Tag: Grace

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Grace Is Stronger

Daily Reading

Luke 19-20

Daily Thought

Given a choice between riches and God, the man clung to his wealth, and Jesus observed, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:25). The disciples were shocked because in their mind, rich people could do anything. Except let go of their riches, explained Jesus, which made it impossible for them to follow God, “but what is impossible with man is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). Along came Zacchaeus, “a chief tax collector and rich” (Luke 19:2)–just the guy to show what God can do. 

Zacchaeus, in name Jewish, served Rome instead, collecting taxes for Caesar. This earned him the hatred of his people, but he favored money more than friends. Little wonder the crowd did not part to let the short guy up front, so Zacchaeus was forced to climb a tree if he would see Jesus. When Jesus stopped under the tree and looked up, Zacchaeus must have feared the worst–the holy man would call out the sinner, but instead, Jesus invited himself to dinner, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5). It was not a request, but a necessity, not for  Jesus’ sake, but for Zacchaeus’. The crowd grumbled that Jesus would “be the guest of a man who is a sinner” (Luke 19:7), and the sinner opened the door and let him in. Greed may have its grip on the heart of Zacchaeus, but grace is stronger. Grace is the power of God to do in Zacchaeus what he would never do on his own. “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold” (Luke 19:8). God did the impossible and the rich man let go of his riches.

Daily Prayer

Father God, You are good and Your ways are good for me. I choose to follow You, to stay on the path You put before me. Made in Your image, I desire to look like You again. Thank You for Your Son, who showed me what You look like. Thank You for Your Spirit who day-by-day transforms me into Your likeness.

May my life be a reflection of You, so that I can say to others, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” To Your glory!

Amen

Daily Question

What does God compete with most for your heart?

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God’s Love Never Ends

Daily Reading

Joel 1-3

Daily Thought

God’s promise to Israel had two parts. If you obey, God will shower you with blessing, 

“If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.” ~Leviticus 26:3-4

If you disobey, judgment. 

“But if you will not listen to me…  then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache.” `Leviticus 26:14, 16

We like the first part. 

The book of Joel begins with the second. 

What the cutting locust left,
the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
the destroying locust has eaten. ~Joel 1:4

Locust, locust, and more locust follows disobedience, disobedience, and more disobedience. God was patient, but Israel’s disobedience persisted and then came the locust. Israel had tested God’s patience, over and over, until it ran out. 

Now, God says, test my love. 

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. ~Joel 2:12-13

Beware, God’s patience has its limit. Ah, but be glad, his love does not. 

Daily Prayer

Righteous God, You have given me Your commandments, not as a burden, rather, they are a blessing. They give life and show me the way to live. Even the littlest commandment. Every Word You speak, God, is valuable and true. May I learn Your Word and keep it in my heart, so that it will guide my steps. 

You are a gracious and compassionate God. Thank You for so great a salvation through Your Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen

Daily Question

How difficult is it for you to bless people who don’t deserve it?

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God’s Prophet

Daily Reading

Isaiah 5-8

Daily Thought

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).

Isaiah speaks for God to a nation in judgment. He sings a song to Judah of a beautiful vineyard full of grapes gone bad. Past the point of pruning, it is time to uproot:

And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
I will make it a waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed. ~Isaiah 5:5-6

God gives six reasons why, “Woe to those who…” delivered by his prophet Isaiah, repeated six times (Isaiah 5:8, 11, 18, 20 21, 22). Judah, having rejected God, lives in a world turned downside up, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).

There is a seventh woe, but it comes not from God, rather from Isaiah toward himself. A vision of the holiness of God confronts Isaiah with his own sinfulness, and he cries: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5). God’s prophet is humbled in the presence of the righteousness of God, and, in this moment, God’s prophet receives grace. Isaiah’s unclean lips are purified when “one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for’” (Isaiah 6:6-7).

The prophet is prepared to bring God’s Word to the nation. Truth must be spoken with courage and clarity, and always by a heart humbled, by a soul touched with the grace of God.

Daily Prayer

Righteous God, You are good and Your Words bring life. May I be one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. If something is wrong, may I be a defender of right, a defender of justice. May I be one who speaks up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of the broken and the poor and the needy.

Knowing Your goodness, experiencing Your grace, I will speak truth, Your Word, to the world around me.

Amen

Daily Question

Are you prepared to share God’s Word with others?

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The Grilled Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

Daily Reading

Hebrews 1-6

Daily Thought

“For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt” (Hebrews 6:4-6). This passage describes lovers of legalism who nibble at the edges of grace, but the freedom frightens them. The problem with grace is it requires absolutely nothing from us. It offends the pride of the religious who insist on contributing to their own salvation. One sacrifice is not enough for their sin, so they go back to the safety of rules and religion, do’s and don’ts. 

Lovers of religion who delight in legalism harken back to the Law of Moses which taught the Israelites to offer repeated sacrifices for every sin, but Jesus offered one sacrifice, himself, and “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). The writer of Hebrews compares the new to the old, the cross of Christ to the Law of Moses, and it is not even close, “Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses” (Hebrews 3:3). 

Ask any kid, “What is the best sandwich ever made?” It is Peanut Butter and Jelly, no competition. Unless you met a kid from my youth group, a kid who was served my wife’s Grilled Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich. I run into these kids, 5, 10, 20 years after graduating. You know what they talk about? The Grilled Peanut Butter and Jelly. They liked the old PB&J, but once they tasted the new, there was no going back.

It is no longer what we must do to be forgiven, but what Christ has done to save us, once for all forever. This is the grace of God and once you bite deeply into grace, you will never again be satisfied by the Law. There is no going back.

Daily Prayer

God, You are so good. To be welcomed into Your family, to experience Your warmth and love, to understand what life is all about, to really live, what more could I ever want? (The answer is nothing more. You are above and beyond my deepest desires.)

Thank You for the blessings of heaven, of Your Kingdom. There is a better life than the one this world offers. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done. I look forward to the day when Your Son reigns over the heavens and the earth in perfect peace and righteousness. There is nothing better, not even close.

Amen

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A Free Gift

Daily Reading

2Corinthians 10-13

Daily Thought

Paul has a paternal relationship with the Corinthians, he is dad and they are his children, and parents provide for their kids, not the other way around, “for children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children” (2Corinthians 12:14). Jack’s mom came downstairs to start breakfast one morning and found a bill from her twelve-year-old son on the kitchen counter: mowing the lawn – $6; drying the dishes – $1; raking leaves – $6; cleaning garage – $7; total owed – $20. She smiled and made his breakfast. That afternoon, Jack came home from school and found next to a plate of cookies, an envelope with a twenty dollar bill inside and a note from his mom: washing clothes – nothing; vacuuming room – nothing; cooking meals – nothing; driving everywhere – nothing; baking cookies – nothing. Love, Mom.

This is the heart of Paul, “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls” (2Corinthians 12:15), love with no strings attached. Any price tag attached to love devalues it.

Daily Prayer

I thank You, God, for Your grace, for the righteousness that comes from Your Son, for the power that comes through Your Spirit. You love is worth everything, but the cost of love is borne by the lover, and that is You, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”

Sometimes I get the idea that I have something to offer You, something You need. I should remember, and I shall remember, that everything I am is because of You. Everything I do, may it give You pleasure and bring You glory. And everything You have given me, may I share it freely, because it cost me nothing and You everything.

Amen

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Grace Is Stronger

Daily Reading

Luke 19-20

Daily Thought

Given a choice between riches and God, the man clung to his wealth, and Jesus observed, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:25). The disciples were shocked because in their mind, rich people could do anything. Except let go of their riches, explained Jesus, which made it impossible for them to follow God, “but what is impossible with man is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). Along came Zacchaeus, “a chief tax collector and rich” (Luke 19:2), just the guy to show what God can do. 

Zacchaeus, in name Jewish, served Rome instead, collecting taxes for Caesar. This earned him the hatred of his people, but he favored money more than friends. Little wonder the crowd did not part to let the short guy up front, so Zacchaeus was forced to climb a tree if he would see Jesus. When Jesus stopped under the tree and looked up, Zacchaeus must have feared the worst–the holy man would call out the sinner, but instead, Jesus invited himself to dinner, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5). It was not a request, but a necessity, not for  Jesus’ sake, but for Zacchaeus’. The crowd grumbled that Jesus would “be the guest of a man who is a sinner” (Luke 19:7), and the sinner opened the door and let him in. Greed may have its grip on the heart of Zacchaeus, but grace is stronger. Grace is the power of God to do in Zacchaeus what he would never do on his own. “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold” (Luke 19:8). God did the impossible and the rich man let go of his riches.

Daily Prayer

Father God, You are good and Your ways are good for me. I choose to follow You, to stay on the path You put before me. Made in Your image, I desire to look like You again. Thank You for Your Son, who showed me what You look like. Thank You for Your Spirit who day-by-day transforms me into Your likeness.

May my life be a reflection of You, so that I can say to others, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” To Your glory!

Amen

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A Level Place

Daily Reading

Luke 6-7

Daily Thought

A guy in a suit, pointing at a beggar on the side of the road, crowed, “There but for the grace of God go I,” and I secretly wondered if he was more proud he was not than humbled he could be.

Yehiel Dinur had survived Auschwitz and was now a witness against Adolf Eichmann, who was on trial for the millions of Jews he had slaughtered. Dinur entered the courtroom, stared for a moment at the butcher, but then collapsed on the floor, and left the room sobbing. “Were you overcome with hatred,” a reporter asked, “staring at the face of evil incarnate?” “No,” responded Dinur. The Eichmann he saw was not a demon, but an ordinary man. “I was afraid about myself. I saw that I’m capable to do this … exactly like he. Eichmann is in all of us.”

Love your enemies. They are not unlike you. “Love your enemies, and do good, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:35-36). The more impressed I am of my sin, the more amazed I am at God’s grace.

A crowd of people gathered to hear Jesus, and he “came down with them and stood on a level place” (Luke 6:17). A level place, no orchestra seating, no balcony, everyone side by side, rich and poor, high society and low, righteous and unrighteous, a level place. “Blessed are the poor, the hungry, those who weep, those who are hated and reviled. Woe to the rich and those who have a full stomach, those who laugh and are spoken well of” (Luke 6:20-26). He was lifting the humble and warning the proud. Jesus has a way of doing that.

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, Help me see others with Your eyes, with Your heart. Help me see myself that way, as well. I know how much You love me. I need to remember how much You love those I see as enemies. You died for all of us, not because of any merit, but because You are love. I need the same humility and the same sacrificial attitude.

May I become more and more like Jesus Christ, who, for the grace of God, became like me, so that I may see God and become like Him.

Amen

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Jesus of Nazareth

Daily Reading

Mark 6-7

Daily Thought

His miracles, his teaching, his kindness, and his confidence set Jesus apart and above the typical celebrity and left people astonished and in awe, and then Jesus went home. You would never know of Nazareth had Jesus not grown up there. Population 500, it was a little place, 25 miles southwest of Capernaum, in the middle of nowhere. Jesus came home “and they took offense at him” (Mark 6:3). They knew Jesus and his brothers and sisters and his mom, and they do not mention his dad because it is a small town and there were rumors about his birth. He was not what they expected of a prophet, let alone a Savior. They sought majesty, he was ordinary, too ordinary to be extraordinary. They deserved better, “and he could do no mighty work there” (Mark 6:5).

He had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men, ~Isaiah 53:2-3

Later, far from home, outside Israel, a woman fell at his feet. “Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter” (Mark 7:26). Jesus is Israel’s Messiah, the Savior of God’s children, and he rebuffs this foreign woman, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (Mark 7:27). I do not know how to make that sound not rude, yet the woman accepts her role as dog, and still insists on her food, “she answered him, ‘Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs’” (Mark 7:28). She is not allowed at the table, she is not of the tribe of Israel, she does not worship Israel’s God, she does not read the Bible, she does not follow the Law. She knows she is unclean and unworthy in the eyes of Israel, and so she does not ask Jesus of Nazareth to give her what she deserves because she is good; she asks Jesus to give her what she does not deserve because he is good. “And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone” (Mark 7:30).

One of the disciples, when he was first told of Jesus, asked, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Another answered, “Come and see.” (John 1:46).

Daily Prayer

My God, You are righteous and good, but more than that, You are full of grace. I do not deserve Your favor, I am neither righteous nor good, and yet You looked upon me with love, and sent Your Son to bring me back into Your family. Thank You.

May I look at others as You look at me. May I see each person as a special creation, lovingly made by You, and give them the grace and the goodness You have shown me.

Amen

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Crucify Him!

Daily Reading

Matthew 27-28

Daily Thought

From where he sat in a prison cell, Barabbas could not hear Pilate speak, but only the shout of the raucous crowd in the courtyard. “Pilate said to them, ‘Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?’” (Matthew 27:17). It was the governor’s custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by this crowd, and the crowd cried, “Barabbas” (Matthew 27:21). Barabbas, in chains, in prison, a rebel, a murderer, and a thief, heard his name shouted from the crowd. “‘Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They shouted all the more, “Crucify him!” (Matthew 27:22).

Alas, all Barabbas could hear, over and over, was, “Barabbas! Barabbas! Crucify him! Crucify him!!” Imagine, then, his astonishment when he was set free. “Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified” (Matthew 27:26); and an innocent man was crucified on the cross of another, one who was guilty and deserved the punishment Jesus would endure. 

The horror of this is I find my place in the crowd and the criminal, and it should and would have been on the cross, but, there, Jesus took my place.

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed. ~Isaiah 53:4-5

Replace the name of Barabbas with my own and I begin to grasp the wonder of the salvation. 

Daily Prayer

My Father in heaven, I am not forsaken. I deserve to be, but You loved me by death, death on a cross. Your Son took what I deserved. He took my place and my penalty and set me free.

I show someone the smallest amount of grace and I pat myself on the back–as if I’d done something grand. You demonstrate Your love in this, that even while I sin, and keep sinning, and delight in sin, you died for me.

Now, how can I keep sinning? I must not. I must embrace righteousness because I have received grace and mercy. I am newly born, a saint. Thank You, Jesus.

Amen

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Touchdown!

Daily Reading

Matthew 20-21

Daily Thought

The religious leaders thought themselves the best in Israel, but Jesus told them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you” (Matthew 21:31). You see, the religious thought themselves righteous and God needed them. The ones on the bottom know better. It is not God who needs, but us, and sinners need a Savior.

Sometimes, when we were kids, my dad played street football with us. He was the quarterback and he drove us crazy. The best players were the first chosen, of course, and my dad would send all the best running to the right with the best defenders in tow, then toss the ball left to Billy. Billy had been chosen last and was undefended. Touchdown Billy! My dad had this annoying habit of making winners of the kids chosen last.

“Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.” ~Matthew 20:15-16

This smacks of Jesus, who likewise dismayed his disciples. In his kingdom, “the last will be first, and the first last” (Matthew 20:16). Not sure what that meant, a couple disciples tried to come out on top the conventional way. James and John, the sons of thunder (Mark 3:17–and a great football nickname, by the way), coaxed their mom to approach Jesus, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom” (Matthew 20:21). Jesus, instead, explained, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. It shall not be so among you” (Matthew 20:25-26). One way to know if you are living like Jesus is to look around and see who wins and loses when you are in charge.

“The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” ~Matthew 20:28

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, I do not deserve Your grace. Of course, I don’t. It wouldn’t be grace if I deserved it. You have so much love for me, and for all of us, and You never run short of grace. There is enough for all. Even the thief on the cross, who came into Your kingdom just in time.

I know I don’t deserve the riches of Your Kingdom, but I’m thrilled that they are mine. I look forward to eternity, to being in Your presence, being in Your Kingdom, being Your child, co-heir with Jesus Christ, sharing in His glory.

Thank You.

Amen