Tuesday, 9 November, 2004

This week's devotions are written by Redeemer member John Caron.





Monks go to a monastery to find God. But monks who live in a monastery as if they had found God are not real monks. I came here to get "closer" to God, but if I were to make myself believe that I am any closer to God than anybody else, I would just be fooling myself. God should be sought, but we cannot find God. We can only be found by him.

Henri Nouwen

The Genesee Diary

So much of religious pop culture speaks of methods, prayers and belief systems intended to help a person come to God. Sometimes, the proposed discipline is easy, sometimes it is hard, sometimes it separates people from their money.... The Gospel proclaims that God always comes to us. God seeks us out. God enters our context and makes grace freely available to all -- without our having to even ask for it. This is a God out of control. No denomination, congregation, or movement can manage and control the means of grace. God free gives to all -- without reservation.



Connection: Such a message as this throws the world's economic rules into caos. The Gospel proclains a God who had a priceless gift and who offers it to all, without condition, without the receivers having to be worthy, or sufficiently repentent, or even to have subscribed to a particular belief system. God loves and is completely out of control! What does it mean for us to worship a God so out of control? Do we dare to loose a bit of control ourselves? What would the Church look like if its members embraces this "out of control" grace? Wow.... just imagine...



Prayer: God, we thank you for coming to us. May we never get in your way as you gather humanity to yourself, but rather loosen us up to dance your dance of grace with all whom we meet. Amen.