Grace

Greetings All!

While visiting a conference in Pittsburgh, PA, two weekends ago, I picked up a new book entitled: "Grace" by Randy Alcorn.  It consists of 203 short thoughts (some just a couple of sentences long) describing the grace of God. It would make a great daily devotional, or could act as a supplement to another devotional.
     Alcorn offers many of his own insights on grace, while supporting most of them with great quotes from other contemporary and antiquated authors. I offer you seven selections (a week's worth, one for each of the next seven days) to give you a taste for what the book has to offer!  Enjoy.

"I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness 

could be gained through the Law, Christ died for nothing." 

                     Galatians 2:21

     "Grace never ignores the reality of sin. In fact, it emphasizes it. Paul said if men were good enough, then "Christ died for nothing." Benjamin Warfield said: "Grace is free sovereign favor for the ill-deserving."  If we don't see the reality of how ill-deserving we are, God's grace won't seem amazing. If we minimize our unworthiness, we minimize God's grace." "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me..." (John Newton).

"Yet he gave a command to the skies above, 

and opened the doors of the heavens; he rained 

down manna for people to eat; he gave them the 

grain of heaven."         Psalm 78:23-24

     "Louis Cassels wrote, "If God wants you to do something, he'll make it possible for you to do it, but the grace he provides comes only with the task and cannot be stockpiled beforehand. We are dependent on him from hour to hour.  As God didn't allow the Israelites to store up manna, he doesn't let us store up grace. He always gives us enough, but we can't deposit it for the future. We have to get it fresh every day. "He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater, He sendeth more strength when the labors increase; To added affliction he addeth His mercy, To multiplied trials His multiplied grace" (Annie Johnson Flint)."

"In him we have redemption through his blood, 

the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the 

riches of God's grace that he lavished on us." 

                Ephesians 1:7

     "Benjamin Jowett said, "Grace is the energy of the divine affection rolling in plenteousness toward the shores of human need."  No matter what you've done, there is no sin beyond the reach of God's grace once you have accepted Christ's offer of forgiveness. Max Lucado says, "God answers the mess of life with one word: GRACE!"  God knows everything, so no sin surprises him. He knows all our worst secrets (Psalm 69:5). No skeletons will ever fall out of our closets. Jesus will never say, "Had I known you'd done that, I'd never have let you into heaven." He's seen us at our worst and still loves us. "Are you too bad to receive grace? How could you be too bad to receive what is for the bad?"" 

"All of us have become like one who is unclean, 

and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all 

shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins 

sweep us away."     Isaiah 64:6

     "For some, "human depravity" (total inability to earn our way to God) may be an insulting doctrine, but grasping it is liberating. When I realize the best I can do without God is like "filthy rags" in his sight, it finally sinks in that I have nothing to offer. Salvation, therefore, hinges on his work, not mine. What a relief!   "We could not take one step in the pursuit of holiness if God in his grace had not first delivered us from the dominion of sin and brought us into union with his risen Son. Salvation is by grace and sanctification is by grace" (Jerry Bridges)."

"Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, 

he gave it to them saying, "This is the blood of the covenant,

which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." 

                     Matthew 26:27-28

     "No one deserves forgiveness. That's the whole point of grace. On the cross, Jesus experienced the Hell we deserve, so for all eternity we can experience the Heaven we don't deserve. The grace that is free for us was costly to God. But he offers it to us with a heart of infinite love. "I have come to know a God who has a soft spot for rebels, who recruits people like the adulterer David, the whiner Jeremiah, the traitor Peter, and the human-rights abuser Saul of Tarsus. I have come to know a God whose Son made prodigals... the trophies of his ministry" (Philip Yancey)." 

"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions 

and sins, in which you used to live when you followed 

the ways of this world."   Ephesians 2:1

     "You and I weren't merely sick in our sins; we were dead in our sins. That means I'm not just unworthy of salvation; I'm utterly incapable of earning it.  Corpses can't raise themselves from the grave!  What a relief to realize that my salvation is completely the result of God's grace. It cannot be earned by good works -- and therefore it can't be lost by bad ones.  Thomas Watson wrote, "[Divine] Acts of grace cannot be reversed. God blots out his people's sins, but not their names."  "If you and sin are friends, you and God are not yet reconciled" (J. C. Ryle)."

"Do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; 

do not worry about it... But seek his kingdom, and 

these things will be given to you as well."  Luke 12:29, 31

     "When we come to Christ, God graciously puts all his resources at our disposal. That's a dramatically uneven exchange since God has so much more than we do, and all we have comes from him in the first place.  "I am no longer my own, but Yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for You or laid aside for You, exalted for You or brought low for You... I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal." (John Wesley)."

     I would encourage you to take one of these entries each day for a week and give it much consideration.  Grace (of the biblical kind) may not line up with the persuasions of the world, but it is the essence of nearly all God says in His Word.  Therefore, as Spurgeon once said, "If the people do not like the doctrine of grace, give them all the more of it."

     Many blessings upon your week's contemplation of grace!

In the Service of the Gospel, Pastor Jeff

Eternal Perspectives -- A Collection of Quotations on Heaven, the New Earth, and Life After Death

Greetings All!

Just over 15 years ago I had an older gentleman in my church in Honduras ask me: "Pastor, why is it that no one preaches on heaven anymore?  Everything seems to be focused on the here and now."  He was right then, and his words only more so now.  Heaven is not a common sermon topic anymore -- and the lack of it is seen in the lack of life in many churches. Without an eternal perspective, our priorities as Christians become stunted, get twisted, and can even become unchristian.

Thus, in honor of him (who left these earthly shores a few years back) I offer you these selections from Randy Alcorn's book, "Eternal Perspectives -- A Collection of Quotations on Heaven, the New Earth, and Life After Death."  It is a massive collection of quotes on that topic from Christian's throughout the ages. I trust the one's I've selected (read and meditated upon, two or three a day) will increase your hunger to know more and cause you to see the benefit of such a renewed focus. Enjoy.

"Christians are living too much in the "present now" -- and [therefore] the anticipation of better things to come has almost died out in the Church of Christ. We find ourselves so well-situated now, that we don't really need any of tomorrow's heaven. We don't need to hope -- we have everything well enough now."

A. W. Tozer

"All beauty in the world is either a memory of Paradise, or a prophecy of the coming transfigured world."

Nicholas Berdyaev

"O my Lord Jesus Christ, if I could be in heaven without You, it would be a hell; and if I could be in hell, and have you still, it would be a heaven to me, for You are all the heaven I need."

Samuel Rutherford

A mere glimpse of heaven would be enough to re-energize us and give us renewed strength to persevere till the end.  "In 1952, young Florence Chadwick stepped into the waters of the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island, determined to swim to the shore of mainland California. She'd already been the first woman to swim the English channel both ways. The weather was foggy and chilly; she could hardly see the boats accompanying her. Still, she swam for fifteen hours. When she begged to be taken out of the water along the way, her mother, in a boat alongside her, told her she was close and could make it. Finally, physically and emotionally exhausted, she stopped swimming and was pulled out.  It wasn't until she was on the boat that she discovered the shore was less than a half mile away. At a news conference the next day she said: "All I could see was the fog... I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it."

C. J. Mahaney

"On a tombstone in Indiana that dates back more than one hundred years is written: 

"Pause, stranger, when you pass me by;

As you are now, so once was I.

As I am now, so you will be. 

So prepare for death and follow me.

An unknown passerby scratched these additional words on the tombstone:

"To follow you I'm not content,

Until I know which way you went."

Ron Rhodes

"Only the pure in heart will see God, because only the pure in heart want to see God.  Heaven would not be heaven to those who detest holiness here. Those who seek not God's presence now, would never be happy to dwell in it for all eternity then. And God is just, He will never give the Christ-rejecting unbeliever then, what they don't want now."

"He who hopes to be gathered with saints in heaven, while he only loves the gathering of sinners on earth, is deceiving himself." 

J. C. Ryle 

"God loves us enough to tell us the truth. There are two eternal destinations, not one, and we must choose the right path if we are to go to heaven. All roads do not lead to heaven. Only one does -- Jesus Christ... As human beings, we have a terminal disease called mortality. The current death rate is 100 percent. Unless Christ returns soon, we're all going to die. We don't like to think about death, yet worldwide, 3 people die every second, 180 every minute, and nearly 11,000 every hour.  If the Bible is right about what happens to us after death, that means that 250,000 people every day go either to heaven or to hell."

Randy Alcorn

"More important than all the physical beauty of the heavenly city; more important than the fellowship we will enjoy eternally with all God's people from all nations and all periods of history; more important than our freedom from pain and sorrow and physical suffering... more important by far than any of these will be the fact that we will be in the presence of God and enjoying unhindered fellowship with Him."

Wayne Grudem

"Some of you while sitting here today (in worship) have been trying to lift up your minds to heavenly contemplation, but you cannot. The business has gone so wrong this week; the children have vexed you so much; sickness has been in the house so sorely; you yourself feel in your body quite out of order for devotion -- these enemies break your peace...  [But remember] life is but a moment. In short time you will appear in eternity. And though impatience counts it long, yet faith corrects her and reminds her that one hour with God will make the longest life seem but a point in time, a mere nothing, a watch in the night, a thing that was and was not, that has come and gone."

Charles Spurgeon

"The reason why we have no ease of heart or soul [is that] we are seeking our rest in things which can never satisfy, and not seeking to know God, almighty, all-wise, all-good...  We shall never cease wanting and longing until we possess Him in fullness and joy. Then we shall have no further wants. Meanwhile, His will is that we go on knowing and loving until we are perfected in heaven...  The more clearly the soul sees His Blessed face, by grace and love, the more it longs to see it in all its fullness."

Julian of Norwich

"When the Bible defines eternal life, it is not in terms of location or duration, but in terms of relationship with God: 'This is eternal life,' says Jesus, 'that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent' (John 17:3)." 

Daniel Brown

     May your contemplation of eternity move you to live more fully in the present, and resolve once-and-for-all where you shall spend it.  Alcorn is right when he says, "not all roads lead to heaven."  That is what the Bible clearly teaches, along with the twin truth, that, "Only one road leads there -- Jesus Christ."

That others may know Him, Pastor Jeff