Yesterday I went to see a teenager who had run into some trouble, was really struggling with school, and had dropped away some from church and youth group. Not completely by choice, he wasn’t always able to get to church or youth group, and like a lot of people, he struggled against the image everyone else had already formed about him in their own minds. Not a good one.

I’m a little lucky. I didn’t really know him much before I met him at church, before God started working in his life. I don’t know exactly what he was like before or all the bad things he might have done before. And I don’t care.

I really don’t. Because I can see a million reasons why Jesus loves this guy, and appreciate how God made him in the first place. You see, people are God’s creation. He made them that way. And every single one of us has something beautiful and awesome about us that God has given us as gifts. So I don’t care what’s happened in the past, I just know what God can do with a person in the future, and that my friends, is a beautiful thing.

Aren’t you glad God doesn’t remember our sins, even when the rest of the community will never forget?

Don’t focus on the past sins, and the obvious shortcomings. See people for who Christ made them to be and who they can become in Jesus. Help them get there, don’t just remind them where they’ve been.

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Oh yeah I had one of those moments last night that time seemed to freeze up.

Ever been in a Bible Study or reading the Bible while someone else was teaching and suddenly, a verse jumps out at you that really has nothing to do with the lesson, but everything to do with YOU?

That happened to me last night and I was floored. Kinda like the Holy Spirit, right in the middle of the discussion whispered in my ear and said “See that verse? See that passage? Sound familiar?”

No one else knew but me.