I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh...this land that was laid to waste has become like the garden of Eden...I the Lord have rebuilt what was destroyed and have replanted what was desolate. I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. Ezekiel 36:25-26

Shake off your dust, rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. Isaiah 52:2

"Sooner or later you figure out life is constructed specifically and brilliantly to squeeze a man into association with the Owner of heaven. It is a struggle, with labor pains and thorny landscape, bloody hands and a sweaty brow, head in hands, moments of severe loneliness and questioning, moments of ache and desire. All this leads to God.[...] Life is a dance toward God, I begin to think. And the dance is not so graceful as we might want. While we glide and swing our practiced sway, God crowds our feet, bumps our toes, and scuffs our shoes. So we learn to dance with the One who made us. And it is a difficult dance to learn because its steps are foreign." (Donald Miller- Through Painted Deserts)

God is in the business of relentlessly pursuing rebels like me and He comes after me not to angrily strip away my freedom but to affectionately strip away my slavery so I might become truly free.

Overcoming barriers

In order to be people who are "full of grace," we must take great care to eliminate all barriers that stand between the real Jesus and people's false impressions of Him.

Ghandi was once asked why he had rejected Christ. His answer was, "It is not Christ I reject, it is your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

I ran across an article that a mom wrote about her daughter who works at a local diner. She talked about how Sunday's were notoriously her daughter's lowest tip day by far. The mom wasn't necessarily complaining about her daughter not getting much in tips but was merely pointing out the fact that Christians aren't generous.
I'm speaking equally to myself as I write this, convicted by the fact that I often make the excuse of being a college student as the reason why I am not a generous tipper. This is just one small example but it is these daily decisions and actions that reveal our hearts and reflect who or what it is that we really worship. How often I find myself hoarding "my money" when really money is just a tool and resource God has graciously given me to use for His glory. It isn't really mine but you wouldn't know that looking at the way I chose to spend (or not spend) it. Every decision, every tip, every conversation should be used to make much of Him.

"Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." Colossians 4:4-5