Overwhelmed with Wonder

Good and Gracious God, In the Psalms we read; “Praise the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty" and Father, this day we humbly come before you praising you for the majesty of your being, the splendor of your love, the mercy of your saving grace. You are so deserving of our praise and worship and we are such an undeserving people. Lord, we confess our many shortcomings and inequities and beg your forgiveness. As we find in Jeremiah, “Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise." God, you are the one we praise.

Father, we thank you for the many blessings of life. We thank you that you are in our lives, we thank you for your spirit, our comforter and counselor; and we thank you for your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord you are truly amazing and your Word is truly amazing; a passage in Mark says; “As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him." Father, may we your children be overwhelmed with wonder and never hold back as we run to greet our great Savior.

Father, such a blessed people, yet there are still needs. This day we pray for your Church that it will forever be an expanding beacon of hope and light. We pray for Christians around the world that you would strengthen, inspire and provide unity. We pray for missionaries spreading the good news; praying for comfort, strength and shelter. We pray for this nation as we continue to face uncertainty and trials of many kinds. We pray that you will be with us, that you will lead, guide and direct this nation and that we will be a nation that turns to you for all things. We pray for our leaders that you will provide wisdom and we pray for those serving this country that you will protect and encourage. We pray for families that you will work mightily to preserve; we pray for perfect peace and that love will abound.

Lord, we pray for healing, comfort, opportunity and a mighty movement that will be glorifying to you. Mostly we pray your will be done. Father Abba you are so good, so loving, and so full of grace; may we all be overwhelmed with wonder! We love you and thank you; praying all these things in Jesus most Holy name. Amen

Do so More and More

Every once in a while a passage just sticks with me. I will keep returning to it and finally I will dive a little deeper into what has grabbed my attention. Well this is true for a couple of verses in 1 Thessalonians. In this letter to the Thessalonians Paul addresses the return of Christ, but also encourages believers to a life of Holy Living.

Drilling this down just a little more, Paul encourages brotherly love. Verses 4:9-10 are the ones that keeping coming to mind.

9Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more.

Can you see the encouragement? Can you see the plea? As believers do we ( I ) love our brothers? As Christians do we ( I ) love enough? Can you see the reminder to do so more and more?

Hendriksen in his commentary on this passage says this; “Perfection had not yet been reached. This admonition is always timely, for in this life no Christian ever reaches the ideal of ethical perfection.”

Maybe that is the encouragement for me; a reminder that perfection is not reached but there should be a continual striving to become more like Christ. Not because we can earn anything, but out of loving gratitude. So when I get a little complacent, even a little pleased with myself, maybe just maybe I need a reminder of just how much Christ did for me, for each of us and as such I should do so more and more; humbly with a loving heart. All we are talking about here is sharing Christian love with a world so desperate for this love.

So there’s the challenge for us all; to go out and share some Christian love with our brothers, our neighbors, even our enemies and to do so more and more. Wow.

Oh how I love God’s Word. It is truly living, inexhaustible and life changing. May we all go do so more and more! Amen

Grace and Peace!

Heaven

1 Corinthians 9

24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Have you ever really stopped to think not in temporal terms, but really think about this prize? Have you ever contemplated this prize that we are all running toward? One of my men’s groups is starting a study on Heaven. I am anxious, excited and a little scared as I realize just how little I know about Heaven.

We are using Randy Alcorn’s book appropriately titled Heaven and he points out I am not alone in my lack of true understanding; a biblical understanding of heaven. He points out that even in the finest bible colleges and seminaries very little attention is given to detailed biblical study of heaven.

I am excited; maybe it is something that comes with age. Alcorn quotes Spurgeon who said; “To come to Thee is to come home from exile, to come to land out of a raging storm, to come to rest after long labor, to come to the goal of my desires and the summit of my wishes”.

I can’t wait to get started! This brings to mind a story (imagine that). A couple of years ago a friend of mine brought his family to our church for a cook out and a night of contemporary and live Christian music. It was just a nice, fun filled evening with games and activities for kids, food and then a night of music.

As we were sitting there under the “heavens” listening to the music there was a break between bands. As we sat in anticipation of the next band, my friends young daughter looked at her mother and said “Mommy, I can’t wait it’s going to be wonderful”.

I think as we uncover this prize, as we begin to understand Heaven; “it’s going to be wonderful”.

Father, as undeserving servants we thank you that there is still a prize; a prize to spend eternity with you in paradise. Luke 23:43 Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." Mind-boggling!

Grace and Peace!

Absolute Ideals and Absolute Grace

This title is inspired by Yancey’s book “The Jesus I never knew” and has really helped to open my mind a little to this thing called Grace. In his book Yancey points out that Jesus never lowers God’s standard in any of his teachings; his response to the young rich man, comments on divorce, money, all moral issues. Yancey points out that;

“Jesus never lowered God’s ideal. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”, he said. “Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Not Tolstoy, not Francis of Assisi, not Mother Teresa, not anyone has completely fulfilled those commands.

Yet the same Jesus tenderly offered absolute Grace. Jesus forgave an adulteress, a thief on the cross, a disciple who had denied ever knowing him. Grace is absolute, inflexible, all-encompassing. It extends even to the people who nailed Jesus to the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” were among the last words Jesus spoke on earth.

Grace is for the desperate, the needy, the broken, those who cannot make it on their own. Grace is for us all.”

I would add that Grace is for us all even those who don’t yet see the need; those who only see the speck in their brother’s eye. Oh, how I need Grace! As we think about absolute ideals and absolute grace can you begin to see that these absolute ideals reveal to us the character and nature of God and give us something to strive for while revealing to us our overwhelming need for absolute grace?

I now more clearly see the chasm between what God is like and my truly broken nature and because of the absolute grace of God through Christ I will endeavor to bridge that gap joyfully; full knowing that I will never quite make it; recognizing full circle the grace and love of God for me, such a undeserving man.

Wow! Grace is truly amazing. I will close today with an excerpt from Spurgeon’s book “All of Grace”:

“"By grace are ye saved." Because God is gracious, therefore sinful men are forgiven, converted, purified, and saved. It is not because of anything in them, or that ever can be in them, that they are saved; but because of the boundless love, goodness, pity, compassion, mercy, and grace of God. Tarry a moment, then, at the well-head. Behold the pure river of water of life, as it proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb!

What an abyss is the grace of God! Who can measure its breadth? Who can fathom its depth? Like all the rest of the divine attributes, it is infinite. God is full of love, for "God is love." God is full of goodness; the very name "God" is short for "good." Unbounded goodness and love enter into the very essence of the Godhead. It is because "his mercy endureth for ever" that men are not destroyed; because "his compassions fail not" that sinners are brought to Him and forgiven.”

Amen and Amen – God thank you that your compassion fails not! Father as we think about Your grace help us to “tarry a moment” and help us contemplate Your pure river, Your love, and Your mercy!

Grace and Peace!