Grace at First Light

Living Under the Influence Romans 6:14: "For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace." My wife loves going to the beach. She reads as she rests in the sand. Eventually, she will wander into the waves to cool off. She loves the sand and ocean, but I love to walk the beach looking for hidden treasures and pondering the meaning of life. The distant horizon prompts me to gaze at the setting sun as I walk along the shore. But my favorite time comes a few hours later, when the waves are quiet and very few people are moving around. I see the occasional seagull fly close by. As the sun rises, it beckons for a new day of beachgoers.  I look for these early morning moments to share with God. I scan my surroundings to see what God has in store for me. I feel the wind sweeping the coastline from far beyond the horizon. I hear the waves ending their journey as they gently succumb to the boundary of the shoreline. I see the wide expanse of the...

  Grace Finds Us, Raises Us, and Carries Us 2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.”  He gazed into the heavens with a lot of prayer, but little hope. His eyes were filled with a hazy mixture of tears and blood. His wounds ran deep. He lay alone, vulnerable and exposed to the lurking enemy. "Please God, save me! I can't do this on my own!" Then with murky vision, a friendly face appeared as a blurry silhouette against the glaring sun. A few moments later, he awoke bouncing on the shoulders of a comrade running him to safety. This is the story of grace. Our wounds run deep. We are broken, left vulnerable to every attack of the enemy. We regret the mistakes we’ve made, and our guilt is a daily reminder that there is nothing good enough we could do to fix what is broken. Grace doesn’t give us a license to do whatever we want to do. In fact, grace reminds us why we are completely dependent on God to heal and accept us, broken...

"One More Project, Boys" Hebrews 4:10- “for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God rested from his.” Thirteen acres of land surrounded by fence placed by digging holes by hand in the heat of Summer. It was a time I will never forget with my dad. We used posthole diggers and dug one hole after another around the entire 13 acres. It was an exhausting job that seemed to never end. Sweat poured into my eyes every hour we worked. My hands became numb from the pain and grind of hitting hardened ground with every hole. It was a job of utter exhaustion with very little reward, other than the irreplaceable time sharing this experience with my dad. Our spirits can become as exhausted as our bodies sometimes. Maybe you can relate to this. Prayers that are prayed over and over for change with no change. Hope we hold onto until we’re not sure we can hold on any longer. A habit that we just keep doing when we don’t want to; but here we go again. Keep try...

  Living Free Under the Influence of the Law Romans 6:14 "For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace." She stood at her desk, fists trembling at her side, the heat of her anger rising like an erupting volcano she could no longer restrain. Every day she faces impossible expectations, standards no one can meet. And they act as if her failure says something about her character. The anger burned in her chest with endless striving, constantly falling short, no matter how hard she pushed herself the finish line always seemed to be one step beyond her reach. Sometimes we throw our hands up when we can’t live up to someone else’s expectations. We strive to measure up but sometimes there are rules we will never be able to meet. This is the experience of many Christians. We perceive Christianity as a list of do's and don'ts. The more we try to do what we are supposed to do the more we fall short. And the more we work to avoid what...

Restoring First Love for God Revelation 2:4 “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” Through their sixty years of marriage, Raymond and Mae lived a simple life in the foothills of East Tennessee. Their life weathered a world war apart, fighting for survival, while Mae patiently waited not knowing if Raymond was alive or dead. The young soldier walked home after three years at war to find his bride sweeping the porch. Mae said she felt like someone was just “a-starin’ at me. I turned around and yelled ‘law-me. That thar is Raymond! I dropped that broom and went arunnin!’” Though I'm sure not perfect, theirs was a first love kind of love. It seemed unique and selective. The grace God feels for us is that kind of love. It is exclusive and fierce (1 John 3:1). Knowing that makes me wish my love for Him always felt the way He feels toward me. I admit there are times when other passions rival my love for God (Revelation 2:4). Those things that rival our fi...

  The Truth of Who We Are and the Grace to Change John 1:17 "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." He avoided looking into the mirror. He didn't like what he saw. An unexpected divorce with a lost ministry. At one time in his life, he compelled respect. He stood upright with a message that resonated with the hardest hearts. When he spoke, crowds responded. He preached for years as a sought-out speaker. But now, he couldn't even look at himself in the mirror. All he saw was a disgraced has-been.  The image of himself removed the grace of God from his thoughts. Only the truth, at least the truth as he saw in the mirror, kept him focused on what was and what could have been. That man in the mirror was me. There were many times I did not like what I saw in the mirror. I couldn’t see what still could be because all I could see was what was. I could not see grace because the truth constantly turned my attention to what I lost. ...

Made in the Hand of God   Jeremiah 18:4- "But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make" (NASB). The potter holds the lifeless lump of clay in his hand. He imagines the endless possibilities of its creations, but the purpose of the vessel will emerge as he determines. He feels the clay, learning its unique features to determine the vessel that can be created. He forms the clay by taking it in his hands, molding it, shaping it using the method best suited for the vision he has in mind for the vessel. Production and purpose are two ideas that dominate our thinking. We want to be successful and we want significance. We serve in ministries, worship in pews, and participate in classes because those are the typical functions of a Christian who is a key player in a church. This translates to a feeling of self-importance. We see ourselves as the agent for change in the Chris...

  Christ Speaks the Message of Grace Over My Life Matthew 24:35- "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." We want to believe in the people with whom we have relationships. Husbands and wives expect fidelity in their marriages. We want friends to show loyalty to us, even when we show them someone they don’t recognize. We purchase things we need in life from people we think we can trust. But people change and circumstances change. People don’t always keep their word. Nor do we always stay true to what we say we believe. We may want assurances from others and expect our own word to stay true, but sometimes people disappoint us and we can even let ourselves down. Sometimes we doubt what we have always claimed we believed. People don’t always live up to their word. Spouses cheat sometimes. Friends quit showing up because they can’t handle us in our mess. This is a hard reality to accept, but it is reality, nonetheless. While we all look like pe...

  Grace Frees us to See Ourselves and God for Who We Really Are 1 John 1:7- “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” He slipped through the church doors with the quiet hope of going unnoticed, shoulders drawn in to escape every familiar gaze. The place he once knew so well felt foreign now, heavy with the weight of memories he wished he could rewrite. Shame clung to him like a second skin; every misstep, every regret whispering that he didn’t belong here anymore. Yet beneath the fear of being truly seen, something deeper pulled him forward. It wasn’t confidence or courage, just a fragile ache for God to meet him in the ruins he carried. And so, he kept walking, hoping grace might find him before anyone else did. I can relate to this guy. We are acquainted with church, but our regrets make us want to hide more than stand out. Sometimes church is not the safest place to ...

  Grace that Endures   Lamentations 3:22: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning ; great is your faithfulness.” Two gray-haired, lifelong friends reminiscing about days gone by. An old, worn Bible that looks its age after years of use. Two young lovers married in a weathered, tired church building with hopes that their shared passion will last as long as this cathedral from yesteryear. This is what we want. We want relationships that last forever, through thick and thin. We hold to promises that we can base our life on. We want to sing melodies to outlive the lyrics because they point us to the God of all grace. We want a God whose love will never fade and whose word will never change no matter how many years may pass. Our hopes for faith that endures the test of time and trial materialize with every new day. Grace is the work of God that makes this happen (1 Corinthians 15:9-10; 1 Timothy 1:12-16), but His fa...