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Sunday, October 28, 2012

Don't Waste Grace!



See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many~ Hebrews 12:15

Here is the content of a recent conversation I had with one of my children, who will remain nameless to protect their identity…

Child: Mom, will you pray for me?
Me: Sure. Is there anything in particular you would like me to pray about?
Child: I have a math test today.
Me: How long did you have to study for the test?
Child: (sheepishly) All of fall break…
Me: So, did you study for this test at all or are you relying solely on the power of prayer to get you through?
Child: (blushing furiously) Prayer, mostly…
Me: Mostly or entirely?
Child: Almost entirely…

I did pray for the child; it was hard to pray with a straight face because I knew that this child had spent all of fall break perfecting the art of taking it easy. My husband and I both had a good laugh when I shared the story with him later that day.  
The conversation at dinner between my husband and child went something like this…

Dad to Child: So, I heard you had a math test today?
Child: Mom told you?
Dad: Mom tells me everything.
Child: Don’t worry, it all worked out because the test was rescheduled!
Dad: Do you know what you got today?
Child: Yes! An answer to prayer!
Dad: No you got grace… Don’t waste it.

My husband’s wise and thoughtful answer got me thinking about the nature and meaning of grace. God’s grace has been defined in many ways by people who are much smarter than I; some of the more common descriptions are: unmerited favor, kindness, undeserved mercy, God’s empowering presence, God’s riches at Christ’s expense.  All of these are very good and theologically correct answers, but I prefer my own more homespun definition: grace is a shot at an undeserved do-over, an opportunity for a second chance.

God is the originator of grace. It all started in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve did the ONE THING God asked them not to and instead of ending the human race at the get-go God gave them a shot at a much needed do-over. God has been in the business of grace ever since. Grace was modeled perfectly in the life of Jesus and through His death and resurrection; a second chance at life was made available to anyone humble enough to admit their need. Grace isn’t just about salvation; grace can and should be a way of life for a Christ-follower.

 As Christians we are called to be both givers and receivers of grace. It’s easy to be a receiver of grace (ask my kid); it’s in our nature to long for a second chance.  It is much harder to be a giver of grace; it seems to go against the grain of human nature to give second chances.

 We give grace by talking through our hurt or anger and working things out rather than simply discarding difficult relationships. We give grace by forgiving and completely letting go of hurts and grudges. We give grace by overlooking offenses and choosing to think the best of people. We give grace by acting like Jesus.

Grace is essential for Christian community to thrive. A lack of it destroys marriages, separates friends, obliterates any sort of intimacy, puts a wall between parents and children and gives the devil enough of a foothold to cause all sorts of havoc and trouble. Giving grace is not an easy thing, it’s essential because grace is freeing. It frees us from the bondage of resentment and bitterness and opens the doors for true Christian community to flourish.

There are two ways we can waste grace; the first is to deliberately blow the second chances that we are graciously given. When God or another person gives us a much-needed do-over we need to do our best to make their effort worthwhile. We do that by repenting, changing our minds about our sin and then changing our behavior. Repentance always begins in our thinking; right thinking transforms behavior.

The second way we waste grace is when we throw away God-given opportunities to be a givers of grace. We waste grace when we obsessively focus on stuff that is best left in God’s hands. We waste grace when we are given the opportunity to see the good and we choose to see the bad, we waste grace when we refuse to forgive as we have been forgiven.

Life is too short and people are too precious to throwaway those God-given opportunities, my prayer for you this week, reader, is that you will neither waste the grace you are given nor waste an opportunity to be a giver of grace.

As God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory~ 2nd Corinthians 4:15 NLT

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Rekindling Your Amazement...


    Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said; “We have seen remarkable things today.”~ Luke 5:26 NIV
I have just finished reading an excellent commentary on the gospel of Luke. The author of the commentary, Michael Card, has entitled his book Luke: The Gospel of Amazement. It’s an appropriate title for the gospel that uses the word amaze (or a synonym for amaze) sixteen times in one relatively short volume.
The shepherds, His Mother, Joseph, the teachers of the law, those He healed and those who heard Him speak were all astonished and awestruck by their encounters with Jesus; even His adversaries were often amazed by the Savior… It’s fair to say that amazement is the standard biblical response to an encounter with Jesus.
Those of us who have had personal, spiritual encounters with Jesus would agree that our initial response to the person of Jesus Christ was amazement; we were awe-struck that the God of the universe would condescend to take on human form in order to rescue humans from their sinful state (the humans for the most part were and are indifferent to their need to be rescued). We were amazed that God cared for us personally and was willing to reach us at the place we were at.
Unfortunately, even for the faithful, amazement with the Savior often fades to a ho-hum academic acceptance of what we have heard or read. Our lack of amazement leads to a lack of joy, and a powerless, uninspired kind of living that stirs no one—especially those who have not yet had a personal encounter with Jesus.
We have all experienced times where our sense of amazement is eclipsed by the struggles of living. Life just kind of takes over with the stress of things like job losses, relationship conflict, and money struggles, the next thing we know our sense of wonder has flown out the window. It’s not just the big pressures that take their toll on our faith; even the mundane stuff of life like cranky toddlers, dirty dishes, yard work, pet messes and five o’ clock traffic can add up to a sense of frustration with the tedium of life.  If we are going to maintain a vibrant, active faith it is imperative that we make an effort to rekindle that initial amazement. I have a few tips for those who may feel that their sense of wonder and amazement needs a kick-start.
First, remember. One of the prominent themes of the Bible in general and the book of Psalms in particular is remembrance. Over and over again the people of God are told to remember. A few of the things we are told to remember are…
à      The wonders He has done, the miracles He has preformed~ Psalm 105:5, Psalm 77:11
à      His graciousness and compassion towards us~ Psalm 111:14
à      That His love and mercy endures forever~ Psalm 136:23
à      His past provision~ Psalm 111:5
We are instructed to remember because reflective recollection reminds us that God has been good in the past. When we remember His past goodness we become confident of His future goodness and that fills us with both hope and gratitude. Gratitude rekindles amazement.
Second, we must think back on our own stories and listen to the stories of others. Everybody has a story( some of us have a bunch). For Christians, it’s the story of how God got you from where you were to where you are now. Not having such a story is a sign that something is amiss spiritually.
When I think back to the Lisa of twenty-five years ago I’m astonished at how far I’ve come and at times even more aware of how far I have to go, but knowing how far God has brought me gives me faith that He will continue the work He started. It’s not just my story that restores my amazement at the goodness of God, every time someone shares their story with me I am reminded that God is amazing and can do things in people and through people that are beyond our asking or imagining (Ephesians 3:20).
Finally, take a closer look at your environment; Psalm 119:1-3 states that… 

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech; 
night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.

It is not only the heavens that declare the glory of God; every square inch of this planet screams in a loud voice: “God is” and “He is amazing”. It is easy to become blind to the wonder of our environment. The cliché “familiarity breeds contempt” became a cliché for a reason. If you really want to rekindle your amazement, walk outside your back door and take a good hard look at all God has done. Whether you live in the Northwest with its majestic forests, or in the swampy almost ethereal beauty of the Southeast corner of our country, or in the Southwestern desert with it’s abstract otherworldly beauty, you will find something that will rekindle your amazement in God’s goodness and creative power.   

Sunday, October 14, 2012

The Power of Encouragement


  Encourage one another daily as long as it is called today so that none of you are hardened by sin’s deceitfulness~ Hebrews 3:13

In this passage the writer of Hebrews is connecting the danger of sin to the garden-variety disappointments and struggles that are common to the human experience. The writer, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, tells us that one solution to being taken captive by “sin’s deceitfulness” is the encouragement of a community of fellow believers.

  This passage caught my attention partly because I have found myself to be a casualty of discouragement recently. We have had a lot of upheaval in the Price household recently.

We moved from Washington state to Arizona and the move has has brought big changes. Some of the changes are to be expected with a big move, including periods of loneliness, the trauma of getting our daughter settled in a new school and the ups and downs of learning a new city.  Some of the changes have been unique to THIS move. Transplanting a Northwest girl to the heart of the Sonoran desert has been interesting to say the least…

My adventures have included 112-degree days that have resulted in wicked sunburns and giant electric bills, the discovery that shoes are for more than making your feet look cute (don’t ask, it’s sad) … Last but not least… Getting acquainted with the local wildlife, including butterflies so big they actually scare me a little (don’t laugh, it happens!), and giant pig rats called javelinas eating our trash (these things are real, if you don’t believe me Google them). I have also dealt with scorpions in my shower, snakes in the pool, a tarantula who appears to be convinced that our back yard is his own personal resort, and a giant skink (lizard) who really likes hanging out on our front porch.

I recognize that my problems are first-world problems; I have a home with a pool for snakes to fall into and a back yard that is pleasant enough to attract local wildlife. I have a front porch for the lizard to hang out on. These things are blessings and I would be foolish to forget that.

The issues I struggle with are small and inconsequential compared to the plight of the unemployed or the struggles of single mothers in third-world countries.  But there have been moments when the loneliness of moving and the loss of friends coupled with the strangeness of the new environment have created an atmosphere where discouragement has become an issue. It is easy to see how someone who felt alone in their struggles could easily slip into the trap of believing that life will never get better and that God doesn’t see our pain or care about our struggles.

That is where discouragement leads to the deceitfulness of sin, and the eventual hardening of our hearts. When we begin to believe the lie that God is unaware of or indifferent to our suffering we can easily begin to buy into the falsehood that we are entitled to get pleasure and comfort from activities, things, and substances instead of God. Things, activities and substances may offer temporary pleasure and comfort but eventually lead to bondage and the “hardening of our hearts”.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that one key to preventing our hearts being hardened is for those of us in the community of faith to “encourage one another”. The word encourage in the Greek is parakaleo.

For such an important concept it’s really a rather unexciting word in the Greek (I was expecting something really spectacular). It simply means, “to call to one’s side”.  The idea put forth with this word is that we see someone who is struggling and we call or pull them up to the place where we are. We speak the strength and inner courage that we possess into their spirits giving them some of our strength. Practically speaking this can be a small thing like simply listening to a friend as she shares her struggles and fears. Encouragement can also be a big thing like providing childcare and hot meal for a struggling family.

Encouragement always involves community (fellow believers) and almost always involves the use of words. Proverbs 18:21 tells us that the tongue holds the power of life and death.  I know from personal experience that a phone call just to let someone know you care can literally speak life and hope into the lonely or the discouraged.

We have been in Arizona for several months now and I am truly grateful for this experience. As weird and challenging as it’s been I feel that I will be a better person and a better encourager because of it. My prayer for you is that you will pray for new and unique ways to obey the command to “encourage one another” within your own community of faith.

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you~ Luke 6:38