So Jimmy was in town...

One of the coolest moments. Jimmy Needham is just a funny guy. And his band is funny too. But the coolest moment came after lunch. We were all up in the hospitality room, Suz and I from CFR, Jimmy, Sarah Reeves, Joy Lippard, and Rush of Fools, as well as the crew. Apparently a member of the group leads a devo time after lunch, and today...was Jimmy's day. He peroused his bible for a little bit, and came up with this...

^{1 Peter 2:9-12
9}But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

¹¹Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. ¹²Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

This passage, as well as several others point to a fact that seperates our faith from every other one out there. Our IDENTITY comes before any call to action. We are a chosen people, a holy nation. Once we were not His people, but now we are. We haved been saved...set free. Our faith is different because of this. Any other religion, you obey, you follow the rules, and then you are accepted. Ours is a faith where you are accepted first, not because of anything we have done, but because Jesus Christ has saved us.

And because of that, we obey. Obedience is natural to the one who has set us free. It actually is easy, it gives us joy to serve our heavenly father.

Boom.

Jimmy's so cool.