Wednesday, November 08, 2006

If Not For Grace
I've finished reading an article by J. Lee Grady concerning the fall of Ted Haggard and the response we should have concerning this vital matter to the body of Christ. As I was scrolling down the page I saw the add for a book by R.T. Kendall on the subject of grace...and my mind stopped there...If not for the grace of God where would I be? If not for God's grace where would you be? Would you be reading this blog? Would you be concerned with the things that concern you now? Our nation has come to an intersection, a crossroads of sorts, it is a political crossroad as the power base of our nation shifts. It is a spiritual crossroad as the Body of Christ enters a time of shifting, the church as we know it is changing, it is shifting and adjusting itself to the times we are living in, the spiritual climate of our day is different than ever before...If it were not for God's grace and His keeping power...none of us could stand. This afternoon our worship pastor came into the office, she has been through more than most could stand, her kidneys began to fail when she was a teen-ager, over the past year she's been on dialysis, and in June she had a kidney transplant. Since that transplant she has been in and out of the hospital, dealt with kidney stones, calcium issues and other things. This afternoon she came in rejoicing, sharing of God's faithfulness and of His goodness...she spoke of how God has been faithful to keep her, of what she learned in the darkness of her trial...it's been the grace of God. Today my mind is strained, I'm stressed, my spirit is stretched...but God is faithful and His grace is sufficient. I am thankful that when we are struggling, His grace is sufficient, that when life is difficult...His grace is sufficient...when we don't what step to take next...His grace is sufficient...If not for the grace of God where would we be? I am thankful for God's grace, goodness, and faithfulness...and I encourage each of you to rest in His grace!

3 comments:

ruthrap said...

hi, neil, just wanted you to know i enjoy reading all your posts and i was wondering how your worship pastor was doing since her kidney translpant..i'm glad she is getting along somewhat better, sounds like it has been a struggle for her..God has been faithful and His grace has carried many of us through many trials..thanks for the reminder!

Darrell said...

Been on the same wave this past week Neil. That's what I spoke on Sunday. I really believe there are so many in the body of Christ who just don't understand God's grace. When this whole thing came to light last week, as I worked through my own emotions over it, the thing that kept coming back to me was the grace of God. Without that grace...
I don't even want to think about it.

Neil said...

Grace covers all but doesn't cover up, in fact, I am convinced that it is because of God's amazing grace that things are uncovered! But God isn't as quick to throw us out as we are to throw ourselves and others out. Where sin abounds grace does much more abound...isn't that in the book somewhere?