Lifting Grace

Among the many of Charles Gabriel’s hymns and Gospel songs is the stirring “He Lifted Me”.  The chorus comes to a crescendo as it sings, “O praise His Name, He lifted (hold that note) me.”  The song begins, “In lovingkindness Jesus came (and we saw kindness yesterday), my soul in mercy to reclaim.  And from the depths of sin and shame, through GRACE He lifted me.”  Praise God for lifting grace, our “L” in alphabetizing grace.

In a long past and forgotten America I used to wend my way around the country using my thumb.  People would stop and crank (yes, crank) down their window and say, “Do you need a lift?”  I would hop in the car and away we would go somewhere toward my destination.  Without that “lift” I would make very slow progress.  I even “thumbed” it to candidate for my first pastoral position.  Believe me; I always appreciated the “lift”.

In life we are all on a road to eternity.  Everyone starts out on the wrong road, the broad way that leads to destruction.  That road, while seemingly filled with the glitter of promise, has very dark skies and many horrible terrors.  We find no real peace, joy or hope on that broad way.  We are all hitchhiking to hell.  We need someone to pick us up, give us a lift, and drive us to a different destination.  We all want hope, peace and joy.  We need a driver who can really take us there.  Jesus is the One who can do that.  He came to seek and to save that which was lost.  He has died that we might have the peace of forgiveness, rose that we might have the joy of justification and lives that we might have the hope of a real heavenly eternity.

 Jesus has commissioned us to ride along with Him picking up the lost.  He has commissioned us to go before Him and pass out notices to others on the broad way that He is coming along that road to give them a ride to somewhere where promises are real.  He died to give a true and eternal “lift” to a lost and truly hopeless humanity.  He did it all in grace. As Charles Gabriel put it so beautifully, “From sinking sand He lifted me.  With tender hand He lifted me.  From shades of night to plains of light, O Praise His Name, He lifted me.”  

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