Owing Grace

On Saturday night, our Sunday School class celebrated Christmas with a class party in our fellowship hall. What a blast! Several ladies worked really hard to set the mood with candles and decorations. We had "heavy hors d'oeuvres" and desserts, and the food was excellent!

This was our second annual Christmas party together, and we continued another tradition as well--we collected money to help provide for a family in need during the Christmas season. In light of this, I felt led to lead our group in a short meditation on God's gift of his Son and the immediate implications. Here's a summary:

Luke 2:29-32 describes Simeon's Holy Spirit empowered revelation that this little baby, Jesus of Nazareth, conceived out of wedlock, was God's gift of "salvation, that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel." God had just presented the world with "a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11).

This brought to mind Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." This salvation is a gift, by grace, through faith. It is not a result of our own works; it is purely God's doing.

As a result of this gift of grace, Paul instructs us in Romans 12:1-8 to present our bodies as living sacrifices. We are called to die to self and live for others! We are exhorted to be transformed! We are commanded to humble ourselves and serve one another in the ways that God has gifted us, and we are to display these gifts in love for one another!

I wrapped up this mediation with three thoughts:

1. We cannot repay God for his incredible gift of grace!
2. We become debtors to others because of God's grace to us...
3. We must become living sacrifices, giving our lives to serve others...

. . .

What a debt we owe Christ that we can never repay! Let us then seek to bestow upon others a similar gift, and in so doing maybe we can give the gift that lasts for eternity!

May we ever be owing grace!

Todd

Salting our Words

Justin Taylor recently posted a blog entry On Blog Commenting that is really applicable to blogging on the whole and the Christian life in general. Too many of us fail to remember Jesus' commands about true greatness: "let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves" (Luke 22:26). Our interactions with one another really must be characterized by humility: "Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves" (Philippians 2:3).

Do you consider how you are impacting others when you simply say what is on your mind? What reason do you have for ungracious speech? "What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?" (1 Corinthians 4:7)

"Heavenly Father, help us salt our words. Let us be a blessing to others, not a thorn in their side. Forgive us."

Todd

"I Am Ridiculous"

Here's an awesome video of Mark Driscoll talking about humility. Yes, Justin Taylor found it first, but I just loved the way Driscoll approaches humility with humor. He said, "Humble people can laugh at themselves. They can say, 'I am ridiculous, and that was ridiculous. And were it not for Jesus, this would not be funny.'"

That, my friends, is worth pondering. We even owe our ability to have a sense of humor to our Savior!

Todd