Empty Nesters

Wow, I can't believe we moved our baby girl out of the house and into a college dorm! That was a tough thing to do both physically (Man, I am getting old!) and emotionally (Man, am I getting old?). Life does seem to move along whether you are ready or not. I was sharing how tough it was with both of our “girls” gone now and I made the comment that my wife and I will now see if we really like each other again. I was pretty sure that I would like her; I was just worried about her liking me.

Kind of funny, but there really is an emotional battle going on. Combine this battle with the busyness of life, cars in need of repair, demands of work, a struggling economy, national concerns… Sometimes I just want to scream, but wait there is this!

Psalm 121


1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from?

2 My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber;

4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The LORD watches over you— the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.

7 The LORD will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life;

8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Father, thank you that you are there, that you are my help, that you will not let my foot slip, that you will watch over my coming and going both now and forevermore. Amen.

Grace and Peace!

Living by Grace

Ever heard the phrase living by grace? Have you ever struggled with what that means for Christians on the path to maturity in Christ? I do; every day. I struggle with what it means and how to apply it to my life; I struggle with, is that what we are really doing in our churches? Now I do understand there will be critics out there that will say where I am about to head is a slippery slope that living by grace might be taken too far; that as Paul writes in Romans 5; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more.

So should we go on sinning so that grace might increase? As Paul answered; By no means! So where does that leave us as we struggle with this concept of living by grace? I think Jerry Bridges says it so well in his book; Transforming Grace. In it he says; “The solution to this problem is not to add legalism to grace. Rather, the solution is to be so gripped by the magnificence and boundless generosity of God’s grace that we respond out of gratitude rather than sense of duty.”

He then quotes Steve Brown, former pastor of Key Biscayne Presbyterian Church; “The problem isn’t that we made the gospel too good. The problem is that we didn’t make the gospel good enough.” Isn’t that an amazing thought? We don’t give God’s grace the understanding and right standing it deserves; a position where we are “gripped” by its magnificence; a position where we never take the grace of God for granted responding out of loving gratitude.

What I worry about, what I wonder about, what I struggle with is how are we as Christians living by grace and sharing this “good news”? Are we so concerned about taking this gift of grace for granted that we begin to add requirements for living by grace? Is that where our teaching, sharing and even preaching is headed?
Bridges adds to this thought; “We have loaded down the gospel of the grace of God in Christ with a lot of “oughts”. “I ought to be more committed, more disciplined, more obedient.” When we think or teach this way, we are substituting duty and obligation for a loving response to God’s grace…Steve Brown was right. We often don’t make the gospel good enough. We preach grace to the non-Christian and duty to the Christian.”

Is that where we are headed? Or can we by grace come to grips with this indescribable gift and give the grace of God its’ proper position. Bridges points out that as Christians we do have a duty and obligation to God, but that our motivation should not be fear, rather our motivation should be sincere, loving gratitude for the mercy of God through Christ.

Martin Luther once wrote, “A lawdriver insists with threats and penalties; a preacher of grace lures and incites with divine goodness and compassion shown to us; for He wants no unwilling works and reluctant services, He wants joyful and delightful services of God.

To live by the grace of God is an amazing thing, a comforting thing, a hopeful thing. Don’t you think that as we begin to see and understand this thing called grace, that as we begin to live in this thing called grace, our excitement should build, our loving gratitude should over come us and we should shout from the rooftops about the grace of our God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! As we read in 2 Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

God, may we all begin to recognize this amazing gift of grace and may we all be gripped by the magnificence of your grace. May we all endeavor out of loving gratitude to share the gospel message of grace; Abba, Father, we love you.

Grace and Peace be yours in abundance!

Jesus Paid It All

I recently had a deep conversation with a very good friend. During this chat we discussed the perception that deep down people are pretty good. That when you boil it all down most people had a good, loving, and helpful nature; some might call this moral relativism (I’m OK, Your OK). This has caused me pause. I have thought about this deeply. It causes me to worry! Oops… But if that is the attitude, how can we truly understand just how indebted we are to the God of the universe, just how much we really need saving, just how much we are in dire need of the transforming grace of our Lord and Savior; Jesus Christ?

So we must strive to understand our nature; King David helps us with Psalm 51:5;

Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

And Paul writes in Romans 3;

10As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." 13"Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit." "The poison of vipers is on their lips." 14"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." 15"Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16ruin and misery mark their ways, 17and the way of peace they do not know." 18"There is no fear of God before their eyes."

So if we can let go of the post modern perception of the nature of man, perhaps we can begin to come to grips with the totality of our broken natures, our rebellion against God. Maybe we can better come to grips with our hopeless state. To paraphrase Jerry Bridges in Transforming Grace says; “Sin, in the final analysis, is rebellion against the sovereign Creator, Ruler, and Judge of the universe. Sin is not only a series of actions; it is also an attitude that ignores the law of God. But it is even more than a rebellious attitude. Sin is a state of heart, a condition of our inmost being. It is a state of corruption, of vileness, yes, even of filthiness in God’s sight.”

Now you might be thinking just where in the world are you heading with this, but I feel we must really understand our true natures and the debt we have incurred. As we do that we will come to understand and appreciate our need of a savior (we can’t save ourselves), our need to be rescued, a need for someone to bail us out (pay our debt). Bridges goes on to say; “But, because of His grace, God did not consign us all to hell; instead, He provided a remedy for us through Jesus Christ. The meaning of Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, then, is that Jesus by His death turned aside the wrath of God from us by taking it upon Himself. As He hung on the cross, He bore our sins in His body and endured the full force of God’s wrath in our place.”

Can you see it? Can you let yourself feel the emotional impact of God’s grace through Christ and begin to understand the price that was paid? Thank you Jesus.

The older I get the more emotional I seem to get. I still get tearfully grateful when I really come to grips with the price that Jesus paid for each of us. I still get a little teary eyed with certain music and this whole subject brings to mind one of my favorite hymns; Jesus Paid It All. Any of you every heard it? Well it is a snappy tune, but there is so much more to hymns and there can be a deep meaning that should be reflected upon. In the case of Jesus Paid It All let’s try to find some scriptural reference beginning with Psalm 103:1-5;

1 Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits- 3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

And how about Isaiah 1:18;

18 "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

Or how about John 3:16-17;

16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Can you begin to see the love our God has for us? Can you see this love is unfailing, patient, kind? Can you begin to feel the emotion deep inside; the love for our God and our Savior and our Comforter? Can you being to feel the gratitude well up inside. If you have five minutes watch this great hymn performed by Kristian Stanfill during the Passion Tour.

Merciful God, we thank you so much for loving such an undeserving creation, we thank you so much that Jesus paid it all; may we all come to understand with eternal awe and gratitude the magnitude of that sacrifice.

Grace and Peace!