That Amazing Grace

I am overwhelmed by the grace of God. I am astonished that God would come down to earth in the form of a man for the purpose of rescuing and redeeming His creation. I do not understand this but I do accept it and I rejoice in it.

The fact of the matter is I don’t deserve God’s grace and neither do you. No one who has ever lived or walked on the face of this earth is perfect and without sin except one man, Jesus Christ who was and is God in the flesh. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin and it is through His sacrifice that we can be made right with God. God’s grace provided the sacrifice for us but that is not end of it, not even close.

You see the most amazing thing to me about God’s grace is not that He still loved us and desired to save us even in our sin and disobedience. And truly, that would have been enough. But no, the most amazing thing to me is that He grants us His spirit and His nature at the time of salvation so that we become something entirely new.

The born again believer is a changed individual. God sees fit not only to give us a home in heaven with him (someday) but to remake us from the inside out with the very nature and the very spirit of the living God within us. With this we are free from the power of sin and death and are able to commune with God, as He always intended, for the very first time.

Because of this incredible gift not only do I have a friend in Jesus, I can be a friend to Jesus! We can walk together and talk together because my spiritual eyes have been opened and my heart is able to perceive that which it never could before. Peace with God brings overwhelming peace and joy in my heart and I am free to share that joy with others around me and to meet their needs with God’s strength and compassion.

That is what God’s amazing grace can do and it is in that grace that we can stand and in that grace that we can hold fast. He has promised to never leave or forsake us and all that He asks of us is to love Him and trust Him above all others.

To Seek The Living Among The Dead

Luke 24:5-6, Easter, rebirth, renewalHere we are, just a few weeks on the other side of Easter and for most of us, it is life as usual.  We carry on, as we always have, performing our duties and responsibilities and trying to do the best that we can.  And there is honor in that aspect of daily life.  As long as we are keeping 1 Corinthians 10:31 in mind (summarized as “whatever you do, do all for the glory of God”) then God will use our daily lives for extraordinary things.

But for just a few moments, let’s go back to that first Easter morning and in particular to the moments immediately following the arrival of the women to the tomb.  We see their alarm, their worry and their fear that Jesus’ body has been taken and that He is not where they expected Him to be.  How will they be able to carry out their duties?  How can they anoint his body for burial and follow the proper procedures if His body is not there?

While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing; and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead?  (Luke 24: 5-6) NASB

Seeking the savior and looking to serve Jesus should be a lifelong pursuit.  But do we sometimes get so caught up in ritual, in duty and in procedure that we miss the divine?  I know that I do.  I know that I have a certain way of doing things and tend to follow a certain schedule as I go about my day and that interruptions or deviations from that schedule are usually met with irritation and annoyance rather than as opportunities to serve or to grow.

Shouldn’t I be using my eyes of faith instead?  Shouldn’t I be inviting God to step in to my regularly scheduled life and do something totally unexpected?  After all, this life I live is not my own.  It is a life that is bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me!

And unlike the women at the tomb on that first Easter morning, I know Jesus is alive.  I know that He is the resurrected Lord.   I also know that He has made me alive spiritually and no power in heaven or on earth can stand against His will being done.  So why do I so often fall back into routine and walk by sight instead of by faith in my living savior?

All I can say is, and this goes for all of us, that we will never find the living savior among the dead things of our old life and our old mindset.  Jesus is alive and He has made us to be alive with Him and to have life more abundantly as we walk by faith, step by step with Him.  It’s time to let the old ways go.  It’s time to forget those things that are behind and press on towards that which God has for us.  It’s time for us to seek the living savior and leave that which is dead well enough alone.

The Most Encouraging Easter Message

Easter, Resurrection, JesusThe redemption offered to us by almighty God is powerful.  There isn’t a problem to big or a circumstance to dire or a life too far gone that God cannot redeem.

Our redemption is made possible by Jesus.  His life, death, burial and resurrection on the third day opened the door of heaven for all creation and defeated the power of death, once and for all.

As a way to celebrate and remember the importance of Easter, I have added a video clip to this post that I think is incredibly powerful.  If you’ve not ever heard this clip then please, take three minutes and listen to it now.  It will absolutely bless you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YByT6wfdhJs

Thank you Lord, for resurrection Sunday!