Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Grace”

Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:1-2 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Transformation is by the grace of God, as a gift from God.”

Yesterday I mentioned the enduring popularity of that great old hymn “Amazing Grace”. It was written in 1790 by John Newton. John was the Captain of a slave ship and as far as slave-trading sea captains went, he was one of the worst. John was known to be exceptionally cruel and brutal. By his own admission he was a despicable person.

I don’t have time to tell the whole story John Newton right now, but in the middle of a life threatening situation at sea John came to faith in Jesus Christ and quit his profession in the slave trade. He then went on to become a pastor and preacher, as well as one of the most influential voices to get the slave trade abolished. John also wrote many great hymns, the most famous of which was Amazing Grace. And, he wrote it about himself. “Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!”

People who knew John Newton in his slave-trading years could never have envisioned the man God eventually transformed him into. That was an amazing work of transformation and grace and it came about in his life by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is what Paul was referring to in Romans 12:1-2. He calls his readers to completely surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ, and then to be slowly and progressively transformed into the man or woman He wants you to be.

Chances are you’re not a slave-trading sea captain, or anything even remotely resembling that. But neither are you the man or woman God wants and intends for you to be. That is a process that occurs slowly over time as you submit yourself to the work of the Spirit in your life each and every day. And it is a process of transformation which continues right up until the day this life ends and you cross the threshold into eternity.

We are all in-process. None of us has arrived yet. The grace of God is still at work in each of us to transform us into the people He wants us to be. As with John Newton we can all proclaim, “I know I’m not yet what I should be, but thank God I’m not what I used to be.”

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Grace”

Our Bible verse for today: “We have redemption in Him through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” Ephesians 1:7-8 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “People all around you are thirsting for grace.”

Philip Yancey once wrote, “The world thirsts for grace in ways it does not even recognize.” The more I’ve thought about that statement the more I’m convinced it is true. People thirst for grace; they have a deep yearning to be blessed and to experience kindness, compassion, and mercy. In a world that is all too often not kind or compassionate, people thirst for grace.

This probably explains why the hymn “Amazing Grace” is one of the favorite Christian songs ever written and why it remains immensely popular more than 250 years later, being sung many thousands of times every Sunday in churches all across the world. “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”

The place people should most often encounter the grace of God is in the church. We the people of God should be the dispensers of the grace of God. As Paul teaches, we are to proclaim the Gospel of grace and we are to be ministers of God’s grace.

Gordon MacDonald once observed, “The world can do almost anything as well as or better that the church. You need not be a Christian to build houses, feed the hungry, or heal the sick. There is only one thing the world cannot do. It cannot offer (God’s) grace.

That, my friends, is what we have to offer the world – God’s grace. We must offer a clear and convincing proclamation of the Gospel of grace, and we must minister to people in the spirit of grace. Ephesians 1:7-8 speaks of the “richness” of God’s grace “lavished” upon us – which is exactly how we then must deliver it to others, richly and lavishly.

People all around you are thirsting for God’s grace and it is within your power to help them experience it. I encourage you to be intentional about doing that today.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Grace”

Our Bible verse for today: “You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.” Deuteronomy 5:13 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “God graciously gives us the freedom to rest.”

As we already know, grace is a matter of God’s blessings freely bestowed upon those who don’t deserve them. One of those blessings freely bestowed upon us from God is the freedom to rest. God established the Sabbath as the day when all our work and our preoccupation with making a living is to stop, and we are to focus instead on gathering with our church family, engaging in corporate worship, and resting. Sabbath rest is a gift from God – it is a matter of grace.

Unfortunately many of us think we’re too busy to rest. We get so caught-up in the demands of life that we routinely disobey God’s command regarding Sabbath rest. Even if we do abstain from the work we do to earn a living, we often fill the time with other tasks such as yard work, or car maintenance.

Recently I came across a poem which President Harry Truman liked. If you know anything about Harry Truman then you’re probably aware of the fact that he was one of the hardest working Presidents we have ever had. He was a workaholic. But he knew this to be true about himself, and he was also a Christian, so he was intentional about attending worship services and then resting and relaxing. Here’s the poem:

“Every man’s a would be sportsman, in the dreams of his intent.
A potential out-of-doors man when his thoughts are pleasure bent.
But he mostly puts the idea off, for the things that must be done,
And doesn’t get his outing till his outing days are gone.
So in hurry, scurry, worry, work, his living days are spent,
And he does his final camping in a low green tent.”

Of course, the low green tent the poet refers to is the canopy erected over the man’s grave for the benefit of those attending his funeral.

Sabbath rest is a gift to us from God. He could have instructed us to work like dogs non-stop seven days a week. Instead He gave us the gift of rest. It is part of His grace to us. Accept the gift. Attend a worship service this weekend and get some rest.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Grace”

Our Bible verse for today: “I assure you: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.” Matthew 25:40 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Grace often shows up in the most unlikely of places.”

Zagorsk Prison is the oldest prison in Russia. Built in 1832, most of the structure is below ground – deep below ground. To get to the cells you have to descend long flights of stone steps. The cells themselves are small, crowded, dark, and damp. It is truly a dungeon in the worst sense. Inmates spend years there without ever seeing the sun.

At one point, shortly after the fall of communism, the government was in shambles and was forced to cut off all funds to the prison, therefore there was no longer any food to feed the prisoners. In desperation the Warden turned to the monks in a local monastery, asking them for help. The monks made it their mission to provide daily food for the prisoners out of their own meager rations. In turn, the Warden allowed the monks to construct a chapel in the prison and to hold weekly worship services. Soon there was a robust church thriving in that place. It was grace in a dungeon.

As I write this I’m in Carrefour, Haiti. It’s a coastal town approximately thirty miles northwest of the capital city of Port-Au-Prince. I’m here on a short trip to meet with some new ministry partners, do a little fact-finding, and make plans for future mission trips.

Haiti is a country with a long history of exploitation by foreign powers, rampant corruption by their own leaders, and a seemingly never ending cycle of natural disasters. There is a small wealthy ruling class, but the majority of the population lives in abject poverty.

In the middle of the poverty and despair is Grace International Ministries – a ministry formed by Haitians to minister to Haitians. With over 260 churches across the island, along with a hospital, three orphanages, a widow’s home, numerous Christian schools, and multiple training sites to teach trade skills to young people, Grace International brings the love, mercy and compassion of Jesus, into a difficult and desperate situation. It kind of reminds me of the story of the monks and Zagorsk prison.

I’m looking forward to bringing medical and dental mission teams to Haiti to work alongside our brothers and sisters from Grace International. It’s a wonderful example of grace in the most unlikely of places.

God’s grace shines most brightly when it shines in dark and unexpected places. That could be a dank Russian prison, or a place like Haiti. But it could just as easily be your workplace on a bad day, or in a hospital room, or perhaps even in your own home. I encourage you to intentionally be a conduit for the grace of God to flow in unexpected ways and in unexpected places.

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Grace”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “God’s grace is sufficient.”

 

The last of the four sub-categories of God’s special grace is what is known as “sufficient grace”. It is the quality of God’s grace being fully sufficient first of all, for our salvation. Hebrews 7:25 in the NIV reads, “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through Him.” What we read there is that those who come to the Father through the Son are saved fully and completely. God’s special grace is sufficient to ensure our salvation. That’s why the writer of the favorite Baptist Hymn “Grace Greater than Our Sin” was able to write the great lyric, “Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin.”

 

But God’s grace is also sufficient for to meet all of our needs and situations in this life. This is what Paul was writing about in 2 Corinthians 12:9. In Paul’s case, he had some sort of health problem that was debilitating to the point that he pleaded in prayer for God to take it away. God could certainly have done that, but instead he gave Paul the strength and the courage to face the situation head-on and in a manner that brought honor and glory to God.

 

That’s true for you too. Sometimes God will deliver you from the problems, heartaches, and challenges of this life. But more often, through his abundant and sufficient grace, He will empower you to face them and to deal with them in a courageous and admirable way.

 

For the follower of Christ, God’s special grace is fully sufficient to meet all of our needs – in this life and in the next.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Grace”

Our Bible verse for today: “We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice speaking to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” Acts 26:14 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “God’s grace is irresistible.”

So far within the category of God’s special grace we have looked at two of the four sub-categories including “prevenient” or what we called “enabling” grace, and “efficacious” or “effective” grace. Today we want to consider “irresistible grace”. Finally! A word we can understand and don’t have to redefine!

Irresistible grace is exactly that, it is irresistible. Once you experience it you can’t resist it. It is closely tied to enabling grace and effective grace. Enabling grace is the grace of God to me which existed even before I had any interest in Jesus Christ. God loved me and was reaching out to me. Enabling grace is that quality of God’s grace which ensures that God’s grace will have its desired effect in me. But irresistible grace is that quality of God’s grace which, once I’m open enough to experience it, makes it too good to resist.

This is what Paul experienced in Acts 26:14 during his conversion experience on the road to Damascus. Without him even realizing it was happening, Paul’s heart had been prepared to receive Christ. He was in exactly the condition the Holy Spirit needed him to be in. As the encounter with Christ was occurring, and the light of awareness and truth was flooding into Paul’s heart, it was too much for him and he couldn’t resist it. That’s what Jesus meant when He said, “It’s hard for you to kick against the goads.” In other words, “You can’t resist Me can ya?”

The concept of irresistible grace helps us to understand that although a person can have a hard heart and thereby resist and rebuff God’s overtures, once the heart is open enough to allow grace in, it comes in like a flood and immediately becomes too much to resist.

In Psalm 34:8 King David urged us to, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Yes He is, and it doesn’t take much to come to that conclusion. Open your heart just a crack and the grace of God will come bursting in and you will quickly discover how much you like it.

There was a television commercial many years ago which urged the viewers to “Try it, you’ll like it.” Well, that may have been true of their product but it’s even truer of God. Try God and you will find that He is indeed irresistible.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Grace”

Our Bible verse for today: “My sheep know My voice, I know them and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish – ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” John 10:27-29 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “God’s special grace is permanent.”

In recent days we have noted the difference between common grace and special grace. While common grace is experienced by all humans simply because they live on planet earth, special grace comes only to those who place their faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins. And within the category of special grace, there are four sub-categories which help us to better understand and appreciate the full scope of God’s grace.

Yesterday we considered “prevenient” or “enabling” grace. Today we want to look at “efficacious” grace. I know, I know, there’s another one of those fifty-cent theological words that nobody uses or understands. Me too. I had to look it up. “Efficacious” simply means “producing the desired effect.” “Efficacious grace” produces the effect God intended. So for our purposes we’ll just call it “effective” grace.

Effective grace means that God’s grace produces the effect that He desired. And what would that effect be? Your salvation. What God wants is for you to be with Him in heaven forever. He loves you, He reaches out to you, He sent His Son to die for you, and the entire purpose of His grace is so that you will be with Him forever in heaven.

So does God’s special grace achieve that desired result? According to Jesus it does. That’s what He said in John 10:27-29. Once you belong to Him it’s a done deal and nothing in all eternity can change it. You are His, you will be with Him and the Father for ever, and Satan can go pound sand in frustration because you can now never be snatched out of the Savior’s flock. Once saved always saved.

The grace of God is for a specific purpose (your salvation) and if you will open your heart and receive the free gift of grace, it will achieve in you the purpose God intends – chief of which is your presence with Him in heaven forever.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Grace”

Our Bible verse for today: “God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” Romans 5:8 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Grace comes first.”

Are you familiar with the term “prevenient grace”? No? That’s ok, neither was I. It turns out that “prevenient” is a fifty-cent theological word that means “preceding”. It simply means that if something is “prevenient” it came first and enabled some other thing to happen. So “prevenient grace” is a kind of grace that comes first and then makes it possible for more grace to be experienced.

But since you and I don’t live in the world of theologians, I vote that we simply call it “enabling grace”. “Enabling” grace enables more grace to happen. It’s in the category of God’s “special” grace and it’s what Paul was referring to in Romans 5:8 when he explained that even though we were lost in our sins, Christ died for us. His sacrifice preceded our faith and enabled our salvation.

The Apostle John wrote about this too in 1 John 4:10, “Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” And in 1 John 4:19, “We love because He first loved us.”

You see, God started it. He loved us before we loved Him. Jesus died for us even though we were steeped in sin and couldn’t have cared less about Him. God’s grace preceded our faith and enabled our salvation.

The great theologian John Wesley taught that “prevenient” or “enabling” grace is the force that is at work on the heart of a lost sinner and which brings forth the first dawning of awareness that the individual needs Jesus. Prevenient or enabling grace enables salvation, transformation, and ultimately glorification to begin.

What does all this mean for us? Well, we commonly think of people searching for and reaching out to God, but actually it’s the other way around. God started this. He goes first. He is searching for you; He is reaching out to you. His grace is extended to you and He is knocking on the door of your heart even though you don’t deserve it and you may not have the first thought about needing or wanting Jesus. Accept this gift of enabling grace and the door opens wide for much, much more grace.

He’s reaching out to you. Are you willing to receive Him?

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Grace”

Our Bible verse for today: “Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:18 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Special grace comes to us through our relationship with Jesus.”

So far in our study of grace we have learned that grace is “Undeserved blessings freely bestowed upon people by God.” And we learned that “common grace” is called common because it involves the blessings of God which are automatically available to and experienced by all people, simply by being inhabitants of planet earth.

Today we want to turn our thoughts to “special grace”. The Dictionary of Evangelical Theology defines it like this: “Special grace is the grace by which God redeems, sanctifies, and glorifies his people.” This is different from common grace in that special grace is bestowed only upon those who have received the gift of eternal life by coming to God’s Son Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins.

Rather than just experiencing the simple benefits of common grace such as sunshine, rain, social order, etc, those who receive special grace are blessed with redemption, sanctification (transformation), and glorification. Special grace is the conduit through which the best and most important blessings of God come to us. Think of it as common grace on steroids. This is a completely different level of being blessed by God.

But please remember, just like common grace, special grace comes to us as a free gift from God. We don’t deserve it, there is nothing we can do to earn it, and therefore we certainly should not be prideful about the fact that we have it and someone else doesn’t.

Please note the way Paul phrased 2 Corinthians 5:18. First of all, special grace comes from God. He is the originator of it. Second, it comes through Christ. Were it not for Jesus, there would be no special grace. Third, God reconciled us to Himself. We didn’t reconcile ourselves. The action was taken by Him. And fourth, once you have been reconciled and therefore have received this gift of special grace, God then tasks you with the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, you now have the privilege and the responsibility of sharing Jesus with others so that they too can be reconciled to God and thereby experience His special grace.

Special grace is deep and rich and there is more that needs to be said about it. We’ll continue exploring it tomorrow.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Grace”

Our Bible verse for today: “For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Matthew 5:45 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “Everyone gets to experience God’s common grace.”

Yesterday we defined grace as “Undeserved blessings freely bestowed upon people by God.” But in His divine wisdom God created varying degrees of grace, and how much of His grace any individual gets to experience depends on that individual’s relationship with God.

Basically there are two broad categories of God’s grace, “common grace” and “special grace”. Then within the broad category of “special” grace, there are four sub-categories. Today we will think about common grace. In the days to come we will explore special grace.

Common grace is so called because it is common to all mankind. Everyone gets it whether they seek it or not, and whether they want it or not. In Matthew 5:45 Jesus gave us two examples of God’s common grace – sunshine and rain. Everybody gets to experience the blessing of sunshine and everyone gets some rain. Good people and evil people, the righteous and the unrighteous, everyone gets sunshine and rain as a result of God’s blessing upon the human race in general.

We see another example of common grace in the way in which God created human governments to impose order on societies. Common grace is also expressed in the inborn understanding that all human beings have between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, and the awareness that we are accountable to each other. These are essential elements of living in any community and they are common throughout the human race.

Jesus is an expression of both common and special grace. With respect to common grace, God sent Jesus to the whole world. While it’s true that not everyone accepts Him, it’s still true that Jesus was sent into the world and for the world. The world and everyone in it has been blessed in some manner because Jesus came. This world is a better place because Jesus came.

God’s common grace demonstrates His continuing care for all of His creation. It’s a very good thing and we should thank Him for it. But “special” grace is the grace you really want. We will spend the next several days exploring what it is, what it does, and how you get it.

God Bless,
Pastor Jim