Grace For The Mess

Come, sit, and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee in the comfort of the Lord:  "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from me, with all malice."  Ephesians  4:31


The wasted years of life. The poor choices of life. God answers the mess of life with one word: grace! Grace. We know the word. The bank gives us a grace period. The seedy politician falls from grace. Grace shares the church parsonage with its cousins: forgiveness, faith, and fellowship. But do we really understand it? We’ve settled for wimpy grace. It politely occupies a phrase in a hymn and fits nicely on a church sign.

Have you been changed by grace? Shaped by grace? Strengthened by grace? Softened by grace? God’s grace has a drenching about it. A wildness about it. Grace comes after you! From insecure to God-secure. From afraid-to-die to ready-to-fly. Grace is the word that calls us to change and then gives us the power to pull it off!

From God’s With You Every Day, by Max Lucado

Drawing Near To God

Come, sit, and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee in the comfort of the Lord:  "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice."  Ephesians  4:31

                               " . . . it is good for me to draw near to God."   Psalm  73:28

     In justification God first stoops down to us and draws us with cords of love and the power of His irresistible grace; but in sanctification we must make the initial move and seek to have intimate fellowship with Him.  Asaph in Psalm 73 had experienced the joy and true happiness that results from such nearness to God. James, in his epistle, tells us that if we want to feel God's presence we must first "draw nigh" to Him  (James 4:8).  Too many Christians wait passively for God to fill them with joy, victory, and spiritual zeal they fail to recognize that such intimate blessings are impossible unless they - by Bible study, prayer, witnessing, and fellowship with other Christians - advance into the light and warmth of the Lord's most intimate presence. Because we as Christians often are so blind to this fact, God sometimes has to encourage us to come closer to Him through pressing trial and encumbering need.  How much better if true gratitude and love inspires our hearts to seek His warming embrace!  But whatever the reasons for our drawing near - our slightest movement Godward delights His heart and brings an instantaneous response and increased fellowship.

     You perhaps may recall the story of the little fellow who through fear was prompted to nestle very close to his father as they were riding along on a strange and dark road.  The indulgent father, thinking the child was about to ask for some favor, inquired,  "Out with it, what do you want?"  "Nothing, Father, I just want to be near you,"  said the child with a soulful look.  The father's heart was gladdened, and the fellowship between the two was made more precious.  So, too, the Father in Heaven rejoices when, because of our love, we seek to embrace Him in a warmer fellowship.  Indeed, "The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him . . . in truth"  (Psalm  145:18).

"Bread For Each Day"

The Immigrant

Come, sit, and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee in the comfort of the Lord:  "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice."  Ephesians  4:31

"By faith Abraham . . . went out . . . For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."  Hebrews  11:8,10

     Abram and Sarah were emigrants who left their native homeland to find a new home in a strange unknown land.  They had never seen it, but had heard about it.

     There must be something appealing and romantic about immigration.  Man has ever been eager to pioneer in new fields, to explore the unknown "beyond."  The urge to emigrate springs from dissatisfaction with present conditions and a desire to find a better place to live.  By such folks this country was settled - by people leaving their homeland to seek liberty and plenty as well as adventure.  Emigrants are people who are not satisfied just to "get by," but feel the urge for better things.

     This is the picture of the believer.  He is an emigrant, born in the world of sin, defeat, death, and want.  But he has heard the call from the land of promise to come out of the land lying under the sentence of doom.  He is an emigrant from the land of death and darkness into the land of life and light.  Henceforth we are strangers and pilgrims here below (Hebrew  11:13; 1 Peter 2:11).  We are spiritual emigrants.  The farther we go on the journey and the older we become, the more we realize we don't fit down here.  Its pleasures sicken us, its music disgusts us.  Its empty conversation bores us.  But how sweet and refreshing the fellowship of the few other emigrants who are traveling to the same new land of glory with us.  But best of all we have His fellowship.  David said,  "I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner"  (Psalm  39:12).  He does not say,  "a stranger to thee (thank God) but with thee."  Can we wish for better company?  Now we are "no more strangers and foreigners" to the heavenly kingdom  (Ephesians  2:19).

"Bread For Each Day"