Mike Fisk & Built with Grace

We live in a time when hate seems to be at an all-time high. Tensions are high over issues of race, gender, political persuasion and just about everything else! Ironically, at the same time hate is high, belief in God is on the decline. Whether you choose to believe in him or not makes no difference. He is. And He is love. Even in the Old Testament, in which God seems to be an angry God, his anger is directed at people who refuse to follow rules that, in the end would keep them safe. God is love. Without that foundation, love is impossible. You can not build a skyscraper on a swamp. You need a deep and firm foundation. In the same way, you can not build a relationship of love without the foundation of love established by one who is, in essence love. Peace and unity will not come through equality and tolerance, it will come through God’s love because when we love as God loves, according to his precepts, peace and unity are the natural result. When God is present, love is inevitable, when God is absent, love is impossible.

Society puts a huge value on who you are in their view You are judged by your political party, your race, your gender, your sexual orientation, and a whole variety of other things. God judges you solely on how much you love him and love others. The more we love Jesus, the easier it becomes to love others. That is what Jesus prayed for in the garden before he was brutally murdered. He prayed that we would love one another as the father has loved us.

There are times in each of our lives when the future looks bleak. The valleys that we go through seem to be leading us nowhere except to pain and frustration. But valleys are Gods way of calling us to grow stronger. The deeper the valley the more we rely on him. The more we rely on him, the stronger we become and the more intimately we come to know the God of creation.