Unexpected Grace

“God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.” Romans 5:20

He appeared out of nowhere. Blue and red lights burst on right about the time I laid eyes on his intimidating, unmarked SUV.  Immediately I checked the speedometer. It confirmed what the officer knew: I was speeding. A sinking feeling knotted my stomach as I prepared to receive the punishment for my inadvertent disobedience of the traffic laws.

I watched in my rear view mirror as the police car crept up behind me. With driver’s license and registration in hand, my fingers tapped in irritation on the steering wheel. My scowl deepened as I impatiently waited for the policeman to walk to my window. “Sir, I stopped you for speeding. Driver’s license and registration please.”

Then it happened. The unexpected. The unwarranted. The undeserved.  The policeman glanced into my car and checked out my passengers (including my three deer-in-the-headlights kids in the back seat). Then he startled us all by blurting out a big ol’ Southern “Hey!” to my wife, calling her by name.

Apparently they had grown up in church together and proceeded to spend a couple of friendly minutes reacquainting. He handed back my license and registration and gave me a smile. “Slow it down please, and have a good day.”

We sat stunned and breathed a collective sigh of relief as I drove away – slowly, I might add.  I had not paid attention to the guidelines set forth. My guilt was obvious, and I had no excuse. I deserved to suffer the consequences, but instead I was given grace.

Grace is undeserved favor or pardon. We can’t earn it or buy it. It’s something the giver bestows out of the goodness and love in their heart. The Bible tells countless stories of people who received grace, including prostitutes, unfaithful marriage partners, deceivers, thieves, liars and more. Their sins deserved a punishment, but when they asked God for forgiveness, His grace wiped their guilt away. They were treated as pardoned offenders – just as I was.

In the verse above, Paul is reminding the people of Corinth that despite their sin, God is good, and the Giver of grace. It serves as a reminder that God not only offers grace – He offers it in abundance. The more we need, the more we get.

Although God hates sin because it separates us from Him and ushers pain into our lives, His grace is available no matter how big our offense may be. And when we receive the pardon that was paid through the sacrifice of His Son, and begin a relationship with Jesus Christ, we receive grace, forgiveness and mercy.  As much as I appreciated the grace extended to me from the officer that day, it paled in comparison to God’s grace. You see, the officer’s grace was one of kindness, but not one of redemptive love. It was a grace of compassion, but not the life-saving grace Jesus gives.

The truth is, I deserved a speeding ticket that day but grace was given. In the same way, although we deserve punishment for sin, God’s forgiveness and favor are offered anyway... through the gift of His unexpected, unwarranted and undeserved grace.

Dear Lord, thank You for the undeserved gift of grace. Forgive my sins, and shower me with Your favor, even though it is undeserved. Thank You for loving me enough to grant me pardon for my mistakes. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Casey Dacus
Graham, TX

Been Watered Lately?

Two weeks shy of Easter and its 28 degrees outside with snow berms over my head.  This winter has seen record breaking snow fall in Alaska.  While the snow is beautiful and fun to play in, once the vernal equinox rolls around my eyes expect to see signs of spring.  My mind wanders back to the sights and smells of West Texas awakening from its winter slumber.  The candy red of the spider lilies, the vibrant green of budding pecan trees, and the heady smell of wisteria fill my heart with longing.  

For now, I have traded in the white Easter sandals of my youth for boots with traction.  Feeling my plight and attempting to cheer me up, my best friend brought me a bundle of tight, dry, husked blooms the other night.  The label promised me they were daffodils, so I put them in water and went to bed.  The next morning I awoke to beautiful yellow blooms trumpeting their Creator’s praise.  I was amazed to see how a night spent in water had transformed the buds.  

By night, Nicodemus came with a question and Jesus answers him with, “water and Spirit”.  In John chapter 4, Jesus tells the Samaritan women that if she drinks of the water that he gives, not only will she will never be thirsty again, but the water he gives will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.  Jesus goes on to describe the Holy Spirit as a “flowing river of living water,” in John 8.

Much like the tight, dry, daffodil blooms, our human hearts stay tightly wound and hard until we come into contact with the living water of Jesus.  The prophet Isaiah reminds God’s people that if we “loose the straps of oppression” and cry out for God we will be like a well-watered garden...beautifully blooming to our fullest potential.  Like time spent in a beautiful flower garden, time spent with us will be restorative and pleasing to the soul.   We will also provide nourishment and shelter.  Let the words of Isaiah wash over you and bring your heart joy, like they did mine.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry,
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.    Isaiah 58:9-11

Dana Jaworski 
Anchor Point, AK

The Grandeur of God’s Creation

“…When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4)

Prompted to contemplate the glory and grandeur of God’s creation, you might be inclined to go out on a clear night and gaze into “outer space” at the innumerable stars in the heavens. Of the thousands of stars visible to the naked eye, only 12 are within a range of 10 light years, and only 133 within 50 light years. If there were a means of travelling somehow at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), you could span almost 6 trillion miles in a year, and yet at that speed, it would take you over 4 years to reach Proxima Centauri, a relatively small brown dwarf star not much larger than  Jupiter, and the closest star to our sun. If you take the most distant stars visible to you and me, those at a distance of approximately 2000 light years away, we’re still talking about a distance that is only 1/50th of the diameter of the Milky Way.

That’s “outer space.” Let’s take a look at “inner space!” To put things in perspective, picture a relatively large body of water, such as the Gulf of Mexico.  Emptying into the Gulf is a rather non-descript river system we call the Brazos. There are hundreds of smaller tributaries that in turn feed the Brazos. Among those, just north of Abilene, 3 small creeks—the Elm, Catclaw, and Cedar—merge, and, after a small hiccup called Ft. Phantom Lake, flow into the Clear Fork of the Brazos.

Now, pull a single eyedropper of water from Cedar Creek and place a drop between two glass slides. Beneath the lens of a microscope, a marvelous universe appears!  This is where I believe God did some of His finest work. Look! There’s an amoeba! Its size is only about 90 μm (symbol for micrometers), and yet it moves and digests and reproduces. It is a living, single-cell organism. In comparison, it’s about 900 times the size of an average virus; and to put that in terms that are a little more visual, it’s like a 6 ft. man standing next to a man over a mile high.

Consider the human body that is made up on a cellular level of countless muscle fibers, bone fibers, blood cells, dendrites, nerve endings, tissues—none of which on an individual level has the remotest ability to conceive what the concerted work of all as a whole looks like or is able to achieve. And we honestly fail to consider what a wonderful machine we are. We fail to appreciate all the unique and individual parts that make up our physical, mental, and emotional being.

Whether we look to outer space or inner space or our own wonderfully constructed beings, why are we so tempted to limit our imaginations? Is it really so hard for humankind to contemplate that whatever we have become in this vast universe of outer and inner spaces we are…under our Creator’s eyes?

Keith Morgan
Abilene, Texas

Seen the Holy Spirit, Lately?

I participate in a Bible study at work each Wednesday at noon.  It’s a diverse group and one of our newer members with little church background has asked for a study on the Holy Spirit.  He’s confused why he heard little about the Holy Spirit growing up in a conservative church and why one of his friends describes the Spirit using much talk about charismatic activities related to the Spirit in his life.  The new guy wants to know how to connect and what the Spirit is going to do within him and through him when he does connect.

He may be asking the wrong question.

I have heard so many questions about what the Holy Spirit does and how he does it.  Usually these questions relate more to some grand things the people asking the question want to experience.  Speaking in tongues, healing and whatever else they can come up with and it most often trends to something that is very visible and very powerful.

I suggested to my friend that the answer might be much simpler and easier to find than he thinks and can be found much quicker than the three weeks we have invested in laying a foundation for the study.  Mimic Jesus.  Live like Jesus.  Do what Jesus did.  

While everyone else wants to know about speaking in tongues, healing what ails you and much more, I suggest that to really know the Holy Spirit, all I have to do is live a life of a disciple by simply opening my eyes to see people who need to know love, who need to experience love, who need someone to believe in them and endure the mess with them.  I propose all I and others need to do to experience the power of the Spirit is to simply live each day dedicated to loving others the way Christ loves me.  It may not be glamorous and it might even be hard and very ugly but Jesus didn’t come to heal and to speak in tongues.  He came to save a lost and dying world, every day, in the trenches, hanging out with the wounded and the hurting and the hungry and the naked and the homeless, both physically and spiritually.

As each day passes, I grow more and more convinced I won’t come to know the Holy Spirit in the comfort of my padded seat in the climate controlled comfort of the beautiful sanctuary I call the church building.  Instead, I will meet the Spirit in the streets, in the gutters, in homes and in hearts of people who are struggling and hurting and grasping for a handhold to pull out of the hole they are in.  

I’ll really know and understand the Holy Spirit when I mimic, live like and do what Jesus did.  I believe this is true because I know Jesus was full of the Spirit.  The Bible says so.

Can it be that simple?

Grace and  peace.

Jeff Jones

Decatur, Texas

The Incredible Journey

The Disney Corporation has made over 330 movies since Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs in 1939.  In 1963 with a remake in 1993, Disney made a movie called Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey.  It is the story of three pets (two dogs and a cat) that make an incredible cross-country journey to be reunited with their family.  Their journey takes them across mountains and rivers, encountering wild animals and many adventures until they are finally reunited with their family.

The Gospel writers tell us about an even more INCREDIBLE journey.  Paul describes it in Philippians 2.  ‘Christ Jesus did not count equality with God something to be grasped, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!  Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place.’

One of the reasons the journey of Jesus is so incredible is because Jesus willingly, voluntarily came from heaven to earth, knowing His ultimate end.  As an old hymn says, ‘He left the splendors of heaven, knowing His destiny was the lonely hill of Golgotha, there to lay down Hid life for me.’  Jesus knew what awaited Him in Jerusalem, but He  was determined to go there and drink the cup of suffering that awaited Him there.  Luke 9:51 says, ‘As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.’  One translation says that ‘He set His face toward Jerusalem.’

The Gospel writers devote major sections of their gospel accounts to describing what transpired during the last week of Jesus on this earth.  Let me encourage all of us to take time to reread the final accounts of the Gospels frequently.  As Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John recount for us the story of Jesus as He makes His journey to Golgotha, it is a great reminder of Paul’s words in Romans 5: ‘When we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  God demonstrates His own love for us in this:  while we were sinners, Christ died for us.  When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son.’

Prayer:  Thank you, God, for letting Your Son make the incredible journey from heaven into our world—sacrificing Himself for us so that we can be in a relationship with You.

Terry Brown

Abilene, Texas

By His Power, For His Glory

It seems when I am striving my hardest to live Christ-minded and share with others, my adversary, Satan, afflicts me with a thorn in my flesh.  As I mature, only through and by the grace of God, I have come to realize that Satan’s desperate attempts to make us stumble by pressure, discouragement, distress, and persecution are deliberately timed.  

Whenever we have sin in our lives, Satan will pounce on the opportunity to turn a possible sin like fear or anger into greater evil. His purpose is to make it as difficult as possible for you and I to reach out to others in a Christ-like manner.  What better time to challenge us than when we are facing our own struggles.  

God tells us that our troubles are meant to show His glory which molds us into the likeness of Christ as a direct result of ministering to the lives and needs of others during our own sufferings just like our brother, Paul.  In Corinthians, Paul shares ways to change our discouragement into peace and joy.  “There was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me three times.  I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong. (II Cor. 12: 7-10)

If we proclaim to have faith in God then why is it so difficult for us to demonstrate faith during our most vulnerable times? Why do we tend to rely on earthly resources before putting our reliance in a God that is so great that He surpasses all knowledge… a God with infinite attributes who allows us to draw on his resources?

Everyone can look back in the past or possibly the present to a time when you didn’t know how you were going to feed your family their next meal, pay the rent or electricity, buy your children shoes, pay medical bills, etc., but yet somehow your needs were met.

I Kings 17 is an example of how Elijah demonstrated his faith and put complete reliance in the Lord and he was fed by the ravens or the poor widow at Zarephath that was preparing her last meal for she and her son. By faith she was blessed by relying on the word of God and never ran out of food. Yet, like some of us, it was not enough. When her son became ill and died, she questioned God as to why she was being punished for her past sins.  It took another miracle of raising her son from dead for her to have complete faith in God.

God works through our weaknesses (II Cor. 11:28 - 12:6) and strengthens us when we are weak and tired. (I Cor. 1: 8, 9) He provides us not with weapons of the world, but weapons of divine power to demolish strongholds. (II Cor. 10:4) We are not alone in facing our troubles. God is faithful. He has proved that over and over in the bible and in our lives.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us hope through our struggles each and every day.  Everything we do by His Power and for His Glory will last to eternity.  Commit to being preoccupied with being holy in all matters of life and demonstrating your faith by total reliance in God.

For this reason, I kneel before the Father. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. To Him be the glory forever and ever! Amen.

Carla Henson

Tuscola, Texas

Prayer Comes in All Sizes

I used to try to pray BIG.  By that I mean I didn’t want to bother God with too many of my small personal requests. I knew I should pray for things such as forgiveness, faith, spiritual growth, and wisdom; for the sick, for the hungry, the missionaries, world peace.  But somehow I had the impression that praying for my own earthly dreams and desires was selfish prayer. In fact, I remember hearing someone say that those who pray such self-centered prayers have a shallow view of God as some kind of divine genie to grant their every wish. And that for me to ask Him to intervene in my life for my own selfish purposes is to attempt to manipulate Him.  

I didn’t want to do that, and it didn’t sound like it would do much good anyway. So I tried to pray big prayers. But I didn’t get to know God very well that way. I didn’t really get to know Him until I started praying small.

I’m thankful for the people in my life who have helped me to have a better understanding of prayer and a closer relationship with the Father. From their example and from studies of the Word about prayer, I decided that I can and should pray about everything.

Philippians 4:6 is a scripture I think of often,

“Do not be anxious about anything, but by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

Does God care about our small needs and requests? Of course he does; He’s our Father.
Is it Ok to pray for God to help you find your car keys when you’ve looked everywhere and you’re late for something really important? Or to pray that the washing machine won’t break down today because you had to buy a new oven just last month; or to pray for your child to have a good day at school today or to do well on an important test?  I think it is.

Whenever I pray for small things, whenever I express to God my daily anxieties and inabilities, I feel much closer to Him.  He becomes part of my daily life. And the more I ask of Him, the more he answers.  The more I talk to Him, the more I want to know Him.  And my faith grows, and I become more bold and confident to pray about the bigger things.  And as my intimacy with God grows, I find it easier to know if I am praying in humility and in His will.

C.H. Spurgeon preached 130 sermons on Prayer.  In one of them he says,

“A little thing may often touch the heart more than a great

thing. Now, how often have we, if we have acted rightly, taken little things

before the Lord. I believe it is the Christian’s privilege to take all his

sorrows to his God, be they little or be they great. I have often prayed to

God about a matter at which you would laugh if I should mention it. In

looking back I can only say it was a little thing, but it seemed great at the

time. It was like a little thorn in the finger, it caused much pain, and might

have brought forth, at last, a great wound. I learned to lay my little troubles

at the feet of Jesus. Why should we not? Are not our great ones little? and

is there, after all, much difference between great troubles and little ones in

the sight of God? My gratitude compels me to say, “I love the Lord, because he has heard those little prayers, and answered my little supplications, and made me blessed, even in little things which, after all, make up the life of man.”

http://www.prayermeetings.org/C_H_Spurgeon_Sermons_on_Prayer.html

Father, help me to grow into a more intimate relationship with You so that I may be anxious for nothing, bringing before you the Small things as well as the Big ones. Show me the things in my life that might hinder my prayers.Thank you for Christ who intercedes for me  now and every time I come before you. Amen

Lynn Anne Hughes

Stephenville, Texas