Dear Friends in Christ,

    We've just completed our first series of Bible Study sessions on Interpreting the Writings of Paul in the 21st Century, and I thoroughly enjoyed the five-week journey we took through 1st Corinthians. We dealt with some heavy stuff like predestination, marriage and divorce, the gifts of the spirit, love, and what Paul really meant when he said "Women, keep silent in the church." (Boy, I'll bet some of you wish you had been there that night for that discussion!)

     But as I reflect on that journey, there is one discussion above all the others that remains in my mind. It was Paul's sense of what God's grace had accomplished in his life. You see, before Paul became a Christian, he was a devout religious person who was persecuting the church so violently that large numbers of persons had been arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and no doubt killed as the result of his actions. Even when he became a Christian, the other believers weren't sure they could trust him. They knew him by name and by reputation. Maybe even some of their kinfolk had perished in that persecution.

     But as time goes by, and largely due to the encouragement and intervention of Barnabas, Paul eventually becomes the great apostle to the non-Jews of his world, taking three missionary journeys to share Jesus Christ with the people of his day. Having done what he did, how could he face those former adversaries without overwhelming shame? How could he possibly hold himself together in front of them, bearing the heavy burden of what he had done?

     Well, simply because he had discovered the grace and forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ. He readily admits in his writing that he was the "least worthy" person to be called a child of God because of what he had done to the church in his former life. Yet, in His love for him, God had reached down and called him by name. That's grace. Paul responded by faith and received Jesus into his heart. And from that day forward, God replaced Paul's shame with gratitude for the immeasurable gift of grace and forgiveness that would lead him to write one day, "I have learned in all circumstances to give thanks to God."

     This month we will celebrate Thanksgiving. I hope that you, like Paul, have discovered that God's love and grace are bigger than all your troubles, failures, shortcomings, or sins. And if you carry shame over something in your past, I pray you'll let Him flood your soul with Grace, forgiving all that is past and granting you a new life, a second chance. It's a free offer---a gift---something for which I've always been grateful. When we live with gratitude in our hearts, it changes everything; it changes us, and starts the process of "becoming all that God has in mind for us to be."

     Happy Thanksgiving to each of you!

Yours in the love of Christ,

Bob

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