Get Outta Here…

09 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by Seeking Peace in grace, Kylie Bisutti, renewal, restoration

Do you know Kylie Bisutti? She’s been a Victoria’s Secret runway model and I must admit she can conjure up some thoughts strutting around in her lingerie. I’m a Kylie fan but probably not for the reason you would first think. I didn’t say she “is” a VS model, I said she’s “been” a VS model – past tense. She gave up the gig she had dreamed of because she’s been reading the Bible and was convicted she needs to save her body for her husband (I imagine there are Christian single men sending her their information right now) that she hopes to have one day. var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”); document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src='” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”)); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-12356560-1”); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}

Restoration. Renewal. Kylie is finding it through her study of God’s word. It’s amazing what the Spirit will do within us when we get into God’s word. We can read Lucado and Yancey and Chan, we can listen to Andy Stanley, John Piper or Joel Osteen (I’m throwing that one in for a good buddy of mine) but none of those can do what actually reading the Bible and letting the Spirit work on heart and mind can do to us.

I’m a Kylie Bisutti fan and hope she will maintain her desire to serve God and openly share her faith. It’s something I can learn from.

Grace and peace.

More R & R

08 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by Seeking Peace in God's image, grace, reconciliation, renewal, restoration

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First, let me say that I have written two good blogs that come up as gobbley-goop and it’s making me want to get the baseball bat out. One of them was what I thought to be the best post I’d ever written and how I wish I could remember how I said what I said. Oh well…back to mediocrity…

I’m stealing a tweet from Josh Ross to use as the basis of my post. “Words like restore, redeem, reconcile and renew indicate a prior condition that was good. We were created in God’s image.”

I’m using that in a lesson I’m teaching in June because the idea of being created in God’s image has been something I have learned to grow on over the past few years. I bring Genesis 1:27 up in many, many conversations with people because they, like me, have this feeling we can not do enough, be good enough, not whatever enough and I never thought of myself as being made in God’s image.

I have heard so many conversations about self-esteem, self-image, self, self, self that I think I became conditioned to always look at myself the way others saw me. Now, I just want to point others to God when my appearance (in whatever fashion) comes into the conversation. When I’m living right and doing things to help people, I want to point to God and give him glory as my Creator. When I’m living wrong and doing things that hurt my relationship with God, I want to point to God and give him the the glory as my Redeemer and Savior. I don’t want people to see Jeff, to see my image, to see my self-esteem, to see my brilliance and greatness (quit laughing at that last part), I want them see a reflection of God and nothing more.

Grace and peace to you.

R & R

05 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by Seeking Peace in Josh Hamilton, peace, reconciliation, restoration

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Peacemaking includes many facets. A couple of those are restoration and reconciliation (R&R) and it’s something that, without God’s grace, most of us would not know. Without R&R, there’s no peace. var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”); document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src='” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”)); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-12356560-1”); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}

I have only found peace learning to live in contentment with whatever my situation is but without restoration and reconciliation, peace is only partial at best. I have lived for years without peace in my life because of conflict with God, conflict with people I have loved and conflict within me. I trust that God has forgiven me and I am finally learning to live at peace with him. I’m not there yet and that’s because I still have trouble forgiving myself and without being able to fully reach reconciliation with myself, it’s still difficult to have full peace with God when I’m not at complete peace with myself. Finally, there are people close to me that I have been restored and reconciled to and live at total peace with them and others that it is still in process and there is no peace yet.

This is something that Josh Hamilton is dealing with right now. He’s a public example of what I often deal with – battling demons that call me to do things I shouldn’t do. I’m guessing Hamilton’s failing jeopardizes his family relationship and certainly jeopardizes his work relationship (very secondary in this situation but more public). His openness and honest way of addressing the problem has certainly made R&R appear more realistic in all his relationships and I hope it works out that he will be able to again know peace because of the grace of those around him.

I want to know peace. I want to help others find peace. It can happen but there has to be restoration and reconciliation to make it so. That takes admitting fault and seeking forgiveness. It also requires forgiveness and grace by others with God as the model for what true forgiveness looks like. I hope I will be forgiven and I hope I will forgive liberally as God has forgiven me. It doesn’t mean there will never be consequences to actions, it doesn’t mean that my way (or another person’s way) is always the right answer but peace can be found in all situations with people who put R&R above themselves.

Grace and peace to you.