Saved By Grace

Songs: God Favors Me – Hezekiah Walker featuring Marvin Sapp
Hymn – Saved, Saved (http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/s/a/savdsavd.htm)

Scriptures:
Ephesians 2 New Century Version (NCV)
We Now Have Life
1 In the past you were spiritually dead because of your sins and the things you did against God.2 Yes, in the past you lived the way the world lives, following the ruler of the evil powers that are above the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God. 3 In the past all of us lived like them, trying to please our sinful selves and doing all the things our bodies and minds wanted. We should have suffered God's anger because we were sinful by nature. We were the same as all other people.

4 But God's mercy is great, and he loved us very much.5 Though we were spiritually dead because of the things we did against God, he gave us new life with Christ. You have been saved by God's grace.6 And he raised us up with Christ and gave us a seat with him in the heavens. He did this for those in Christ Jesus7 so that for all future time he could show the very great riches of his grace by being kind to us in Christ Jesus.8 I mean that you have been saved by grace through believing. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God.9 It was not the result of your own efforts, so you cannot brag about it.10 God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing.

One in Christ
11 You were not born Jewish. You are the people the Jews call "uncircumcised." Those who call you "uncircumcised" call themselves "circumcised." (Their circumcision is only something they themselves do on their bodies.) 12 Remember that in the past you were without Christ. You were not citizens of Israel, and you had no part in the agreements with the promise that God made to his people. You had no hope, and you did not know God.13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away from God are brought near through the blood of Christ's death.14 Christ himself is our peace. He made both Jewish people and those who are not Jews one people. They were separated as if there were a wall between them, but Christ broke down that wall of hate by giving his own body.15 The Jewish law had many commands and rules, but Christ ended that law. His purpose was to make the two groups of people become one new people in him and in this way make peace.16 It was also Christ's purpose to end the hatred between the two groups, to make them into one body, and to bring them back to God. Christ did all this with his death on the cross.17 Christ came and preached peace to you who were far away from God, and to those who were near to God.18 Yes, it is through Christ we all have the right to come to the Father in one Spirit.

19 Now you who are not Jewish are not foreigners or strangers any longer, but are citizens together with God's holy people. You belong to God's family.20 You are like a building that was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself is the most important stone in that building,21 and that whole building is joined together in Christ. He makes it grow and become a holy temple in the Lord.22 And in Christ you, too, are being built together with the Jews into a place where God lives through the Spirit.

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This past Sunday, just as I was getting to church, the song “God Favors Me” by Hezekiah Walker came on the radio. For some reason, it touched me to the point of tears (I think now that it was God preparing me, sensitizing me to His Spirit of grace.) After the song ended and I went inside the church, I saw in the program that the topic for the day was “Saving Grace.” Grace, Favor. At the end of the service, the Pastor was singing the hymn, Saved, Saved.

I’ve thought of the hymn several times since (even to imagining singing it in an audition before the judges of Sunday Best, and just worshipping God, and having His Spirit manifest Himself during that time - hmmmm), and the grace, the cost, by which I have been saved.

It occurred to me today, that the “by grace” (in Ephesians 2:5) might also be understood as “for grace” as an additional reason for our salvation when considering v7 (Amplified translation):

7He did this that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace (His unmerited favor) in [His] kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus.

Wow… how humbling…

Thank You, God, for Your amazing grace!!! There is so much more to Your grace...

[Christy Nockels, Grace flows down – (can be heard at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBPNdTowJuc)]

Help me, Lord, to be – to even want to be – an instrument of Your grace. That it would be seen, be manifested in, overshadow and overwhelm my life – only for Your glory. That others would experience it through their interactions with me, and would be drawn to Your sweetness, O God. More of You, less of me…

Revelation 1:4-6 (King James Version)
4John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
5And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
6And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

... and my journey with Him continues ...

Not Who I Think…

Songs:
Mark Schultz – I Am
Donald Lawrence & the Tri-city Singers – I Am God
Bebo Norman – I Will Lift My Eyes

Scriptures:
Psalm 46:10a (KJV) Be still and know that I am God…
Exodus 3:1-14 (KJV)
1Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
2And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
3And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
4And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
5And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
6Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.
7And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
8And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
9Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.
10Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.
11And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?
12And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.
13And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?
14And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

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A couple of years ago, I sensed the Lord ask me:

Do you want to know who I am?

Yes, LORD! I said excitedly.

No, do you really want to know who I am. … I'm not who you think I am.

This shocked me into silent reflection. Here I was, sitting in church during Bible study, having the Lord ask me if I wanted to know Him. We were discussing whether God causes things to happen or whether He just allows them. Our Bible study was interactive, and someone in the congregation was voicing their opinion / belief that God doesn't cause bad things to happen - He only allows them. I was only half listening, still wondering about what I felt the Lord had spoken to me, thinking that I agreed with the person who was speaking.

Some people don't want to know the truth. Do you really want to know who I am?

At this point, I was about to cry. That He was asking if I really wanted to know Him suggested that what I thought I knew of Him at this point was not right. This made me pause in fear: what if I didn't like, couldn't love, wouldn't want to be in league with Who God really was? I felt that God had manifested Himself to me in a totally unexpected way in 1996, and then proceeded to challenge, shatter and reshape many of my ideas about Him, religion, myself - about life. My views about everything had been shaken. And now, to think that I still wasn’t getting it right – that I still didn’t know Him – saddened me. I finally said, in fear and trembling, that I did really want to know Him.

I’ve since come to the conclusion that in this life, there will always be so much more of Him for me to know; while I am in this flesh, there will always be correction and adjustment needed to what I think I know about Him, and the need for a corresponding change in my relationship with Him.

A while back, I sensed the Lord focusing again on this topic of knowing Him, when he said, again:

I’m not who you think I am.

I took Psalm 46:10 to heart, and didn’t say anything. I just listened. Then He said:

I’m not Who you think – I AM!

There was such a power in this exchange that it really did frighten me. But in His mercy, God seems to be so slowly, so tenderly wooing me closer, so that I will not be afraid. For example, this past Wednesday, I happened to see Beth Moore (on Life Today, the Wednesdays with Beth series segment on The Bread of Life, part 3) where she said:

- God's Presence with us is a fact.
- It’s fellowship that activates the feeling of Divine Presence.

And I was talking with someone else the other day, about God’s Presence being / going with us:

Exodus 33:12-19 (KJV)
12And Moses said unto the LORD, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.
13Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.
14And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
15And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.
16For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.
17And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.
18And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
19And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.

There are different things going on in my life these days, to bring correction, protection, provision, and change – but I know that it is all so that I will know my God better…

…and my journey with Him continues…