Thursday 25 July 2013

July 2013 - Great Grace Required

Welcome to summer!  I trust you are grabbing onto all of the sunshine you can.  I also hope you don’t forget to grab all the Son-shine you can over the summer.  Becoming a Christian is not simply about having Jesus deal with our sin issue but it is about accepting an invitation by God to have Him effectively involved in every aspect and moment of our lives.

Which brings me to this month’s topic: grace.  Grace is often seen as “unmerited favour” or “God’s riches at Christ’s expense.”  While both of these things are true, they are also far less than the fullness of grace.  Grace is not simply accepting but also enabling.  Grace is not simply a passive attribute but also an active contribution.

I am convinced that we need to grow in grace (2 Pe. 3:18).  It isn’t that we lack grace — we need to grow in it.  God is the God of all grace (1 Pe. 5:10).  And, He is able to make all grace about to us so that we have everything we need for every good work (2 Cor. 9:8).  Our difficulty is not in availability, its with access.  We need to grow in grace.

There are more good works.  God has more glory to get out of our lives.  Anything that is accomplished is done by grace (1 Cor. 15:10).  This is not a condemnation because there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).  This is, however, a challenge to us all.  One of the things noted of the early church was that great grace was upon them all (Acts 4:38).  The amount of grace we are accessing is insufficient for what we are facing — in our lives, in our church, in our world.  The revival we all desire will not happen apart from great grace active in our midst.

Growing in grace with you,

Pastor Merril