August 7, 2007

Ladies, I want to thank you all for participating in the book study. Our study was certainly a blessing and timely message for me. I hope it was for you, too. This book was recommended to me by a friend, so friends keep your eyes open for more books that would be good for another book study. Let’s commit to share the love of God through the study of His word, our fellowship, and through giving grace as abundantly as we receive it.
Chapter 14 is where we began today’s discussion. The focus verses in Romans 7:7-25 focus on sin (duh) and that which is good. The debate: Why do we keep sinning if we know it is bad, we know what is good, and we really, internally, want to do the good stuff? The group decided that the following verses are at the heart of the matter: v21 “So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.” As we mentioned a few weeks ago, as surely as God has a plan for good in your life, so the Devil has a plan for evil in your life. We struggle with the fleshly desires when we should heed to the desires of the Spirit living within us. It is a civil war. We must arm ourselves for the battle on a daily basis. Lucado refers to these warring factions as the “ought to” and the “want to”. Which side is going to win the battle today? Will today’s fight be recorded as a score one for the “ought to” or a point for the “want to”? The good news is this, Even if today’s battle goes down in the books as a victory for the enemy, you can get up tomorrow and beat the dickens out of him! And this is the weapon of choice for that battle: v24, 25 “Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Our yesterdays don’t matter to God if we have confessed our sin and accepted Jesus as our Lord and personal Savior. God “still claims you” no matter how badly beaten by the enemy you’ve been, no matter how long you’ve stood on the front lines of the wrong side, you are still His. Lucado reminds us of this truth “If your sin were too great for his grace, he never would have saved you in the first place.” Lucado gives us another weapon for the battlefield: “He still guides you.” God gave us an arsenal of heat-seeking missiles to launch at the enemy. Where can they be found? Within the pages of your bible. Daily reading the scriptures will surely strengthen your convictions, while making the enemy shake in his boots.
Let’s look at a focus verse for chapter 15. “Be kind and loving to each other, and forgive each other just as God forgave you in Christ.” {(Eph. 4:32) The New Century Version} The book of Ephesians was written by Paul during his imprisonment in Rome to the believers at Ephesus. Does anyone else find it incredible that Paul could write such beautiful words of forgiveness while being held in prison, mistreated and abused because he is doing what is good? So let’s get a different translation of the same verse and compare. The NIV says “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” The KJV says “Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” Is anyone else seeing a theme here? The descriptions of our hearts may vary, loving, compassionate, tenderhearted, and kind but the scripture is clear, God’s word is clear that we are to be forgiving of one another. Lucado describes hatred as a habit. He mentions several techniques that we use to “settle to score”. Silence, distance, and nagging….check, check, and check. Been there done all of those! He says that we make a habit of bringing to mind the wrong that has been committed (though we claim to have forgiven), of seeking repayment (though nothing can be done to undo what has been done to us), of “indulging our hurts with doses of anger” (though we know that two wrongs don’t make a right). So how many times are we supposed to forgive? Scripture says “seventy times seven” (Matt 18:22) How can you continue to forgive without giving in? Lucado’s take on Peter’s question in Matthew 18 is this “Keeping tabs on your mercy, is not being merciful. If you’re calibrating your grace, you’re not being gracious.” Oh yeah and remember the “forgive” refrain in the Ephesians verse? Well, let’s look at the part that follows… “even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” “…just as in Christ God forgave you.” “…just as God forgave you in Christ.” So the example has been laid by God. He is not counting the number of times we ask for forgiveness for the same sin…neither should we. We loved these statements that Lucado makes towards the end of the chapter: “The key to forgiving others is to quit focusing on what they did to you and start focusing on what God did for you.” “You will never be called upon to give anyone more grace than God has already given you.”
Lucado begins chapter 16 with three proclamations of grace. “First, only God can forgive my godlessness. Second, only God can judge my neighbor. Third, I must accept who God accepts.” Let’s go to Romans 15:7 for the biblical perspective: “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” As we discussed on Tuesday, the life of a “walking in the way” Christian is not a cake-walk. God has called each one of us to follow him, but the catch is this…each one of us has a different path laid before us. So often as we are on our path we see others on similarly laid trails and we walk alongside them for a while. We enjoy the conversation, we share stories about where our path has taken us and where it will end up, we steady each other when the path gets narrow or steep and encourage each other if we trip or fall. But occasionally someone comes along who is on a totally different kind of path. Maybe yours is one made of brick and theirs is a dirt path, cut into the green grass. The destination is the same but the route is slightly different. You and your brick-path friend look curiously at the dirt path fellow and whisper “My his feet are dirty! Wonder why he doesn’t walk on a real path like us?” “How in the world did he end up there?” Or “Poor fellow, he just isn’t doing it quite right.” “My path is made of brick and I know that’s right and good so a path made of brick must be a sinful one.” We tend to stick to those on similarly laid paths and question the validity of those on different paths. The point of Romans 15:7 is to unite in the belief that Christ loves us all and it doesn’t matter whether you like the dirt path folks or not. As long as they believe that Jesus is God’s son, that he died on the cross for our sins and rose again, then they have been accepted by God. We want to unite on our paths so that those still wandering lost in the forest will choose to follow us, choose to follow the path that God has laid for them.
In Chapter 17 Lucado discusses the focus verse from Romans 8:35 which reads “Can anything separate us from the love Christ has for us?” He has subdivided this into five sections that speak to each of us at different points in our lives. The first is “The question of Protection”. Romans 8:31 says “If God is for us, who can be against us?” God is for US so there can be nothing that holds any weight over us. Death? Nope, I’ve got eternal life. Sin? No, been forgiven. Worry? No, God will take care of me. We are protected because we are His. “The Question of Provision” is for those who wonder if God can really provide, can He really meet my needs? Well, He provided his son as a living sacrifice for my sin, sin that hadn’t even been committed yet. So, the answer is Yes! God “graciously gives us all things.” (Romans 8:32) The questions of Guilt and Grace go hand in hand. Do I have to feel guilty over sins of my past and will I exhaust the resources of grace to cover the sins of my future? No and No. If we have confessed our sin to God and asked for his forgiveness then any guilt we may feel is coming from Satan. He is trying to use it to beat us down. God doesn’t believe in guilt trips. So if you are experiencing one you either need to confess some hidden sin or tell Satan to get of your back because you are a forgiven child of God! The bible says “the wages of sin is death.” And although we will all eventually come to that end, the death here was that of Christ. He paid the price for our sin. If God can give his son to save our souls then I think he can keep us wrapped in grace until we are free from the sin in this world. And finally endurance. How long will God’s love last? Well, ladies how long will you love your children? When is the expiration date on that love? Forever, I will love my children forever. That’s it. That’s what God thinks of us. He will love us forever.
If you haven’t read the conclusion to the book, I highly recommend it. Page 183 fires off some tough questions that we need to use to examine ourselves. Have we been bragging about God in our lives? Have we found contentment? Do we open our arms to welcome those from different walks? Do we thank God for everything we have and do? Do we show God’s grace in our lives? Do we continually ask God to look after us? Are we in the Grip of Grace?

July 31

Romans 5:8 says “Christ died for us while we were still sinners.” Try reading that sentence and putting emphasis on a different word each time. “CHRIST died for us while we were still sinners.” Christ DIED for us while we were still sinners.” “Christ died for US while we were still sinners.” “Christ died for us while we were STILL sinners.” Lucado says that “God has made a covenant to adopt his people. His covenant is not invalidated by our rebellion. It’s one thing to love us when we are strong, obedient, and willing. But when we ransack his house and steal what is his? This is a test of love.” Christ died for us, God sent his only son to die for us, while we were still sinners, living in and loving sin! But God promised to love us and forgive our sins, to send a way for us to be with him in eternity. (I can’t find a happy medium between summarizing the book and summarizing the discussion so I am just going to jump in and hope you can keep up!)
In 2 Sam. 9 we see David begin to reflect on his friendship with Jonathan. He asks “Is there anyone still left in Saul’s family? I want to show kindness to that person for Jonathan’s sake.” Little picture: Jonathan saved David’s life, David promises to show kindness to Jonathan’s family. Big picture: God saves our lives (eternally), we promise (through our faith and through baptism) to show kindness to God’s family (that means everyone!).
Do you have someone in your life that comes with a subtitle? Susie, the homewreaker. George, the alcoholic. Liz, the one who got pregnant in high school. Do you think of yourself in terms of what you have done, good or bad? That was how Jonathan son Mephibosheth, the cripple, was reffered to. (I probably would have reffered to him as Mephibosheth, the one whose name I can’t pronounce or spell correctly!) Lucado asks “Isn’t there anyone who sees you for who you are and not what you did?” Once Mephi is found and escorted back to the palace, he falls before his lord (by lord I mean ruler of a certain land) and confesses “I am your servant” (2 Sam 9:6). David could do any number of things here but he chooses to openly welcome Mephi, to reassure him that he is in the right place, and to make room for him at the table. We are imperfect, crippled descendants of a royal lineage and we have been invited to dine with the LORD (by Lord I mean ruler of all things). We have been shown grace and mercy in our current, seriously flawed, state. Does anyone else feel a sense of relief? Whew, I’m glad to be at this table and could you please pass the potatoes?
Lucado provides us a partial list of what awaits us at the table. Go to page 104, 105 to see the full list. We discussed that we are most excited about being “delivered from the power of evil” (Col. 1:13). As someone said today ‘evil is everywhere here, on earth’. It is oppressive, it is mounting, it is daunting, but when we get to his table it will be no more. We mostly agreed that it is hardest to believe that “You are perfect” (Heb. 10:14) will ever apply to a big ole sinner like me! But won’t that be a great meal? A perfect me, eating with a perfect you, who is sitting across from a perfect God…..wonder what we will talk about?
The next three chapters were a real light bulb experience for me. I hope some of you felt like they provided some insight or highlight. I love the intro to this section where Lucado writes “The more we immerse ourselves in grace, the more likely we are to give grace.” That was a homerun statement for me. It really hit home and it makes me want to get up and run! And how true it is! Don’t you agree that the more focus we put on God’s grace in our lives, how he has forgiven even the worst of sins, leads us to be more forgiving of the worst of sinners in our lives? It’s not easy and it’s not always fun, but then again sending your only son to die on the cross for a bunch of selfish sinners probably wasn’t easy or fun either. Some people have a major problem with grace and the main reason is because “to accept forgiveness is to admit sin”. To allow God’s grace to dominate our lives is to admit that we sin, and sin a lot. Why do some people have a problem with that? I tell you what, it is a lot easier to live in a world where no one expects you to be perfect and to never be perfect, than it is to live in a world where everyone expects you to be perfect and you never are. I’m glad I don’t have to live with that perpetual disappointment. So let’s thank God with all our hearts and minds that he doesn’t expect us to be what we cannot ever be. He freely offers grace to those who will believe that it is there!
How many of you would consider committing adultery on your wedding night? Not many of us would. Sometimes we see our commitment to God as a convenience. But did you get married just because it was convenient? I think not. So if we take our baptism as seriously as our wedding vow s and we work as hard at our relationship with God as we do our relationship with our husbands, can you imagine how great it could be? Some people think: ‘I’ll pray real hard when I need something or when I’m in trouble but as for all the other times I can make it on my own. Oh yeah, and let’s have a don’t ask don’t tell policy for my sins…you don’t come right out and ask me about them and I won’t tell you about how bad I’ve been.’ But is that what our baptism in the cleansing waters was all about? Is Christ’s commitment to us that flimsy? Lucado says “To return to sin after sealing our souls in baptism is like committing adultery on your honeymoom.” Why bother even dunking your toes in the baptismal if that’s all it means to you? Now, of course it is inevitable that we will sin but let’s not try to hide it from God. That’s just a waste of time. Instead, let’s thank God for the grace he has shown us and really make use of it. Admit your sin and ask forgiveness and experience the relief and freedom and purity that comes from the love of God.
Have you ever asked yourself any of the following questions: Why doesn’t God just remove the temptation from my life? Why doesn’t God remove the enemies in my life? Why doesn’t God alter my personality to be more godly? Why doesn’t God heal my aching body and my broken heart? Why doesn’t God give me a great skill to use for his glory? I know I have asked almost all of them. Sounds a little whiny doesn’t it? I think we do that a lot with God. But as we see in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 “My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness.” We need some weaknesses (one of mine is writing, especially punctuation) so that God’s power, love and grace can be clearly seen in our lives. I love the quote from Lucado that reads “God would prefer we have an occasional limp than a perpetual strut.” So for whatever the circumstance, no matter how bad, God’s grace is sufficient. God’s grace is sufficient.