Tag: grace

It’s About Grace

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment

Grace

The world spins on the axis of grace, whether you are aware of it, or not; without God’s mercy, life as we know it would cease to exist.  The terrible blights in this world of devastating circumstances, destructive forces, severe depression, and even death do not have the final say over the earth – grace is the word that changes it all and transforms the impossible into the possible.

The large biblical book of Isaiah is thick with the message of judgment for both Israel and the nations that surrounded her.  The sins of the ancient Israelites were chiefly: a calloused injustice toward the needy, the have’s taking manipulative advantage of the have-not’s; and, empty worship rituals toward God that were nothing more than keeping up appearances.  The very air of ancient Israelite society stank with corruption.  God pleaded with the people through his prophets to stop doing wrong and to start doing right in their justice system and in their business dealings.  The Lord of the universe wanted his people to encourage the oppressed, and to defend the cause of those who did not have the power to defend themselves (Isaiah 1:10-17).

Although God’s judgment was aroused, ripe and ready to act through the powerful Assyrian Empire, God would not annihilate his people.  God promised that a Righteous Branch would grow up from the seemingly dead stump of Israel.  A child would be born.  A Messiah would be given.  There would be hope in Israel.  Heartfelt authentic praise will again fill the air.  Proclamation of God’s great name will again be on the lips of Israel.

The remarkable thing about all this is God’s grace.  God made promises to Israel not based upon what they would or would not do; God made promises to his people by his own radically free love.  It was not a situation of making a deal – “if, Israel, you get your act together then I, God, will be good to you.”  No!  Before Israel even had a chance to return to the Lord, God was already choosing to be gracious and merciful.

If you miss the message of God’s grace in the Holy Scriptures, you have missed salvation because only grace can save us.  What we have in common with the Israelites of old is that we are totally dependent upon God’s amazing grace.  Without grace, we are lost.  Praise is a response to the incredible grace God gives which is completely undeserved (Isaiah 12:1-6).

Grace is the thing that is distinctive about Christianity – no other religion, no other place will you find grace amidst the awful muck of the world.  Grace is love that seeks you out when you have nothing to give in return.  Grace is ridiculously generous.  Grace does not use carrot sticks, scorecards, or power politics.  Grace does not demand – it only gives.

Grace is unconditional acceptance given to an undeserving person by an unobligated giver.

That is what God did for Israel.  That is what God has done for you.  And when we get a hold of this truth, even a little bit, there is a cascade of praise that comes rolling out of your heart and onto your lips.

The prophecy of Isaiah is an adventure of God’s determined love toward unlovable people.  That is why it is one of the most quoted books of the Old Testament by Jesus in the New Testament Gospels.  Jesus came because of grace.

Jesus came to release us from our obsessive need to be right, our compulsion to be rewarded, and all our anglings to be respected.  

Because Jesus came to set wayward captives free, life does not have to be a joyless effort to justify and validate ourselves before others.  The grace of God in Christ is a game-changer – and when we get a glimpse of it, we are forever altered and undone by its mercy.  Grace brings praise.

When grace takes hold of a person, a family, and a congregation there is no mumbling of songs – there is a shouting aloud and singing for joy because God is great!  Grace brings such joy and gladness that we do not care what we look like to other people; we are going to shout and sing and express our joy!  Yes, there is a very necessary and important place for contemplative, reverent, reflective worship… and, there is a place for completely letting go, becoming unhinged, and dancing before Jesus!

Advent, Christmas, and every season of the year is really all about God’s relentless and dogged pursuit of wayward people – the bringing of grace to a people living in darkness. Therefore, return to the Lord.  Be captivated by grace.  Renew your love for Jesus.  Lose yourself in praise and adoration of the One who gave everything just for you.  Worship Christ the King.  Proclaim his merciful Name as exalted over everything.

Awakening to Love

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment

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Quite frankly, love is something that everyone on planet needs.  We all require to both receive and to give love.  But not everyone has a heart open to accepting love, and, so, find it nearly impossible to dispense love.  However, the good news is that love is near to each one of us.  We only need to reach and touch it because it is so close.

We have all likely heard the dictum “You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.”  Even if we have not used the phrase, the concept is common throughout the world.  Perhaps the chief hindrance to receiving and giving love is this reciprocal notion.

For example, much of Western society turns on the wheels of transactions.  This is seen in the many words we have for money and financial exchanges:  bills; coins; cash; credit and debit cards; stocks and bonds; bank accounts; 401k; paychecks, etc.  You get the idea.  We can scarcely imagine a culture without putting something into an account so that we can engage in commerce and consumerism.

None of this is neither inherently bad or good; it just is.  A problem arises when people allow the idea of transactions to seep into relationships.  When a person chooses to view the world primarily through the financial lenses of a transaction, we set ourselves up for a deficit of love.

It works something like this:   A parent invests time, money, and resources into a child’s life.  Mom and Dad do everything they can to set up little Johnny for success in this life (which, by the way, is often defined as getting a good paying job someday and being financially independent).  But when little Johnny decides to go all avant garde and does not live up to his parents’ expectations, their reaction betrays the transactional: “Look at all we did for you, and you repay us by not going to college and running off to do only God knows what!?”

Put in the context of a workplace, some bosses are only happy when the employee is producing and making money.  Management doesn’t understand why workers are upset.  Paying them more money doesn’t seem to do it.  They only see the transactional view of the world.  In the realm of personal relationships, we sent a Christmas card to that family and they never sent one back, and that makes us mad.  When it comes to God, we went to church, kept our nose clean and were ethical, and now something terrible happens in our lives.  We think God did not make good.  We invested in this God thing and He didn’t follow through with the transaction to give us the good life.

But God operates in a different economy.  Grace trumps transaction.  Grace is the gears and the grease of God’s love toward us.  The good news of Christianity is that God loves us, even when we have nothing to give, and even when we are far from the words and ways of Jesus.

“Christ died for us at a time when we were helpless and sinful.  No one is really willing to die for an honest person, though someone might be willing to die for a truly good person.  But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinners.” (Romans 5:6-8, CEV).

It is likely that all of us, at some time or another, have felt the sting of someone else’s disappointment with us.  They “invested” in us in some way.  We “repaid” them with a decision or a different direction than what they expected.  Or, it went the other way.  We put time and effort into someone or a group of people, and they didn’t come through for us (e.g. and ironically, pastors and church volunteers often feel this way).

The first step to awakening to love is to forsake a transactional view of relationships and adopt a gracious approach to people and to God.  God is gracious, merciful, and kind.  It isn’t just what He does; it is who He is.  He gives love because He is love.  Until we get that basic understanding, we will flounder in our human relationships because true love will forever be elusive due to the transactional view.

Grace is the most effective way to the world of love, and the best way to the good life.  Yet, surprisingly, this is at no cost to us.  What are we to do?  Give yourselves to God, as people who have been raised from death to life.  Make every part of your life an offering to God.  Don’t let sin keep ruling your lives because you are ruled by God’s kindness and not by the law of the transaction.  Awaken to love because God is love. (Romans 6:12-14; 1 John 4:8-11)

Matthew 1:1-17

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
            If you looked up these verses, you might wonder if you’ve got the right text.  Is there really a genealogy in the lectionary?  Am I really going to get something out of this?  Yep, you are.  All of God’s Holy Scripture drips with grace, and the opening genealogy in Matthew is no exception.  At the heart of Matthew’s gospel is a presentation of Jesus and his teaching that centers on the kingdom of God with Jesus as King, the one whom is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament promises.  So, then, the genealogy is not just a chronicle of Christ’s lineage, but is a theological statement made by Matthew that Jesus is the promised Messiah.
 
            The genealogy includes four women in the lineage of Jesus:  Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba.  Just so you know, women are central to the kingdom of God.  They may not have been important to ancient kings, but to King Jesus they play a significant role.  All four of these women were Gentiles.  King Jesus operates differently.  No matter your gender, your race, or your past (all four had a dubious sexual history), the kingdom of God is for everyone, and is not an exclusive club.  If God can use scandalous Gentile women to accomplish his purposes, who are you or I to tell God whom he can use and whom he can’t use?
 
            God acted in history by sending Jesus, the rightful king of the universe.  He is the Anointed One, sent to restore people to God.  He himself is our peace and our hope.  The kingdom of God operates on grace, and not in typical power position fashion of imposing self-serving agendas.  No matter our past or station in life, grace trumps it all.  Jesus is the One whom makes all the difference.  He is the rightful king.  And he uses his power to save and deliver people from sin, death, and hell.
 

 

            Merciful God, thank you for sending your Son, the Lord Jesus, to save, redeem, and love humanity, including myself.  Help me to walk in his steps of grace every day, in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Galatians 4:21-5:1

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
            There can be something oddly comforting about law.  Having clear black-and-white no-nonsense rules can give a sense of security.  You always know where you stand.  You’re either in or out, pure or sinful.  Yet, here’s the deal on the law:  it is meant for the immature; it is designed as a guide to lead us to maturity.  If we live by law, we are bound by law.  Law can only take us so far in our walk with God.  Slavish commitment to rules must, at some point, give way to the greater virtue of grace. 
 
            The Galatian church wanted a religion they could hold in their hands.  But Paul was dogged on his devotion to a life of grace:  “Christ has set us free!  This means we are really free.  Now hold on to your freedom and don’t ever become slaves of the Law again.”  We are free to live in such a way that brings grace, love, and hope to others.  We are free to bask in the forgiveness we possess in Christ.  If our Christianity is reduced to some sort of point system and following the rules, then we have missed the point of the law to begin with – that it is meant to lead us to Christ and it must, at some point, give way to the larger law of love.
 
            Yes, the law has its place.  But we are perpetual slaves if we never outgrow it and move into freedom.  This is not an anything goes kind of life; it is a life attuned to the Spirit, and aware of living for Jesus through the fruit of the Spirit.  It doesn’t break laws; it fulfills them.  All Christians must grow up and become spiritual adults.  That means leaving childish ways of the law behind and embracing the freedom of the Spirit.  So, where are you in your Christian life?
 

 

            Gracious God, you have sent your Son, the Lord Jesus, to fulfill all the demands of the Law.  Help me so to live for Christ through the Spirit that I ooze his love, grace, and truth in all I do and say.  Amen.