One Thing
The other day I was on the phone with a friend who was at the opening of GBCK's "PG: Parental Guidance" series this past Sunday. Here's something that stuck out to me from the conversation:
Like most parents, he wants to do his best in raising his kids. What really impressed me is he immediately applied what was said on Sunday to his life. For him, the application is he started to gather his kids in the evening for a focused time of communication and prayer. I love how he took one thing that was said on Sunday and is trying to implement it into his life. Too often I'm inspired on Sunday but I don't do anything with it on Monday. Another thing he does is he listens to the messages again during the week in order to catch something he may have missed on Sunday. Wow! (GBCK's message archive is here.)
The Bible tells us to be doers of God's word, not just hearers. When we listen to sermons, let's do so with an open and discerning heart, tuning in to what the Lord is instructing us to do. It's easy to criticize or to "tune out" because you heard it all before. My encouragement is to sharpen your mind and prayerfully listen to the whisper and prompting of the Holy Spirit when listening to a sermon.
Ask yourself, "What is the one thing God wants me to learn, remember, and/or do?"
Remember, it's hear and do.
Actors
Bumped into some friends this morning at Starbucks that I haven't seen in a while. Great to catch up and God is doing some pretty neat stuff in their lives. One thing that was said over the conversation is we are not in control of things, but God orchestrates things.
Reminded me of something I recently read that said God is the director and producer of this cosmic stage we're on and we are simply actors. The point the author was making is too often we reverse the roles where we become the director and God has a cameo scene every so often.
Rather than try to mold God into the scripts of our lives we must come under his direction.
Just a thought.
Stairway to Heaven
"God does not simply create the gift (The Gospel) and offer it to us, if we will only climb the stairway to heaven to get it; he brings it down to us, uncurls our ungrateful fingers, and places it in our hands." p. 108, The Gospel-Driven Life, Horton
To get something for nothing doesn't make sense to us. We are wired from an early age that if we do good things, we get good things. We carry this mindset into adulthood.
But the Gospel turns everything upside down. The Gospel says we get what we don't deserve. We get good (grace) even when we don't do good (sin). This idea violates every sense of justice in me. Good people should get good things, bad people shouldn't.
Through faith in Jesus Christ, grace is extended to us not because we are good people. We cannot stand on our own goodness, or our righteousness. No matter how good we are we cannot climb the stairway of heaven to access God's grace.
God lovingly stoops down to us. Pays the price for our sin and does for us what we could not do for ourselves: makes us righteous before God.
So, we must repent of our badness, but we also must repent of our goodness.
And rather than climb the stairs, we must simply receive the gift by faith.
Costly Grace
God's grace is free but it wasn't cheap. It's freely given to those who have faith in Jesus, but it cost God everything. I cheapen grace when I think it's a license to sin. "I can do whatever I want, God will forgive me." That's cheap grace. I also cheapen grace when I think grace is extended to me because of my discipline, morality, good deeds, etc. "Because I live a good life God will show me grace." More cheap grace.
To cheapen grace is to deny the deadliness of sin. If I live however I want (license to sin) I'm really saying that sin has no consequence or effect. If I live a moral, upright life in order to attain grace I'm really saying that I can control and conquer sin on my own merit.
It's when we truly understand sin's deadliness that we understand the amazing grace of God. We understand that grace doesn't move us toward wayward living, nor does it move us toward moralism; Grace moves us toward a Savior. Unrighteous living doesn't save, and righteous living doesn't save. Jesus saves.
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