Grace in Christ 23

Luke 15 contains three beautiful stories that picture the love of God and His grace in Jesus Christ.  The night I was saved the sermon was from Luke 15 – The Prodigal Son.  Oh what grace in that story!  Oh what love in the Father!  O what welcome and forgiveness!  It is a story that resounds to the hearts of all those who have wandered in the pig sties of life and found it wanting.  But Gods grace is greater than all our sins and He has run to greet the lost child. 

This story has led to the writing of more hymns than just about any other text except the birth, death and resurrection of Christ. It encompasses all the topics of love, forgiveness, grace and acceptance in the Beloved.  Such great writers as Thomas Chisholm and Fanny Crosby have penned wonderful accounts from this text.  So has the great Scottish preacher and hymnist Horatio Bonar.  Ira Sankey, the gifted song leader who accompanied Dwight Moody on his crusades, wrote the musical score for Bonar’s hymn.  “Welcome! Wanderer, Welcome!” became a very popular hymn and much used by God to invite those lost in sin to find a place of comfort, love and forgiveness at the Father’s table.

Each of the seven verses of this hymn is a short and direct appeal to a particular need of those whose lives are stuck outside the kingdom of God.  Each of these short verses ends with the beckoning words, “My son! My son!”  God the Father loved us so much that He sent His own Son as the Good Shepherd into the treacherous mountain crags to retrieve His lost sheep from peril and destruction.  He is the Father who ran to meet the prodigal as he neared his Father’s house.  His great grace in Jesus Christ bids mankind to leave the filth of the pig sty and find cleansing and home in the Father’s house.

Here are some verses and the chorus of “Welcome! Wanderer, Welcome!” (1) “In the land of strangers, whither thou art gone; hear a far voice calling, My son! My son!” (4) “See the door still open! Thou art still my own; eyes of love are on thee, My son! My son!” (5) “Far off thou hast wandered, wilt thou farther roam? Come, and all is pardoned, My son! My son!” Chorus: “Welcome, wand’rer, welcome! Welcome back to home! Thou hast wandered far away: come home! Come home!”  Remember the grace of God that called you and rejoice in the welcome home that He offered.  Share it with someone today. 

 

 

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Grace in Christ 22

Where do we find the grace of God most richly felt?  Do we find it in our greatest successes?  Do we find it in our busiest activities?  Do we find it in our quiet sitting at the feet of Jesus?  Consider the mad man of the Gadarenes.  When he had been healed of his demon possession, he was found at Jesus’ feet.  Consider Mary in the account of Mary and Martha.  Martha was busy and Mary was found at Jesus’ feet.  In Luke 14 Jesus told a parable in which he told His hearers to take the lowest seat at the table.  Then, if the host should elevate you it will be an honor to be elevated.  Taking the seat of self elevation, however, could lead to great disappointment. 

Using this parable as a backdrop for a hymn, Johnson Oatman – who wrote the lyrics for nearly 5,000 hymns and gospel songs, wrote the words for the hymn “At My Redeemer’s Feet”.  Oatman’s first stanza reads, “I ask not for the highest place, but find a spot more sweet, where God bestows on me His grace, at my Redeemer’s feet.”  From this place of simple humility we can be elevated to whatever heights that God in His grace might have for us. 

But wait!  Our mind reels at that one word “might”.  We are not alone.  The disciples seemed to be in a constant dispute about which of them was the most important.  Jesus reminded them that the most insignificant child was the most important and that He had come to be a servant and not an overlord.  Oatman covered this contingency of our human expectations with his chorus.  “Come joy or pain, come weal or woe, in Christ I am complete; my highest place is lying low, at my Redeemer’s feet.” 

How much higher can we get than to be seated in the heavenlies with Christ?  That is our position both now and forever as children of God.  Our eternity will be right where we need to be seeing ourselves each day in this life, at Jesus’ feet.  Oatman finished his hymn with this verse, “And when I reach the mystic sea, where earth and Heaven meet,
I’ll spend a blest eternity, at my Redeemer’s feet.”  Let us rejoice in the grace of God that has brought us already to this lofty position of sitting at the feet of Jesus. 

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Grace in Christ 21

The lilies bloom, the flowers sing.  They raise their psalms of praise to Him.  They toil not for daily bread, yet by His gracious hand are fed.

Ye children of the Holy God, who daily on this earth do trod, His grace to you is greater still, and He will all your needs fulfill.

The grace of God shows us a greater way to live than the hectic pace that we choose for ourselves.  We often consume more time and energy on the things that will not last than investing in the things that will.  Jesus used the illustration of the lilies of the field and the birds of the air to show to us a better way.

My dad labored for years for a pension that didn’t produce and a lifetime insurance policy that paid little in the long run.  His story is repeated throughout the world.  God said that the wealth of this world would perish, and He warned about being consumed with gaining it.  Solomon said that “wealth maketh itself wings”.   The wings that God wants us to focus on are the wings of the sparrow that does not fall to the ground without the Father’s notice. 

God wants us to reprioritize our investments of time, energy and money.  Once when I was teaching I had a mother come to me and complain about the homework load I had given to her daughter.  I didn’t think it was a load.  My son was in that class and he was in bed each night by nine.  It turned out that her daughter was never even home at night by nine.  She was only 13 and was already committed to the frantic pace of worldly pursuits.  A little thing like a math assignment was not to get into the way of her goals. 

But we, too, are like that in too many ways.  God says, “Look to me”.  When we look up to Him the things of this world disappear in the glory of His brightness.  The new car, the big promotion, the bigger house, the greater earthly responsibility all fade in the beauty of the image of His dear Son.  They fade if we look up to Him.  When He becomes our all there is time for worship each day.  There is time for rest each day.  There is time for family each day.  These are His gifts to us.  Gaze at some lilies today and see that God is taking care of them.  Listen to some birds singing.  They know God is taking care of them.  His grace is greater toward us, His holy children.  Seek the joy of His greater way today. 

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Grace in Christ 20

In our Christian lives most of us have had what we would call a “mountain top” experience.  It was a moment where we felt particularly touched by and close to God.  It might have been at a retreat or camp or special service, but it was some moment where the reality of God broke through to us in a new and different way.  We wanted the moment to linger or continue unabated, but the service ended, the retreat was over and we had to reenter or daily lives.  While we missed the depth of that experience, God had in His wonderful grace shown us a glimpse of Him that would refresh us and sustain us in our walk with Him.  This happened to the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Frederick Hosmer wrote a hymn, “Not Always on the Mount”, which catches the great importance of the mountain top experience for our life in the daily valley of living.  His first stanza reads, “Not always on the mount may we rapt in the heav’nly vision be; the shores of thought and feeling know the Spirit’s tidal ebb and flow.” If it had been God’s intent for Jesus’ three disciples to ever be on the mountain top with Christ, He would have assented to Peter’s request to build tabernacles there for Jesus, Moses and Elijah.  However, it is God’s design that having been nurtured by the heavenly we communicate with the earthly.  Always on the mount rapt in heavenly vision is not where God will use us.

Hosmer continues with this thought in verse three.  “Yet hath one such exalted hour upon the soul redeeming power, and its strength, through after days, we travel our appointed ways.”  Is the purpose of taking a refreshing nap to keep napping?  No.  Nor is it the purpose of such an exalted experience to keep clinging to the exaltation.  Our naps make it possible to carry on with the routines of life that demand our attention.  The needs of those around us are better attended to when we are refreshed with renewed strength.  So it is with that rapturous time with Christ.  It is our strength for days ahead.

In his last stanza Hosmer concludes, “The mount for vision: but below the paths of daily duty go, and nobler life therein shall own the pattern on the mountain shown.” What we are shown on the mount we live in the valley.  When we do this we extend God’s grace in Christ to the world He has placed us in to serve Him.  Our joy, our strength and our duty then is the grace of Christ and in that we remain on the mountain with Him. 

                                          The Friday Benediction

Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen

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