Grace For The Journey

  Another year has come and gone; it’s the last day of 2014.  There are only a few remaining hours of this year still on the clock . . . what will you do with them?  How well will you finish this year?  Can you imagine your Lord saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant” based on the life you lived throughout the past year?

Sadly, many in the church today are convinced that they could never hear those words because of a past littered with broken promises, shattered dreams, and unfulfilled potential.  They believe God is angry with them because they failed to live up to His expectations clearly set forth in Sacred Scripture.  Instead of hearing the words “well done” they dread hearing “You wicked and slothful servant!”

Equally tragic is the great number in the church who are convinced they will hear “Well done” because of their good works, godly living, and great rule keeping.  They believe God owes them a reward for a life well lived.

I have good news for both groups.  The Gospel, properly understood, frees you from both errors.  God does not see you as a failure and He never grades on a curve, no matter how well you think you are doing.  God loves you because of your union with Christ.  He sees you only in the light of the perfect righteousness of Jesus.  You see, Jesus paid for your failures and He paid for your apparent successes.  We are in debt to Him either way.  We have nothing to boast in expect Jesus and in boasting in Jesus we can be assured that we are finishing well.  God clearly states this in 1 Corinthians 1:29-31, “That no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’”

Regardless of the kind of year you had, God, if you have accepted Jesus as your Savior and Lord, is pleased with you.  You are the object of His deepest desire.  So much so, He lived the life you refused to live and paid the penalty you could never pay, just to have you as His own.  He does not need you, because He needs nothing.  Instead, Jesus wants you, which is far better than being needed.

You can probably think of an earthly relationship where you are most certainly needed, but not necessarily wanted.  How empty that is!  But in a relationship with Jesus you are not needed at all . . . but you are wanted beyond your wildest imagination.  And therein lies the key to finishing well.  Remember the place you hold in His heart, and let that thought propel you into your promised future . . . one where you will be the cherished bride of the King of kings and Lord of lords, forever and ever . . . AMEN.

May God bless you and give you a Christ-filled, Christ-honoring New Year!

This is God Word … This is Grace for your Journey … Rest in this eternal truth … AMEN!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Grace For The Journey

  The Bible makes a tremendous statement in 2 Peter 1:3-4, “As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who call us by glory and virtue, By which have been given to us exceeding great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” 

The world likes to start the New Year out by making resolutions.  Some resolve to get fit.  Others resolve to get rich.  Still others resolve to get better.  The problem with making resolutions is located in the one making them.  Think about the last time you made a resolution: how long did it take for your resolution to find its way into the proverbial “hope chest” of your life?

The Bible tells us there is a better way to start the New Year and to keep it going all 365 days: that is to rest in the promises of God.  The power in the promises of God is found in the One making them.  God is absolutely faithful to His Word.  Unlike us, when God says He is going to do something, He actually does it, and He does it every time.

Numbers 23:19 assures us, “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change his mind.  Does He speak and then not act?  Does He promise and not fulfill?”

So now, with that truth firmly fixed in our understanding, we can embark on a new year with great hope and a growing hunger to live the life God has called us to live.  Joshua knew this quite well. At the end of his life, as he was thinking about what God had done for him and through him, he declared, “Not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed.  Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed” (Joshua 21:43-45).  I think we would all agree that this truth caused Joshua to live every day with great hope and a growing hunger to live the life God had called him to live.  May this be the confession of all our lives after we have faithfully walked through the landscape of 2014.

The verse I have chosen to kick off this New Year is as profound as it is promising. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things become new.”

Because of what Jesus has done for us, we are a new creation.  Grace does not reform us and it does not redirect us.  Grace recreates us from the inside out.  Notice that the verse does not say we need to make ourselves a new creation by working more and trying harder.  It says we already are a new creation, simply because we are in Christ and only God can do the work of creating.  What a pitiful promise this would be if Jesus said we needed to do this and not do that in order to receive its blessing.  To be sure, our nature is too weak, our hearts are too divided, and our hands are too dirty to ever earn God’s favor.

Linger for a moment on the word “behold” and marvel at its message!  Jesus is telling us to fix our attention . . . consider carefully . . . ponder intently . . . the work that He has done for us through our union with Him.  We are to behold His work, His passion, His care, His forgiveness, and His love for us, so that we might profit from His promise.  Those who are spiritually born-again by Christ through faith are new creations and participate in the “new creation” that Jesus purchased with His precious blood.  This great transformation has taken place because we stand under the banner of the finished work of Jesus.

Now, we all know from unhappy experience that we are less than perfect – quite a bit less!  We know we are still great sinners in need of an even Greater Savior.  Yet, in the words of Charles Spurgeon, “The Great Sculptor has begun to chisel out the image of Himself in this rough block of human marble; you cannot see all the features, the lineaments divine are not yet apparent; still, because it is in His design, the Master seeth what we see not; He seeth in our unhewn nature His own perfect likeness as it is to be revealed in the day of the revealing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

As we stand before our Father in heaven, we are clothed in the perfect righteousness of the Son.  Not only do we stand forgiven, but we stand as if we had never sinned.

How much better are the promises of God than the resolutions of man!

If you are in Christ, God is at work in you and that work will not stop until it has been completed.  My prayer for you this year is that the promises of God will propel you further in and further up into the transforming truths and power of the Gospel.

This is God Word … This is Grace for your Journey … Rest in this eternal truth … AMEN!

Pastor Terry

 Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Grace For The Journey

  This is the final week of 2014.  How will you spend it?  For many, the focus will be on college football and New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Well, before you get into all that, I’d like to encourage you to take a moment today to look back and reflect on all God has done for you over the past 363 days of this year.

Obviously, I can’t know all that will go on your list, but here is one universal blessing that we all received this past year, and it is one that we can easily overlook . . .

ANOTHER YEAR OF LIFE!

Would you have thought to put that on your list?  The Bible says in Daniel 5:23, “God . . . holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways …” and He graciously chose to give you and me yet another year of life!  Life is one of God’s great gifts to all of us this past year; our gift back to Him is simply this – how we lived it.

The end of the year is a great time to reflect on the past year and examine just how we used – and at times, misused – the precious and unrepeatable time God gave us.

The Bible tells us in Ephesians 5:15-17, “Be very careful, then, how you live: not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”

Paul was telling the Ephesians, just as He is telling us today, that it is critical to make the most of the time God gives to us.  It’s so easy to major on the minor things of life that we can miss God’s best for us.  We must remember a few critical truths about life:

• When we spend a minute we have one less minute to spend.
• When we spend an hour we have one less hour to spend.
• When we spend a day we have one less day to spend.
• When we spend a week we have one less week to spend.
• When we spend a month we have one less month to spend.
• And when we spend a year we have one less year to spend.

There are many things we have been given in life that, if we lost them, we could get more of that thing back.  We can always get more money, more possessions, more jobs, more relationships, and more opportunities.  But we cannot get more time.

Time is incredibly precious and limited; when something is precious and limited, the value increases.  Compared to eternity, we are here on earth for only a moment and none of us knows when that moment will come to an end.  And that is why we must make the most of every moment we have been given.

The devil will always try to convince you that you have more time.  Those who believe him will one day realize that much, much time – vast oceans of precious time – has been wasted.

The great Reformer John Calvin wrote, “There are so many allurements which can easily lead us astray.  Our society offers us an endless variety of allurements.  We need to be rid from these temptations and thorns.  We must abandon every hindrance and even hard work and toil may not be an excuse for neglecting the day of grace, or neglecting to do good.”

God tells us to “redeem the time,” which simply means we are to value the time we currently have by rescuing the opportunities God gives to us.  Opportunities to love unconditionally . . . opportunities to forgive completely . . . opportunities to do good . . . opportunities to serve others . . . opportunities to put God on display and advance the cause of His kingdom in this world.

So when opportunity knocks this next year, will you be ready to respond to it and make the most of it?  Your answer, of course, will be a resounding YES . . . if you keep Jesus on the throne of your life and live in the light of eternity.

May God bless you and give you a Christ-filled, Christ-honoring New Year!

This is God Word … This is Grace for your Journey … Rest in this eternal truth … AMEN!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Grace For The Journey

 

It is the day after Christmas. Did you get the “Gift That Keeps On Giving?”

It was not uncommon during the mad rush of Christmas shopping to hear sellers proclaim that their product is “the gift that keeps on giving.”  Here are a few of the more common promoters of a “gift that keeps on giving.”

Jewelry Stores                                                          Health Clubs

Triple AAA Auto Club Membership                      Book Stores

Newspaper & Magazine Subscriptions               EverReady Batteries

The list could be much longer!  In reality, however, there is only one Gift that keeps on giving – and His name is Jesus Christ.  God says In Isaiah 9:6, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given” and Luke 2:11, “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

You see, the Bible tells us that Jesus not only freely offers Himself to us as the gift of eternal life; He also gives Himself to us as the gift of everyday life.  This is the Gospel as it was given to us by God the Father, through God the Son, by the power of God the Holy Spirit – (Romans 1:16 – “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes ….)”

Sadly, many in the church only see this Gospel as a one-time gift which graciously gives us eternal life.  But, they miss the power of the Gospel to keep on giving throughout life, moment by moment. They believe they are saved by grace, but they also believe they are kept in God’s grace by their own good works.  If such people were completely candid, they might say that Jesus made the down payment on eternal life, but it’s up to us to make the installment payments!  Like Job’s friends, those “miserable comforters” who came to him in his time of grief and trial, they think that their good days merit God’s blessings and their bad days call down His curses.  This false “gospel” smells like smoke and comes from the pit of hell.

The same grace that saves is the grace that sustains and sanctifies us throughout this life.  God does not save us and then expect us to live the Christian life in our own strength.  He continually pours out His grace into our lives day by day.

The Gospel is the only gift that truly keeps on giving, because it never breaks down, expires, or wears out.  And God’s Gospel promises are never revoked, for “The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). The Gospel keeps on giving us the grace we need to live the life God has called us to live.

Grace grows us up into Christ.  Grace gives us strength to weather the storms of life.  Grace frees us from a broken past.  Grace empowers us to forgive.  Grace encourages us to rise and get back into the game every time we fall.  And grace grants that we will spend all eternity in the presence of our loving Savior.  It is all of grace, and it is a gift from beginning to end; Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, is the One who began a good work in us and will certainly complete it (Hebrews 12:2; Philippians 1:6).

What Jesus starts He finishes . . . and that includes you!  That is why we must preach the Gospel to ourselves each day.  We need to keep before us this gift that keeps on giving for the courage, strength, and motivation to keep pressing on toward the prize . . . even when we would rather not.

That indescribable gift is indeed a gift that “keeps on giving!”

This is God Word … This is Grace for your Journey … Rest in this eternal truth … AMEN!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

Grace For The Journey

  It is my desire this Christmas day to share a word of encouragement that I pray will stay with you, not just throughout the remainder of this Christmas season, but throughout the rest of your life.

That Word comes from John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

In one of the most familiar verses in all of sacred Scripture, we see that Christmas has its promises to keep for those who believe in the Son of God as the Savior of the world. Let’s take a look at three of them.

PROMISE #1 – God gave His one and only Son

The first promise that Christmas keeps is the promise God made all the way back in the Garden of Eden to send a Savior (Genesis 3:15). Adam and Eve had committed their act of cosmic rebellion and were hiding from God. Yet God, in His infinite grace and mercy, gently called Adam to Himself. Instead of simply wiping Adam and Eve off the face of this earth and hitting the reset button with some different dirt, God promised to provide the solution to their sin problem; God promised a Savior, and His name is Jesus Christ.

PROMISE #2 – Whoever believes in Him shall not perish

The second promise that Christmas keeps is the promise that all who believe in the accomplishment of the first promise shall not perish. Let me be blunt: as children of Adam, we are all under a death sentence. We are perishing as sinners, both by nature and by habit, and we should expect nothing but the condemnation and wrath of Almighty God. But to those who believe that the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger is the Savior of the world, that death sentence has been erased.

Jesus grew up, lived a sinless life, died a sacrificial death, and was raised from the dead on the third day. Because Jesus took the full punishment and made the full payment for sin, those who believe in Him shall not perish.

PROMISE #3 – Whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life

The third promise that Christmas keeps is found in the already and not yet context. We already have eternal life in Christ, by grace through faith, but we will not fully possess it until we get to the other side of the grave. We have been given the Comforter – the Holy Spirit – and we possess all of the promises that are in Christ, but we are still clothed in our sinful flesh and cannot yet fully experience that eternal life. When we are received into glory, we will know a life of everlasting, unimaginable joy and pleasure, free from the pain, sorrow, tears, sickness, and death because the old will be passed away and the new will have come.

With all of the excitement and great joy surrounding the Nativity story at Christmas, we can easily miss the great comfort found in a promise-keeping God. When God makes a promise, you can count on it! God promised to send His Son as the Savior of the world, and He kept His promise on that first Christmas morning. The shepherds saw this promise kept and believed. The Wise Men saw this promise kept and believed. How about you?

I pray that this Christmas day you will be reminded of these three Christmas promises kept. If you believe, you shall not perish, but have eternal life. You have God’s Word on it!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

This is God Word … This is Grace for your Journey … Rest in this eternal truth … AMEN!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

Grace For The Journey

Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863) wrote the poem “Twas The Night Before Christmas” in 1822.  The first publication date was the 23^rd of December, 1823, and it was immediately and joyfully received by a wide audience.  It is a tradition in many American families to read the poem every Christmas Eve.

Here are the familiar opening lines:

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all sung in their beds,

While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads…

We hear all kinds of Christmas sermons at this time of year.  We are generally told to turn in our Bibles to the second chapter of Luke’s gospel and read about the foundation of Christmas.  But is it?  The first Christmas was not the foundation of Christmas; to find that we must return to the Garden of Eden.

The Bible tells us in Genesis chapter 2 that Adam and Eve sinned against God.  It was not enough for them to be made in the image of God.  They wanted to be God and chose to believe in the lie of the deceiver, the devil himself.

The Bible says in Genesis 3:1-7, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ‘You will not certainly die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”

From the time of the fall until the first Christmas we read about in Luke 2, we were living in the period of time I would like to call “The Night Before Christmas.” We all know that the night is a time of darkness.  When Adam and Eve fell, we all fell, and the shadow of darkness covered the land.

The sin of Adam and Eve was punishable by death (Genesis 2:17).  The apostle Paul confirms this by telling us that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).  And God wasn’t making idle threats; upon eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve experienced an instant spiritual death – separation and alienation from God. When they heard the sound of God walking in the Garden, they hid themselves from Him.  The intimate fellowship they had experienced from the day God created them was no longer.  Day had turned into night.

But in His great mercy, God promised that it would not always be night.  The Night Before Christmas would one day turn into Christmas Day!  God’s infinite grace would forever extinguish the dark and dreary Night Before Christmas by taking upon Himself the punishment for our sin . . . all our sin.  God says in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

This promise from God that a Savior was to come and rescue us is the foundation of Christmas.  This is the Good News of the Gospel.  But that Good News doesn’t make sense without the Bad News.  The glorious light of Christmas day doesn’t make sense apart from the long, dark night that preceded it.  But once we understand the dark night humanity has been living in since the fall in the Garden of Eden, the light of Christmas Day truly brings “glad tidings of great joy.”

The Bible says in Luke 2:10-11, “The angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’”

Jesus is the Light of the world (John 8:12), and on that first Christmas morning, His light extinguished the dark night.  The promise of God had been fulfilled; the Savior had come.  Night was over; day was upon us!

Is Jesus your Savior?  Have you trusted in Him alone for your eternal salvation?  If you have not, you are still living in that dreary, hopeless Night Before Christmas. Acknowledge that you are a great sinner in need of an even greater Savior.  Repent of your sin and receive His promised forgiveness. Asks Him by faith to be your Lord and Savior.  Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead . . . and you will never again experience the Night Before Christmas.

Jesus is the reason for the season; He is the One who came to eternally extinguish the Night Before Christmas and shine the light of grace and truth into our hearts.  Merry Christmas!

This is God Word … This is Grace for your Journey … Rest in this eternal truth … AMEN!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Grace For The Journey

 

  Burned out from too much shopping?  Stressed out from too much celebrating?  Exhausted from making too many preparations for the big day?

For many Christians, the answer is YES, YES, a thousand times YES!  If we are not careful, we can celebrate Christmas just like millions of people around the world who celebrate it without Christ – those who neither have Christ on their minds nor in their hearts.  Sadly, with the stranglehold that commercialism and materialism have placed on our society, it is easy to get swept up in the “rush” to Christmas that is causes us to not have Christ in the heart or on the mind.

Here is a good question to meditate on and marinate in during these next two days:

If someone watched a video of the next 48 hours of your life – what you thought, what you said, and what you did – what would they think Christmas is all about?  Christ?  Or something else?

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 9:15 – “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”

The confession of our lives should be the expression of Christ in word and deed. Our lives should be the same as the first-century Christians. In Acts 4:13 the Bible describes what the people in their day noticed – “… they marveled, and they took note of them they had been with Jesus.”  People who come in contact with us should be able to realize the difference Jesus is making in our lives.  They should connect with Him through our lips and our lives – our profession and our practice.

A little over 2,000 years ago, God gave us the greatest gift the world has ever known. The most costly gift in the universe, God’s Son, was given to us in the flesh, from the cradle to the tomb.  He who started out as a baby, cooing in a manger, ended up beaten and bleeding on a cross, gasping out His last breaths.

But the story doesn’t end there!  Three days later God raised this precious gift from the dead, confirming that Jesus was who He said He was and did what He said He was going to do.  He crushed the serpent.  He conquered sin.  He came out of the grave and conquered death!

Christmas is a time of celebration and enjoy the good gifts God has given to us!

But we must take care not to focus more on the gifts than the Giver.  The Giver is Jesus, who is the Gift.  He is to be enjoyed and celebrated.  We are to say along with Mary, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).  Mary’s confession confessed Christ.  She surrendered control of her life to the only One worth surrendering to – Jesus.  She gave up her dreams, her hopes, her plans, her agenda, her preferences, and her reputation.  Mary willingly submitted to the will of God.  She released her grip on all her good gifts in order to cling tightly to the Giver of the greatest gift.

God never intended to have only a portion of our hearts.  He wants all of us, and He will tolerate no rival.  He will use every means necessary to give us what He knows is best for us.  His best may come in the form of a wilderness experience or a windfall.  Regardless of what it is, He wants all of you and He wants you all the time.

So how will you make these next 48 hours different from the last 48 hours?  Perhaps it’s not to be found so much in what you will do, but rather in whom you believe and become.  This Christmas, don’t get so caught up with the busyness of Christmas that you forget to focus on developing your relationship with Christ … “He who is seated on the throne and says, “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5) . . . and that includes you!  Are people seeing that in you!

This is God Word … This is Grace for your Journey … Rest in this eternal truth … AMEN!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Grace For The Journey

      What’s In A Name?

When the Bible was written, names conveyed a great deal more meaning than they do today.

The Israelites often chose names for their babies based on a variety of different factors – such as the character or appearance of the child … for example, Esau, which means “hairy.”  Some names were chosen based on a prayer of the parent … such as Zechariah, whose name means “God has remembered.” Other names were given which identified objects in creation … such as Tamar (which means “palm tree”) and Tabitha (which means “gazelle”).  Still other names were given to identify the time of day the baby were born … such as Shaharaim (which means “dawn”) and Hodesh (which means “new moon”).

Jesus was named prophetically. The Bible tells us in Matthew 1:20-23 – “You are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.” Throughout the Scriptures we find hundreds of appellations for Jesus that serve as divine descriptions of both His character and His calling.  Here are just a few:

Alpha and Omega – Revelation 1:8.         Firstborn over all creation – Colossians 1:15

Bread of Life – John 6:35.                           Bridegroom – Matthew 9:15

Chief Cornerstone – Ephesians 2:20       God – John 20:28

Good Shepherd – John 10:14                    Great High Priest – Hebrews 4:14

Holy One – Acts 3:14                                   Lamb of God – John 1:29

Lord of lords – Revelations 19:16              Messiah – John 4:25-26

Mighty God – Isaiah 9:6                               Our Redemption – 1 Corinthians 1:30

Resurrection and Life – John 11:25          Righteous One – Acts 7:52

Rock – 1 Corinthians 10:4                          Savior – Ephesians 5:23)

The Word – John                                         True Vine – John 15:1

The Way – John 14:6

These are just a few of the 256 names and titles in the Bible that tell us much about our Savior and King.  Yet, there is one other name that I would like to sharpen our focus on today – EMMANUEL … which means “God with us!”

As a pastor, I find that this time of the year is quite difficult for a great many people, for a variety of reasons.  A loss of a loved one is especially painful at this time of the year.  Christmas always carries some sadness for our family because two of our daughters and other family members have been taken in death and they are missed. For many people the Christmas season brings back childhood memories of a far better past than their bitter present, which is now marked by disappointment, discouragement, disillusionment, and defeat.

I don’t know where this Christmas season finds you.  I don’t know the pain of your past or your present, yet I know there is pain for every one of us, because we are all broken people living in a broken world with other broken people. I do know that God (IMMANUEL) has promised to be with you in the midst of your pain and problems!

I pray God’s Word today will provide great comfort for you as we approach Christmas Day.

God is not playing games … The name “Immanuel” is a specific word to us about His wonderful grace, presence, and power! Take comfort in this …

Emmanuel is with you and has been working for you from before the foundation of the world.

He is with you in your pain and your pleasure.  He is with you in your failure and your victory.  He is with you in your sickness and your health.  The Holy One, the King of kings and Lord of lords, is with you now and will be forever.  And because He is with you, you can face every situation with His grace and strength!

The Bible says in Hebrews 13:5, “For He (God) has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” – Hebrews 13:5.

Use your eyes of faith to go back to Bethlehem; join the company of weary, wandering shepherds and see this little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  Marvel at this God-man (IMMANUEL), who would enter a sin-stained world that would one day crucify Him . . . who came on a rescue mission for you!  You are so precious to Him that He gave His all for you.  In fact, you are the object of His greatest desire!

Do you know Him today?  Have you surrendered to Him as Savior and Lord?  Let Him reveal Himself – His power and presence to you today!

May this truth of IMMANUEL walking with you, working for you and in you fill your heart with peace and joy this Christmas season and beyond. May this truth encourage and empower you to press on into the perfect plan and purpose Emmanuel has for your life.  He is with you now, and one day if you have accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord, you will be with Him forevermore!

 This is God Word … This is Grace for your Journey … Rest in this eternal truth … AMEN!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

GRACE FOR THE JOURNEY

Do you remember the old Christmas classic, narrated by Fred Astaire, Santa Clause Is Coming to Town?  Do you remember the line, “So be good for goodness sake?”  I have a news flash for you: we are very rarely “good for goodness sake.”  For the most part, if we are good at all, we are good because of what we expect to get in return.

Think about the last time you were good.  Was it really for goodness sake, or were you hoping for some kind of payback?  Now think about the last time you were good, but didn’t cash in on the payback you were expecting.  What happened then?  Did you decide to do something bad, in order to get back for not getting paid for being good?

I can’t tell you how many people I have talked to who are angry with God because they didn’t get the reward they were expecting from Him for all of their perceived “goodness.”  Here is what these folks are missing: God doesn’t owe us anything – not one solitary red cent – even when we are good! Even if, by some miracle of grace, we were to do everything we were commanded by God to do, all we would have done was our duty . . . and God owes us nothing for doing only what we are required to do.

So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, must say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.” (Luke 17:10 ESV)

What obligation have we placed God under when we have done what is good, right, noble, or worthy?  None!  If God is so pleased to reward us, it will only be a result of unmerited favor and another act of grace in our lives.  What we must keep in mind is that our services are not even the least bit profitable to God, because He does not need anything from us, and that includes our “help” to expand the cause of His kingdom.

The Bible says in Job 22:2, “Can a man be of benefit to God?  Can even a wise person benefit Him?”

Theologian and author A.W. Pink penned a profound truth – “the Lord is self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied, and in need of nothing.”  Job knew this truth.  Everything we have been given is a gift of God’s grace.  Our blessings are rooted in our relationship with Jesus, not in our goodness and work ethic.  If it is to be, it is not up to me!

It is up to God and His infinite willingness to pour out His unmerited favor into our lives, for no other reason than that He is pleased to do so.  What we must remember is the good we do is a result of God’s grace at work in us; all the glory and praise goes to, and is due, Him!

One final thought for today: even our very best services and good works are mingled with the desires of our sinful and selfish hearts.  Our imperfections mar everything we do.  Who has ever loved God with all his heart for even an hour?  Yet, the Gospel tells us that God will be merciful – in spite of all our unrighteousness – and will remember our sin no more.

The Bible reminds us of God’s great grace and mercy in Hebrews 8:12 – “I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

To put it simply, God will bless even our mess.

How incredible to be loved by a God who loves us when we are unlovable and blesses us when we deserve to be cursed!  Do you see the glorious freedom in these Gospel truths?

 We are blessed by the Best, even when we are less than our best.

Unlike Santa Clause, our God is not making a list and checking it twice to find out who’s naughty or nice.  God is not checking a list or keeping score because the score was settled forever when Jesus paid the price for all of our sins on the cross.  And since we don’t need to earn our way into God’s heart to receive His favor and blessing, we can, by the grace of His power at work in us, simply do our best to be good . . . not “for goodness sake,” but for sake of His goodness!

 This is God Word … This is Grace for your Journey … Rest in this eternal truth … AMEN!

 Pastor Terry

 Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

 Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

 

GRACE FOR THE JOURNEY

     What is your first priority in life?

Is it your family?  Your profession?  Your reputation in the eyes of others?  Your hobby?

The answer to this question can be found in the confession of your life.  Remember the old saying: “What you do speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you say!”

The Apostle Paul wrote an epistle intended to build up the church in Colossae, which was mired in heresy, empty religious ritual, ungodly asceticism, and false mysticism.  In the third chapter and eleventh verse of that inspired letter, Paul provides the answer to every question . . . the solution to every problem . . . and the strength to overcome every obstacle in both life and death – “Christ is all, and in all.”

Is Christ your all?  If Jesus Christ is your all, He is to be in your all – all that you think, all that you do, all that you say, and all that you desire.  Paul sets forth his reasoning behind why Christ is all in the first chapter of Colossians.

The Bible says in Colossians 1:15-18 – “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.  And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  And he is the head of the body, the church.  He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.”

Paul provides seven proofs to the preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ and why He is to be our first priority.

1. Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
2. Jesus is the firstborn of all creation.
3. All things were created through Him and for Him.
4. Jesus is before all things.
5. Jesus holds all things together.
6. Jesus is the head of the church.
7. Jesus is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.

In a word, Jesus Christ is ALL!  When Jesus raised you from death to life, He desired to sit upon the throne of your life – all of your life!  Notice I said “desired,” not “demanded.”  He will not demand your obedience or your love.  To be sure, He has every right to demand all things from everyone, but He loves us far too much to do that.  He does not desire morally restrained hearts that beat out of a sense of duty and obligation.  He desires hearts that have been transformed by the truths of the Gospel, hearts that beat out of a sense of devotion and love.

When we understand what Jesus has done for us by His life, death, and resurrection, it changes the “why” behind everything we do.  Love becomes the motive and motivation in all we think, do, and say.  The more we hold the preeminence of Jesus before the eyes of our faith, the more we will be transformed – in thought, word, deed, and desire – by the power of the Gospel.

This is God Word … This is Grace for your Journey … Rest in this eternal truth … AMEN!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”