I'm An Outside Person (or How Can God Accept Me?)

Week of September 27
I'm An Outside Person (or How Can God Accept Me?)
Some people are outside because they know their lives are less than perfect. They cannot forgive themselves nor can they reconcile the things that has happened to them so they feel alienated from God because they feel God cannot love them. The truth is, that's exactly why God wants them, to lead them to wholeness; to bring them in from the outside where it can be lonely and cold.

Daily Readings
Sunday: John 8:1-11 & Col. 2:1-10 (esp. 6-7)
Monday: Romans 4:1-5; 3:21-28
Tuesday: Romans 15:7 & Acts 10:35
Wednesday: John 3:16-21 & 5:24
Thursday: John 14:21
Friday: 2 Cor 6:1-2
Saturday: James 1:21

Have you ever feared God? Do you now?
Why do you think people ask this question, “How Can God Accept Me?”
What is it about their lives (maybe from personal experience) that separates them so much from God?

What must we do to acquire God’s acceptance?
Must we reach a certain standard of holiness? of perfection? or of sinlessness?
Where is the dividing line: where one is in and another out?
Matthew 25:31-46. Who is a sheep? Who is a goat? Who makes the final designation?

It’s NOT the Church!

Read John 8:1-11
Does God Condemn Sin? Who does God accept?
How has the Church categorized sin? What’s okay, what’s not? (Ex 20:1-17)
What does that mean for us? Read Romans 4:1-5
Read Romans 3:27-28 & Acts 10:35
For Believers: Read 2 Cor. 6:1 & Colossians 2:6

No one is righteous and all deserve punishment.
God has already accepted us and is working towards our acceptance of God in return!