Sunday Worship: Good Grace // Hillsong UNITED // New Song Cafe

Grace for Everyday

I need it.

Like mercy every morning and daily bread, I need grace. I need it from the Lord and I need it from you.  I'm telling it like it is. I can't make it without it. I am terribly fallible and extremely prone to disappointing God and man and without a lot of grace I will become the recipient of your judgement, your disappointment, your frustration, your anger and your scorn. I am the chiefest of sinners, said Paul....and I echo his confession.

It probably doesn't help that God has placed me in ministry....there's a whole 'nother group of people that I can manage to disappoint or possible turn away from being closely knit together with a group of believers. It's like God was playing a giant joke on humanity when He called me. Seriously Lord?

But He did and for years I tried to live this perfect little pastor's wife life, until I realized, I don't really do perfect very well. And so began the quest for something that was more real than perfect. And I found grace again. Someone in real clothes and shoes gave me a giant helping of grace one time and I will never forget what grace looks like this side of heaven. Relief. Freedom. Peace.

Grace is not my cop out...it's my complete confession that I can't make you happy all the time....I can't even make myself happy all the time! I can't always be there for you. I don't have all the answers. I will fail you. I will disappoint you. I can't do much of anything perfect. It's my humble pie paired with a strong cup of "I'm sorry" when I fail you and it's the beautiful embrace of grace that comforts my heart when I mess up.

Thankfully God just heaps it on. Day after wonderful day. As a Christian, I am learning daily what it means to walk in that grace...to receive it, to give it, to share it, to talk about it, to embrace it. Receiving it reminds me how much I need to give it. When I'm frustrated with someone...give them grace. When I grow impatient of the same old, same old....give them grace. When I'm tired physically and the demands keep coming...give grace. It's the remedy for the hardened soul to be soften and it's the only things that can bind two hearts as one. Grace. Room to make a mistake and still be loved. Grace. Forgiveness without a guilt trip. Grace. Forgetting what is behind and forging ahead to a glorious future.

Grace. I need it. Do you?

Close to Heaven

It was 3:40pm on Sunday afternoon and our phone rang. A sweet elderly man on the brink of heaven is on the other end of the line. His family is huddled around him. They've released him. They know heaven is just a few breaths away. Yet, this man...just steps from the valley of the shadow of death wants to talk to Bruce. It's been 5 years since they've sat and talked. 5 years since they've shared a coke in his den. 5 years since Bruce was his pastor.

And what I hear from another room...the sweet prayer of a friend for a friend who is on the doorstep of the kingdom of heaven...what may only be moments from being in the presence of our Lord....the sweet prayer of a friend for his friend...although older and in many ways probably wiser...this special unforgettable friendship. What an honor for one to pray the other into eternity. Whether it is moments or hours or days...only the heavenly father knows. What we do know is this man will walk with Jesus soon. His life speaks volumes of the type of man he is. His death will speak that same wonderful story.

To pray for someone that close to heaven seems a privilege. To know that person finds peace knowing that you are interceding on their behalf...Certainly it is nothing of Bruce's doing that will get this gentleman into heaven any differently than every other person on the planet. It's all grace. God's grace. It's a comfort to everyone to know our friend has received that grace. The saving kind.

Have you experienced that kind of grace?

He Gives More

I was raised singing this song by Annie Flint in church.....

1. He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
   He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
   To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
   To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.
2. When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
   When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
   When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
   Our Father’s full giving is only begun.
3. Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
   Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
   Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
   The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.
4. His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
   His power no boundary known unto men;
   For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
   He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.
   
   
   And for some odd reason, this song has been in my head lately....I was thinking of the words tonight as I was reading over a few friends posts on Facebook. And thought....
   
   
   He gives more.....patience when things don't go as planned.
   He gives more.....love when we think we've given it all.
   He gives more ....strength when we are empty and tired and can't go on
   He gives more....peace when we get our minds focused on the temporary
   He gives more....joy when we lose heart and get discouraged
   He gives more....resources when our plans fail
   He gives more....it's called grace. 
   
   
   Isn't that a wonderful thought in the midst of a world that demands so much from us? I'm resting in this truth and it's beautiful and peaceful and memorable. Life can be like this everyday. Just realize and live the truth that HE GIVES MORE!

My Will.....

We finalized our Wills yesterday...yep, the kind you make when you're thinking about all the things that can happen to you when you are flying in a plane over the ocean and are 3, 133 miles away from the people you love. Truth is, we should have done this years ago...but what's that they say about hind sight?

It's funny that as we were thinking about who to give our kids to and the life insurance money and all our meager costly estate, it kind of dawned on me....this is pretty much the only thing under the sun that I get 100% say in and have 100% confidence (well, as close to that as possible) that it will be carried out exactly like we have it set up. It seems like things are set up so that in dying I will get exactly what I desire.

Hmm.....there's some deeper truth to that! Do you see it? I've been wrestling with pride lately. These thoughts have been running through my head (if you think I am perfect this is going to dispel those thoughts for sure):

1. I want to be heard

2. I want to be appreciated

3. I want to scream at the top of my lungs

4. I want people to understand me

5. I want ....I want .....I want

Boy, I'm annoyed at myself for just seeing that in print! But, the truth is that anytime more than a few sentences that run through my head begin with the word "I" then I can be pretty sure there is a prIde issue at hand. In dying to myself....to my wants, desires, emotions....there is somehow a freedom. I get exactly what I was looking for all along....someone to listen, a God who thinks I am special, someone who hears my faintest whisper and my deepest longings, someone who understands my thoughts before I even know them. I get exactly what I want when I die spiritually. I get everything...I get everything.

So, why the struggle? Why the struggle to be alive in the world we live in...to partake in the temporal things that it affords us? Why the struggle to fit in, to be a part, to be understood? I don't know, except that my flesh cries out for it....yearns for the satisfaction of being a part of something, accepted by someone and loved. 

What I am growing to understand is that all those things I am feeling, wanting, hoping for...are found when I die to my will and take hold of God's. His desires for my life are far greater than the words of any man or woman on earth. His plan will bring me more satisfaction, completeness and experience than the best life coach on earth could orchestrate for me. Dying to this flesh, desire, will....that's the part that takes practice....every day, hour, minute....dying to this "need" to be whatever my flesh cries out for and embracing this death-type freedom than in Jesus Christ we are ALIVE....Alive in Him....

That's His will for my life....to take hold of abundance in HIM and discard the grave clothes of this world!

The Gift

Ridiculed

Beaten

Bruised

Torn

Thorned

Pierced

Forgotten

Abandoned

Ignored

Rejected

Despised

Burdened

Slaughtered

Sacrificed

Spat on

Yelled at

Bloodied

Broken

Hated

and 

Heckeled

and yet....He was Jesus....God's own Son

Willing 

Devoted

Loving

Prayerful

Committed

Undefiled

Spotless

Controlled

Resolved

Available

Powerful

....Holy

and I am...

Entirely forgiven

Unbelievably grateful

Immeasurably undeserving

Completely humbled

Totally awed

Quietly amazed

Unconditionally loved

and 

Eternally Thankful

....and even then....it seems such a small whisper in the ear of God.