On Sunday my pastor, Jim Dixon, delivered a great message in a new series entitled “Ready to Rumble.” I honestly didn’t have high expectation as I thought this was going to be the typical Armor of God/Spiritual Warfarestuff that I have heard many times before. We started out with Ephesians 6:10-18 like most of these sermons do; but, I have to say that Pastor Dixon took us in an interesting and significant direction. The focus of his message this week was verse 15: “and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.”

He talked about how the feet are both the foundation that we stand on and
the means by which we stride out into the world. This got me thinking about
what we do here at Leadership Catalyst/TrueFaced (LCI/TF). In a way, our message of Grace, the one that we have given our lives to, is a direct by-product of this “gospel of peace.” After all, the good news of the Gospel is that God has extended grace to a
world of people who are undeserving through the sacrifice of his son Jesus
on the cross. And from this reality extends a peace that is deep and
consuming.

This has certainly been true in my own life. Five years ago I was diagnosed
as being bi-polar. I’m surprised that it took so long for that diagnosis to
come through as I had exhibited symptoms for years. But it took a real
breakdown for this problem to come to light. And it was a real
breakdown–debilitating and destructive. I plunged into a very dark place
for the better part of a year. And I did serious damage to my family.

During this dark time Joanne got a lot of advice from a lot of people about
what to do with me and our current situation. It ranged from “hang in
there” to “you should leave that jerk!” Lucky for me Joanne hung in there.
But more than just hanging in, she offered me grace despite the fact that I
was hurting her and hurting our girls. This is when I realized that
having someone stand beside me and offer me grace that I didn’t deserve,
even when I was such a destructive force, was what the Gospel is all
about–this truth took some time to dawn on me, but when it did, it was
transformative. After all, if Joanne could draw upon her strength as a
believer in Christ to do this for me, how much more so was God able to offer
grace even more overwhelming.

So on Sunday, as I was thinking about the “gospel of peace” I was really
thinking about the grace I have experienced in my own life that has lead to
that peace. And as Jim talked about using those “feet fitted with
readiness” I honestly considered how lucky I am to have a job that allows me
to stride out into organizations, ministries, families and marriages with a
message of transforming grace that is the good news of Jesus Christ. I woke
up this morning ready to tackle the many tasks on my to-do list knowing that
in playing my little part in LCI/TF, I am doing what Christ called us all to
do: to take the good news to the world. And what could be better news then
this message of life-altering grace.

Filed under: MARRIAGE by toben