The Rest of the Story....

Hey all.

My friend gave his testimony this weekend at Transformation Church.  His message is one that will change lives.  Check it out by watching the 2nd sermon of the "Because" series at www.transformationchurch.tc  He gives his testimony two times via video during Pastor Derwin's message so be sure to watch the whole thing if you have time.  I am not sure if it has posted yet so you might need to check on Monday if it is not up yet.

In Honor of my friend Scott's courage to share, I am re-posting the blog entry called "Deserve" that he inspired me to write over a year ago.  You can read it below.  The video you will see from this weekend is only some of the "rest of the story" for Scott. 

Thanks Scott.  You inspire me to use the journey that God has taken me on to glorify HIM.  God is going to change lives through your willingness and courage to share.  I am motivated to do the same.  I believe we all are called to take our story and use it to glorify "HIS" story.  God will take our past and turn it into a ministry if we allow HIM.  The good and the bad.  We just have to allow HIM.

What will be the rest of your story?

Strength and Honor,

-S



DESERVE

Hey all,

I had an interesting visit with a friend this weekend. He has been away since July and it was the first time that I have seen him since he left. It was nice to finally catch up.

We had a great dialogue about his new location and the environment. He summed up his perspective on the place as......"it is all about what people here deserve or don't deserve".

I asked him to elaborate.

He told me that....."everything that everyone feels here is grounded in what they deserve or don't deserve. They process everything from that perspective. If they did something then they deserve something in return. If something bad happened to them, they feel like they don't deserve the circumstance or situation. Everyone either deserves something or is a victim. There are two camps here and most are in either one or the other. You either feel you are entitled to something or you are the victim."

He went on to say...."what I have realized but most everyone else fails to realize is that both of these camps are wrong. We have to come to a place in our faith where we realize that we don't ever "deserve" anything. We deserve nothing. Nothing that we do should be based on what we are going to get for doing it or not doing it. We cannot live our lives feeling like it owes us something or that we deserve something. Conversely, we cannot be trapped as the victim for what we "didn't deserve". Our life cannot be all about how we are the victim of something that we didn't deserve.

What we need to believe and put our faith in is that our Father, still loves us even though we don't deserve it. HE loves us anyway. HE forgives us anyway. We deserve nothing, yet HE loves us anyway. This is called grace. When we come to that place of belief, then we are set free of the selfishness that keeps us from being free. We are free of feeling entitled to things we think we deserve and free of being the victim for stuff that happened to us that we didn't deserve".

By the way......my friend is in Prison.

I think he in on to something here.

Strength and Honor,

-S