BY THE GRACE OF GOD ,I AM

Amazing Grace: How Sweet the Sound!

Ephesians 2:1-10

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound!

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found;

Was blind but now I see.

There are no better known or more powerful words in all of Christian hymnody. Wherever the words are sung, or the tune played to this old hymn, everyone sings because everyone knows this song. It is the most sung Christian hymn in the world. We sing the words and hear the tune, but do we ever stop to think about the meaning? What is the idea behind this amazing grace that we sing about?

Ephesians 2:1-10. In this passage of Scripture, the Apostle Paul reminds the Ephesians of the great work God has done in their lives. Listen to Paul:

[1] Once you were dead, doomed forever because of your many sins. [2] You used to live just like the rest of the world, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty prince of the power of the air. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. [3] All of us used to live that way, following the passions and desires of our evil nature. We were born with an evil nature, and we were under God’s anger just like everyone else.

[4] But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so very much, [5] that even while we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s special favor (grace) that you have been saved!) [6] For he raised us from the dead along with Christ, and we are seated with him in the heavenly realms—all because we are one with Christ Jesus. [7] And so God can always point to us as examples of the incredible wealth of his favor and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us through Christ Jesus.

[8] God saved you by his special favor (grace) when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. [9] Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. [10] For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Paul’s words tell us that grace is the centerpiece of God’s salvation. There are five words that are key to understanding the Christian gospel. They are grace, truth, faith, love, and hope. Paul says that grace is also a key ingredient. All God’s salvation is for us begins in grace. Everything else in the gospel flows from and builds upon our understanding of grace.

So what is grace? I believe grace as “unmerited divine assistance, approval, favor, mercy, pardon, and privilege.” Those are all nice words, but it doesn’t quite ring the same when we say “we are saved by God’s divine assistance,” and it leaves something left unsaid, because if we are saved simply by God’s assistance, that communicates that we help God in the saving act, but that is exactly what Paul says isn’t the case. He says that God is the actor—it is all God. Grace as Paul shares the concept means the completely undeserved, loving commitment of God to us. For some unknown reason that is rooted in the nature of who God is, God gives himself to us, attaches himself to us, and acts to rescue us.

 What do we do with the gift of grace God has given us? Do we cherish it? Or do we simply take it for granted, and never offer God our gratitude. The danger is for us to view the grace as “cheap grace,” and therefore, we have a do-nothing religion. After all, I like sinning, and God likes forgiving, so everybody is happy. As Paul told the Roman Christians, “May it never be!” (Romans 6:2). Paul would tell the Corinthian Christians that it was grace that put him to work (1 Cor. 15:10). When our hearts are touched by grace, we move out in service in gratitude for the wonderful gift. Service is the way we cherish the gift of God in Jesus Christ.

That brings me to the reason that grace is so amazing and sounds so sweet—grace works in our lives to transform us from what we are to what Christ calls us to be.

God’s grace is the gift that keeps on giving. Grace is not a one time offering on God’s part, nor is God’s salvation a one time event. We speak so often about being saved, or we make the statements, “I got saved on…,” or “When I was saved…”, but salvation didn’t start and end when we said “yes” to God’s saving grace. We must think of salvation as a journey that continues throughout our lives. This passage makes the stark contrast to the life lived before God’s grace and the life lived after God’s grace. Before, it was “Once you were dead…because of your many sins” (v. 1). In contrast though, Paul says, “But God is so rich in mercy…he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead” (v. 4-5). From death to life, that is just the first transformation God’s grace works.

I suspect John Newton knew the sweet sound of amazing grace in a mighty way, else how could he have penned such enduring words. They are autobiographical words.Newton would write, “I cried to the Lord with a cry like that of the ravens which yet the Lord does not disdain to hear. And I remembered Jesus whom I had so often derided.”He  published the hymn and it contained these words:

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound!
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind but now I see.

Grace never stops working. That is what I believe. For the grace of God finds you and me(prevenient grace), and that same grace reconciles us (justifying grace), and that same grace transforms us (sanctifying grace), and in the words of John Newton, it is that “grace will lead me home”.

By God’s grace I can say I am,I have lived through 2013 and its by that grace that we will live to see 2014.

Fervent Prayer Of A Woman Unlocks Tremendous Power

I live in a world plagued with evil and suffering. Broken lives walk around me, and I look past their hurting hearts. This is a lost world, a fallen world in need of hope, in need of light.

Last Friday, I had to recognize not only the darkness, but also my own prayerlessness.

Because this is what has been so heavy in my heart. It is that I forgot how to pray. I say I believe in the power of prayer, yet the time I spend in prayer is insignificant. How is it that I can access the Almighty God, yet instead I choose to spend my time browsing through Facebook or researching the best wedding sites?

And this is when, once more, I am confronted by my own brokenness and my own need for God—my redeemer, my comforter, my hope.

Would I be different if I devoted quality time before the throne of God each day? Absolutely.

Would our church see fruit if I prayed as fervently about our ministry as I complain about how difficult it is? Without a doubt.

Would my friends be more alert to the doings of God in their lives if I was more aware of them and myself as I recognize His voice throughout my day? Yes.

A tragedy brings us to our knees. It makes us realize how far we have moved away from the Lord and how we have allowed darkness to cover the light we are supposed to give and spread with this world.

But darkness cannot destroy light—not when Jesus has already won the battle for us. And sometimes it takes the precious and innocent blood of children to make us wake up and see the brokenness inside us and how desperately we need God to be ever-present in our lives, in our hearts, in our words and in our actions.

Because He has come so that we have life and have it to the full. And so I am ready, ready to embrace this full life He offers, and to do so I need to spend time with Him. I need to hear His voice.

So I will fall on my knees, spread out my arms and ask God to mend the broken pieces of my heart. I will ask Him to make me whole. I will beg Him to move!

The same God who parted the sea, the One who made the blind man see and the lame man walk—He can move today too. So move, Lord Jesus. Show us Your power, Your glory and Your unending love.

" Hands That Kill "

Today my heart broke as I read an article about a young woman who died over the weekend due to a botched abortion. Is that the only option she had? I wonder… Is that all we have to end up remembering her for; an abortion.She was only 20, a first year and already her life is over. So many questions ran through my mind as I read on about her.

As I continued to think about this woman I wondered how her life would have been had she survived. Would society have accepted her? Would she still be acceptable with an issue of abortion hanging over her head or would she have been forever stigmatized? It is really complicated if you think of it, her family might have disowned her and even cut of her fees as a way of punishment. Her friends might have left her feeling out-of-place and all alone. I can only imagine the gossip and rumors that would have gone around about her, besides dying physically, she could have died from the emotional trauma.

Abortion is wrong

Many times we come across a person who has done the unthinkable. Someone who has succumbed to HIV, someone who has like this woman, fallen pregnant, someone who has been caught stealing or someone who has been caught cheating in an exam and has been expelled.,the list is endless! We jump to our own conclusions about these people, quick to judge and point fingers. We enjoy taunting them and yet we are no perfect either.  We kill each other by the words we speak and the fingers we point. Slowly without us knowing we bring each other down and kill each other inside and all that remains is a shell.

    Ephesians 4:29

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear

I’m then reminded of the Pharisees in the Bible. They were always quick and ready to point out the sins of others and yet they also held their fair share of issues. One day as Jesus wrote down their sins in the sand, none of them were to be found when Jesus was done because they couldn’t stand to see their truths, they couldn’t stand the shame.As we look at others and what they have done, let’s remember that none of us is perfect. The sad truth is that we are all sinners. The one who stole a pen is as good as the one who killed. Hence if Christ was to state all we have done to date we would all be found in the depths of sin.

Words hurt

    Let’s think before we talk,

    let’s think before we point as we might also fall prey to ridicule and shame

    Let’s be careful as we might kill each other with our words.

“Words can BREAK, words can BUILD”

If you know somebody in a situation that is despicable show them love, show them compassion and most of all may they see Christ in you. “Are you teaching the truth in love?” Show them that there is light at the end of the tunnel, that God forgives and that they can have a new start. Be a brother, be a sister. Pray for and with them, show them love. Support them, that way they may heal and be restored. Be that light that this world needs.

“You are your brother’s keeper.”

One day you may be held accountable for a life that was lost, that could have been saved by a touch of kindness.

“Be ye kind, one to another” Ephesians 4:32

My Last Days: Zach Sobiech

What He Thinks about you.

Have you wondered what God really thinks about you?

Our greatest barrier to knowing God better may be how much we know about how much God knows about us. We struggle with God because we feel so bad about ourselves, and if we know the truth about ourselves, think of how much more God knows us!

Perhaps there is no mystery in the universe so monumental as God dying a death of shame to redeem mankind.

Sometimes we don’t want to pray or read the Bible or think about God because when we look in the mirror, we feel like saying, “You’re a big disappointment” or “You ought to be a lot better by now.”

We’ve all felt that way from time to time, and I imagine that many people reading these words feel that way right now. It’s been a hard week, or a bad month, and now we’re near the end of what seems like a painful year.

I think we run from God rather than to him because we know our own hearts all too well and his barely at all.

I probably don’t need to spend any time convincing you that you are a sinner. You probably know the truth about yourself all too well. But it’s the other side that we need to talk about. We don’t know God’s heart very well.

You probably know the truth about yourself all too well.

That’s where Psalm 103 can help us tremendously. Perhaps no other chapter in the Bible so clearly reveals God’s compassion for his people. 

 He Loves to Help the Needy.

All those who labor for a better world and a more just society and those who stretch out a helping hand–you have to believe this or you can’t go on. The words of James Russell Lowell come to mind:

    Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,-

    Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,

    Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.

Are you needy? The answer is yes whether you know it or not. You are needy and God is on your side. That’s a great place to start.

He Shows Mercy to Those Who Don’t Deserve It.

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (v. 8).

Great attributes of God in this verse:

• ·         The Lord is compassionate-He pardons us.
• ·         The Lord is gracious-He gives us what we don’t deserve.
• ·         The Lord is slow to anger-He is patient with us when we fall.
• ·         The Lord abounds in love-He loves us more than we can imagine.

There’s no fishing like fishing in the sea.

There’s no eating like eating at the king’s table.

There’s no love like God’s love.

When he saves, he saves completely.

When he forgives, he forgives all my sins.

When he sets free, we are free forever.

All the world tastes of his sparing mercy,

those who hear the gospel partake of his inviting mercy,the saints live by his saving mercy,are preserved by his upholding mercy,are cheered by his consoling mercy, and will enter heaven through his infinite and everlasting mercy.

I like that! Six kinds of mercy in just one sentence. That’s plenteous mercy for anyone who needs it.

He Tempers His Wrath.

“He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities” (vv. 9- 10).

Have you ever known anyone who loved to argue? We all know people who love to keep a quarrel going because they are so angry. God is not like that. He is willing to end the quarrel and welcome us back home. Sometimes the real problem is that we want to keep fighting him.

He’s more ready to forgive than we are to be forgiven!

When we forget to pray, he remembers to feed us.

When we forge to give thanks, he sends us restful sleep.

When we idle in sin, he sends his Holy Spirit to convict us.

When we refuse to give, he keeps on giving still.

When we fall, he lifts us up.

When we disappoint ourselves and others, he still calls us his children.

God even blesses those who don’t believe in him.

 He Forgives All Our Sins.

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (vv. 11-12).

My sins can never come back to haunt me again.

Never the twain shall meet. The farther east you go, the farther you are from the west.

That’s the magnitude of God’s love. Here is great good news for all the sinners of the world. When God forgives, he removes our sins, he lifts them up, he takes them away, and he puts them so far away from us that we could never find them if we searched for them for a thousand years. They are gone forever.Even Satan can’t bring them back.

In his sermon on these verses Jim Nicodem says that God has . . .

A long fuse - “slow to anger” (v. 8),

A short memory-"does not harbor his anger forever” (v. 9),

A thick skin-"does not treat us as our sins deserve” (v. 10), and

A great heart-"so great is his love, so far has he removed our sins” (vv. 11-12).

I’m glad we have a God like that He Understands Our Weakness.

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him” (v. 13).

When an earthly father has done his job well, he makes it easy for his children to believe in their Heavenly Father. 

Earthly fathers-however imperfect-point us upward to our Heavenly Father. When an earthly father has done his job well, he makes it easy for his children to believe in their Heavenly Father. Our children learn that we do not worship a god of stone or an empty idol or a remote deity or an impersonal machine in the sky. We serve a Father God who knows our weakness and loves us anyway.

The Great Physician knows our weakness and understands our fears. And when we can’t go on, he carries us on his back.

He Remembers That We Are Dust.

“For he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more” (vv. 14-16).

Here is a truth we all understand, especially in this season of the year. Yesterday’s green leaves soon turn brown. It is an inexorable law of nature that the green leaves of spring end up in a pile on your lawn. Why do the leaves lose their green? There is a scientific explanation having to do with the loss of green chlorophyll, but that simply means the leaves are slowly dying. Their beauty comes from their death. 

Who remembers each leaf? Not the tree. One by one the leaves fall to the ground where they disintegrate and return to the soil from which they came. No one names them or numbers them or even thinks about them.It is the way of nature, the way God arranged the changing of the seasons.

If that’s all there is, if we are here today and gone tomorrow, if that’s the end of the story, then there isn’t much hope. But let me share something with you. If you don’t have anything else to be thankful for this year, here’s something you can hang your hat on. Our hope is not in man or in anything man can do.

Our hope is in the everlasting God!

He Links Us With Eternity By Linking Us With Himself.

“But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness  with their children’s children- with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts” (vv. 17-18).

Our hope is in the everlasting God!

There is nothing we can do about our frailty. We come from the hand of our Creator stamped, “Fragile: Handle with care.” We are like the dust devils that blow across the desert. We make a big scene and then suddenly we disappear. Try as we might, we can’t cancel our humanity. Nothing can change what we are. Vitamins and exercise and clean living may slow down the process. Positive thinking may improve our mood. But for all of us, the end is the same:

Ashes to ashes,

Dust to dust.

Psalm 103 offers us one strong ground of comfort that lifts us up above the transitory nature of this life. It is the “but” of verse 17, the blessed “but” that changes everything. That one word offers an eternal contrast between the fading flower and the everlasting God, Our mortality and God’s eternity.

There is beauty for ashes.

That one word-that little “but"-stands at the demarcation between this life and the next. Here is our real hope of life that never ends.

God’s tender mercy.

His unfailing love.

His abounding grace.

Someone has said that life without Christ is a hopeless end, but life with Christ is an endless hope. And this endless hope is not only to us but to our children’s children.

We are richer than we think, we are more blessed than we know, and we have more than we realize.

In a transient and passing world where everything fades away, we have the promise that we are linked to the future even after we are gone by the faithfulness of God to our children to our children’s children. This, too, is the mercy of God.

Take Me to the Cross

What is Psalm 103 telling us? We are richer than we think, we are more blessed than we know, and we have more than we realize. We frail, mortal sinners are rich in the mercy of God.

And we have found that mercy–or rather, that mercy has found us-in the cross of Jesus Christ. During one of Billy Graham sermons told the story of a patrolman on night duty in a town in northern England.  As he walked the streets, he heard a quivering sob. Shining his flashlight into the darkness, he saw a little boy in the shadows sitting on a doorstep and tears were running down his cheek. The child said, “I’m lost. Please take me home.” And the policeman began naming street after street, trying to help the boy remember where he lived. He named the shops and the hotels in the area but the little boy could give him no clue.

Then he remembered that at the center of the town there was a church with a large white cross that towered above the rest of the city. The policeman pointed to the cross and said, “Do you live anywhere near that place?” The little boy’s face immediately brightened up. He said, “Yes, sir. Take me to the cross and I can find my way home.”

Go to the cross and you will find your way home to God.

All that we believe, all that we have, all that we hope for is found in the cross of Christ. Go to the cross and you will find your way home to God.

Are you weak? So am I.

Are you needy? So am I.

Are you guilty? So am I.

Are you frail? So am I.

Are you like dust? So am I.

And God says to us, his weak, needy, guilty, frail, dusty children, “I know you through and through, and I love you anyway. Come to me. Rest in me. Make me your Rock.” God’s mercy in Christ is more than enough for all of us.

Amen.