Grace is so mind-blowingly, surreally, amazing. To think that we have a God who is so big, so great, and so powerful; a God who is holy; a God who is perfect; a God who for the sake of His glory would literally become sin on the cross so that we might have righteousness - to think about that just makes you melt in awe and worship.

This is a glorious, just, righteous, and loving God who takes the guilt of His children upon Himself. How beautiful.

These are words to a song by Aaron Keyes that we sang in worship yesterday. Read them. Let them soak in. Let the Spirit of God remind you that you are His. you are bought with a price. Forever His. Let that truth transform the way you live, the way you think, the way you believe.

Live with 'great expectations' of a great, all-powerful God.

Verse
It doesn’t matter what You’ve done;
It doesn't matter where you're coming from
Doesn’t matter where you’ve been,
Hear me tell you I forgive

Chorus
You’re not guilty anymore, You're not filthy anymore,
I love you, mercy is yours
You're not broken anymore, You're not captive anymore
I love you, mercy is yours

Verse
Can you believe that this is true, Grace abundant I am giving you
Cleansing deeper than you know, All was paid for long ago

There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Jesus

You are spotless You are holy
You are faultless You are whole
You are righteous You are blameless
You are pardoned You are mine

Sticky Statements

This past Sunday was wildly, insanely good...can I get an uh-huh? From the kick-off with Schizophrenic Love to the landing where we asked God to sift our hearts to help us to be satisfied in Him alone...God was at work. I love seeing Him move in big ways through His church.

We have a phrase that we use here in the office at church: Sticky Statement. A sticky statement is a phrase or sentence that captures a big idea in a way that makes a huge concept tangible and relative...example from the past: direction not intention determines destination.

So a Sticky Statement from this past Sunday that I've been ruminating on:
- The promise of sin is that we can find satisfaction apart from God

Doesn't this sentence say so much? Think about any sin you struggle with and boil it down to its root. It all comes down to trying to find satisfaction in something or someone other than God.

Imagine you are in a large field, and across that field is a lamppost. You stare intently at the lamppost and take a step. With eyes unwavering off of the goal, stride by stride, you are closer and closer to the destination. With laser-like focus you stare down the lamppost until the finish line. You have reached the lamppost.

Now imagine looking at the lamppost, then putting on a blindfold, spinning around 7 times and then setting out to find the lamppost. Pretty hard to do! Wouldn't it be easier just to keep your eyes on the goal and keep walking toward it?

But don't we do this with faith...we take our eyes off of Christ and pursue whatever our hearts desire, and only when we come up empty (again!) do we run back. What if we never took our eyes off the prize? What if we said, I will not be satisfied by anyone or anything except the living water of Jesus Christ. What if we didn't settle for anything less than the abundance of life that Jesus promised?

What if we really believed that we are really loved by God the way that He says He loves us? This week's memory verse is Romans 5:8...For God demonstrates His love for us in this; while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He alone will satisfy us. So why are we so prone to be content with anything less than Himself?

Aren't you glad God doesn't love like we do? Our love wavers. His love never fails. Our love is conditional. His love never ends. When we have this perspective how could we ever want anything less than what He offers?

Let's pray this week to be forever changed by the love of God...and to turn it around and give that love away to a world that needs to know the love of Jesus.

We're back...after a long hiatus...the EBC blog is back!

The past few months have been...well...they have been a journey here at EBC. As with every journey that God leads there are times of incredible joy and wonder as we simply marvel at how God works. There are hard days and times when we sometimes wonder exactly what God is up to. But at the end of the day, it has been utterly amazing to be a part of the movement of God in and through EBC.

Yesterday was just another example of how God moves and works. The atmosphere in worship yesterday was...well, it was just heavenly. Dealing with the subject of pride, as we talked about, planned, and prepared worship for yesterday, we just kept landing at this conclusion: The greatest cure for human pride is to marvel at the greatness of God. So that is what we did.

You know what squashes my pride?
- Knowing the severity of my sinful state required the death of Christ
- Knowing that I didn't wake up this morning and choose to have breath...it was given to me by a gracious and good God
- When I look up at the stars (like last night's beautiful sky) and think...the best I can do is light a match and start a fire...God you light the stars and know them all by name...You spin planets in motion
- Knowing that I am not in control of things...God is

I can keep going...but it all goes back to the verse we landed on:
Micah 6:8 - He has shown you o man what is good, and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Your God.

Can that just be our prayer this week? Can we seek to know Him more? Can we seek to honor Him by walking humbly? Can we practice faith as not just a noun, but a verb.

Let's put Micah 6:8 into action and watch God at work.