Operative Grace

I’m getting more and more bowled over by the way I see the hand of the Lord in all sorts of things.  It’s amazing to see how He works in the lives of non-believers and they just seem to ignore it or are unable to see it.  But I guess that’s one of the way’s in which we can tell that He is alive in us, because we get to see it and are reduced to tears at His goodness in letting us see it.  There’s a song by Mercy Me that really describes this.  It’s called “Bring The Rain”, and here are some of the lyrics:

I can count a million times / people asking me how I / can praise You with all that I’ve gone through.  The question just amazes me / can circumstances possibly change / who I forever am in You?

The depth of feeling in these lyrics is something else.  But what it really speaks to is how a Christian experiences life as opposed to a non-Christian.  I mean, I can see how God’s at work to change the hearts and minds of people I work with, to incline them more to one another in love.  Now, it’s not the great turning towards God that still needs to come, but it’s a start.  What I find most amazing is that in learning not to take each other for granted, these people are taking small steps towards learning more about what God feels for His children.  And I have been placed in the position of being able to observe this and offer the truth of Christianity in it.  This is what’s really amazing.

Acting on that, however, is what will make the difference.  Not speculation, not thoughtful commentary.

Action.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Bearing Witness II

As I said last time, we are, every minute of every day, teaching someone something. Not necessarily in words or concepts, but certainly in character. So living in the freedom of Christ takes on a whole new weight of meaning. So does just living in Christ. If we thought about this as much as we think about, say, for example, how others are mistreating us, I’m sure we’d be unable to act on anything. Thank the Lord, then, that we don’t think about it…and then pray for His grace on the fact that we don’t think about it.

This is an important point of being authentic. What does it say about Jesus when we sin in judging, for example, or mean-spirited argument? We know what He says about it from Matthew7:1-5, to name one example:

“‘Judge not, that you be not judged. for with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother ‘let mew take the speck out of your eye’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.’”

These verses are so often taken out of context, however, and are used to condone liberal thinking.  I’m of the mind that they are, in context, a guidebook on being wary of presuming a higher standard than anyone else, which contradicts Romans 3:19-26:

“Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.  For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.  But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it – the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.  For there is no distinction:  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.  this was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

All have sinned, and no-one is of higher value in the eyes of God than His Son, whose righteousness is our propitiation.  We are not to presume a higher standing, or act in ways that might bring glory to ourselves.  This includes comments like “I don’t think you’re giving people what they need”…as if to presume that we know any better.  I’ve been feeling very convicted on this particular point of late, for a number of reasons.

My intent in this post, then, is simple.  To get my thoughts out on a particular point of living in Christ.  I’ve got one more, I think, about bearing witness, and then who knows.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer

Instants of Culture

In thinking about what I enjoy seeing in the movies these days as opposed to what I used to look for, I’m pretty amazed at where I’m headed.  I have a few friends who won’t watch any movies that have even a hint of swearing, sexuality or ‘worldliness’ in them, and it strikes me that they may have a point.  Hardlining like that can be limiting, but in another way it really helps others to see that there’s something different in the lives of these people.  Now, I’m not going to agree with them on this particular point of their faith, because I believe that intentionally blinding ourselves to what the world does with the sins of the flesh – the exaltation of immorality, for example, and the religion of self – is wrong.  By grace we have been removed from these, to live in them no longer.

Getting back to my original point, however, I say that I’m amazed at where I’m headed because I’m heading towards movies that engage and challenge the soul rather than the mind exclusively.  I still do, and will always enjoy the movies that plumb the nature of existence, examine perception and reality, and point to something outside of themselves – I am a child of the Matrix generation.  But I’ve started to look at movies as objects and products of the culture from which they emerge, preserving instants of cultural definition in a timeless suspension.  And I’ve started to see what frightening things that culture holds for those outside of Christ.  That’s why I want to start pulling these things out for you as I see them.

Enough heavy for a little while now, I think.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Sufficiency V – Grace

At long last, a return to the Sufficiency Series, this time with the upward-looking aspects of the sufficiency of Christ and his teaching in a post-modern world. I’ll begin tonight with a quote from 2 Corinthians 12:7-11, familiar to all who have looked at themselves and seen the truth of the weakness of the flesh.

“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations [God gave me], a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me ‘my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. for the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

So let’s think about sufficient grace for minute. This point of Scripture is going to be foundational as we move ahead with the examination of sufficiency, because it addresses the very things I’ve been talking abut thus far.

First, ‘my grace is sufficient’: That is, all other things are insufficient in weakness but His grace, to look at it conversely.

Second, ‘for you’: Spoken directly to Paul, but by extension to the ‘you’ who reads the text, in the curious symbiotic relationship between a reader and the text, between the word and the audience.

Third, ‘for my power’: Inextricably related to grace is power; my grace is sufficient…for my power…’. God glorifies Himself in giving grace and in claiming His sovereign power over human frailty

Fourth, “is made perfect in weakness.”: Further to three, God actually reflects His very nature as outlined by Scriptures in making Himself perfect in weakness and dependency. Lest heresy should come from my keys, let me make that clear. God Himself is sufficient in grace, demonstrated through perfection in His power and our weakness. There’s a lot to be drawn out of that tiny phrase, and since this post is meant as an overview and beginning of examination in sufficiency, let me leave it there for the time being and switch to talking solely about grace.

So what is grace?

I may have mentioned a definition of it before, but regardless, it bears repeating. Grace is, in my opinion, the extreme form of mercy that allows God, in His absolute power, holiness, goodness and glory to see His Son’s righteousness in place of our own sinfulness if we profess Christianity and believe it in our hearts. I say absolute because by rights, we should not exist as worshipers of Christ in the state of sin we are born to, and by rights, we do not warrant the sacrifice of Christ despite any illusions of righteousness we may possess. But in perfection also lies grace, for perfection as we should define it is the consummation, the apex, the completely highest point of all that is good, taking good to be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.

In other words…grace is the cleansing of profanity in thought, deed and action from the soul and the body.

And Christ’s sacrifice expresses this perfectly.

More next time.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.