SIMPLE TRUTH

The other day I was talking with a friend who is at the “tail end” of a difficult time in his marriage.  As he shared some of the conflict he and his wife have experienced, I thought of the reasons for their struggles.  I saw some relational patterns they had each developed.  I reflected on the reasons for these patterns.  I knew that if they became aware of these flawed patterns, considered the source of their strategies, and applied Biblical principles to their individual lives, they would experience a much deeper relationship.  But I just listened.

My friend then told me what had helped them turn the corner.  He spoke of another couple, Gary and Lisa, who had been married for many years.  Gary told my friend that he wasn’t sure he really had anything to help my friend but he would listen.  Eventually Gary explained his relationship with Lisa.  He said, “One day we just decided that we were going to be best friends.”  This simple insight brought light to my friend and empowered him and his wife to move out of their darkness.

I guess sometimes it is just simple truth that changes us.  I love how God works.

AMAZING GRACE

Amazing grace how sweet the sound, giv’n to a wretch like me.

I once was lost, am still unfound, was blind so I can’t see.

     I was meditating on God’s grace today.  God’s people long to exalt God’s grace.  This has always been the case.  Whether it is the Apostle saying, “By grace you have been saved…”, John Newton penning the words, “Amazing Grace” or Churches with names like Grace Community, we revel in God’s unmerited favor for us.  Sometimes our desire to glory in grace leads us to exalt grace by belittling its recipients.  I would suggest that instead, we should glory in the power of grace to effect change.
     In Newton’s familiar hymn, he mentions being a wretch, being lost and blind.  However, it is not his wretchedness, lostness or blindness that is his focus.  Grace is glorified by God loving the previous rebel, by rescuing the lost and providing sight to the previously blind.  Grace is a powerful force that gives us a very real and present salvation.  The power of grace extends to our sanctification in that grace empowers us to live for God and His glory—which was something we could not do before “His grace appeared.”
     I want to find joy in the grace of God.  That joy is not in the fact that God’s grace touched me and left me the same but in the reality that His grace set me free from sin and death (Romans 6:2. 12-14, 18; 1 Corinthians 15:55-58) and thereby gave me a relationship with the living God.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now I am found, was blind but now I see.