An Abundance of Grace
When it comes to the grace that is a glorious attribute of our God, we have a ton to wrap our head around – you know, God’s grace was supremely manifested in the giving of His Son’s precious life to pay fully, completely and forever, our immeasurably huge debt of sin. Most of us don’t get that, we’re ‘numb’ to the actual cost.
Episodes
Alas Nicodemas, the confusion was driving him nuts. His whole life had been spent pursuing the wisdom of the elders and the knowledge of the scriptures. He knew the traditions better than most Pharisees. In fact, he was known as the teacher of Israel. And for most of his life, he’d been quite confident about his knowledge.
But then came this itinerant rabbi doing these truly amazing signs. He gave sight to the blind, hearing to...
And when I think of patient endurance for a lifetime, I think of the wilderness and 40 years of wandering in it. Moses and the Jewish nation endured this – why? Well, we know that at first, they failed to obey God and take the new land. They chickened out. But the wandering wasn’t punishment, it was purposeful:
“And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you a...
I suspect that’s because after 2000 years or so it is much easier to preach on loving, much more reasonable to believe and obey the ‘love command’. After all, watching implies an expectation and requires trust that the expectation will be fulfilled.
There is no ‘getting better’ from SIN; there’s no amount of discipline or ‘growth’ that can drive it from you.
The ONLY way to be rid of its stench and blackness is to surrender all of it to Christ and absolutely trust Him. You see, He took the penalty for ALL of it that we surrender by faith on the cross of Calvary. He literally took all of it on Himself:
who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died ...
Simply put, hope is the expectation of coming good. It’s eternal because He’s eternal and it’s wonderful because He’s wonderful.
But there is always a choice and really, it’s the ultimate choice – believe God or believe the lie. To believe God is to believe that He took on human flesh, lived a perfect life and died on the cross, carrying the sins of all mankind. Then on the third day He rose again and is now seated on God’s right hand.
To believe the lie is to believe Satan as he shrieks, “You will not surely die. God doesn’t care about you. Sin is satis...
This one small verse tucked into the end of chapter four of Genesis:
And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the LORD. (Gen 4:26)
Do the math and you’ll see that this was 235 years after Adam’s creation. It seems to illustrate that mankind was ‘gun-shy’ so to speak about relating to the Lord. Let’s consider what had happened up to this point.
Yet we still tend to think of godliness as in the form of the serpent’s lure. We originally took that bait and we’ve been hung up on it ever since. As it ingrained itself into our sin-nature, the nature of the flesh, it manifested itself in religion.
Of course, I’m not the expert in Hebrew – just a student and a student of the scripture for some 53 years so when I see that Isaiah records that Jehovah established the earth NOT empty which means NOT wasted or formless and I read that Moses says of the earth in Gen 1:2 it was indeed wasted, formless and in chaos, I conclude that something happened to the earth that God prepared for inhabiting.
First, we have to understand that this war is not really about Job. Oh, he is in the midst of it and his behavior is on display, but all that he goes through is a vis-aid to demonstrate to the whole created order – spiritual and material - Who the Creator is. Even Satan is a pawn in this epic.
So do NOT identify with that rotting corpse, your body, which hangs on to its sin and sinful ways. When you trusted in Christ as your Savior, your redemption, you died with Him and were also raised with Him. You truly are a new creation.
What this power is all about is the ultimate power, but its nature may surprise you.
Are you tracking with me? Every spiritual blessing! Accepted in the Son! Seated with Him! Made eternally ALIVE! It’s all a done deal.
It's more than just being physically in the pew so to speak; the new creature doesn’t just behave or think differently, the new creation sees the Creator in a whole new way.
Of course, this Light is not made of photons. It is not on the electromagnetic spectrum at all. But get this (and I repeat this verse intentionally):
For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light we see light (Psa 36:9)
That is, only in this Light can we see (perceive, understand) this Light
For You will light my lamp;
The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness (Psa 18:28)
Your ‘lamp’ is your life, your soul, and without Go...
“Because” means that their problem wasn’t with Jesus’ accent or clothing or His tendency to produce miracles on the Sabath. Their ‘inherited spiritual DNA’ caused them to not hear, to refuse to hear, when the truth was spoken and thus, they could not believe Jesus because that’s all He spoke.
From the days of Adam until now, the expectations of godly men and women are realized in the person of Jesus Christ -- Who He is, what He does, all that He represents. Most of us would agree, however, that some of the expectations of the godly aren’t so ‘godly’. Rather, we can shade them in selfishness, impatience, covetousness or misunderstanding and as a consequence be very disappointed with God and with each other.
Paul claimed that he had not already attained or been perfected or had apprehended because he is referring to his goal, the prize of the upward call – his final transformation.
When hopes are dashed, and grief is raw, that’s ‘Saturday’. When all your purpose seems absolutely purposeless, that’s ‘Saturday’. When you heart hardens into a callous pursuit of self-gratification or worldly comfort – that’s ‘Saturday’. When doubts and fears surround, and you feel like hiding – that’s ‘Saturday’.
And many, if not most of us can get stuck there to some extent.
When Jesus was challenged about His ministry to “sinners”, He spoke three parables – one about a lost sheep, another about a lost coin and one we all remember, the lost or prodigal son. All three speak of loss but the primary point of view of the first two is of the seeker and that of the third is of the one lost.
A rarely mentioned attribute of God’s creation is that it is filled (pun intended) with containers. You see, people are containers; the earth is a container, the cosmos in its entirety is a massive container. And of course, there are containers for virtually everything – material and spiritual. But there is one exception to this – God, Himself. God does not contain, God is and God fills.
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