Belief is something that we all come to about some things.  We gather our facts, hold them to be true, place our trust in them, and then act according to what we have come to believe.  But sometimes, the truth defies what we hold to be factual.  That’s especially true about God and Christ, obedience and grace, faith and trust.

         In “What’s So Amazing about Grace?”, Philip Yancey recounts his story about C. S. Lewis:

        During a British Conference on comparative religion, experts from around the world debated what — if any — belief  was unique to the Christian faith.

         They began by eliminating possibilities.  Incarnation?  Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form.  Resurrection?  Again, other religions had accounts of return from death.

         The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room.  “What’s the rumpus about?” he asked.  He then heard a reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity’s unique contribution among world religions.  Lewis responded, “Oh, that’s easy.  It’s grace.”  After some discussion, the conferees had to agree.

         The notion of God’s love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity.  The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of Karma, the Jewish covenant, and Muslim code of Law — each of these offers a way to earn approval.  Only Christianity dares to make God’s love unconditional.

         This is a truth of God that it’s difficult for many people to believe.  Perhaps because we’re always seeking to prove ourselves worthy of someone’s acceptance, it’s difficult for us to believe that the one who created us doesn’t require that kind of proof.  For many people it is ‘unbelievable’.  Yet, it is a truth that many find difficult to handle even though it’s a truth that we will have to embrace to receive the gift of eternal life through grace.

• What does handling the truth of God’s grace mean for you?
• Is that a truth that’s worth sharing with anyone you know?
• What do you believe would get people more excited about sharing that good news with others?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, give me the courage to tell the story about Your unconditional love. Help me to explain that we do not stand before God clinging to our own obedience; we stand covered by the unconditional grace of God in Jesus Christ.

         We convince ourselves that following God’s commands are stifling and difficult.  We’ve convinced ourselves that they prevent us from enjoying life and the world around us.  And perhaps what makes them difficult is our unwillingness to embrace them as truth that gives us life and freedom and doesn’t prevent us from living.

         There’s a story about a woman named Jan Davis.  At 60 years

     of age, she was a professional veteran parachutist involved in the

     dangerous sport of BASE jumping — leaping off of fixed objects

     like cliffs and towers.  On October 22, 1999, her husband was

     filming her jump along with several reporters were there to film

     and report the incident.  Five parachutists gathered on the 3,200-

     foot granite cliff, El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park, California,

     to protest the park’s jumping restrictions and were jumping to

     prove that the sport was safe.  Four of the five parachutists leapt

     off the cliff.  Jan was the fifth one to leap, but as she did, her chute

     didn’t open properly.  Her husband watched as she fell for 20

     seconds and then crashed into the rocks.  These jumpers knew

     the risks, but they also knew the law and deliberately broke it.  Jan

     Davis paid with her life.

         In the same way, many people think they can deliberately violate God’s law.  But eventually people learn the hard way that God’s laws are there for a reason.  Had Jan Davis embraced the laws of the park — kept them near her in her mouth and in her heart that she might have obeyed it, she might still be dead today, but it wouldn’t be because she leapt off a cliff in violation of a law.

         Sometimes handling God’s truth requires acts of good citizenship, acknowledging that others have the life and safety of people in their hearts and only seek our well-being.

• What laws of God do you keep in your mouth and heart that keep you alive?
• How intimate do you believe you would be with God’s truth if you kept his truth in your mouth and in your heart?
• What would be the results of that kind of intimacy with God’s word?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
God of life and mercy, help me to so embrace Your truth that I keep it near me in my mouth and in my heart as a constant reminder of Your love for me and Your desire to keep me from harm.

         Our human record is clear.  From the reported time of disobedience in the Garden of Eden throughout human history, we have been disobedient, willful, stiff-necked, proud, arrogant and unfaithful.  And in examining our relationship with God, we find that sometimes we get what we deserve.  We suffer for all the times we’ve been disobedient.  That suffering comes in a myriad of ways.  We suffer emotionally, mentally, and sometimes physically.  Yet, there are other times when we not only don’t get what we deserve.  We don’t deserve what we get.

         God’s history with humanity has frequently been one where God has lived faithfully to being merciful.  We tend to be able to accept God’s truth when God has shown mercy to us.  We are less accepting of God’s truth when God has shown mercy to someone we don’t believe is deserving of it.  And yet, that begs the question.  “Are any of us deserving of God’s mercy?”  Or has the scripture, “ … all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”, become nothing more than a catch phrase used to explain the human condition?

         Because God is God all by God’s self, have we come to the point that handling God’s truth won’t allow us to accept that “ … I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”? (Exodus 33:19 & Romans 9:15).

         Handling God’s truth means handling all of God’s truth, however irrational it may seem to us.  And yet it is God’s truth that we ultimately have to hear, believe, trust, and live by.  For us to do anything else is to try being God all by ourselves.  To do that is proof positive that we can’t handle God’s truth.

• What causes you to become frustrated with God’s truth, and why?
• How do we then come to reconcile God’s truth with our lack of wisdom about how God is working things out?
• What prevents us from ‘handling God’s truth’ when we are confronted with it?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, teach me to handle the truth of your generous mercy even when it is extended to those whom I believe don’t deserve it. Humble me to remember that I don’t deserve it either, but we all receive it as a gift of Your grace.