After a full morning of intercession, worship and teaching, all the students are preparing a Love Feast for all the joyful helpers who have been serving all week (and longer) to bag soup mix here at Gleanings.
This group has been so energetic, especially the older people....as one staff member put it, "God wants us out of our comfort zone", He doesn't specify age. Find out if you're in your comfort zone---then get out of it! 
Yes, it is hard, but rather simple. Simply hard, as one student commented today in class.
Chris Failla has been our speaker all week. He has been discussing with us the character and true nature of God. Relationship vs. Religion has been a huge theme, as we delve into WHY God made us humans in the first place. For me this is literally a treasure hunt--I get excited just thinking about all the gems He has been so faithful to reveal to open eyes!
I get to go help in the kitchen in ten minutes....so I'll leave you with this idea:
Doing sin is like breathing water. It kills us. God, being love, prepared a way for us so that we figuratively breathe water and yet don't die. Because His Son is there saving us. Sinning, rather than being like a law transgressed, is more like a trust betrayed. Since Adam and Eve, we have kept saying to God "No thanks, I don't need the air, I'm going to scuba dive without it." And God refuses to stand by and watch us die. He made clothes for us in the garden, when we were frozen in fear. He gives us garments of praise today. There is no fear in Him. He didn't drive us out of the garden because He suddenly became angry at a law that was broken---He was sad that we hadn't trusted Him. It's not His punishment that we die when we breathe the water. It's a natural consequence. But He, the great Communicator, has to tell us the cold hard facts. Not because He takes delight in putting us in a guilt-ridden state...no, we did that for ourselves.
The message of hope is not that we ought to be further ashamed. The message of hope is that in our shame, God said "I love you anyway". In our shame, all He asked for, all He ever asked for, was belief--and why?
Well, think about it. When you believe somebody, you trust them. Trust is the foundation for relationship.
God, relational?
Open your eyes. He is Abba, Daddy; He is Son....and if you want to be surprised, "Holy Spirit" is a feminine noun in Hebrew. He's family. He's Light. He's love. There is therefore now NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Try thinking of God, not as a Gandalf figure with a staff standing alone on a mountain--but as a ring of related entities, discussing in a circle the wants, needs, desires, and cries of their beloved. This is no hierarchy of religion.
This is a literal circle of love. Relationship. Open arms.