Grace

I have been reading Jerry Bridges' book called Transforming Grace: Living Confidently in God's Unfailing Love.  It is a great read and something I would recommend reading and reminding myself of on a regular basis.  I came across a passage and I wanted to share it.  In his 1991 publication, he writes on page 169 at the bottom of the page:

"This is the amazing story of God's grace.  God saves us by His grace and transforms us more and more into the likeness of His Son by His grace.  In all our trials and afflictions, He sustains and strengthens us by His grace.  He calls us by grace to perform our own unique function within the Body of Christ.  Then again by grace, He gives to each of us spiritual gifts necessary to fulfill our calling. As we serve Him, He makes that service acceptable to Himself by grace, and then rewards us a hundredfold by grace."  

How very true and what a good reminder to myself that not only am I saved by grace, but that I live empowered by grace to do the good works that Christ has enabled me to do.  (Ephesians 2:10)  How very true that grace is never done with me!  How very true that I am ALWAYS in need of grace and to be in touch with the enormous grace of God!

Jesus washed the feet of Judas

 I have always been amazed at how the gospels make it abundantly clear that Jesus knew that someone was going to betray him and that He continued to minister with Judas on his team anyway.  Most of us if we are honest are not willing to look past the knowledge that someone has betrayed us and I think if we could predict it with accuracy we would cut ties with any individual whom we knew was going to bring us harm.  And yet Jesus continued to minister alongside Judas.  He taught and Judas could hear.  He walked and Judas could follow.  And even moments before the betrayal, Jesus washes the feet of the one He knew would betray Him.  What mercy!  

I wonder if we can learn from this submission to the plan of God.  Jesus, knowing what God was accomplishing, understood that the betrayal from one close to Him was a part of what God was doing in His life to accomplish salvation for all.  To avoid or dodge this goal would have been to disallow one part of the bigger plan of God.

That is the secret to finding our way through pain - to acknowledge that in a way we may not be able to understand that the pain is a means by which God will accomplish His purposes in our lives.  If we are to avoid it or dodge it because of our own desires we may miss that which God has allowed for our good.   This is not to say that there does not come a time to part ways with those who are hurting us - Jesus does not hide or deny the truth - He in fact points it out on more than one occasion.  But He still served in love the one he knew would betray Him - for the glory of God.  And we can do the same.

What I Have Been Reading

I make it a goal each year to read at least 20 books.  Compared to some, this is probably a small number and to some it seems unattainable.  I have only failed this once since I have been making the goal (I read 19 books in 2019).  But this is not just about my reading history.  It is about what I have been reading.  I think that reading is important.  And so I keep track of what I read through reading journal. But the more I read, the more I want to read.  I want to read biographies.  I want to read theological books.  I want to read books that are fictional.  I want to read good books.  I want to read.  But the more I read the more I stand amazed at the beauty and glory of the written Word of God.  The more that I appreciate that God spoke to us through Christ and spoke to us through the Bible so that we read and learn from what has been said.  The more I read the more I want to read the Bible.

Think about all of the things we read.  We read a newspaper for news.  We read online articles to learn about what we are interested in.  We read books.  And none of the things we read guarantee themselves to be true.  The newspaper lies all the time.  They have a column dedicated to corrections in most major newspapers.  Online articles are not bound to any standard of truth.  Books can be totally fictional even if they claim to be otherwise.  These mediums are all one sided presentations by the authors or editors.  None of them would be bold enough to claim absolute truth.  And yet God says, "My Word is Truth".  (see John 17).  Only God claims to be He who does not lie.  And so we can trust His Word to be totally true.  

God's Word gives us the promise that it will not return void.  Only His book promises that it will be useful for correction and training in righteousness among other things.  

And so the more I read the more I want to read the Bible. The more that I appreciate the Bible.  So, what are you reading?  What do you want to read?