Grace

It’s Amazing

Somewhere in time, July 24, 1725, John Newton was born.  If you never heard of John Newton, he wrote the hymn, Amazing Grace.  I have been thinking about Grace a lot lately.  I have a plaque, which says in big letters, Grace, and below that in smaller letters, it’s amazing.  It was given to me as a gift by a former student, and it has moved with me to every new work place.  I have also been reading a book about Grace.  All of this made me think about grace and the song, Amazing Grace.

John Newton was born into the family of a merchant sailor.  His mother filled his young life with spiritual instruction, but she died and he went on board ship with his father.  In 1744 he was impressed into service on another ship. This was not quite the same as working with his Dad. He was treated terrible and he deserted.  They found him, beat him and put him to work on a slave ship.   This wasn’t much better, but he was able to find a way to captain his own ship, but it was another slave ship. 

He did this for a few years, but one night, May 10^th 1748, his ship was caught in a violent storm and he feared all would be lost.  Not sure what else to do he cried out to God for mercy and his ship survived.  He credits this as the day of his conversion.  His life changed at that moment.

John Newton left the sea faring life and went on to become a minister.  He wrote many hymns, but Amazing Grace has lasted the test of time.  I think all of us understand the benefits of Grace.   We know there is nothing we can do to make us good enough for heaven, but we don’t have to worry. Christ took our punishment on the cross.  He paid the price we couldn’t pay and gave it to us as a free gift if we only believe.  That’s grace.

Ephesians 2:1-10 (The Message Bible) “It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living; tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus our Messiah

Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play a major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing. No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.”

There is a dispute over the melody of Amazing Grace, some say it was the melody of a folk song.  Others say it was the melody of a song the slaves sung in the hold of the ship while they were being transported.  I choose to believe this version.  It would be just like God to stamp redemption on the sound of captivity.

The words to the song have been changed over the years, new versus added and slight changes made, but the words below are believed to be original to the song.  I found this on www.anointedlinks.com/amazing-grace

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev’d;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believ’d!

Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promis’d good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine.

John Newton cried out to God in the storm of his life and God heard him.  The change made in John’s life has been evidenced for over two hundred years. 

I was not saved from running a slave ship, but I was saved none the less from my sins and transgressions against God.  It doesn’t matter what God has brought you out of, Grace still brought you out and grace will always be amazing.

Chris Tomlin - Amazing Grace from wowonline on GodTube.

The video is from the movie, Amazing Grace.  One of my all-time favorite movies. 

A Father's Love

To Protect and Provide

Somewhere in time, a few months ago, we preordered the new Casting Crowns CD.  We ordered it mainly because my husband likes the song “Courageous”.  On the disc is a song that I wouldn’t normally attribute to Casting Crowns. Instead of being sung by Mark Hall as most of their songs are, the song is sung in a beautiful and very feminine voice.  The song is called, “Just Another Birthday.”

When I first heard the song it broke my heart. I think it’s hard for a girl to grow up in this day and age.  What they are shown on television and movies as the ideal female is fantasy.  Most magazine covers are touched up, so young ladies starve themselves to look like something that only exists in photo shop.  We trade timeless beauty for sex appeal.  We change gentleness for a smart mouth and quick wit.  But then I listened to a video where Mark Hall told why they wrote the song.  It was a wakeup call to fathers. 

Sixteen finds me

Blowing out candles and making wishes

And all around me

Is everyone but the one I’m wishing for

And he sent me flowers

And gift-wrapped excuses

From a daddy whose daughter

Wants to see him again

And I know, I know

It’s just another birthday

But I guess I thought

This would be the one

When he would call me, see me

Hold me and free me

But it’s just another birthday

And I’ll be fine, I’ll be fine

The story starts with an absentee father.  You know it is so difficult today.  Many girls are growing up fatherless.  Even the ones with fathers have trouble, because no father is perfect.  I started thinking, what is the role of a father.  There are many, but two of the things they are supposed to do are protect and provide. 

2 Corinthians 6:18 (NIV) “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

Even when our earthly Father’s fail us, God is still there.  He is there to fill in the gap and he protects and provides for us. 

We know God provides.  He promises to supply all our needs according to his riches and glory.  What could be better than that?  I don’t think we realize that he protects.  I know we pray for God’s protection every time we leave the house, but do we really believe that God watches over us?  What about all the bad things that happen. 

In the Bible, God gives us guidelines for living.  He tells us to live moral lives.  In this He is trying to protect us.  He does not want us pregnant and alone or dying from some sexually transmitted disease or heartbroken over giving so much to someone that was using us for his or her own pleasure. Telling us to stay away from that pain, is not a rule, but it’s love.

God also tells us to forgive.  We may have a perfect right to be angry, but the anger just eats us up inside.  The anger does not hurt the one who wronged us, but it does hurt us.  God tells us to forgive because He loves us and he does not want us to be hurt and bitter.  He wants us to trust him.

God also says other things in his word about not bearing false witness, not lying or stealing.  Put yourself on the other end of one of these actions.  How would you feel if someone were to tell a false story about you or steal from you?  I had my house broken into once, it felt terrible.  God tells us not to do these things because He loves us and He knows we can’t hurt others and leave ourselves unhurt, He wants to protect us.

We have a habit, of living how we want to live, but when things fall apart, we question God.  If we had followed him all along, maybe things wouldn’t have fallen apart.

People, who don’t know Christ, think He is a hard task master, demanding perfection from his followers.  They couldn’t be more wrong.  He is a loving father, trying to protect his children.

I think that puts a whole new perspective on the Ten Commandments.  They are not orders from on authoritarian God, but directions from a loving father.  Just like the ones we might have received from our earthly fathers telling us to look both ways before crossing the street or not to stick your finger in the light socket.  He was trying to protect us, just like God does.

God is the father we always wanted and we don’t always realize it. 

At the end of the song, it says God is a father to the fatherless. Isn’t that is an amazing thought.

Psalm 68:5 (NIV) “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.”

The next time you feel you really need a loving Father, just remember He left us a love letter (the Bible) and He is just a prayer away.   

  

Casting Crowns - Just Another Birthday from providentlabelgroup on GodTube.

George Mueller

Saved by Grace


Somewhere in time, September 27, 1805, George Mueller was born. George Mueller was not the type of child we would have expected much from. When his mother lay dying, he was out drinking. He was arrested and put in prison when he was sixteen. In prison he made friends with others who were worse than him, but his father did get him out of prison and sent him to school in a different city. Maybe a change of scenery would do him good. It didn’t. He continued on, only to get into more trouble.

The change for George Mueller came in steps. The first step was attending college to become a minister. That may seem an unusual choice for someone who had no spiritual aspirations, but I believe Mueller’s family thought it might give him a good living and maybe even a desire to live differently. It worked in a weird way. The school was extremely secular and many of the students studying for the ministry were not called by God, but a few of them were. These students invited George Mueller to a bible study that began his transformation. He know knew that faith was real and God was the one he needed to serve and his life began to change.

He left for England, perhaps there they would not remember this little liar and thief and his faith would have a chance to take off. He went to England to begin his ministry, but he got sick. While he was sick he was cared for by a man of faith who's faith really rattled George’s idea faith.

This man’s faith was so real to George. I read once that when George would watch him pray, it changed him. Prayers were formal and uttered with design and decorum. Not so with this man. He would fall on his knees and cry out to God with his whole heart. George was introduced to a new doctrine, one not taught in Seminary, the doctrine of Grace. This changed his life.

Romans 3:24 (NIV) “and we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Ephesians 2:8 (NIV) “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

We can do the best we can, but nothing we can do will earn us a place in heaven. We are saved by grace. It is a free gift from God. For George Mueller, this concept revolutionized his life. He was able to serve God with his whole heart. God paid the price for his salvation, he just needed to love his God and serve Him.
 
I was looking for some information about George Mueller and I found a great amount of information on this website – www.desiringgod.org
From there I pulled this synopsis of the things founded by George Mueller. It surprised me, I had really only heard about the orphan homes, but there was more than that.

“In 1834 (when he was 28) he founded The Scripture Knowledge Institute for Home and Abroad, because he was disillusioned with the post-millennialism, the liberalism, and the worldly strategies (like going into debt) of existing mission organizations. Five branches of this Institute developed: 1) Schools for children and adults to teach Bible knowledge, 2) Bible distribution, 3) missionary support, 4) tract and book distribution, and 5) “to board, clothe and Scripturally educate destitute children who have lost both parents by death.”

In addition to pastoring his church, he founded and worked in all these other things. His work with the orphans gained him the most attention on his life and the strength of this faith.

There is one story where the orphans and had no food for the next day. He told everyone to go to bed, the Lord would provide. He went to bed and slept soundly, he was not worried, he knew the Lord would provide.

The story goes that a milk cart broke down in the morning and the milk was donated. A baker was awakened in the night by God and told to bake bread because the orphans were hungry. When the children woke up, the Lord had provided food just like George Mueller told them he would.
 
Mueller never asked for money for any of his ministries. He and the orphans never went hungry. That takes a tremendous amount of faith.

George knew that if God could save sinners by His Grace, He could take care of them also.  He totally relied on that.

George Mueller died on March 10, 1898 at the age of 92. In his life time, he took care of 10,024 children. When he died, tens of thousands attended his funeral.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if we all put our faith into action so fully?

Change

A love hate relationship.

Somewhere in time is right now.  Things change, they always do.  If you asked me if I like change, I will tell you yes, I do.  This week it came to me I don’t like all change.  I like change that adds to life.  A new job, a new adventure, a new car, a new friendship, a new family member, the things that add to life I like. Adding things is fun. 

This week I have been faced with the thought of losing things and I realized that is not the type of change I enjoy.  I lost a job a few years back and that was very stressful.  God does promise to supply all of our needs, but someone I tend to think that promise is dependent upon my ability to work.  My faith should not be limited in that way.  This week we again faced the loss of one income.  There is nothing you can do in this economy to stop that from happening, but when it does you have to adjust.

What can we eliminate? What is really important?  Should we move from our home into a smaller apartment? Should we move to another state in hopes the job market is better there? We haven’t completely figured it all out yet and maybe we won’t need to.  God may want us to downsize and economize or He may just bring another job and drastic change will not be necessary. 

I wish I knew the future.  I wish God would take a pen and write on the sky – Carrie, this is what I need you to do, but He doesn’t do that.  There is a song by Third Day and the chorus goes like this: Give me a revelation, show me what to do.  I’ve been trying to find my way and I haven’t got a clue. Tell me should I stay here, or do I need to move.  Give me a revelation because I am nothing without you. 

That has been my song this week.   Lord give me a revelation, show me what to do.  The message from God is simply to trust.   God in his word has promised to supply all our needs from his riches and glory.  He says he has a plan for us, a plan to prosper us and not to harm us, to give a future and a hope. If that is what God says, then why do I find it so hard to trust? 

I thought about this.  Does God change?  Does he have to adjust his promises for this generation? Does he apply his promises to some and not others?

Malachi 3:6(a) (NIV) “I the Lord do not change.”

James 1:17 (NIV) “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights: who does not change like shifting shadows.”

God does not change like shifting shadows.  Every good and perfect gift comes from Him.

My love hate relationship with change seems to be tied to trust.  When I am the catalyst for change, I like it.  When change comes unexpectedly and I have to trust God to have a purpose and a plan, I find that much harder. 

My somewhere in time is today, right now.  I am going to love all change and trust that God has a purpose for it all and when the good and perfect gifts come, I will know they come from God and I had nothing to do with it.  Maybe that is my revelation.

Third Day - Revelation [Official Music Video] from providentlabelgroup on GodTube.com.

God is God

Ecclesiastes

Somewhere in time, approximately 935 B.C., Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes.  Solomon could ask God for anything, yet he asked for wisdom.  I wonder if God told me I could ask for anything, if that is what I would ask for.  With me, I think it depends on when he asks.  I think my perceived needs are dependent on my circumstances.  Honestly, if I was more concerned about eternal things, I would be asking for the ability to show love or grace, or even have wisdom. 

I was looking for something in the Bible about joy and laughter.  These emotions are necessary to life, just as much as any other emotion.  That is when I came across a passage in Ecclesiastes.  For some reason it really resonated with me this week, so I thought I would share it with all my readers.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV)

There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven.

A time to be born and a time to die,

A time to plant and a time to uproot

A time to kill and a time to heal,

A time to tear down and a time to build

A time to weep and a time to laugh

A time to mourn and a time to dance

A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them

A time to embrace and a time to refrain

A time to search and a time to give up

A time to keep and a time to throw away

A time to tear down and a time to mend

A time to be silent and a time to speak

A time to love and a time to hate

A time for war and a time for peace

There is always a flip side to everything.  There is a time for laughter, but also a time for weeping.  There is a time to be silent and a time to speak.  I find, in my own life, that when I am on the upside.  You know, a time to heal, a time to laugh, a time to love and a time to mend.  That is when I really feel that God loves me.  He must love me when things are going well.

On the flip side, the ideas of a time to weep, a time to give up, a time to tear down, are events that cause the opposite reaction.  I wonder what I’m doing wrong to cause God to remove his blessings from me.   Part of my reaction is due to the fact that I am a spoiled American.  We sometimes expect everything to be sunshine and roses.

God is God regardless of the circumstances in our lives.  He is always holy and always righteous and He is always in control.  Trust knows that God loves us and cares for use when things are good and when things are bad. 

The Ultimate Price

Dietrich Bonheoffer

Somewhere in time, February, 1906, Dietrich Bonheoffer was born in Germany.  His father was a professor of Neurology and Phycology at the University. He mother was a teacher.   He grew up in a family with strong ties to the German Government.  One relative was the Kaiser’s minister, another served in the German courts.  The family was full of lawyers, professors and ministers.  I’m sure they had no idea what direction their country was headed. 

Dietrich grew up and decided to become a minister in the German Lutheran church. He and his family were always proud Germans. What do you do when the government of your country starts to make bad decision after bad decision?  Do you say nothing and hope it will change, or do you become part of the change?

Bonheoffer became part of the change.

There were a few hints at problems, but the Aryan paragraph was enough to elicit a strong reaction from many members of the German church.  This basically stated that anyone, not of German decent, could hold office in a German church. This caused a split in the church. There were those who didn’t want to lose the connection the church had with the government and thought this compromise was a way to maintain that connection.  Bonheoffer went with the other group.  The other group believed that God should decide how the church was run, not the government. 

Ephesians 6: 10-13 (NIV) “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

The day of evil had come and standing strong was going to be hard, but that is what Bonheoffer did.

The Confessing Church was born.

For a while just keeping the confessing church on the right track was his focus.  He started seminaries and trained young ministers.  Things seemed to be going well for a few years, but then the increased persecution of Jews really hit home.  Bonheoffer became acquainted with people that were plotting to over through the government.  He used his travels to let others know what was happening.  They had good plans, but nothing was working out.  They had to think of something else.

Bonheoffer was forced to shut down his seminary; he was banned from teaching at the University.  He was scheduled to be drafted.  He could not resist the draft, the other option was death.  He got the chance to leave.  Some of the people in the resistance were high placed in government. They got him a ticket out.  He came to America.  His books were popular and he could have stayed here for years teaching and preaching.  Many people expected him to, but he felt he could not desert his country in its time of need, so he went back to Germany. 

Spy?

When he returned, he was offered a position with the Abwehr which was a branch of military intelligence.  This is different than the Gestapo, but still not a normal position for a minister.  He was able to use this position to help Jews to escape. He helped his sister and her husband, he was a Jewish Christian, escape. He also helped a Jewish Pastor.  Even with the best of efforts, things were getting worse in Germany.

Assassinate Hitler.

One of the plots of the resistance was to assassinate Hitler.  They had tried a coup and that failed. The next step was assassination.  Many people do not understand why a minister would involve himself in a murder plot.  I think in his situation, he knew what was going on.  Do you continue to allow innocent people to die so evil people can prosper?  I don’t think the decision was an easy one, but when the coup failed.  What other options did they have?

Bonheoffer has a quote that goes something like this.  Sometimes you have to do evil to fight evil.  That is a controversial statement, but I understand what he was thinking.  Being part of the resistance caused him to do many things that a Christian shouldn’t normally do.  He had to lie at times and he had to be party to plans that involved the stealing of information and even the murder of a person.  The other option of sitting back and doing nothing seemed more evil in his mind.  I agree.

Martyrdom

Bonheoffer was caught and sent to Prison. He ended up in a concentration camp.  Many of the people in the resistance found the same fate, but luckily much of the information they had gathered remained hidden until after the war.  Many of the horrors of what happened under Nazi rule surfaced because of these documents.

On April 9^th, 1945 Bonheoffer was executed.  Two of his brothers and two brothers’ in law also perished as part of the resistance. 

I had heard of Bonheoffer earlier and my interest in him caused me to buy the book written by Eric Metaxas, called Bonheoffer, Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. I haven’t quite finished it, but if you ever have the time, I would recommend it.  I cannot do justice to the man’s life in a few words, but hopefully I can spark an interest in a person that lived out his faith in boldness and paid the ultimate price.

Rejected

The Russian Judge

Somewhere in time, okay maybe I won’t tell you, but the somewhere in time is my childhood.  Do you remember watching the Olympics and the athlete would give a good performance and we would wait for the judge’s response?  All down the line, the judges would give marks that were similar and then you would get to the judge from Russia and that judge would score sometime three or more points lower than any of the other judges. This was the height of the cold war, so the reason it sticks with me could be that at the time I grew up it made us a little more sensitive.  I’m not sure, but it is a joke of sorts for me and my family.  When only one person judges your work bad, it must be the Russian judge.

Last year I entered my first writing contest.  I got my results back Monday morning. 

I was so excited about the contest that I quickly read through the rules and then I set about making my sixty five thousand word manuscript the best I could make it.  I spent hours tweaking, changing and perfecting.  Right before I was ready to submit, I reread the rules and found they only wanted ten pages.  Now I needed to find the best ten pages.  I could have sent the beginning of the book, but I opted to send what I thought was an exciting part of the story.  In my ten pages, I could have submitted a synopsis of the story, but I opted not to do that, hoping that the story would carry itself.

That was my first mistake.  The first judges’ comments were focused on what they didn't know of the time and setting or why the people were where they were.  If I had given a synopsis, my marks would have been better.  Seeing they were not terrible as is, I thought I might easily improve the next time.

The second judge was similar, the marks were a tiny bit lower, but overall the comments were helpful.

The third judge was my Russian judge.  No comments except for one.  The one comment they gave me was that next time I should proof read it.  They scored me at the very bottom in every category.  I was confused.  The first judge gave me decent marks in all areas and the last one put me in the bottom.  Who do you trust?

I will be honest; it made me a little mad.  How could someone make a comment like that?  That manuscript had been proof read about six times.  If one judge is stating that my grammar and writing was fine, what did this judge find so terrible?

It was early in the morning, so I had to go to work.  I told my husband about it and we laughed how this was like the Russian Judge.  Thus the Russian judge comment was born in retelling my experience.  For some reason, sarcasm is my first defense.  Once I have gotten other people to laugh with me over my perceived misfortune, can God finally begin to talk to me about the problem.

I spent my drive to work asking God why he would give me the desire to write and more stories in my head than I had time to put on paper.  Why would he do that if I was terrible at it?

Have you ever had someone make a comment about something you have done?  Something that you worked hard on and they just trivialize it and explain how your best effort is not good enough.  I think all of us had.  For some reason, twenty people can tell us something is good, but that one person is the person that gets us, gets under our skin and causes our irritation. 

What do we do in that situation? 

If you’re like me, you get angry, then you get discouraged and then you pray.  Why I don’t pray first, I’ll never know.  Also, why do we let the opinion of the one, override the opinions of the others?  I don’t have an answer for that either.

Matthew 23:8-10 (The Message Bible) “…Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do.  Save that authority for God, let him tell you what to do…”

If God wants me to write, I should write regardless of what the expert says. I can use this to spur me on to perfecting my writing even more.  I start shortly some creative writing classes in hopes of improving my craft.  But even if I am told it would be impossible for me to become a published writer, I say this: Luke 18:27 (NIV) “Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.””

So I will keep writing until God removes the desire or I run out of stories to tell.  Maybe we can pray together that God will give me the desire and talent for home improvement instead.