Whew–A moving reading of the passage of 1 Corinthians that speaks of going home, followed by remarks by John Piper.
The Authenticity of Grace
Grace is a concept that is, to put it mildly, difficult to grasp not only the meaning of, but also the reality of God’s grace. I am wondering tonight what grace is. What is this thing that I so desperately need; so deeply crave? What does grace do?
In the study “Opening Up Titus” we read this helpful explanation:
“There is, in other words, nothing unbalanced about the life grace enables us to live. There is an all-roundedness about it. The aim of divine grace is to make us Christians who in every area of life—man-ward, self-ward, and God-ward—are well-pleasing to God.”
Tonight I am struck by the thought that there is “nothing unbalanced about the life that grace enables us to live.” My life is so completely out of balance right now. I need a fresh understanding, a fresh realization, a fresh awareness of the grace of God in my life. Especially tonight. Maybe more so tonight than most nights; it’s been a very difficult night.
In John 1:16 we read:
16 And from his (Jesus) fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
When I read those words, I am astounded. We receive not only grace, but grace upon grace. To understand verse 16, we have to back up to verse 14:
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Essentially, The Word (Jesus Christ, my Jesus) became flesh, became the divine human and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory- (now be sure to catch this next part) This kind of glory that we see in Jesus, is glory that is only due the Son from God the father—–and that this son of the Father, this Son of God, is full of grace and truth. Grace. Truth.
And then the remarkable happens–from Jesus’ fullness of Grace and Truth, we who believe receive grace upon grace. A double blessing of grace.
Tonight I am keenly aware of the need for grace, because I feel very void of it, because I do not sense it in my life right now. But I know that it is there, grace upon grace, and that without it, I will not continue to stand fast.
Zechariah, Worship and Motives
Zechariah is not a book of the Bible that I’ve spent much (read that as any) time in. The language and flow of thought have, wrongly, steered me away from digging into any of the prophecy books, with the exception of a few chapters of Isaiah. To tell you the truth, I’m not even very sure who Zechariah is, other than he was a prophet. That, I realize, is pathetic.
A good friend of mine wrote a blog post this morning in response to his study of Zechariah. The passage that prompted his response was Zechariah 7:3-4:
3 saying to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and the prophets, “Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”
4 Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to (Zechariah): 5 “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?
I encourage you to read his post, located here. Motives are very important to me, I try to always be in examination of my motives. Unfortunately, sometimes even knowing my motives are erroneous does not prevent me from proceeding down my chosen path, particularly when it comes to spiritual disciplines. My friend’s time in study this morning and the resulting post reminded me, to use his word, that recalibrating my motives on a continual basis is a necessary part of spiritual growth. I need to be in constant and consistent questioning myself as to whether or not I am engaging in spiritual disciplines in order to know God more fully and to worship and love Him with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.
Stir Up One Another
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good work 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of encouragement lately. A recent post of mine dealt with 1 Thessalonians 3:8-10, zeroing in on encouragement of Paul and from Paul to his readers.
But tonight I am pondering these verses from Hebrews 10. “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good work….”
Let us Consider—-let us deliberately and intentionally think about how we can stir up one another to love and good works. It doesn’t just happen. We must be deliberate about it; intentional about it.
And what would it look like, what would this “stirring up of one another” look like? Especially if we are going to be deliberate and intentional about it?
Encouragement, that is what it would look like. The gift of encouraging someone, and the gift of being encouraged by someone are not nothing. If we are going to be a universal church that is stirred up to love and good works, then it must start by practicing true Christian encouragement within the local church. Encouragement has the power to stir up each other to love deeply. Love that is real; love that is demonstrated in words and in deeds–in doing good works.
The next verse explains, I believe, that we can’t encourage each other to love and good works, if we are neglecting to meet together as a local body of believers. It should be a place where family–our brother’s and sister’s in Christ come together to worship our God. And through that Worshipping God together as one body, we encourage each other. How encouraging it is to sing loudly music to God alongside other believers! Along with that worship, is the creating of opportunities to love each other through conversations, through prayer together, through being sensitive and aware of the needs before you.
And to allow yourself to be encouraged as well.
How sad for those who neglect the “meeting together” that happens in Worship.
And then the verse says it outright–no more analogies or illusions to encouragement. No, instead it is stated as plainly as possible:
“encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near”
Time is short. We will get to go home to be with Jesus soon. But for now, I believe we must take seriously this exhortation to be proactive in seeking to encourage one another.