Grace

Thinking about Your amazing grace today... and how much more I need to see myself through Your grace, approach Your throne of grace, and live in and from this place of Grace.

Meditating on the words to the song by Chris Tomlin ~ Your Grace is Enough and then reading & meditating on several excerpts from "The Power in Prayer" by Charles Spurgeon

Great is Your faithfulness oh God
You wrestle with the sinner's heart
You lead us by still waters in to mercy
And nothing can keep us apart

So remember Your people
Remember Your children
Remember Your promise
Oh God

Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough for me

Great is Your love and justice God of Jacob
You use the weak to lead the strong
You lead us in the song of Your salvation
And all Your people sing along

So remember Your people
Remember Your children
Remember Your promise
Oh God

Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough for me

Your grace is enough
Heaven reaching down to us
Your grace is enough for me
God I see your grace is enough
I'm covered in your love
Your grace is enough for me
For me

The Throne of Grace ~ excerpts from chapter 5: "The Power of Prayer" by C.H. Spurgeon

Hebrews 4:16 - "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy. and find grace to help in time of need."

"It is a throne for dispensing gifts. Come, then, you that are poor as poverty itself. Come, you that have no merits and are destitute of virtues. Come, you that are reduced to a beggarly bankruptcy by Adam's fall and by your own transgressions. This is not a throne that glorifies itself by the taxation of its subjects, but it is a throne that glorifies itself by streaming forth like a fountain with floods of good things. Come, now, and receive the wine and milk that are freely given. 'Yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price." (Isaiah 55:1)

Grace is on the throne. How does it become so exalted? Well, grace has a throne by conquest. Grace came down to earth in the form of the Well Beloved, and it met with sin. Long and sharp was the struggle, and grace appeared to be trampled underfoot by sin. But grace at last seized sin, threw it on its own shoulders, and, through all but crushed beneath the burden, grace carried sin up to the cross and nailed it there, slew it there, and put it to death forever. Grace triumphed gloriously. For this reason, grace sits on a throne at this hour because it has conquered human sin, has borne the penalty of human guilt, and has overthrown all its enemies.

Grace is enthroned this day, friends, because Christ has finished His work and has gone into the heavens. It is enthroned in power. When we speak of its throne, we mean that it has unlimited might. This is the dispensation of grace, the year of grace; grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life. We live in the era of reigning grace. "

Hebrews 7:25 ~ "Seeing He ever liveth to make intercession", Jesus "is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him."

Living with an Open Heart

I could keep my heart safe away in a box with a lock and key, for no one to reach in and for me to not reach out. Too much exposure, too much risk, too much uncertainty.... it's not safe to live that way. How will I know how my heart will be returned to me - in what state, in what condition? Will it have new scars? Will it be torn apart? I don't know what will happen, i think to myself - it's better if for now it stays in a box with a lock and a key.

But it's lonely and dark in this hiding place. Without life, without hope, without feeling. It might be 'safe' here, but I feel dead. This is not how I want to live nor how I was created to live.

So I decide to open the box with the lock and key and let my heart out. I decide to try and live with an open heart. To let you in and to let me out. And I was right, there was too much exposure, too much risk, too much uncertainty, too much fear... but to my surprise there was also life, love, new memories made, new closeness shared, acceptance and care.

I let you in and I let myself out - maybe not fully and maybe not everyday. But I did open up my heart - I learned to live and to feel again and even though my heart may hurt today for things not fulfilled and for disappointed hopes. I will keep on living with an open heart. Knowing that even with the risks, the pain and the questions - there is life and newness, joy to be known, and love to be shared.

Giving you the gift of myself is a gift I am willing to give as I live with an open heart.

Passage from "The Life of the Beloved" - Henri Nouwen

"Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the Sacred Voice that calls us the Beloved. I'm putting this so directly and so simply because though the experience of being the Beloved has never been completely absent from my life, I never claimed it as my core truth.

I kept running around in it in large or small circles always looking for someone or something able to convince me of my belovedness. It was as if i kept refusing to hear the voice that speaks from the very depth of my being, "You are my beloved, on whom my favor rests."

That voice has always been there but it seems that I was much more eager to listen to other, louder voices saying, "Prove that you are worth something, do something relevant, spectacular, powerful...then you will feel the love that you so desire."

New Song

A song that came from my heart this morning to the Lord - as a prayer and as a new song to Him...

Let Your power and love be ~ my anchor, security... for You're good, You're good.

Let Your power and love be ~ my anchor, security... for You're good, You're good.

So all that I am God, I lay at Your feet ~ in surrender, in worship and praise.

So all that I am God, I lay at Your feet ~ in surrender, in worship and praise.

Psalm 40:3 - "He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD."

Altogether Lovely

Here I am to worship ~ Here I am to bow down ~ Here I am to say that You're my God ~ You're altogether lovely ~ altogether worthy ~ altogether wonderful to me... Jesus You are altogether Other!

The Complete Perfection of His Glory by Charles Spurgeon

He is altogether desirable.

Song of Songs 5:16

The superlative beauty of Jesus is all-attracting; it is not so much to be admired as to be loved. He is more than pleasant and fair--He is lovely. Surely the people of God can fully justify the use of this golden word, for He is the object of their warmest love, a love founded on the intrinsic excellence of His person, the complete perfection of His glory. Look, the disciples of Jesus know the sweetness of his voice and are able to say, "Do not His words cause our hearts to burn within us as He talks with us on the road?"

You worshipers of Immanuel, look up to His head of much fine gold, and tell me, are not His thoughts precious unto you? Is not your adoration sweetened with affection as you humbly bow before that face that is as excellent as the cedars of Lebanon? Is there not a beauty in His every feature, and is not His whole person fragrant with such a savor of His goodness that we love Him? Is there one aspect of His being that is not attractive--one facet of His person that is not a blessing to our souls and a strong cord to bind our hearts?

Our love is not as a seal set upon His heart of love alone; it is also fastened upon His arm of power, nor is there a single part of Him upon which it does not fix itself. We worship His whole person with the sweet fragrance of our fervent love. We would imitate His whole life and character. All other beings are incomplete; in Him there is all perfection. Even the best of His favored saints have had blots upon their garments and wrinkles upon their brows; He is nothing but loveliness. All earthly suns have their spots: This fair world has its wilderness; we cannot love the whole of the most lovely thing. But Christ Jesus is gold without alloy, light without darkness, glory without cloud. Yes, "he is altogether desirable."

Theological discussion at a pub tonight...

I am finding that some of the most challenging theological conversations I've had as of late are in bars and pubs. I was just was sitting eating & reading at McGonigals in Barrington this evening and first started talking to a couple about texting and phones. They were older maybe in their 50's or 60's and were considering getting an iphone so I showed them mine. Then India came up - I shared a little about IREF and the wife shared how she had been to different parts of India for a work trip & conferences. We started talking about how the poorest materially are often the richest spiritually - then our conversation moved to materialism in America. Then the conversation went into communion and their bring episcapalian and how many Catholics believe that it is the actual body and blood of Christ that we are eating. I shared it's important that we remember the spiritual transaction that can happen during communion and it's about our heart posture before God and others (repentance & remembrance) when we take communion and not putting too much into the 'physical' elements - yes, I believe they are symbols but there is something spiritual that happens in remembering Christ's death through communion.

Then they shared that they also believe there is more than one way to God - that even though they are Christians - Jesus is not the only way to God and since we are not God - we (I) shouldn't judge others. That a good Hindu or a good Buddhist etc can also go to be with God when they die. So I asked questions like who decides what is good? Didn't God say there is no one good besides Him. And Jesus' teaching that He is the only way to the Father - He is the only one who is the incarnate One - and then they agreed but of course there was a but - well, they said who are we to judge and God wouldn't send people away. Then I mentioned we can know truth based on what God has revealed through creation, but specifically in Christ and His Word and that actually there is a scripture in Matthew when Jesus separates the sheep from the goats - he does say "depart from Me I never knew you." So even those who did things in Jesus' name - did not know Him... so how much more so for those who just see Jesus as a mere teacher, a prophet and not as God.

At the end of the day - there are some similarities in different religions - like loving our neighbor as ourselves - Yes that theme is in the Qur'an, teachings of Buddha and Hinduism etc - but it is going to come down to - our being able to answer this question that Jesus asked his disciples "Who do you say that I am?" Is He the Savior of the world or not? Is He the Messiah or not? is He the way, truth and life or not? Is He the only way to the Father or not?

Man may try to create different ways to God but God is the only one who has provided the true way to Him - and that is in Christ through his death and resurrection... through our repentance and faith in Him and Him alone. Who do the Buddhists, Hindus etc - have to cleanse them from their sins? themselves - through works etc - but it is in Christ's blood and atonement that we have forgiveness and cleansing. God has been revealing Himself to people in dreams - giving them revelation of who Jesus is and I'm on fire even more after this conversation to pray for those in other 'faiths' who are still in darkness.

If those who call themselves Christians are becoming deceived and are being tossed with every wind of doctrine, with thinking that is more humanistic than that what is true, from the Scriptures and from Holy Spirit - then we are facing a critical time for the Church. It's really time to pray, to love, and to not compromise the teachings of Jesus because they may not be comfortable or fit a self-made distorted view of God.

When we begin to take the Word of God as another mere opinion and keep it at the same level as other religious teachings - i.e. from Ghandi, Buddha, Mohammed, etc. - we are in trouble. Is it radical to believe that Jesus is still the only way - i'm finding that it is and it both grieves me and challenges me to press in. We as the church need to make disciples - true followers of Christ - the times we are living in call for nothing less. Do we know the teachings of Jesus? Does my mind need to be renewed again, my heart purified even more so that the teachings of this world, teachings of false religion, and the doctrine of demons are removed from the true teachings of Christ.

May we be found faithful and prayerful.

"You Have Loved Us First"

You Have Loved Us First ~ A Prayer by Soren Kierkegaard

Father in Heaven! You have loved us first, help us never to forget that You are love so that this sure conviction might triumph in our hearts over the seduction of the world, over the inquietude of the soul, over the anxiety for the future, over the fright of the past, over the distress of the moment.

But grant us also that this conviction might discipline our soul so that our heart may remain faithful and sincere in the love which we bear to all those whom you have commanded us to love as we love ourselves.

You have loved us first, O God, alas! We speak of it in terms of history as if You have only loved us first but a single time, rather than that without ceasing. You have loved us first many times and every day and our whole life through. When we wake up in the morning and turn our soul toward You - You are the first - You have loved us first. If I rise at dawn and at the same second turn my head toward You in prayer, You are there ahead of me, You have loved me first. When I withdraw from the distractions of the day and turn my soul toward You, You are the first and thus forever. And yet we always speak ungratefully as if Your have loved us first only once."

I John 4:19 ~ "We love, because He first loved us."

Jeremiah 31:3 ~"For I have loved you with an everlasting love, declares the Lord, and have drawn you with My lovingkindness."

my prayer today...

LORD, grant me Your grace to keep my heart open to receive, take in, embrace, believe, accept, trust in Your love and give out, share, refresh, and pour out Your love onto others.... keep me fluid with a pure heart...