Shane Post: What it is all about.
As you all might or might not know, Sarah and Todd Palin live in the same town as my parents. When I heard that Sarah Palin was chosen as the Vice Presidential candidate I told everyone that would listen:
“There was absolutely no better choice that John McCain could have made as a running mate, bar none.”
I am more proud of that statement today than I was when I said it five days ago.
As an Evangelical Christian many would say that I am being hypocritical to say that I am emphatically supportive of a candidate who’s unwed daughter is pregnant. To which my response is, you don’t know what Christianity is about.
Christianity is about forgiveness and it is about grace. It is about accepting the free gift that Jesus offers to everyone, regardless of anything that they may have done, will do, regardless of their gender, race, language, marital status, education or political party. That free gift is several things, first it is the gift of life.
Let me explain what I mean when I say that it is the gift of life. The gift of life is spiritual, it grants you the ability to understand and see spiritual things. It connects you to the divine battery, if you will, which lets you do things that without God’s help you couldn’t do. Things like keeping your baby in the face of shame, opposition and scorn. It helps you stand up and say “’I can do all things through Christ’, even this.” It is about allowing Jesus to work through your life, every breath of it.
This is not pie in the sky, it is feeling the hands of your savior wrap around you and comfort you. It is about being certain in the knowledge that whatever happens, no matter how difficult, painful or evil, it can be redeemed through Christ for God’s glory. Not because God seeks glory, but because he deserves it.
The gift of life is about being adopted into God’s family, not for anything you may have done, but because God loves you. You can not do anything to make God love you more than he already does, nor can God love you any less than he already does. The gift of life is about being included in the inheritance.
Science tells us that as soon as an egg is fertilized it becomes a fetus, with a different genetic structure than it’s mother or it’s father, it is different, with a different DNA. In the same way, when you accept Jesus Christ as your savior, you have a different spiritual DNA, you have the Holy Spirit grafted into you. The Holy Spirit teaches us, leads us, and helps us to be more like Jesus.
Now I will be the first to admit that Christian’s don’t always do a good job about modeling this principal in our words or actions. God does not snap his fingers and make us behave when we accept his gift, no he is about making our character like his son Jesus and the process takes time. In fact, it is not completed this side of eternity. So when a Christian is mean or unforgiving or judgmental, don’t forget that God is not done with them yet, just as he is not done with me. And it is usually through my failures, not my successes, that God perfects me and teaches me. I just seem to need pain to learn and I don’t think that I am alone in that.
So I would like to thank Sarah and Todd Palin for stepping into the national spotlight. Thank you for being a light on the hill for Christ and helping me to demonstrate to those around me what Christianity is all about. If you have any questions about what it takes to have God grafted into your spiritual DNA please email me at shane.lambing@comcast.net or ask any Christian that you meet. It will make your life.
“There was absolutely no better choice that John McCain could have made as a running mate, bar none.”
I am more proud of that statement today than I was when I said it five days ago.
As an Evangelical Christian many would say that I am being hypocritical to say that I am emphatically supportive of a candidate who’s unwed daughter is pregnant. To which my response is, you don’t know what Christianity is about.
Christianity is about forgiveness and it is about grace. It is about accepting the free gift that Jesus offers to everyone, regardless of anything that they may have done, will do, regardless of their gender, race, language, marital status, education or political party. That free gift is several things, first it is the gift of life.
Let me explain what I mean when I say that it is the gift of life. The gift of life is spiritual, it grants you the ability to understand and see spiritual things. It connects you to the divine battery, if you will, which lets you do things that without God’s help you couldn’t do. Things like keeping your baby in the face of shame, opposition and scorn. It helps you stand up and say “’I can do all things through Christ’, even this.” It is about allowing Jesus to work through your life, every breath of it.
This is not pie in the sky, it is feeling the hands of your savior wrap around you and comfort you. It is about being certain in the knowledge that whatever happens, no matter how difficult, painful or evil, it can be redeemed through Christ for God’s glory. Not because God seeks glory, but because he deserves it.
The gift of life is about being adopted into God’s family, not for anything you may have done, but because God loves you. You can not do anything to make God love you more than he already does, nor can God love you any less than he already does. The gift of life is about being included in the inheritance.
Science tells us that as soon as an egg is fertilized it becomes a fetus, with a different genetic structure than it’s mother or it’s father, it is different, with a different DNA. In the same way, when you accept Jesus Christ as your savior, you have a different spiritual DNA, you have the Holy Spirit grafted into you. The Holy Spirit teaches us, leads us, and helps us to be more like Jesus.
Now I will be the first to admit that Christian’s don’t always do a good job about modeling this principal in our words or actions. God does not snap his fingers and make us behave when we accept his gift, no he is about making our character like his son Jesus and the process takes time. In fact, it is not completed this side of eternity. So when a Christian is mean or unforgiving or judgmental, don’t forget that God is not done with them yet, just as he is not done with me. And it is usually through my failures, not my successes, that God perfects me and teaches me. I just seem to need pain to learn and I don’t think that I am alone in that.
So I would like to thank Sarah and Todd Palin for stepping into the national spotlight. Thank you for being a light on the hill for Christ and helping me to demonstrate to those around me what Christianity is all about. If you have any questions about what it takes to have God grafted into your spiritual DNA please email me at shane.lambing@comcast.net or ask any Christian that you meet. It will make your life.
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