I just wanted to say “thanks” to everyone who came out to Graceland yesterday and helped us raise almost $500 for Relay for Life! Marybeth Popham is heading up Graceland’s first Relay for Life team, & she did an awesome job planning our Back to School cookout! I enjoyed so much spending time with many of you just talking over hamburgers & getting to know each other better. I am already looking  forward to our time together next Sunday, August 9th, when we will be  continuing our series in the book of Genesis. I will be sharing the second half of Joseph’s life. Also, don’t forget that this Sunday we are having a baby dedication where we will be celebrating Graceland’s youngest members. If you are interested in having your child dedicated, email me at ehelms@libertysq.org.

        

We are giving the opportunity for people to join the church this Sunday. For many, church membership is a pretty vague concept. Why do people join a church? Membership is a time to make public the commitment a person has made to one church…one community of believers. It is a way to demonstrate that not only has an individual made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, but they have been blessed by what the collective church has offered…now they want to be a part of the family as well. Think about a relationship between two people. At what point do they decide to make the relationship official? To tell everyone that they are committed to each other. Tomorrow will begin the process for those interested in taking things to the next level. We will follow with 3 membership classes on Aug. 9,16, and 23 at the church starting at 9:00 am. This will give all interested families the chance to learn how our church is structured, both theologically and organizationally. I hope everyone will consider making Graceland officially their home.

        

Since the christian life is about a love affair with Jesus, when are some of the deepest lessons learned? Hard times. I know that in my own life, the greatest long-term personal changes came from tough moments. From the book The Signature of Jesus by Brennan Manning, he shares these words: “Biblical faith is an attitude acquired gradually through many crises and trials. Through the agonizing test with his son Isaac (Gen. 22:1-19), Abraham learns that his God wants us to live and not to die, to grow and not to wither. He knows that the God who called him to hope against hope is reliable. Perhaps this is the essence of faith: to be convinced of the reliability of God.” Maybe the true measurement of our faith is in the amount of confidence we have that God will be there. (more later…)

        

Many of you may not know that I am an Atlanta native. Except for about two and a half years of school in Tennessee, Georgia has been my home. When I was a kid I grew up on (now don’t laugh too hard) Georgia Championship Wrestling. It didn’t even compare to today’s WWF with its glitz and glamor…no, GC wrestling had overweight guys with bleached blond hair fighting before a studio crowd of about 15 people. Oh, the good old days with Gordon Soley and Freddie Miller commentating matches with “the American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, the Rock and Roll Express and the one and only Ric Flair…Whoooooooo! I have seen some pretty great but really fake matches in my day, but tomorrow I am going to talk about one that was real. In this corner we have Jacob “the deceiver” and in this corner an Angel of God??? See you at Graceland tomorrow to see who one the belt…

        

As many of you know Graceland has been focusing on the book of Genesis this summer. The overall theme of this book is faith. To really do the first book of the Bible justice, we would have needed more than one summer…and to discuss the subject of faith, we will need a lifetime. I received a book from a great man and friend, Ron Tomlinson, about 9 years ago. The book is called “The Signature of Jesus” by Brennan Manning, and it is still a great read. Manning describes true faith this way, “When God called Abraham to abandon the security of the world familiar to him, he also asked him to forsake his polytheistic (multi-god) religious beliefs. All his previous concepts of God faded away. The same process is necessary in the Christian commitment. When we encounter the God revealed by and in Jesus Christ, we have to revise all our previous thinking about God. Jesus, as the revealer of the Godhead, defines God as love. In light of this revelation, we have to abandon the cankerous, worm-eaten structure of legalism, moralism, and perfectionism that corrupts the Good News into an ethical code rather than a love affair.” I believe Manning is telling us that faith in God is not to so self-discipline ourselves that we fulfill a code of behavior and isolate ourselves from life so we do not break a rule. But rather faith in God is a love affair…a real relationship. A relationship where decisions are made not out of fear, but out of love. Remember when you were in school you would only do the bare minimum to pass? How much more would you do with sincerety for a person you love? God is love, and our faith is based in our love for him. More on faith later…

        

Looking forward to this Sunday! We will continue our series on the book of Genesis by looking at the character Jacob. At the beginning of Jacob’s life he is a con, liar and, as his name means, deceptive. How could God use a person like this? Am I like Jacob? Are you? See you Sunday at 10 am and we’ll find out together.

        

Last night I lost my keys. If you didn’t know this about me, I am pretty OCD about my keys (just ask Kelly). If you have ever lost your keys, then you know what I am talking about. I reviewed in my head what specific keys were now missing…my luxurious Honda key, the freezer key that unlocks those great Graceland cookies, my church keys, my house key & come to think of it, there is always that unknown key on your key ring. You know the one that went to something a long time ago and you hold onto it like it will open a treasure chest someday. You feel lost without your keys…you were important until $3.75 worth of cut metal vanished. But I have to admit, I didn’t wig out when it happened. Keys can’t walk away. You just have to look for them. In fact, I had a calm assurance that they were somewhere waiting to be found. Wow! We are a lot like keys. When you are lost, just stay still. Jesus is looking for you. Kelly’s phone rang about 5:30 pm today…Jeffrey Murray found my keys. All is right in the world.

        

It doesn’t get any better than this! Swimming pools, slip-n-slide, horseback riding, and canoes…not to mention pillow fights, camp food, and more candy than one human being should be allowed to consume. I have had a long, tiring, but fun-filled week at Summer Camp for 3rd – 5th graders. Besides the obvious fun, it was great to see over 400 children worshipping and praising God. I attended North GA youth camp when I was a kid and many of my earliest memories come from the old Doraville campground. During those years I met some great friends, won a few trophies and ribbons, and experienced the life changing presence of God. Why not enjoy a little summer camp for yourself this week? Start a  pillow fight, take a hike near a lake, stay up way too late laughing or pour a Pixie-stick into a Slush Puppie and drink it down with a Sour Straw until you puke…Long Live Camp!

        

Freedom! Definitely something we take for granted. This weekend we celebrate the birth of America. A birth that was messy and had its share of pain, but as many new moms would say, “Worth it”. The child or result of the struggle is beautiful. That is what freedom is…beautiful.

I hope everyone enjoys time with family and friends, a good hotdog, and maybe even seeing fireworks in the night sky, but without sacrifice, pain, and struggle we really wouldn’t be free.

Thank you to every service man or woman who put it all on the line for the right to live freely. The right to worship without personal limitation from government mandated decrees. The right to have a place to gather called Graceland. Freedom is an awesome thing…Happy Birthday America!

        

Grace is a familiar word in the church, but sometimes hard to describe. Some use the term, “unmerited favor” or maybe use the acrostic God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Each of these ways is very useful, but pretty shallow in describing such a deep word. In this short entry we will talk about the basics.

Grace is God blessing us when we don’t deserve it. Ok, I know, that’s like all the time. But look at it in certain situations: You ride up on an accident scene and realize that if you had left on time, that would be you…that’s grace. You’re driving a little too fast and fly by a police officer who doesn’t come after you…that’s grace. Jesus giving His life on the cross for our sins, so we could be in right relationship with God and not face the judgment of our evil…that is the real grace. God loves us so much that he not only shows us mercy, by withholding rightful judgment for our actions, but he gives us grace and blesses us as if we had never sinned.

-Have you received God’s grace?

-Are you graceful to others?