I love grace. Seriously, I’m consistently astounded by the grace of God.
The thing about grace is that, if you ask 10 people what grace means, you’ll get 10 definitions for the word.
You might hear things like the following…
“God’s unmerited favor” “mercy bestowed” “divine pardon” “endowment of benefit” “bounty” “a gift” “bestow a blessing” and one of my favorites, “God’s ability in my inability”.
But, you know what? I’m a picture guy. I understand things better visually so I want to share a picture with you.
The other day, my seven year old son wanted to go for a bike ride. He saw his older brothers riding up and down the street and wanted to explore the neighborhood. I’ve tried many times to teach him how to ride but he just hasn’t gotten the hang of it. He was really upset with his limitation and was tired of just hanging around the house and yard.
I felt bad for him so I dug an old tandem bicycle out of the garage and told him to hop on. He loved it!He was free from the confines of his limitations, there was joy in his heart as we raced down the street, and he laughed with glee as we explored the neighborhood. It was a new sense of freedom for him and all he had to do was sit back and let me pedal and steer. What a deal!
That’s grace! We don’t deserve it, but Jesus paid our fine, set us free, and empowered us! All we have to do is… hop on.
What are some of your favorite definitions for grace?
Grace
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“I’m not worried about what I’ve done. It’s what I could have done that troubles me.” – A.W. Tozer
I’ll admit it. Between the ages of 15 and 30 I put off a lot of things. Somehow I thought, “I have a long time to accomplish that.” and that line of thinking brought on a certain passiveness that today I regret. Now, here I am, almost halfway through my life with such an urgency to do something great for God that it’s almost paralyzing. My greatest fear? That I’ll reach the end of my life having made little to no impact on the world around me; that somehow I will have missed it and I’ll be full of woulda shoulda couldas.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the 15+ years I’ve been in ministry. It’s just that somehow I believe that there’s something… more. More than Western church work. More than preaching, more than music, more than programs. I mean, if that was what we’re supposed to do, then why are so many going to hell? Why are there starving? Why are people still being sold as slaves? Why do 80% of young people leave the church? Why is the divorce rate just as high in the church as it is outside? Why are 1,500 pastors leaving the ministry every month?
I really do love the local church. I don’t know where I’d be without it. It’s through the local church that I found an awesome relationship with Jesus. That’s where I learned how to pray, found community, and received blessing after blessing from the Father. My question is, “What aren’t we doing?”
Notice, I didn’t ask, “What isn’t the church doing?” After all, WE are the local church. Remember when that missionary came and said he needed help in South Africa? Remember when the Holy Spirit pulled on your heart to go and you didn’t? Do you recall the many times you felt a tug to give to help those in need? You made a mental note to write a check when you got home, but the check was never written. How about that calling to work with the teenagers at your church, but life got in the way and you never got any further than just mentioning it to the youth pastor? I know I’ve been there. My whole family would have been to Africa, I would have had a book written, and thousands of my hard earned dollars would be poured into hundreds of projects by now if I would have just done what I’d meant to do. It’s too bad we don’t get points for good intentions.
Here are a few things we can all do to shorten our list of things we didn’t do:
Start writing down the things you felt you were supposed to do, then start doing them. Sounds overly simplistic, I know, but sometimes the mere act of writing a thing down gets it out of the realm of whims and into a greater sense of reality. Why not? We write down goals like the car we want to buy and the vacation we want to take. Why not write down the things we want to do for God? We’re always looking for God to tell us what to do. Maybe He’s been quiet because we haven’t done the last 20 things he told us to.
Tell somebody. Have someone in your life who will hold you accountable to your dreams. It’s too easy to blow things off when the emotion dies down and it’s all just a big idea rolling around in your head.
Take a small step. Put a couple dollars in an envelope marked “Missions Trip”, commit to serving at only one youth event, or pray five minutes a week for your pastor. Remember, a very small thing is better than no thing and you’ll be surprised at how several baby steps can add up quickly.
So how about you? What are some things you felt called to do but didn’t? What are the things you haven’t done? You can post some things here and have a bunch of people praying for you. Let a life of no regrets be your goal!
* My apologies to all those who commented on this post. I lost it during maintenance and had to repost it. Feel free to comment again!
Let’s admit it. We seldom walk in the total freedom that Christ bought for us.
I recently came across this video made from an old recording of Paris Reidhead preaching. I shared it on Twitter and wanted to share it with you here. I have a difficult time watching it without tearing up as I reflect on what Jesus did for me and how I often respond to it as if it were something less.
I know what you’re thinking. “I don’t have time to watch a seven and a half minute video!” Do yourself a favor. Turn off the phone, quiet your heart, and let the Holy Spirit speak to you through this.
When you’re done, ask yourself, “Do I ever settle for less than all that Christ gave me?” and “Have I ever acted like the slave girl?”
God’s humongous blessings on you!
* My apologies to all those who commented on this post. I lost it during maintenance and had to repost it. Feel free to comment again!
Ever found yourself in a situation like this? You’re tempted. You want to look at that image, vent criticism, gossip, cross that line, bend the truth, or whatever it is your flesh wants to indulge in. But you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit saying, “Don’t go there!” Maybe you don’t hear a voice but you know it’s wrong. Right about then, that other voice kicks in saying, “He’ll forgive you.” Somewhere in the back of your mind you assure yourself of the mercy of God and it comforts you to know that He’ll still love and forgive you if you choose to do the wrong thing… and that comfort usually leads to the wrong decision.
I think sometimes when we struggle with a pattern of sin (secret or public) the answer can simply be found in how we view Jesus. If we stop at Savior, we’re missing so much of what He has for us. We have to accept and view Him as Lord, King, Giver of Life, Best Thing of All! When we approach him simply as a free ticket to heaven, mere fire insurance, we miss out. Plain and simple. He’s so much more and when we give Him Lordship, we receive that abundant life He spoke of. In the end, it’s not so much of a sin problem as it is a Lordship problem. Lordship leads to who and what we bend our lives around.
How do you view Jesus? A.W. Tozer once wrote “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” How you view Jesus will change how you live, where you live, and whether you truly live but you have to want more than simply a forgiveness dispenser.
“Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him.” – Philippians 3:8-9a
* My apologies to all those who commented on this post. I lost it during maintenance and had to repost it. Feel free to comment again!
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
“Discipline is freedom.” Wrap your brain around that! I read through Foster’s book with an equal amount of conviction and excitement about a disciplined life. I’ve always considered myself a relatively disciplined person (at least in a few areas) but I know I could use an adjustment here and there. I learned a long time ago that praying for God to help me be disciplined was crazy talk like praying for longer hair or bigger muscles. Discipline is a choice and a daily decision. It’s not just going to come over you by supernatural influence.
The thing I’ve found though, is that it really DOES bring freedom! I meet with people all the time that are struggling. They struggle with their commitment to Christ, they struggle with their weight, they struggle with their marriage, they struggle with… everything! It astounds me how many times the answer just comes back to discipline. To the struggling believer, I ask, “How’s your prayer life?” The answer is usually a long list of activities that are taking priority over prayer. I see friends struggling with their weight that just can’t seem to establish a discipline of exercise and restraint, pastors with declining churches that won’t discipline themselves to read, grow, and learn a better way, and families falling apart that fail to discipline themselves to say no to all the things that compete for their time together.
I know that’s a pretty general approach to many of the problems that we face. My intention is not to come off as insensitive and all “Drill Sargent-y”. But isn’t it much easier to wish than it is to take practical steps to do? I turned my life over to Christ 25 years ago. I’ve seen many wonderful people turn away from the faith during that time, and I have the pleasure of worshiping alongside others who were with me when I made the most important decision ever. When I look at the lives of those who fell away, gave up the fight, and abandoned their relationship with God, I find only one common thread, only one difference between them and those who are still serving Him today, and it’s a lack of discipline to seek God. That’s it! We all had similar problems, obstacles, and issues. It’s just that the disciplined ones stayed. Hence the old saying, “He who prays stays, and he who fasts lasts“.
There’s an old man in his 90s that I know from the YMCA. His name is Ernie. He swims six days a week! Because of his discipline, he has energy, he’s strong, mobile, and sharp as can be. He didn’t start swimming when he turned 90. He’s been doing it for decades, and now he experiences a great deal of freedom for a man his age. Many men, younger than him, come into the gym feeble, sickly, and tired because they they spent so many years without discipline and now they’re there under doctor’s orders. I don’t know about you, but I want to be like Ernie!
Being disciplined helps you to last. It brings freedom from bondage. It conditions you to serve better. It creates a condition in you that allows God to transform you!
If you don’t believe me, give it a try. Pick a discipline, like prayer or reading, and stick to it every day for six weeks. You WILL notice a difference! Your desires change. You start to long for the good stuff. Your capacity for achievement increases because you’re growing and expanding. Your mind even starts to sharpen because you’re forcing yourself to develop new habits (a side effect to counter-intuitiveness).
I believe so strongly in the power of discipline that, if it doesn’t help you, I’ll refund the money I charged you for reading this blog 😉
One last thing. If you do decide to give it a try, think about posting your benefits on this blog. You never know who you’ll encourage!
Ever found yourself in a situation like this? You’re tempted. You want to look at that image, vent criticism, gossip, cross that line, bend the truth, or whatever it is your flesh wants to indulge in. But you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit saying, “Don’t go there!” Maybe you don’t hear a voice but you know it’s wrong. Right about then, that other voice kicks in saying, “He’ll forgive you.” Somewhere in the back of your mind you assure yourself of the mercy of God and it comforts you to know that He’ll still love and forgive you if you choose to do the wrong thing… and that comfort usually leads to the wrong decision.
