Grace And Truth

John 1:17 "How are you", the standard question when arriving at church.

Is your response:

a) "Fine thank you, how are you?"

or b) "I don't want to be here and I don't think you really care how I am."

In church we are often good at being graceful, but not often very good at being truthful. As we will see grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17), not either one without the other but both together. God Is Light 1 John 1:5 "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all."God is all lit-up, flood lit from the inside out. No part of him is mirky or uncertain; he contains no falsehood at all, only truth and integrity from every angle. The Bible says we should be like this as well. "...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, purifies us from all sin" 1 John 1:7. We should make ourselves visible, not pretending that we've got everything sorted but being open and honest about our lives, with the good things and the bad. God promises that doing this will change our lives.

Grace Requires Truth

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, purifies us from all sin." There's an important "if-then" principal here: "If we walk in the light, then Jesus cleans away all our sin." Can you see that truth is required before God's grace takes action? We have to acknowledge that we've messed up before He can operate on our lives, before he can "forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). This applies to getting saved in the first place, but also to the rest of our lives. Being purified from all unrighteousness is an on going process which I suspect will continue for the rest of our lives, so we need to keep on confessing our mistakes, being truthful and God promises to forgive us and to purify us.

We need to keep walking in the light, confessing the truth, because then God will continue to dig out our bad bits, making us more like him.As church, being truthful has a huge affect on our community. We (the church) should be a hospital for sinners. Imagine a hospital where all of the patients pretended that they weren't ill. No one would get the care they required. We need to corporately accept our brokenness. The Bible promises that if we do this, "we have fellowship with one another" 1 John 1:7. We share life with one another.

Being truthful gives our fellow christians the opportunity to extend to us the grace God has shown them and encourages them to be truthful with us. It's going to be messy, but it's going to be real. So don't be deceived. We have all fallen short of God's standard and we need to actively acknowledge this in our relationship with him and with each other.

Truth Needs Grace.

Left with just the truth of who we are, we would have a problem. We've personally offended God and the Bible says we deserve to die: "the wages of sin is death" Romans 6:23. But God has met our need; Jesus died on the cross for us. Romans 6:23 continues "but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." He has promised to meet our truthfulness and repentance with his grace, and God always keeps his promises.

People, however, are not so faithful and loving as God. When we make ourselves vulnerable to the people around us our truth may be met with judgement and condemnation. Matthew 7:6 says "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces." We should, where possible, be careful that we are truthful with people who are capable of being graceful to us. The reverse is also true: we must be graceful, as God is graceful, when people are truthful with us.

Motivation and Purpose

Walking in the light is an uncomfortable thing to do. Our first reaction to our own brokenness is to try to hide it. Look at Adam in the garden of Eden. When they sinned for the first time their immediate reaction was to make clothes to cover themselves up, then when God came along they hid from him (Genesis 3). We need to do the opposite, sharing our brokenness so that God can heal us. It will be uncomfortable, but the rewards are huge.

Our truthfulness must be tempered by love and wisdom. We must be truthful for the right reasons and with the right purpose: because we want God to heal us and those around us and because we want to give God glory for the good things he's done.

Grace and Truth Together

Grace and truth together will transform our lives and communities. So be truthful and graceful. Live by the truth, because then Gods grace can operate on your life. Be graceful to other people, as God has been graceful to you and our churches will become a place for broken people to get right with God.

Richard Brear, IT Manager, Cross Rhythms, Stoke-on-Trent, U.K.

Isaiah 62
1For Zion's sake I am not silent, And for Jerusalem's sake I do not rest, Till her righteousness go out as brightness, And her salvation, as a torch that burneth.
2And nations have seen thy righteousness, And all kings thine honour, And He is giving to thee a new name, That the mouth of Jehovah doth define.
3And thou hast been a crown of beauty in the hand of Jehovah, And a diadem of royalty in the hand of thy God,
4It is not said of thee any more, `Forsaken!' And of thy land it is not said any more, `Desolate,' For to thee is cried, `My delight [is] in her,' And to thy land, `Married,' For Jehovah hath delighted in thee, And thy land is married.
5For a young man doth marry a virgin, Thy Builders do marry thee, With the joy of a bridegroom over a bride, Rejoice over thee doth thy God.
6`On thy walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen, All the day, and all the night, Continually, they are not silent.' O ye remembrancers of Jehovah, Keep not silence for yourselves,
7And give not silence to Him, Till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem A praise in the earth.

"A castle that has been long besieged and is ready to be taken will deliver up on any terms to save their lives. He whose heart has been a garrison for the devil and has held out long in opposition against Christ, when once God has brought him to poverty of spirit and he sees himself damned without Christ, let God propound what articles He may, he will readily subscribe to them. "Lord, what will you have me to do?" — Thomas Watson

I wish I was there. But sadly, I'm not yet. I still fight God at every turn it seems.

It reminds me of the words from a song by Rich Mullins... "I'd rather fight You for something I don't really want, than take what You give that I need..."

"Father, I wish sometimes that You were not such a Gentleman. I wish that You didn't give me such freedom of choice... but I do understand, I suppose. ...If I didn't have the free choice whether or not to give up my idols -anything or anyone that I would hold in my heart more dearly than Yourself - then my love for You would be worth nothing; Forced love isn't love at all. Please continue to draw me to the place that I would give up (readily and gladly!) anything (Anything!) for my love of You. 'For no one can come unto Me, unless the Father Who sent Me draws them unto Me' (John 6:44) I know of a surety, and can say with the Apostle, "in me there dwelleth no good thing." (Romans 7:18) "prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love..." I am so glad that Christ is my All in All. In Him alone, it is finished.

"All for sin could not atone; Thou must save, and Thou alone.."

1. Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

let me hide myself in thee;

let the water and the blood,

from thy wounded side which flowed,

be of sin the double cure;

save from wrath and make me pure.

2. Not the labors of my hands

can fulfill thy law's commands;

could my zeal no respite know,

could my tears forever flow,

all for sin could not atone;

thou must save, and thou alone.

3. Nothing in my hand I bring,

simply to the cross I cling;

naked,come to thee for dress;

helpless, look to thee for grace;

foul, I to the fountain fly;

wash me, Savior, or I die.

4. While I draw this fleeting breath,

when mine eyes shall close in death,

when I soar to worlds unknown,

see thee on thy judgment throne,

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

let me hide myself in thee.

I love these books!

http://www.online-literature.com/martha-finley/

O Love! Thou sternly dost Thy power maintain,
And wilt not bear a rival in Thy reign.
—Dryden

“She is Mine own;
And as rich in having such a jewel
As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl,
The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold.”

-Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona.

July 10, 2009-

My immediate thoughts upon reading this beautiful verse today:

“Oh! How beautiful! –if only someone would have given this to me!”

...And I heard God whisper, “I just did.” I think He was smiling.

And with great joy I remembered how it was that I came upon this lovely book in the library at BYKOTA church, it had to be that God put them in my path! – and how I debated over whether to check it out or not, and how upon looking over the book, I could see it was at least in some part about the relationship of this little girl and her father...there has always been something about the father/daughter relationship.... it must have always been God, my own dear Heavenly Father, drawing me to Himself.... ♥

Does Jesus Care?

...casting all of your care upon Him, for He careth for you. -1 Peter 5:7

Words: Frank E. Graeff, 1901

Music: J. Lincoln Hall, 1901

Does Jesus care

when my heart is pained

too deeply for mirth and song,

As the burdens press,

And the cares distress,

And the way grows weary and long?

...Does Jesus care

when I've said goodbye

to the dearest on earth to me,

And my sad heart aches

'Til it nearly breaks...

Is it aught to Him?

Does He See?

refrain: Oh yes! He cares;

I know He cares!

His heart is touched with my grief.

When the days are weary,

The long nights dreary,

I know my Saviour cares.

The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms -Deuteronomy 33:27

Jesus answered and said unto her, "...thou art careful and troubled

about many things...But one thing is needful."

—Luke 10:41-42