All tagged grace
When someone is baptized, and the Holy Spirit comes over them, three things occur. They are given gifts, a calling(s), and they will begin to behave in a new and wonderful way. Gifts, service, and activities, these identify them, and set them apart, placing them on a course that God has willed for them even before their feet became wet in the waters of baptism, or they took their first breath as a child of God.
Do you spread the love of God? Do you give cups of living water to the thirsty each day, or perhaps you worry about their dirty hands touching your polished chalice? It is so easy to turn a blind eye to the ragged, and to detest the smell of the unclean, but these are the very souls that our Lord came to feed, clothe, make clean, and to let drink from His cup. Where were we when we first lifted it to our own mouths? Did we think of ourselves as being clean and our hands without blame? Did we smell of incense and righteousness?
The rift that was formed between God and man when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil has been closed for us. Jesus gave himself in sacrifice to make that happen. What an incredible gift of grace we have received, a gift of forgiveness, and yet we are like children who have been given a gift but refuse to play with it because we can’t believe it is really ours or that we might break it. Well, brothers and sisters, it is time that we opened the present which has been handed to us, and thrill at its contents.
Have you ever donated blood? Have you gone down to the Red Cross and given because they said that they were running low and that people might die without it? Well, when you did this you probably did so because yes, you thought it would help someone, and no, it wouldn’t harm you in any way to give. Likely, you didn’t know the names of the people who received your donation and who lived because you shared your blood with them... but Jesus knew every name because they had been written in the book of life when he gave His blood for us.
Do we understand how precious we are to God? As we go about the process of worshipping Him, and building our faith in Him, do we realize that He is longing for us with even greater vigor? We readily accept that Jesus is His Son, but can we admit to ourselves how much God truly loves us and desires to reclaim us? Can we accept that the blood of Christ which was freely offered out of God’s love will completely cleanse those of us who believe this promise to be true? Can we receive God’s gift of grace without doubt or question? And do we agree to the terms of our adoption as His children?
Are you an occasional practitioner of the Holy Spirit? Do you do the things of faith in your life by utilizing your spiritual gifts, but then once they have been accomplished set those gifts aside, to be used another day? Or do you possess Spiritual Grace, which is a state of faith where the gifts of the Spirit are so ingrained in you that they have become inseparable from who you are in grace?
Jesus suffered and died to redeem us from sin, but what is sin really? Is it a rule that we break or more than that? Certainly, it is bad that a rule has been broken, but at its core there is something more, we are rebelling against God by so doing; we are separating ourselves from His will. Sometimes we sin knowingly, but quite often we do so without really understanding what we are doing, and occasionally we do so by simply turning away from doing what is right. So, is there a way to “sin no more?” Let’s consider these questions today.
Do we deny the sin within us? Do we say to ourselves that we are moral, good, and that we harm no one? Do we argue that our morality makes us righteous? Well, my response to this is that if we believe this then we mustn’t have any idea what sin truly is... or else we are lying to ourselves. Let’s look at sin further today.
Are we worthy? Are we worthy of the Christ Child’s birth that we celebrated yesterday? Are we worthy of the sacrifice that God made by giving His only begotten Son to die for your sins? Are we worthy of an audience with the creator of the universe? Are we worthy of His forgiveness? There are so many questions like this that most of us would answer with a resounding “NO!”, but is that really true? Do we even know what it means to be worthy?
We can’t enter into heaven and live an eternal life because we deserve it. That kind of thinking is based upon our own vanity and arrogance. Our salvation and everlasting life is sealed by covenant alone, and that covenant of grace comes only by our belief in God’s acceptance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as our blood sacrifice and atonement for sin. Only through Jesus can we be redeemed, forgiven, perfected, and sanctified. Only through Him can we truly claim the covenant of God’s grace.
Jesus didn’t come to earth to redeem us because He felt sympathetic love for us, He came at the Father’s request to do a job, and that job was to defeat sin, and glorify God Himself. His task was to mend the rift between God, and man whom He had created. To accomplish this, He had to do so by the only way possible... by yielding His life as He suffered and sacrificed Himself in death for us.
What sins do we have in our lives that have enslaved us? Do we have an overriding desire for something that drives us to commit sin, or a need in our life that makes us complicit or vulnerable to sinful things? Either way, we have been enslaved, and our sin will rule us until we can find emancipation from it. Sexual predators are in the news again right now... let’s take a look.
Are we praying for God to call us to some great task for the advancement of His kingdom? Do we have a desire to do wonderful things for our Holy Father? Well let’s stop trying to determine how He can best use us and pray instead that God will simply give us the strength to labor in His field in whatever way he desires... and to do so in a way that will win souls and honor Him.
Do you feel like a victim of Adam and Eve? Do you view yourself as having been strapped with the responsibility for a sin they committed? Nothing could be further from the truth... in fact, the realization of our own sins is more than enough to deal with. So, what did we receive from Adam that brings us death?