Hey everyone!
Hope you all have had an amazing week like I have! God has been showing me so much lately and I'm excited to start sharing it all with you. I wanted to start of by reminding you that Romans 8:38-39 says "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." No matter what may be going on right now, there is nothing that can separate us from the Love of Christ, including ourselves. Psalms 139 says "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me." So remember that no matter what situation you're going through, God will always be there with you.
I believe with all my heart that you can't truly teach someone something effectively until you yourself have gone through it. For example: Would you take marriage counseling from someone who has never been married? Or would you take driving lessons from someone who hasn't gotten their license yet? It only seems appropriate that when someone is talking about something, they should have some sort of experience in that area. Next week, I am going to be starting a series called the Four Loves. Lately in my life, God has been revealing to me not only the expanse of His love for each and every one of us, but also what characteristics should be evident in our love for one another. I really hope that everyone is as excited for this as I am! God is going to be doing huge things through this and I can't wait to see His Work.
Remember that if you need to talk to me about anything, or need prayer for anything, you can text me or message me on Facebook
God Bless,
Bailey Carlton
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Sunday, June 15, 2014
The Size of Grace
Hey Everyone!
I want to start off with saying that I am so glad to be back doing what I love, which is being an instrument used by God to spread His Word and His love with everyone. I also want to formally apologize for my absence. God has been doing a work in my life, and just recently put it on my heart to start this blog back up. I hope you all have been doing well, and I continue to pray for you all.
In celebration of the new beginning of this blog, I felt that it was appropriate to talk about a basic, yet essential topic. Grace. Many times, we mix up and interchange mercy and grace, but in reality, they are two completely different concepts. Mercy, as you may have heard, is not getting what we deserve, which in this case is punishment for our sins. Titus 3:5 says "He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit." But the thing I want to talk about today is different than mercy. It's grace.
For those of you who don't already know, I'm currently in Mexico doing a Mission's internship. Already having been to Mexico before, I thought I was pretty decent at speaking Spanish. However, the very first time I tried speaking to someone who didn't speak an ounce of English, I quickly learned how wrong I was. As I sat there, trying to get my point across to this person, butchering their language in the process, I noticed that the man I was speaking to was intently trying to understand what I was saying. This man was giving me his full attention even though I was probably not making any sense at all, and was also trying to help me. This is grace.
Just recently we started working on building new stairs for the Training Center I'm staying at, and my job was to sand down and paint the steps. After the first day of work, I finished and went to my room to get a nap, forgetting to put anything away, and leaving the place looking like a mess. The next day, I woke up and the guy in charge of all the manual labor down here gently corrected me, but once again handed me the paintbrush and the paint. That night I made the same mistake, only to awaken to another gentle correction and once again was handed the brush and the paint. This is grace.
This last Friday, I got to lead a small youth group in worship, in Spanish, by myself, for the very first time. Instead of trying to memorize the lyrics of a song I didn't know, in a language I now knew I couldn't speak, I wrote the lyrics down. When the time came to start worship, I realized there was no place for me to put the paper I had written on besides the floor, where I couldn't read much of it. After once again butchering their language, I was given only applause at the end of our worship session. This is grace.
When I was 13 years old, I started down a slippery slope of sin. Despite being raised in the church and having plenty of head knowledge of God and what he had done for me, I spat in His face and turned my back on Him. I ran as far away as I could from God and wanted nothing to do with Him. Through this time I dealt with depression, and many other things. I cursed God's name, and pursued things that would only let me down and leave me feeling dissatisfied and worthless. Knowing I would do all this before it even came about, Jesus volunteered to be the One who would take the punishment for all my sin. From the beginning of eternity, The Father and The Son had been One, and in the moment that God poured His wrath out upon His own Son, the two were separated. Jesus the cried out "My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?" He was in that moment separated from the Father, not because of His own doing, but because my sin was enough to make God in Heaven punish His own Son. When He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was praying so intensely, that the Bible says His sweat was like drops of blood. He said "Father, if it is at all possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will be done, but yours." He said this with me in mind. With my sin in mind. He went to the cross, after living a perfect life and took upon Himself the full wrath of God, because of my sin. This is grace.
Now, the story doesn't end there. Three days later, Jesus defeated death once and for all, and rose from the dead. He is now sitting on the right hand of God in Heaven. God continues to show us grace every single day. It's impossible to deny this when you stand on the shoreline of the beach, or look up at the night sky and see an innumerable amount of stars. God continues to wake us all up every single day, so should we give Him anything else besides or lives?
I hope God speaks to all of you today, like I know He promises. If you have any prayer requests or anything you want to talk about, you can message me on Facebook or text me (:
God Bless,
Bailey
I want to start off with saying that I am so glad to be back doing what I love, which is being an instrument used by God to spread His Word and His love with everyone. I also want to formally apologize for my absence. God has been doing a work in my life, and just recently put it on my heart to start this blog back up. I hope you all have been doing well, and I continue to pray for you all.
In celebration of the new beginning of this blog, I felt that it was appropriate to talk about a basic, yet essential topic. Grace. Many times, we mix up and interchange mercy and grace, but in reality, they are two completely different concepts. Mercy, as you may have heard, is not getting what we deserve, which in this case is punishment for our sins. Titus 3:5 says "He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit." But the thing I want to talk about today is different than mercy. It's grace.
For those of you who don't already know, I'm currently in Mexico doing a Mission's internship. Already having been to Mexico before, I thought I was pretty decent at speaking Spanish. However, the very first time I tried speaking to someone who didn't speak an ounce of English, I quickly learned how wrong I was. As I sat there, trying to get my point across to this person, butchering their language in the process, I noticed that the man I was speaking to was intently trying to understand what I was saying. This man was giving me his full attention even though I was probably not making any sense at all, and was also trying to help me. This is grace.
Just recently we started working on building new stairs for the Training Center I'm staying at, and my job was to sand down and paint the steps. After the first day of work, I finished and went to my room to get a nap, forgetting to put anything away, and leaving the place looking like a mess. The next day, I woke up and the guy in charge of all the manual labor down here gently corrected me, but once again handed me the paintbrush and the paint. That night I made the same mistake, only to awaken to another gentle correction and once again was handed the brush and the paint. This is grace.
This last Friday, I got to lead a small youth group in worship, in Spanish, by myself, for the very first time. Instead of trying to memorize the lyrics of a song I didn't know, in a language I now knew I couldn't speak, I wrote the lyrics down. When the time came to start worship, I realized there was no place for me to put the paper I had written on besides the floor, where I couldn't read much of it. After once again butchering their language, I was given only applause at the end of our worship session. This is grace.
When I was 13 years old, I started down a slippery slope of sin. Despite being raised in the church and having plenty of head knowledge of God and what he had done for me, I spat in His face and turned my back on Him. I ran as far away as I could from God and wanted nothing to do with Him. Through this time I dealt with depression, and many other things. I cursed God's name, and pursued things that would only let me down and leave me feeling dissatisfied and worthless. Knowing I would do all this before it even came about, Jesus volunteered to be the One who would take the punishment for all my sin. From the beginning of eternity, The Father and The Son had been One, and in the moment that God poured His wrath out upon His own Son, the two were separated. Jesus the cried out "My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?" He was in that moment separated from the Father, not because of His own doing, but because my sin was enough to make God in Heaven punish His own Son. When He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was praying so intensely, that the Bible says His sweat was like drops of blood. He said "Father, if it is at all possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will be done, but yours." He said this with me in mind. With my sin in mind. He went to the cross, after living a perfect life and took upon Himself the full wrath of God, because of my sin. This is grace.
Now, the story doesn't end there. Three days later, Jesus defeated death once and for all, and rose from the dead. He is now sitting on the right hand of God in Heaven. God continues to show us grace every single day. It's impossible to deny this when you stand on the shoreline of the beach, or look up at the night sky and see an innumerable amount of stars. God continues to wake us all up every single day, so should we give Him anything else besides or lives?
I hope God speaks to all of you today, like I know He promises. If you have any prayer requests or anything you want to talk about, you can message me on Facebook or text me (:
God Bless,
Bailey
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