Here'e Some More -- Titus 2:11

Mondays are often a day of "watching film" for football players and coaches. I have found that my evaluative nature causes me to go back over my notes from Sunday's sermons on Monday morning. I jot in the "on-the-fly" illustrations and comments that I made and flesh out portions of the messsage that were weaker or not able to be discussed at length. This editing "after delivery" helps especially when an expositional, "work through a book" hermeneutic and methodlogy are employed. It gets you ready for the next piece of the pie.

This Monday was no different. I just preached Titus 2:11 on Sunday afternoon. I suggested that this verse was a reference to the gracious ministry and activity of Christ as he lived and died and rose again here on this earth. Our ministry, then, ought to bear the marks of such graciousness as well! After all we are disciples, copies, imitators of Christ! The beauty of grace is unmistakable and must be displayed in all of our ministry efforts.

Beautiful, ornamented ministry...
a. Uses both grace and truth to make God known
b. Presents Jesus as the gracious Savior
c. Removes any ungraces that might distort the gospel
d. Lives each day graciously

All good challenges, but there is more! These notes (following) are part of a sidebar that I worked out myself:

1. Jesus came to reveal, explain, invite others to salvation; he wanted to introduce others to a knowing relationship with God. I must do the same.
2. He made grace appear right before their very eyes. I must do the same.
3. No one had seen God before, but they saw Jesus and therefore had seen the Father! I want this to be true of me as well! (ie I have never seen God, but I have seen Mike and he is a spitting image of him!)

Thanks for thinking about incarnational ministry with me. Thanks for doing incarnational ministry with me!

Mimicking my gracious Savior,
Mike

From Disgrace to Grace

I found another great grace text yesterday as I was reading Luke 1:24-25!

"After these days Elizabeth became pregnant, and she kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying, 'This is the way that the Lord dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among men.'"

God's grace has a way of doing exactly that -- removing disgrace. The favorable look of God (grace) erases the disgrace of men -- or at least its lowered esteem. Elizabeth was excited to see the Lord reach out to her when she thought taht she was done. God had not forgotten her even though she was "damaged goods" in the eyes of the world.

What an amazing grace,
Mike

Glorying in Grace

Every once in awhile God will begin to highlight a really key area in my life. Then, so I don't miss it, he will bring a ton of confrontations and intersections with that truth. For me, right now, it seems to be "grace". I know that I have a theological definition of that word and can articulate clearly that "Grace is God's riches at Christ's expense" or "Grace is God's unmerited favor towards me". These definitions are seeming too trite to me recently. They are simple and easy to remember -- maybe too simple.

I hope that your understanding and appreciation of grace is growing as you study and search the Scriptures to understand what God is doing and how the doctrine of grace fits into that picture. The prophets, as they wrote Scripture, understood that God had a still-to-be-revealed plan. They got a whiff of it and couldn't get it out of their systems. They knew that smell -- it was a beautiful fragrance -- it was a scent of hope and empowerment and faith to handle whatever hardness that they might face -- it was "grace".

See if this lexicon definition of GRK charis helps you appreciate grace any more!

1. grace -- that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness: grace of speech
2. good will, loving-kindness, favour -- of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues
3. what is due to grace -- the spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace; the token or proof of grace, benefit
4. thanks (for benefits, services, favours) -- recompense, reward

Then read 1 Peter 1:13-16 to see how grace affects us:

"Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

So my definition is growing.

Grace is anything beautiful that you see in my life, which is exclusively the result of God's gift to me because He loves me dearly; I receive more of it every day as I place my trust in Him and He, in turn, conforms my heart towards His and away from my own fleshly desires.

And yet, this is still probably still too simple. I am willing to continue studying and growing in my appreciation of grace. This is one study that I am convinced I will never grow tired of.

Bathed in grace, the fragrance of Christ for men,
Mike

AMAZING GRACE

I hope that your Easter was great and that you included some corporate celebrations of the greatness of resurrection. To celebrate our Savior and His sacrifice for us is so central for worship.

At Wyoming, we used the morning to celebrate the changes that the grace of God have accomplished in the lives of two couples. I was again impressed with the variety of the paths that God has led people along in. Each path has a shockingly similar crisis point. And then the paths diverge again. But each story has a common cord woven throughout -- the grace of God!

Then, as if to highlight these things, I finished the day reading "What's So Amazing About Grace?" by Philip Yancey. He discusses a great section of Paul's letter to the Romans (6-7). As Paul talks about grace, he knows that there are some people who are going to try and exploit grace-- to keep on sinning so that more grace can be given to them. Paul responds with some very pointed expressions -- "GOD FORBID!" Yancey summarizes/paraphrases this expressive thought in this way:

"No Christian resurrected to new life should be pining for the grave. Sin has the stench of death about it. Why would anyone choose it?"

-Yancey, p.186

and then

"Similarly, if we approach God with a 'What can I get away with' attitude, it proves that we do not grasp what God has in mind for us. God wants something far beyond the relationship I might have with a slave master, who will enforce my obedience with a whip. ... God wants something more intimate than the closest relationship on earth, the lifetime bond between a man and a woman."

- Yancey, p.190

Yancey then makes a quote from another writer, Clifford Williams,

"Discipleship simply means the life which springs from grace."

Wow. Amazing.


O Father,
Your grace still amazes me. Help me to allow my discipleship to spring from the seedbed of your grace and not my ability.
Amen

Springing up,

Mike