What Good is it?

Have you ever experienced “Jet lag”? I have, once, on a trip to Israel.

Our plane left Toronto at 6 am and, after 14 hours in the air, we landed just outside Tel Aviv at around 8 am their time. I had not slept on the plane (I did not want to miss anything) and so when we got on the tour bus that morning I was tired!

One of my most vivid memories of that first day is simply trying to force my eyes open. As the bus rocked slowly back and forth down the road, the nice, warm sun shone in the window. To make matters worse, my friend Bill was sound asleep and snoring loudly. The first day of that trip was a bit of a blur for a while. It is hard to stay awake and alert when everything around you is encouraging you to relax and sleep through the important stuff.

Unfortunately, I sometimes find myself going through life as if I am sitting on that bus. I am on the journey of a lifetime and yet I can hardly stay awake. My days go by and I really do not know where I am going or why I am here. In other words, I sometimes just float along and do what everyone else does, because that is the easy thing to do.

Recently, though, I have received a couple of “wake up calls”, one of which is a verse that I cannot stop thinking about. Jesus asked, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” (Mark 9:36).

Jesus warns us that it is entirely possible for someone to be a huge success in one sense and yet be living a life that is not worth living in God’s eyes.

I think it is time for me to wake up and make sure that I am living by God’s priorities. How about you?

“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33)

An Oldie but a Goodie

Old things can be valuable (no, I am not just saying that because I am starting to “get up there”). Take, for example, the old idea of “God’s grace”.

By definition, “Grace” is “unmerited favor” or “unearned kindness” and it is one of the words that the New Testament writers frequently use when describing God. John 1:16 tells us that, “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another”. A short list of those blessings would include things like forgiveness, salvation, new life, repentance, God’s love and Christ himself. In various scriptures, those concepts are tied to the word “grace”.

Recovering that old concept of “God’s grace” changes how we see him. Our God is not out to get us, or exclude us. In fact, God’s gracious disposition is one of the best blessings that we have.

Romans 8:31 says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” The “if” in that sentence could be translated “because”. The context of the entire Roman letter indicates that God is for us. He is on our side. He has provided everything that we need for spiritual health. Through Christ’s death, burial and resurrection he has broken down the wall of sin that kept us from him (Ephesians 2:13-15). Therefore, my spiritual life does not rest on my being perfect. It rests on a God who is gracious, kind and forgiving enough to send his son to die for me, even before I knew that I needed it (Ephesians 2:1-10). All I have to do is to respond to his offer (Romans 6:1-4).

While we should take seriously our responsibility to follow God and do what he says, never forget that our hope rests in God’s grace! In fact, it is the only hope we have.

“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:21)