Who would not want more grace?

Gifts hanging down, gifts learned and more:

#694 ceiling fan hanging down and swirling to keep us cool

#695 butterflies hanging down under a flower as they get an afternoon snack

#697 all the Facebook pics and comments of how much crazy fun our SMC kids and leaders are having at Camp KidJam!!!!

#698 a gift learned…most valuable lessons come when we share stories of God’s faithfulness in our mistakes.

#699 a gift learned…God is not finished with us yet

#700 a gift learned…grace prepares the heart for more grace.

#701 It has been a gift the past couple of days to be able to spend quality time with my son. My husband had to go out of town for work and our daughter went to church camp for a few days, which left my son and me at home.

With him being a tween now…and will be thirteen in a few months…times like these become even more special. So, we went to the small downtown soda shop for dinner and then walked over to the $3 movie theater and saw The Avengers.

It was definitely an action packed movie about some of the Marvel heroes throughout the years who were brought together to fight an epic battle.

One of the characters in the story was named Phil. He wasn’t a hero…well, a famous one anyway…he was just an agent who worked as an assistant to the commander of the “good guy team”. I could tell Phil felt honored to know the heroes and be part of this mission to get rid of the bad guy.

But Phil was injured and shortly thereafter died which became the turning point in the movie where the heroes finally grasped the enormous depth of evil and need to rescue everyone.

But right before Phil took his last breath, his last words stood out to me.

Phil told Loki, the enemy, that he will loose the battle because he lacks conviction.

…Because the enemy lacked conviction.

Whoa…I had never thought of that before. The evil one lacks conviction?

The enemy knows the difference between evil and good, but feels no conviction?

Have you never felt a little twinge when you’ve done something you know you shouldn’t have done or shouldn’t have said? When you stretched the truth a little bit, when you said something behind someone’s back that wasn’t uplifting, when you are clearly doing something you know is a sin but chose to do it anyway?

I sure have.

That twinge, that prick…or even punched in the gut.

Conviction is when your heart knows it has done or thought something it was not divinely or originally created to do or think.


Conviction is that moment when your heart skips a beat because it was sacredly disturbed right to the core.

Then, it really is a gift to be given conviction…

I don’t want to be the enemy. I don’t want to be the bad guy who’s only mission in life is to try to gain total power and be in control of the world...his own world. His world that revolves around himself.

Self. It is the selfish power to be in control of your own world, and even others’ worlds.


Lord, please convict me when I try to be in total control…
…and when I give in and allow the enemy to win some battles. Help me remember you have already conquered the evil one and won the war…the epic battle.


That person who lacks conviction is empty and void of the Pulse that keeps a heart alive.


“We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. As has just been said: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…” Hebrews 3:14-15

Jesus, break my heart for what breaks Yours…

Sinclair B. Ferguson once said, “The heart-conviction of sin is the way grace prepares the heart for more grace.”


Who would not want more grace?


Who would not need more grace?