God’s acceptance – Page 9

Working in the Time of Grace

“These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”

Matt. 20:12, NIV

Matthew 20 irritates me. People are working the entire day, and along comes people who have only worked for one hour. This discrepancy drives the believer nuts. How in the world could such a thing take place? It is foolishness to us who insist on a ‘grace of appropriateness.’ We want grace to be fair, recognizing the person who has worked very hard.

The problem is that God is outrageous with His grace and love. He completely expands us to a point where we must embrace a grace that is completely beyond us. We have to break down and accept what is available to us. Grace completely dumps us upside down.

We can only proceed if we accept His definition of Grace.

Those who have labored the least are made equal to those who work the hardest. This seems incredibly unfair and we revolt against such extravagance. It strikes us as outrageously unfair. How can those who worked only an hour receive the exact same amount as those who have labored a full eight?

The miracle of this shockingly outrageous grace is that we are confronted by a profound freedom. We basically get brought to the point where we get stripped of these illusions and need to walk out the scripture. It has the tendency to eliminate the issues that could block us and bring us to a most receptive position.

“But he replied to one of them, ‘My friend, I’m not being unjust to you. Wasn’t our agreement for a silver coin a day? Take your money and go home. It is my wish to give the latecomers as much as I give you. May I not do what I like with what belongs to me? Must you be jealous because I am generous?’

¹⁶“So, many who are the last now will be the first then and the first last.”

Matthew 20:13-16

We must admit that God’s grace reaches out to everyone.

That He has the deep, deep desire to see that each of us connect with His love. This is indeed the radicalness of the gospel. It is outrageous and astonishing. That He would love us who have hated Him. Our sense of equity is completely undone. His grace completely turns us upside down. I think that is a good thing.

On Being Loved

⁹“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”

Jeremiah 17:9

⁷For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. ⁸That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.”

Romans 8:7-8

The reality is that we are in a real fix. The grim news isn’t changed simply because we graduated from a ‘charm school’ or become Eagle Scouts. We are fundamentally flawed, our hearts throughly contaminated. Any good we try to do is a ‘freak of nature,’ and astronomically beyond our ability. The race of men has failed. (Maybe that’s why history keeps repeating itself.) Without the presence of God, we would destroy ourselves. And each other.

The word “hostile” is used. That sort of sums it all up, doesn’t it?

God’s Constant Love for You

^{8 “}But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

Romans 5:8

Although we’re in active rebellion, “God so loved the world…” His love for us is called ‘agape,’ it is a word used in the New Testament, and it’s a love marked by consistency and selflessness. God loves without any conditions or merit on our part. Agape is love undeserved. The word is full of mercy, a concept very hard for us to grasp.

God’s love for us the way the universe is run. Love is what empowers Him to save us from our sins. It is the Lord’s love that draws us to Himself. Love is like a magnet that pulls us out of darkness into the light. His love for you is infinite.

“In math, if you divide an infinite number by any number, no matter how large, you still have an infinite quotient. So Jesus’ love, being infinite, even though it is divided up for every person on earth, is still infinitely poured out on each one of us!”

Charles Spurgeon

You can trust the Lord to be fully loving you right this minute. It is a full and constant love— there is scarcely a human parallel. The ‘prophets’ exhaust language seeking a metaphor to explain God’s love to a doubting and disobedient people. I imagine they are frustrated; they can’t explain what they’ve seen. They try, and end up explaining God’s love by type: marriage, and motherhood.

Over and over, these two metaphors are used extensively. And over and over you can see the love of God for people (flesh and blood, like you and I) for us. He loves us like a husband loves his straying wife. He loves us like a father loves his struggling child. We stray and struggle, and we will find no peace apart from His love. After all we are His, and we really can’t ‘work right” apart from His guiding presence.

Look at His heart. See His hands.

They both bear us witness of a supreme love. He loves you right now— wrecked and ravaged by your sin. I don’t know where you are at this very moment, but I do know He loves you intensely. Sin may have destroyed you, but His love never, ever vacillates. God is passionate about you— He won’t let you go. But you must risk being loved.

“See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.”

1 John 3:1

Why Are You Still Outside?

wherequestions — http://www.glogster.com

There are so many that are outside our walls. Those who are blinded and confused by the Church and the gospel.

People are for the most part not this blatant or obvious in their pain. But it is what they are asking that tunes us in. “Where?”

Humans have been created with a special spot inside them. This place is designed by our Creator for his use only. Life just doesn’t make sense unless he is the center. Christians are just people who are trying to be fueled by God’s Spirit.

Answers abound to questions unasked. Confusion is rampant and it seems no one can get a unified direction for his companions. This is precisely why the Bible brings a piercing and clear call to the children of man. Its promises are not dated, they are not obsolete.

They are many who have gone before us, thousands of generations who have found light and solace for darkened and wounded hearts. They testify to us of the spiritual reality that can be found in God and in his Word. We are not called to perfection, but a real obedience of faith and love.

At this throbbing moment in history, Jesus is calling so many to “follow”.

He is populating eternity with beggars, the sick, the poor the addicted. He loves “sinners”. He loves the mentally ill. The Bible tells us, “that he ever lives to make intercession for them”.

You have a purpose, and life does have clear meaning. Don’t lose hope and don’t try to fill yourself with foolish and empty pursuits. Come to Jesus, ask for forgiveness. Find the people that will help solidify and confirm your decision. Feel free to contact me about your decision to follow Jesus.

“Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6

For more info on becoming a believer please contact 1-888-NEED-HIM.

Sunshine and Mercy

“The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.”

Exodus 34:6, NLT

“I’m in a desperate situation!” David replied to Gad. “But let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great. Do not let me fall into human hands.”

2 Samuel 24:14

Sitting on the deck, it’s a cold morning, but the sun is bright. It’s a typical winter day here in Alaska, which means the sun is pushing back the winter for all it’s worth. Up here we have a ‘the love affair’ with the sun; it hides herself in the gloominess of winter— only to show herself off big time during our summers.

Soaking up the sun got me thinking about the mercy of God. I find I am of two minds. For the most part I love His mercy. It is probably the attribute I love most about Him. Mercy defined by my dictionary:

compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one’s power; compassion, pity, or benevolence: “Have mercy on the poor sinner.”

Who could not like this in ones deity? Most of us would agree that we are thrilled that God is this compassionate— especially when we’re such rascals ourselves. We will ground ourselves in His mercy, even when our minds give up.

But this is the hard part. I must be as merciful as He is. Mercy comes with the caveat that I become a compassionate person, even to those who are undeserving.

“Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’

Matthew 18:33

If you want mercy, you must be prepared to give it. Perhaps this is how God changes the world?

See what the Alaskan winter sunshine can do?

“When a Christian shows mercy, he experiences liberation.” ~Warren Wiersbe

Category: God’s acceptance

Working in the Time of Grace

“These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”

We can only proceed if we accept His definition of Grace.