Praise the Lord for this new day.
It is going to be balmy and brilliant, and promises to be a true day of "Indian
Summer". Praise the Lord for the sweet rest He gives us. Praise Him for the
strength with which He infuses us with to meet the tasks of every day that we
might live and serve Him and glorify His glorious Name.
The Lord blessed us with a summer like day
yesterday. It was heart warming . We will gather for our midweek fellowship
and study gathering for a very special meal at 6:00 PM, followed by Bible study
at 6:30 PM.
Our oldest granddaughter, sweet Micah, turned 10
years yesterday. She was born in Boston and still lives in Boston. The day she
came home from the hospital after her birth she had a smile. She lives with a
smile (and she always makes us smile). She loves the Lord and loves to serve
Him. She is very gregarious and very friendly, tender, and compassionate. She
knows all the neighborhood children by name. She knows all of their parents by
name. She knows people at the neighborhood cafes and bakeries by name. She is
helpful and very caring. She is blessed with the heart of a servant. She is
gracious and kind. We praise the Lord for
Micah.
Some years ago Philip Yancey wrote a mega-bestseller called "What’s So Amazing About Grace?", in which he called grace “the last great word.” He meant that it is one of the last of the “great words” that has retained some of its original meaning: “free and undeserved bounty.” For instance, when we pray, we “say grace” to thank God for our food. We are “grateful” for a kindness done by another person. To show our thanks we offer a “gratuity.” Something offered at no cost is said to be “gratis.” And when we have overdue books from the library, we may return them at no charge during a “grace period.”
It is commonly said that Christianity is supremely a
religion of grace. This is
certainly true. We sing about grace, we write poems about grace, we name
churches and children after grace. As
Christians, we certainly believe in grace, but outside of the worship services,
the word is rarely on our lips. Yancey points out that part of our problem is in the nature of
grace itself. Grace is hard to accept, hard to believe, and hard to receive.
For instance, we all have a certain skepticism when a telemarketer tells us,
“I’m not trying to sell you anything. I just want to offer you a free trip to
Hawaii.” Automatically we wonder, “What’s the catch?” because we have all been
taught that “there’s no such thing as a free lunch."
Yancey goes on to say that grace shocks us in
what it offers. It is truly not
of this world. It frightens us with what it does for sinners. Grace teaches us
that Jesus our Lord does for others what we would never do for them. We would
save the not-so-bad, but Jesus starts with prostitutes and then works up from
there. Grace is a gift that costs everything to the giver and nothing to the
receiver. It is given to those who don’t deserve it, barely recognize it, and
hardly appreciate it.
As I pondered all
of this, I suddenly realized that Jesus is more gracious than I am. He saves people whom I wouldn’t
save if I were God. He blesses people I would not choose to bless. He uses
people in his service I wouldn’t use. This is why I’m glad He is God and I am not. The Bible says that He
is “the compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness," (Exodus 34:6) and that’s good news for
sinners everywhere.
In Christ,
Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment