Don't Stop Grace (or Peace) or Love from Flowing

   Sitting down for lunch with some friends at the most hospitable and welcoming restaurant around (Seriously, they greet every person who walks in with, "Welcome to Moe's!"), I pulled the straw out of its plastic wrapper only to find a problem: one end was not open.
   How many times have people told you that "one out of two ain't bad." How many times has someone mentioned that a .500 batting average would put you in the Hall of Fame as the greatest baseball player, ever? However, the truth is that with drinking straws you have to have both ends working. I think the same applies to grace in the life of Christians. Jesus said,

On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and shouted, "All who are thirsty should come to me! All who believe in me should drink! As the scriptures said concerning me, Rivers of living water will flow out from within him." Jesus said this concerning the Spirit.
- John 7:37-39

In the Scriptures, living waters referred to water that was moving. Jesus is offering a gift that is flowing, moving, and not stagnant. Jesus is offering the very Spirit of Heaven that is available to every person seeking God. But, is this grace simply to stop at us? Is it flowing from Jesus to us only to then back up there, as if we were some sort of dam or obstacle? I think not.
   For me, one of the most powerful moments of all the Scriptures comes in Genesis 12, when God offers Abram the chance at a new life through the Covenant. Abram had done nothing to deserve it, yet God is offering something new that will extend to every nation in the world. God says, "I will bless those who bless you, those who curse you I will curse; all the families of the earth will be blessed because of you." But, imagine if Abram clamped the other end of his life. God's blessings are intended to flow to us and then through us. We are heirs of this Covenant, made new in Jesus.
   They will know we are Christians by our love...only if we don't stop it from flowing through us. To be a Christian means allowing grace to flow in and through us. Grace and peace, Scott