ACCEPT THAT YOU ARE ACCEPTED

“To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”  (Ephesians 1:6-7 NKJV)

Paul Tillich writes, “You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you… Do not try to do anything now; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!”

Accept that you are accepted. In the moment that grace strikes, grace conquers sin. Lingering guilt that has grown tumor-like for years in the dark recesses of a person's soul can lose its deathly power. Grace helps us face the truth about ourselves, to embrace it rather than run from it; and by embracing this truth and offering it to God, we discover that God will shape us from this day forward anew. God's been waiting for us, desiring us to let Him in. Can we accept that we are accepted? 

-- Robert Schnase in “Five Practices of Fruitful Living”

#6459

THE GRACE-DEFINED PERSON

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”  (Ephesians 4:31-32 NIV)

Build a prison of hate if you want, each brick a hurt. Design it with one cell and a single bunk. (You won’t attract roommates.) Hang large video screens on each of the four walls so recorded images of the offense can play over and over, twenty-four hours a day. Headphones available on request. Appealing? No, appalling. Harbored grudges suck the joy out of life. Revenge won’t paint the blue back in your sky or restore the spring in your step. No. It will leave you bitter, bent, and angry. Give the grace you’ve been given.

You don’t endorse the deeds of your offender when you do. Jesus didn’t endorse your sins by forgiving you… Grace doesn’t tell the oppressed to wink at injustice. The grace-defined person still sends thieves to jail and expects an ex to pay child support.

Grace is not blind. It sees the hurt full well. But grace chooses to see God’s forgiveness even more. It refuses to let hurts poison the heart. “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” (Hebrews 12:15 NIV) Where grace is lacking, bitterness abounds. Where grace abounds, forgiveness grows. 

-- Max Lucado in “Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine”   

#6458

ETERNITY IN OUR HEARTS

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end."  (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NKJV)

Have you looked at God’s stars and marveled as they lit the velvet-dark sky? Watched a sunset in which the sky is tinted in reds and oranges on the horizon to a deep tone of blue above and delighted in God’s paintbrush? Then you’ve seen Him make things beautiful in their time.

Though we appreciate our changing world, we only understand so much of it. Even the best scientists cannot describe every detail of our world, from its first day to the present. And if they could, they still couldn’t so combine it with beauty that we could appreciate both simultaneously. God is so much greater than we can be. None of us can fully aspire to His greatness.

Though we’re not up to the task of full understanding all He does, this glorious God still wants us near Him. We can’t meet Him on His own terms, yet He wants us so much that He offered us – through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross -- the great blessing of eternity in our hearts. Even the beauty of a magnificent world can’t fill our hearts and souls. God has given us the desire to spend all eternity with Him.  Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3 NKJV)

So while you’re gazing at the beautiful sky, don’t forget to praise the One who created it and you – and be thankful that you were one He decided to share eternity with. 

– Adapted from “Daily Wisdom to Satisfy the Soul,” published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.

#6457

OUR ESTEEM IS GRACE-ESTEEM

“Now God has us where He wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all His idea, and all His work. All we do is trust Him enough to let Him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving.”  (Ephesians 2:7-9 MSG)

The greatest need of any person is to be known and loved. The cry is strong; the human desire is deep. "I want to be somebody. I want my life to count." Closely related to the feeling of worth is the perception of who we are. When we esteem something or someone, we highly value it or the person. To esteem ourselves is to have high regard for ourselves. Many of the problems in human relations stem from a person's lack of self-esteem.

[However,]... our worth and value is given. We are called not to muster it up within ourselves, but to receive the gift given to us, a gift of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. God has declared our value. Our value is not rooted in self-esteem, based only on ourselves. Our value is discovered in grace, which is rooted in the greatness and graciousness of God...

God's love makes it possible to know we are valued. We cannot put ourselves down or debase ourselves. We can know our true worth because we are children of God. Our esteem is rooted in the amazing grace of God. Our esteem is grace-esteem.

-- H. Eddie Fox in “Grace-Esteem” 

#6456

A REMINDER ON THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

Editor’s Note: While I have shared this quote in the past, it bears repeating as each new generation needs to be reminded of the truths that Billy Graham shared right after the horrific events of 9/11. -- DW

A REMINDER ON THE 25^TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11 

No matter how hard we try, words simply cannot express the horror, the shock and the revulsion we all feel over what took place in this nation on Tuesday morning [September 11, 2001]… Today, we say to those who masterminded this cruel plot, and to those who carried it out, that the spirit of this nation will not be defeated… The Bible's words are our hope: "God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea" (Psalm 46:1,2)…

The lesson of this event is not only about the mystery of iniquity and evil, but secondly, it is a lesson about our need for each other… A tragedy like this could have torn this country apart, but instead it has united us and we have become a family…

Yes, there is hope.  There is hope for the present because I believe the stage has already been set for a new spirit in our nation.

One of the things we desperately need is a spiritual renewal in this country.   We need a spiritual revival in America.  And God has told us in His Word, time after time, that we are to repent of our sins and we're to turn to Him and He will bless us in a new way… And from the Cross, God declares, "I love you. I know the heartaches and the sorrows and the pains that you feel.  But I love you."…

But now we have a choice: whether to implode and disintegrate emotionally and spiritually as a people and a nation -- or, whether to choose to become stronger through all of this struggle -- to rebuild on a solid foundation.  And I believe we're in the process of starting to rebuild on that foundation.  That foundation is our trust in God…

My prayer today is that we will feel the loving arms of God wrapped around us, and will know in our hearts that He will never forsake us as we trust in Him. 

-- Reverend Billy Graham (1918-2018)

#6455