that’s a good thing. ‘Rejoice’ in that. There is hope to be found, you just have to get out of your own way so that you can see it and give it.

This isn’t a message to start telling all of your secrets or exposing the secrets of others. God works as much in the quiet as He does in the chaos. This is simply a message written in hope that you would consider the upside to finding out another’s sin. If you feel compelled to speak out, or to take a stand, speak out in hope, forgiveness, and love. Take a stand for what Jesus died to accomplish. Grace.

Remember, you have no idea what God is whispering to them when you’re too busy being outraged to hear Him.

If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place. -Proverbs 24:10

If you’re feeling tapped out, whose well have you been tapping? We say that our lives belong to God. That our time, money and talent are a gift from Him, but you can tell what you really believe when you actually have to use them for something that doesn’t benefit you.

Rescue the perishing; don’t hesitate to step in and help. If you say, “Hey, that’s none of my business,” will that get you off the hook? Someone is watching you closely, you know—Someone not impressed with weak excuses. -Proverbs 24:11-12

Don’t yell to a lamb in a ravine and call out the obvious. It does them no good to have you gathered on the bank talking about it. Secure a rope and meet them where they are, not where they should be. They are, after all, where they are.

What if they are trapped by a limb and the only way out is to cut it off? Give them a second to come to terms with that. What they have to do is just as traumatic. If you can’t be there for them when they’re stuck, you can’t be there for them when they’re maimed and free.

Spouting off scriptures about sin and right living doesn’t do anything but point out the obvious. They’re face to face with that reality before you speak it.

Let’s not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here’s what you have to do:… -Matthew 5:29

They have to maim themselves to get out. They have to lose a part of themselves.

Don’t stand over them and talk about this with no gravity for their reality. Put yourself in their position, look at your own arm and picture it. If you have any bit of ‘I wouldn’t be in their position‘ in you, then please, get far, far away. You haven’t earned your degree in grace. Yet.

Don’t get mad at them when they snap at you. I am mean when I’m hurt. Everybody who knows me knows not to talk to me when I stub my toe or hit my head on my cabinet door. Are you a tart when you have a headache from hell? Don’t take their sharp tongue personally and don’t carve them and their sin in stone. They aren’t themselves.

Things don’t always end up the way you think they should. Put your hope and expectations in God, not in the person. They’ll get out of it the way God sees fit for them. His goal is not their veneer, it’s their vision of Him for the purpose He’s given them. Our experiences are orchestrated in a way that forms us to be who we are called to be. Don’t lose sight of hope when you’re in impossible. Sin never gets the last word.

‘You’re about to be given new grounds for believing.’ -John 11:14

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. -1 Peter 5:10 ESV