Will You Accept Me?

Many, if not most people find the Old Covenant difficult to understand. We really shouldn’t have that much trouble with it. In fact, the Old Covenant should have a special appeal for us? Why? Because the Old Covenant is based completely on performance. Most people, atheists especially, fancy themselves to be really good people, top performers, people who God should be thrilled to have in heaven. In the Old Covenant, God gave us exactly what we want. “Judge me by how good I am.” Of course, we want the standard of goodness to be set by us, by ourselves, by ME. That way I can judge you by your behaviours while I judge myself by my intentions.

Sadly, what people don’t get is that if you want to be accepted on the basis of performance, your performance has to be perfect even as God in heaven is perfect. Phrases such as "Fat Chance," and "Good luck with that," are appropriate here.

Thankfully, God has provided a means for our salvation that is based on His mercy. Our acceptance is based upon God’s Grace which is triggered by our faith in what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross. Now of course Grace is a scandalous concept to those who see themselves as better than others. Atheists in particular are outraged that anyone, Did You Hear That? ANYONE! can be saved by Grace. Atheists love to punish and each and every one of them have at least one person in mind, who they believe doesn't deserve to be forgiven.

We are currently living in the age of Grace. All who admit they are sinners, all who are willing to humble themselves and repent of their sins can be forgiven. But that’s the problem - isn’t it? Grace, implies the presence of sin. Grace implies the acceptance for a NEED for grace. Where there is no admission of sin, there is no Grace available. And that is what atheists cannot tolerate. For if they admit to a need for Grace they are also admitting that they are in fact not good people without God. Without self-honesty there is simply no way of being accepted.

A religion like no other

As the story goes, C. S. Lewis happened by a room at Oxford where a group of theologians were deep in discussion. To Lewis' query of, "What are you discussing?" they replied, "We talking about what is the greatest difference between Christianity and all other religions?" Lewis answered with, "Oh that's easy. It's grace."

If you're like me you will be confronted day in and day out with the option of reacting to other people's annoying behaviours with either punishment or love, retaliation or grace, anger or forgiveness. Jesus knew, and He wants us to know that grace and only grace is effective in getting past the layers of leathery self-protection that wounded people wear.

I heard an entertainer say once, "When we're young, we punch our fists into the air and holler "Justice!" When we're old, we bow our heads and whisper, "Mercy."

Mercy and grace can be defined this way.
. Mercy is when we don't get what we DO deserve.
. Grace is when we do get what we DON'T deserve.

Grace is, I think, what most of us would like to be filled with. Grace is what we envision when we speak of tolerance. In Christianity, both grace and tolerance acknowledge the gritty, painful, ugly side of sin, the reality of sin. Yet, both grace and tolerance are able to see the valuable human being beyond the sin. Grace accepts the person, not in spite of, but because of the hard, sometimes repellent exterior. Grace is a gift to the one who sees h/herself as your enemy. That is why true grace is counter-intuitive in the extreme.

Just as retaliation begets retaliation, sometimes for centuries on end, grace also begets grace. Grace is profoundly attractive. In fact, Jesus' grace attracted to Him the absolute worst that society has to offer. It still does. Oddly enough, His grace also pushed away from Jesus those who were the most self-righteous; those who saw no need for God's grace and forgiveness. It still does. For those who have experienced Jesus' love and forgiveness, His grace holds them to Him like super-glue. Like the opposite pole of a magnet, grace repels those who for various reasons need to deny the sin that dwells within them.

In the fifth chapter of a letter that Dr. Luke wrote to a person called Theophilus, the doctor recalls a night when Jesus was accused of "eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners." Sadly, the people accusing Jesus of this "offence," the religious elite, didn't care one bit about Jesus' restorative relationship with these people. In fact, they would have been surprised to find out that God was annoyed with THEM for this attitude. And isn't that the way it always is? Regardless of whether we consider ourselves religious, it's our pseudo-piety and jacked up vision of our morality that steps in between us and God. Again, as C.S. Lewis has said, It isn't prostitutes who are in danger of thinking that this world offers everything they need. That is why Jesus said to the Pharisees who were finding fault with Him, "It is not those who are well, who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners to repentance."

Is that you? Do you recognise your need for help? Or are your hands so full of things that the world has to offer that you think you've got it made? Do you see yourself as "good enough?" If not, if you know that you are spiritually sick with sin, God longs to provide for you all the things that the world promises but stands no chance of providing. The “arms of grace” are always open and willing to bring us home; to formally recognise our real identity as a child of God.

Amazing Grace

As I climbed into bed last night and began my last prayer of the day, my past came to mind. The literally countless acts of rebellion against my Creator were remembered like an endless trainload of crushed vehicles or scrap metal. Stealing, fighting, cheating, using people and being used by people. Alcohol and street drug abuse, sex with I don’t even know how many women. I was absolutely untrustworthy. I was treacherous. I was unable to love anyone except myself. What a wretch! What a pitiful excuse for a human being. And none of it showed. At least not to anyone in the crowd to which I belonged. Money, clothes, cars, the best seats in the best clubs, and everything else that a hedonistic young man could want was mine. Just below the surface however lay a deep, dark pool of evil. Arrogance and pride oozed from every pore. Why I never wound up in prison is still a mystery to me. Why no one every died because of my behaviours is still a mystery. I used to say, ‘I never reached the bottom, but from where I stood, I could clearly see it, smell it and touch it.’

My memory brought back an image of thousands and thousands and thousands of sins. Yet this was not a depressing memory. Nor was it a memory that was akin to a bad dream. You see, this was a litany of sins for which I’ve been forgiven. As I pondered the amazing Grace and Mercy of my Lord and Saviour, my head bowed and my eyes lowered in humble submission to the one who died to set me free from my absolute slavery to a sinful life. It became clearer to me than at any previous time in the past when I'd read in the Bible how those who came into a clear awareness of God’s glory fell on their faces before Him. The more that I or anyone catches a glimpse of our sinfulness, the more that the Love of God stands out in contrast. Our forgiveness is like a stream leading back to the clear, cold glacier source, or a beam of light leading the seeker back to the Son.

I can’t begin to describe how wonderful it is to have a healed and forgiven relationship with Jesus the Christ. For only in a loving relationship does a person have the freedom to change. It was once again a good reminder that while -
I’m not who I should be
And I’m not who I’m going to be
Thanks to God alone
I’m not who I used to be.

If I needed only one miracle to prove to me the reality of Jesus as God, I’m it. I still have light-years of change to go before I become a decent human being. Yet, the distance that God has brought me is mind-boggling. I truly am a new creation. So what makes this a miracle? I mean, lots of people improve themselves. Lot’s of people go on self-improvement programs and amaze everyone around them who had basically written them off. Well, that’s just it. “I” didn’t do this. I didn’t set out to change or to become a better person. All I did was accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour and the rest, as they say, is history. Jesus did the changing. Jesus did the strengthening. Jesus did the moulding and the shaping and the growing. All glory be to God, the Creator of all that is seen and unseen.
Amen and Amen.

God's Grace - Use It Or Lose It.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8.

D. L. Moody tells the story of a teacher in the 1800's who attempted to teach his students about God’s Grace. The teacher took from his pocket a silver watch and offered it to the oldest boy in the class. “It’s yours if you will take it,” he said.

The boy, believing it a joke, and thinking that he would be laughed at if he held out his hand, smiled and sat still. In the same way, the teacher offered it to the next child, and to the next and the next until he came to the youngest child in the class. When the watch was offered to the young lad, he took it and put it into his pocket. All the class laughed at him.

“I am thankful, my boy,” said the teacher, “that you believe my word. The watch is yours.”

The rest of the class looked on in amazement and one of the them said, “Teacher, you don’t mean that the watch is his, do you?”

“Indeed it is,” replied the teacher.

“Oh, no!” groaned the boy. “If I had only known that, I would have taken it!”

So many people blame God for not allowing everyone go to heaven. Like this story however, God cannot give the gift of salvation to those who will not receive it.

God's Grace is "Free"

We have rubber because thousands of Natives in the Amazon died. This happened so that the ingredients for rubber could be taken from them and given to us.

We in North America live in wealth beyond imagination because thousands of Native Americans died. This happened so that their land could be taken from them and given to us.

Most of we who blog live with the freedom to express ourselves as we please. Millions of soldiers died so that we could have this freedom.

Disgusting barely describes the transfer of this power and wealth.
Horrific barely describes the subsequent abuses of this power and wealth

We can have forgiveness of our sins, freedom from guilt and possession of the Grace, Mercy and Love of God. We can spend eternity in the presence of our perfectly Holy Creator. This can happen because Jesus died in order to give these things to us.

. God Himself paid the price of salvation for us.
. God Himself was tortured to death on our behalf.
. God Himself did this so that He could give salvation to us “Free of charge.”

Amazing, Fantastic, Astonishing, Marvelous, Tremendous, Wonderful - Our language does not contain the words to describe the amazing Love of our Creator God.

The Parables of Jesus

When Jesus told us His parables, He was describing Himself. The parables were describing the love of Jesus. They were describing His passion for those who do not yet know His forgiveness and salvation. He was describing His revulsion toward those of us to have received His forgiveness and who then turn around and withhold forgiveness, grace and mercy from others who are sharing this global community with us.

In the story of the prodigal son, Jesus shows that God longs to renew a relationship with those who are falling between the cracks of life - those struggling with multiple addictions, criminals, those who can only find a sense of belonging in serial relationships, those who can only find worth when it's reflected back to them in the things that they own, those who are “kept in place” through poverty and violence.

Jesus shows in His parables that the whole purpose in His relationship with humanity is to seek and to save those who are in rebellion to His love; to bring into His embrace those who, out of ignorance of His inclusive love, are trying to push Him away.

The Sceptic's Miscue on Grace

The question that sceptics ask is, “How could a loving God eternally punish someone as wonderful as me?” What they need to be asking is, “What kind of Love, what kind of Mercy, what kind of Grace does this God possess that causes Him to reach out and save for eternity the worst individuals who have ever been born?

The Scandalous Concept of God's Grace

For those who do not know the “Good News,” or the “Gospel” of Jesus Christ, the concept of Grace is beyond their comprehension. Why would God do something like that? What kind of screwed up love would make a father sacrifice his only son?

Here is a true story that might help you to understand what God has done for us. In 1898, there was a man whose job was to operate the raising and lowering of a railroad bridge that spanned a certain river in England. He would raise the bridge so that larger boats could pass underneath. And of course he would keep the bridge lowered so that the regularly scheduled trains could pass as necessary.

As the story goes, one day this man forgot his lunch at home. Thinking that it would be a nice treat for her son to visit his dad, his wife gave the lunch to the young lad and told him to take it down to his father in the Lift Station. As young people often do, the boy got distracted. Apparently, a boat had taken longer than anticipated to pass underneath the bridge. As the man quickly grabbed the leavers to lower the bridge for a train that was about to arrive, he noticed his son, down by the river, playing in the lowering mechanism. What to do? Lowering the bridge would ensure the death of his son. Not lowering the bridge would kill many if not most of the two hundred commuters on the train. There was no time to warn his son. There was no way to warn the engineer. A decision had to be made.

The father lowered the bridge. He sacrificed the life of his one and only son, to save the lives of many. As the train went roaring past, the father, with tears streaming down his face cried out to those whom he saw idly reading their morning papers on the train, “How can you ignore what just happened? Your lives were saved at the cost of my son’s life!”

Of course, this story is not a perfect comparison. As did Jesus, in relation to us, the boy did not die with the desire to save our lives. Nor did the people on the train have to make a decision about the importance of the boy's death as it pertained to their future. In fact, unlike the death of Jesus, those on the train did not even know that a sacrifice has been made. One thing is certain however. If you think that disregarding Jesus’ sacrificial death on your behalf isn’t deeply disturbing to God the Father, you need to think again. Accepting God’s offer of Grace, by placing your faith in Jesus, promises beauty beyond imagination. Ignoring or mocking that sacrifice means horrific consequence beyond description. This is not a threat as some imagine it to be. This time around, the Father has given us a WARNING. He has given us time to move from our place of dangerous complacency. It can only be prudent to heed such a warning.

Jesus' Love

Jesus loves with such an incredibly aggressive love. He steps right through our spittle on his face, and our curses and our smash face punches and our kicks to his groin. He walks up to us through our hatred and rejection. He comes to us through our doubts and unneeded fears. He shows mercy and grace despite our desertion. While we are still His enemies He wraps His arms around us and loves us. He says, "Come home to where you'll be safe and warm and cared for. Come home."