Sunday, August 13, 2017

Grace & Glory

For the Lord God is our sun and our shield.  He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.  Psalm 84:11(NLT)
Have you ever felt like things were just a little too out of control?  I’m sure anyone who has lived with a two year-old in the house can identify with that feeling.
The past several weeks have been particularly that way for me; no control!
·       Doctors – I love the people who keep me put together and see to my needs when I’ve got misery…but lately it seems every time I hiccup they order a heart transplant. 
·       Paperwork – the people I’ve met while applying for a Veteran’s Administration service-connected disability are qualified and compassionate, but the forms required are measured by the ton.
·       Waiting Rooms – are related to doctor’s offices and government offices like itch is related to a rash.
·       Fatigue – is related to all of the aforementioned, and is tied to the radiation treatments I’m undergoing…every…single...day!
When life’s events get out of control you feel somewhat helpless/powerless to make choices; you find yourself going with the flow and just hoping the fallout won’t be your brain falling-out and hitting the floor.  The past couple of months I’ve had a front row seat to the meaning of the sarcastic saying: 
God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things before I die.
At the rate I’m going I will probably live to the age of 191!
Now, when life gets like all that…when you’re so overwhelmed by your circumstances, and you feel like you just can’t take another step, and you find yourself asking God, friends, family, and neighbors for help over and over again…you have entered the grace & glory zone!
Let me tell you what I mean:
Grace is the stuff God hands out when you’ve nowhere to turn; when life starts to unravel.  Scripture declares none of us can do anywhere near good enough to merit God’s favor; we’re all sinners, and that means separation from God.  But, in His grace, his lovingkindness, God sent Jesus to be our salvation.  His blood cleanses us from all sin. 
Grace, and…glory!
Glory is what God shares with no one – ever!  The exception is His family.  God’s plan for all who love Christ, and accept by faith His grace-filled invitation to be drawn close to the throne as God’s family will one day share in the glory of our God.  The Psalmist said:  No good thing will He withhold!
Grace and glory zone!

Here is the only requirement:

“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.  Luke 9:23b(NLT)

There is no such thing as serving two masters.  If you will be a follower of Jesus, even you can’t be the Master in your own life.
The disciples knew what Jesus was saying about crosses.  Twenty years before there was a rebellion against Roman authority in a little town called Sephoris. 
A man named Varus, a Galilean farmer, organized the farmers of the area into a rebellion army.  They attacked and killed all the Roman soldiers of the garrison at Sephoris. 
Rome sent in the armies, and scattered the armies of Varus, about 10,000 men.  Most of them went back to farming.  But the Romans captured about 2,000 of them. 
The historian, Josephus, records that they were going to teach the rebels of Galilee a lesson not to be rebels.  They took them, one by one, along the road out of Sephoris, and crucified them.  They would put one on a cross, and then walk down the road until almost out of sight, and then crucify another. 
They went in every direction, North, East, South and West; they went on every road out of Sephoris, all over Galilee, until they had 2,000 rebels on 2,000 crosses. 
As you walked the roads of Galilee you were never out of sight of a crucified rebel.  None were allowed to be taken down; they were to rot there on the crosses.  If anyone took one down, another Galilean citizen would take his place. 
Jesus was a pre-teen when this happened.  He lived less than a dozen miles from Sephoris.  He knew what he was saying about taking up a cross. 
Jesus is not interested in leaders and kings, or people of great talent and abilities; He wants disciples who will give up their lives. 

Are you willing? 

Are you really willing to step up and offer your life in exchange for His? 
That's what it means to have a God who isn’t small and in a box; following a God like that is a big decision!
And that decision is what this table is about. 
When you realize that life in this world is always heading in the direction of doctor’s waiting rooms, requirements you can’t meet, and frustration with being let down, left behind, pushed out, or crushed, you are in a perfect position to enter the grace & glory zone. 
And the key to the door of that zone is to give up your life, and find His!
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!


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[1] Title Image Courtesy of Pixabay.com

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