Barbara: Welcome to 40 minutes of faith. My name is Barbara Cox and I host this weekly podcast to explore God's word and our relationship with God. Today's guest is Patrick Linell, and the topic is grace. Pat holds a MA in theology from Columbia international university and served as a pastor at Bay area community church for 12 years. Welcome, Pat. How are things for you and your family in Maryland?
Patrick: things today are pretty good. I had some business outside the house this morning and when I got home, I asked Kristin how the morning went with the kids. And she said everybody got to the school on time. Four kids in elementary and in middle school. And so there is a flurry of activity just about every day.
Barbara: I bet. Well, today we have a Bible passage from Matthew chapter six, and if you're following along in your Bible, it's in the new Testament. So the second half of the Bible past the halfway Mark, and I am just going to be reading verses one through four of the NIV.
Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that you're giving maybe in secret. Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
So Pat, we're going to be talking about grace and giving and a whole bunch of different things today. But I'm thinking about trying something new with this podcast. We're coming up on the one-year birthday of the podcast. And I'm wondering if you would be comfortable sharing a little bit of your faith journey? How did things go for you from your childhood up through becoming a pastor or really anything else that you're comfortable sharing as an example to others, that there's so many different ways of our spiritual journeys in our lives?
Patrick: I definitely did not see the pastor thing coming. I can tell you that. Although I grew up in, what many would consider a loving, wholesome church going family. I grew up going to an Episcopal church in the inner city of Baltimore and we didn't live in the inner city of Baltimore. We kind of drove in every Sunday. And my family was very faithful to that small church.
And those years really formed a discipline for me, a steady diet of these spiritual seeds. But like a lot of people who grew up in church, when I hit the end of high school and into college, I sort of just let the pleasures of the world takeover and supersede my faith walk. And so if there was a party I'd rather party, and if there's bad things to do, I'd rather do the bad things, than kind of walk that narrow and straight road, that seemed to be the way of Jesus.
But what happened was towards the end of college, I was dating my girlfriend, Kristin, who now by God's grace has become my wife. We got invited to a small group Bible study, and I had never experienced that kind of thing before. I went to church, I didn't really bring church home a whole lot.
But that little Bible study was very eye-opening. I saw for the first time, people taking the scripture seriously, they're taking Jesus seriously. They were doing well in life, in a lot of ways better than I was doing. And for Kristin, who also had a pretty religious upbringing, she was really getting to see Jesus in a new and fresh way on her own with her own eyes in the Bible.
And that was life-changing. So that small group led to me turning down a job in corporate America and instead doing a pastoral internship at my church. And that's where I got to do seminary. And I loved what I was learning. And I was seeing people start to grow and start to investigate their faith and all that was very exciting.
And that led to a pretty long run in a vocational ministry setting. I then got hired on after that internship. And I worked at the church for about 12 years just up until about 2019, where we started a new cross the country church adventure that we're on now. But that was my journey.
It was not something I planned or intended to do, but when you start to see. God's love personally for you coming alive. As you're learning the Bible, it can really change everything. And in my case, it really did.
Barbara: Thank you so much for sharing that. There's sometimes surprise turns or messages. And as I was preparing for this interview today, I wanted to check in with you. You said that people have been spiritually assembled for heavenly purposes, and that really resonated with me because I wonder if most people are aware of that, that we've been spiritually assembled for heavenly purposes. How does that look in everyday life from your perspective?
Patrick: I think a lot of people kind of sleep-walk a little bit through life. We put one foot in front of the other. We need to pay our bills. We want to have security. We want to have a job. We want to find the right relationship. We want our kids to do well. And we don't want the car to break down and it's kind of like repeat. We're on a repeat cycle, but on one level we have very much been created for a higher heavenly purpose. And I would even contend that our ultimate purpose here on planet earth, and this is true, whether you're just starting out your faith journey or you've been walking your faith journey for a while, is that we've been created to walk with our creator, and that's a pretty high up and heavenly purpose there.
But there's another layer there where we actually see specifically, when you look into the new Testament, I know we'll probably look at Matthew six here in a bit, but there's another place where the apostle Paul says that we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works (Ephesians 2:10). And so there's this other idea that once we know who God is, once we're filled with his love, once we can start to see him in the real things in our everyday life, then we realized, wow, we also have good, good things to do that he intense for us to do that. He has prepared for us to walk in almost like divine appointments. And I think that can very much be missed in the Christian world, because I can get used to going to church and I can even get used to reading my Bible.
But when I step out of the door on Monday, Am I also mindful that God might have some real, no kidding, awesome things for me to accomplish as his workmanship? And I think that part gets a little lost, but that's a pretty exciting proposition to think that we have amazing purposes, and heavenly ones to fulfill.
Barbara: I completely agree with you because I knew that I wanted to be a social worker. I would even go so far as to say it was a calling right from junior high. There was just no doubt in my mind about it. And that did happen, but most jobs, people think of as just secular in nature, like, what does this job, what does my boss, what does this nine to five or whatever you're doing have to do with God?
But what we're talking about now is that they're completely intertwined. Ourselves are not just, if we happen to go to a worship service, Monday morning, what are we doing? And our Bible verse talks about giving, but not for the accolades, not for the praise. So I'm curious about the phrase “random act of kindness.”
What's the difference between just a random act of kindness that anybody can do with this concept of an intentional act of love, motivated by Jesus that we're taking from our Bible verse?
Patrick: I think everybody kind of likes the idea of random acts of kindness and kindness in general. And I am too. As created in the image of God, we should be outgoing and kind, and these things should be coming out. But when you follow Jesus and he tells you very clearly to love your neighbor. He tells you clearly to put other people's needs and interests ahead of your own, not to seek your own interests.
And he kind of says that in a lot of different places, in a variety of ways. When we decide we are going to obey that calling, that is not random at all. And so when you go out of your way, out of the normal to surprise someone, to bless someone to brighten someone's day, intentionally on one hand, you are simply taking Jesus seriously, you're obeying his command.
And there's nothing random about the commands of Jesus, because I contend that he knows how life best works, that the things he has to say, when we do those things, our life actually works a lot better, even though it might seem counter-cultural. So there doesn't seem to be anything random about just doing what Jesus tells us to do, but it can be scary and it can be difficult.
And you brought up the Matthew six passage. And what's interesting about this passage on one hand, we know that God has good works, that he's prepared in advance for us to walk in. And we also know that he's called us the light of the world and we're to let our light shine before men so that they would give glory to our father in heaven.
But I think in Matthew six, we see a particular warning and I think he's trying to speak to our hearts because in this context, he's sort of calling out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. So the Pharisees seemed to be doing some good things on the outside. They were giving, or perhaps they were even fasting or doing important things at the temple, but then they were standing out and what was important to the Pharisees was that all that was seen.
And so I think what Jesus is saying is may your heart beat pure. As you love your neighbor, let that be the driving intention. Let that be the motivation of listening to me of loving that person of pointing them to Christ, of shining some light in their day. And if that's your heart's motivation, I think we're okay. But if the only reason we're doing these good works is so that we perhaps look better or people would think were important or significant, then I think Jesus is saying, that's not why we do this. And so I think he's really trying to call out our heart. Where is our heart? Do we really have that unconditional, no strings attached love for our neighbor? And that's why we're stepping out in these intentional acts of love, or is there something in it for us? And that's a pretty hard question that I think everybody probably needs ask themselves.
Barbara: sometimes when we do things to bless another person, it ends up blessing us, even though we certainly didn't have that as the end goal.
But sometimes I especially think of donations where you can have your name right put somewhere, in the back of the annual report, but sometimes it's on a brick or on the wall or on the front of a building or something like that. And that's probably more detailed than we need today, but just the whole concept of it's okay to give things anonymously with no recognition whatsoever cause that's between you and God.
Patrick: It is. And there is a joy that follows the obedience of going above and beyond in loving someone and giving that grace offering that gift. In a lot of ways it's because we are made for it.
Imagine this- play with the metaphor. How does a minivan feel when it's packed with six kids and a dog that's long outliving its life expectancy and a mattress on the roof and a trailer behind? If you could ask that minivan how it felt, that minivan felt great because it's fulfilling its intended purpose.
And I think it's like that with us, as followers of Christ, as his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. When we get to walk in those, it feels good because we were made for this.
Barbara: And I especially appreciate that you mentioned earlier, it might feel a little scary sometimes or nerve wracking, or should I do this?
And you also coined a phrase that I am especially grateful for because every time I upload a podcast episode, I have to check a language box. Is the content essentially clean and for Bible study podcast, really, it's no problem to have clean content. But I wonder if you coined the phrase half Isaac as a polite, clean way of referencing another expression that is very commonly used that we're not going to use right now.
So when we give sometimes is it easy to say, well, I can just give this much and just to let you know the episode right before this one is about setting boundaries and that sometimes it's okay. God has a best yes for us. And we don't have to say yes to everything. So I don't mean to be talking out of both sides of our mouth, but if we're giving wholeheartedly, are we giving sometimes from a place of fear, a half Isaac giving and how do we sort of discern the wonderful opportunities of loving our neighbor and obeying God's will towards that. Versus sometimes there's a place of fear or uncertainty and, then sometimes God's way happens anyway, despite our very best efforts to not quite go the whole mile. What are your thoughts around half Isaac giving?
Patrick: Giving or making any investment in your neighbor and that's a pretty broad category, so that could be, well, I might cut my neighbor's grass. That's going to take an hour. I might bring them dinner. That's going to take some supplies and some curating that, and going over any investment that we're going to make, particularly when it comes to loving them because Jesus told us to love them, it's stepping out of our comfort zone. Because I'm pretty introverted. I'm good behind a microphone or on stage, but in real life, I tend to avoid people. Like I have my head down in my phone, nobody mess with me. And so for me to get out of my shell, especially because of Jesus and in a world that doesn't want to talk about religion and doesn't want Bibles beat over their head and all of that, that can be such a hard step of faith to take.
So I think that's a common and shared experience for anybody trying to take Jesus seriously. Wow. This is scary. Even something small. I mean, let's table the big giving that I might half- Isaac, but even something small can be so difficult. And a couple of things practically in the moment.
I think number one, we can look to Jesus and ask, when Jesus was giving his ultimate gift of his very life, and he was having a hard time stepping into that, what did he do? Well, right there in the garden of Gethsemane on the night he was betrayed, before he was taken to trial and then led out to Calvary, he prayed. And he's talking to his disciples obviously, and by extension us, but he says, stay awake, stay alert and watch, pray with me. But then the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. And that could mean like we can intend to love our neighbor and intend to do something great for them and give them a surprise and gift or intentional act of love.
But I start feeling myself, get afraid. And so Jesus prayed. And number one, we can avail ourselves to prayer like Jesus, father help me to carry out this mission, but not my will, but yours be done. And then Jesus was strengthened. And I think we can pray when we start thinking about the craziness of getting outside of our comfort zone, but then also we can look into the scriptures and see these amazing promises that get activated when we take a step of faith. Sometimes we want to have all the assurances that it's going to be okay, that this thing is going to work out. And then I'm going to go ahead and do it. But faith isn't like that. No, faith says I need to take a step because the Lord has laid this on my heart and I've had this burden that it's the right thing to do.
And only after I take that faith step, am I going to see how God is going to provide. You brought up half Isaac, and that's a reference to the old Testament when Abraham was tested to bring the son of the promise and to offer him as a sacrifice, like that's a crazy account.
Just think about the most important thing ever in your life. And then God says, I want you to get rid of it. It's like, Whoa, Whoa, wait a minute. But we didn't see Abraham go halfsies. Like he didn't put half Isaac's leg or just offer up the arms. He fully put Isaac up there. And that spoke to the nature of faith. A faith step is this whole-hearted and full and complete surrender that the Lord is going to provide. Somehow, he's going to take care of the faith step and what enabled Abraham, and I'm going to connect the dots here, but what enabled Abraham to take that step of faith was that he was trusting in a promise because in the chapter prior to that Genesis 22, in Genesis 21, Abraham was told that Isaac was going to have children. So somehow, some supernatural way, Abraham could be fully obedient, not offering half Isaac, but then trust that God's promise will somehow take care of what was completely unforeseen. And that's the same thing for us. And we have promises when it comes to stepping out and loving people and carrying out our faith missions. We're told that Jesus is with us always, and that's an amazing promise. We're told that we are mighty, not because we're big and important and special, but because we're a tool in his hand. And so many different ways that the scriptures encourage us to take steps of faith.
So all that to say, Barbara, that in the face of fear, of taking a step of faith of love, neighbor, whether bigg or small. Those fears can be satisfied with the perfect love that cast out fear, and that's found in your ability to pray for strength right in the moment, and also to turn to the promises of God and trust those. And then step out in your faith adventure.
Barbara: now is the time that it makes sense to me to dig a little bit into this concept of grace because I'm Lutheran. So I have lots of background and understanding that we are not attempting to earn our salvation by doing these good deeds. And that's part of the Matthew six passage that we're not looking to publicly say, see how good I am. God is rewarding me. In fact, really the opposite. So I just wanted to check in with you about grace, and how grace is related to us doing specific acts to show love to neighbors.
Patrick: Well, it's hard to give something you don't have. And it can be difficult to naturally want to love and lavish and bless and forgive and enjoy your neighbor if you first aren't filled with that. And I think what you had mentioned, when you open the pages of scripture, you realize that, well, I didn't earn this amazing love. I didn't merit God sending Jesus to the cross to die for me.
In fact, I'm told that while I was still sinners and enemies with God that Jesus did this thing for me. And then it's like, Whoa, are you kidding me? The creator of the universe, the one who spoke all of this into existence and sustains it with his power also cares deeply and personally about me? And that gift is amazing. And we have the song amazing grace. That's why we sing amazing grace because it's pretty mind blowing and amazing to think that this all powerful creator also is personal and that he's led out with his kindness. And it's that kindness that has led me to repentance. And now when my heart can be filled of the things that he says about me, that in Christ I'm adopted and chosen and redeemed and forgiven and sealed, and I've been given wisdom and I'm an heir and all these amazing things that we learned in the scriptures that becomes my supernatural fuel supply. When I go outside and I see my next-door neighbor, who I'd rather not talk to, but then I remember that I've been so graciously loved that I can probably do something awesome for that person. And just like you said, we don't want to confuse it. We're not doing awesome things to make God think we're awesome. And then he'll let us into his heaven. No, it's the reverse. GOD is awesome. He's accomplished things on our behalf and now we're set free to be awesome and point people to him. And so it's a whole different kind of arrangement, but I think we really need to understand grace and our need for grace before we can really start giving it away with people we see and rub shoulders with every single day.
Barbara: That's been a theme that I've talked about with lots of different people over the year of many episodes. And I made an assumption that probably most people who listen to this podcast or who watched the video on YouTube probably have some sort of a faith-based background. And it really came to me before we started talking today that that might not be true. What if someone's listening, who is isn't part of a church group and probably never was? Because I also know there's people who kind of start going to churches and then they stopped going to churches for a variety of different reasons. What if there's someone that this is really new information? Because anybody can do nice things for somebody.
But what we're talking about is something a little bit different. We're not just talking about anybody doing something nice for anybody else. We're talking about there's a bigger reason for this. And I will be including a bunch of resources on the podcast website, which is 40 minutes of faith.com, including the link to a video that you created to really talk to people about what do you do?
This is not something I think that's out there a lot. If you're in church, the clergy person might say, please come to the front of the church. We'll pray for you. If you're feeling called to walk with Jesus, but you presented this information really well in a video. And I'm wondering if you could take a minute to kind of explain if someone isn't part of a faith community and is really curious about what does this all mean?
How do I get involved with this stuff? What are the requirements? Cause I know there's no checklist- you and I both know that. So I'm kind of setting the question up, but what's involved if you want to be part of this Christian community that we're talking about?
Patrick: I would say for anybody listening right now that as Barbara had just mentioned, and you're kind of just investigating faith or not a part of a faith community, or even unsure. I would go as far as to say as this is no accident that you're listening to this today. I really think that you're here for a reason.
And I'll just take a minute and speak to that. Just off the cuff, off the heart. Number one, you're here on planet earth for a reason, you have a purpose. There is a particular world view that might say we're just here by chance and it's random and matter and time and energy all came together somehow at a singular point.
And there's really no point to all that. But we just need to think a little bit more critically about the universe that we live in. It's bigness, it's smallness, it's complexity the mathematics behind it. I even say the mind behind it, the code in our very DNA, the intricacy and the beauty, the morality that human beings seem to have uniquely that all point to a designer, a mind. And we can take in a sunset and we can see the sky and we Marvel at the stars and the scriptures say in the beginning, God. It's right there. He created. And we call this just his general revelation. But then it's up to him to tell us who he is or, or it is, or she is or whatever. And what you see in the Bible is a collection of these books and letters over the period of 1500 years. Over 40 different authors, written on three continents, that's all telling the same story about creation and about our purpose and how to walk in our purpose.
And ultimately when you get to take in the whole counsel of scripture, you see that, wow, this thing was about Jesus. And this thing was about Christ coming so that we could be rightly related to our creator. And so I think if you're listening today, I would just ask that you take a look at Jesus in the Bible and even start right there in the gospel of John and take some time and look at those pages and see what Jesus has to say about life and about spiritual things.
And Barbara, you asked, how do I get in, what's the checklist? And like you said, there is no checklist, right? It's not a matter of checking the right boxes to be walking with the Lord. It's a matter of faith. It's a matter of your heart before him. It could be a matter of saying, okay, I believe you are who you say you are.
And I want to walk with you and I want to thank you for what you've done for me in Christ. And it all happens in the heart. Jesus was having a conversation in John chapter four with a woman at a well, and she was asking the question, well, what's the right place to worship?
Is it that temple or that temple? And Jesus says, let me tell you, there's a time that's coming. And it's now here. That is not going to be about this place or that place, but true worshipers are going to worship the father in spirit and in truth. And we come to know that. By way of the truth that Jesus was telling.
And so this Barbara, as you know, and anybody listening, this is a matter of the heart and it can happen right now as you are, in trusting and placing your faith in Christ and then receiving his gift of forgiveness and righteousness and walking now in a whole new way of living.
Barbara: I'm so glad that you brought up the woman at the well Pat, because I fear that some people judge themselves and have been judged by other human beings and possibly even judged by the church on stuff that Jesus forgives.
But I wonder if there's people who feel they don't deserve it, which is a natural human tendency. You know, I got in trouble for this, that, and the other thing. And I'm not like all those Holy people or something like that. So again, I feel like we're probably on the same page with this, but since you brought up the woman at the well, do you have any thoughts for people who might say, I really don't deserve this.
I'm not good enough. I've done terrible things or terrible things have been done to me.
Patrick: Absolutely. Because if there was ever a person who was “undeserving” or an outcast, it was the woman at the well. I mean, if you go back to that account and you take into consideration the cultural context, so here's a woman in the middle of the day, avoiding all the other women in the town, because we learned from the scripture that she was basically married five times and now the man she's with was not her husband. That was culturally unacceptable for her town. So she was an outcast then from a Jewish perspective and Jesus was Jewish. She's a Samaritan. And those two racial, ethnic groups had incredibly bad blood.
And so you would never find a Jewish rabbi speaking with a foreign Samaritan woman, especially with all of her “baggage” out in public in the middle of the day. But Jesus throws all of that taboo out the window. So she was the wrong race, wrong religion, wrong gender. She was a hot mess and all these other things, and he sits down next to her.
And in a few small little words, he diffuses all that and he says, give me a drink. He's asking for kindness, he's striking up a conversation because he knew that there was something that she needed in her soul. And he was so freely wanting to give that satisfaction to her soul.
So if there was ever a candidate to write anyone off, it would have been that lady. So if you're listening and you're like, I've got baggage, I'm a hot mess. I've been in the wrong. And even maybe right now, I'm not doing things the way Jesus would want. If you saw him on the street, he's probably going to come up to you and ask for a drink. And that's the beautiful thing about grace. It just breaks in and it feels so good.
Barbara: Exactly. And I had a hard time at the beginning and I don't have a hard time anymore, but there's this thing called grace bomb. And so I have a hard time with bombs. Bombs have a really negative connotation to me, but a grace bomb is something totally different. So I'm wondering if you could share, what does this grace bomb mean?
Patrick: the phrase is evidence of contrast, and you see that happen in the Bible where God likes to take something that men make for evil and turn it to good.
And so you can think about when Joseph was put in the pit and sold into slavery. And he finally gets to see his brothers and they're afraid because he's in power and he says, listen, you meant it for evil. God meant it for good (Genesis 50:20). Even you can take something as despised and dreadful as the cross. People wouldn't even mention the cross in polite public back in Jesus's day, but God took this cross and he did the most beautiful thing upon it.
And so, in one sense, we're trying to use this little phrase redemptively, and we're not really looking towards the violence of bomb or the way evil people would use it. But we looked for the disruption of a bomb. That the disruption of a bomb came out of the blue.
You didn't really see it coming. And it changes things all of the sudden. And God's grace is kind of like that. It just breaks in and things can change all of a sudden. And instead of messing things up, it made things better. And so that's the phrase, grace bomb, but we also use it as a verb. And we'd like to say that you can grace bomb your neighbor.
And a grace bomb is any surprising or intentional act of love prompted by the spirit, motivated by Jesus. And we even have little cards that point people to the website to let them know that this wasn't just random acts of kindness, that this was in fact intended to point them to the source of kindness, just like that woman at the well where they can truly find the satisfaction of their soul.
Barbara: the concept of evangelism always kind of scared me, like even the word, but we're commanded to tell people the good news. And yet maybe not just for introverts, but how do you go about doing that? Are you knocking on the door and saying, can I come in and talk with you about faith? Which probably for many people at both ends of that transaction could be kind of scary. And what I'm also really grateful for is that there are paper cards in the back of your book, but also there for free on your website. So someone can just download a bunch and it doesn't mean, Hey, let me knock on your door, can we have a conversation about this? It's, here's a plate of cookies and there's this little card. And if they want more information, they can go check it out. So it's sharing the good news of God's love with other tangible means and it could be money. It could be cookies, it could be a whole bunch of anything, really.
So I really appreciate that. And I know you have tons of stories about different positive grace bombing experiences, as well as moments where you were like, Oh, I don't know, what am I supposed to be doing? Or I don't really want to do this. Do you have any particular favorite story that you want to share?
Patrick: Sure. I'll tell one - the story was an unfolding story that really took a couple of years for me to see what God was doing with it. And so I'll tell it briefly. So everybody listening in can kind of get the idea here. But my daughter Scarlet wanted to go on a daddy daughter date.
And so I took her out and on her own volition she said, dad, we should grace bomb somebody. And what she meant was let's do something awesome for a neighbor. And so I had three of those little cards that you just mentioned, put them in my pocket and we were at McDonald's and our first grace bomb was the anonymous kind of grace bomb, where nobody's going to know we did it, and we're never going to see that person again.
That's like the introvert’s way to start out in grace bombing. So we paid for the meal of two elderly ladies at McDonald's. And instead of getting a check to pay, they got a grace bomb card. That was a fun surprise. And we left and then Scarlet wanted to do another grace bomb for her Bible teacher later that night. And so she prepared that on her own. And I had one grace bomb card left, and this is where the story got kind of crazy. Kristen and I went to grab wings at a little restaurant down the street. And our server came up and said, the last person that I waited on right here, this table just walked out on the check. And Kristen and I both can had that this is a great moment to grace bomb somebody. And so we, grace bombed our server and we thought that would be the end of the story. And what we did was we paid the extra amount that would have covered that this poor waitress. Exactly. So this is a great time to bring up the love of Jesus in a practical way.
And as far as we knew that was going to be the end of the story. But what ended up happening was the owner of that restaurant wife would end up speaking with me, investigating grace bomb, starting to grace bomb on her own with her real estate team. And then she shows up at the back of in the back of the church on a Palm Sunday.
And I was like, Whoa. She came up afterward and she said, Hey, I just wanted you to know that I'm making this my new church home. And that I've ended a 20-year silence with God. And it had a lot to do with God's showing me some new things in the middle of all this grace bomb activity.
And I came to find out that 20 years ago, she had lost a very close friend in a tragic act of gun violence. And then a couple years later she experienced unforeseen divorce. And she told me after that, I walked away from God for 20 years. Thinking if he's there, how could he let these things happen?
And it was around about the time that a little seven year old girl wanted to grace bomb somebody that Christy would eventually come back to church and even be baptized. And it was such a sweet moment because when she was baptized at our church. In our church, when you're an adult and you want to kind of express your new-found faith, you can do that.
And she had my wife, Kristin and Scarlet to be a very special part of that moment because she realized that it had to do with a little seven year old girl pushing that first little domino to get her dad to have some grace bomb cards in his pocket that would eventually lead to this awesome moment. And then Christie has since gone on to become a serial grace bomber herself. And they're having a lot of fun with that and get grace bomb cards at the restaurant. And so we don't always get to see the full circle of where our good works go. And that's fine because we don't need to know. We just get to obey and love someone. And then the outcome ultimately is in the Lord's hand.
Barbara: for anyone who wishes, your website is grace bomb.org. People can write a little story if they want to, to make it public. It certainly doesn't have to be.
And in the book, grace bomb, there's cardboard cards in the back, or people can get them for free on your website. And then for someone who receives a card, the website's on the card, so they can look it up and learn about, they may be familiar with faith stuff or they might not be.
Patrick: that's right. If anyone's interested or intrigued, they will be pointed to Jesus. And that's our point. We want to unveil the source of our kindness in a way that feels really good.
Barbara: Exactly. Do you have any other resources in mind for people or any other tips on just showing God's love in a proactive way in our communities?
Patrick: here's what you do. It's very simple. You keep cards on you cause they sort of burn hole in your pockets.
You're thinking, Oh, I wonder if this is an opportunity to use one of these cards and what that does, is it actually in a simple way, just kind of triggers the awareness of our neighbors. But then I would say, I call that being loaded, just have cards on you. And they go along with any of, any gift of your time, treasure or talent.
But then I would say, look and listen, be prayerful among your neighbors. Be asking the Lord, would this be a great opportunity or perhaps you sensed something about somebody who's having a really terrible day and the Lord might in some way, nudge you or prompt you or place something on your heart to obey. And if you feel that, and if you sense that, then I would just say, let her go take that step of faith. Don't worry about the outcome. Experience the joy that follows obedience and see what God does because I contend whenever you step out in faith, you're stepping out into an adventure that God wants you on.
Barbara: Thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate your insight and your wisdom and your good ideas for new ways of doing an old, old call to our lives.
Patrick: thank you, Barbara.
Resources:
Matthew 6:1-4
Ephesians 2:10
Genesis 50:20
John 4
Grace Bomb by Patrick Linnell