It’s difficult for any of us to imagine what it’s like to be as good as dead.  Our ability to function — to be productive in any area of our lives — in many ways gives us a sense of hope.  Each day that hope allows us to wake up with something to look forward to.  But imagine for a moment being an athlete long past their prime or their ability to perform at any level being told at a very old age that they were not only going to play in the Superbowl, the World Series, Wimbledon, the NCAA Final Four, but that they would be the MVP (most valuable player) of the game or series.  Imagine being told and believing without a doubt that it would happen and then living to experience the event in real time, not because you were capable, but because you believed the person who told you it would happen.  That kind of faith is phenomenal.

         Most of us live with our hearts, minds, and spirits shrouded with a hope covered with a thin shell of doubt.  I think we believe up to a point because we have not yet fully grasped the reality of God’s promise.  After all, even Sarah laughed at first.  But the hope of a baby is something tangible.  When a woman feels life moving within her she knows that God’s promise is more than a pipedream.  But most of us live by a faith that is not fully formed.  We hope for something better but are unsure, impatient, and at times doubtful given our current circumstances that we’ll ever see the promises of God unfold in our lifetime.  And yet, hope that is seen is not hope (Romans 8:24).  But it was Sarah’s faith that led her to the grace that God’s was faithful and that God’s promises could be trusted.  Neither Abraham nor Sarah have seen God’s promise fulfilled.  They wait with hope.  But it is our faith that leads to grace — the same grace that enabled Abraham and Sarah who were as good as dead to realize God’s promises in their life.

• What faithful promise of God is has created a faith that leads to grace that’s keeping hope alive in you?
• How would you explain that living hope within you to others?
• What is it that keeps your faith alive?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Almighty God, help me to keep alive in me that faith that leads to Your grace. Empower my hope to be an instrument of faith that keeps me strong.

         There two stories that define us as we stand before God.  One story is about a fungus that exists in the Malheur National Forest in Oregon. 

       “The fungus, called the honey mushroom, started from a single microscopic spore, and spread through the roots making it the largest living organism ever found.  It’s been weaving its black shoestring filaments through the forest for an estimated 2400 years killing trees as it grows.  From the ground you don’t notice the pattern.  But these shoestring filaments stretch as much as ten feet into the soil, invading tree roots through a process of pressure and enzyme action, killing them as they produce.

         Sin— like this gigantic mushroom — has begun in a single act of disobedience and spread across the entire human race.”

         The other story is about a now, retired, world‑renowned movie star, Sophia Loren, who is quoted as saying …

     “I’m not a practitioner, but I pray.  I read the Bible.  It’s the most beautiful book ever written.  I should go to heaven; otherwise, it’s not nice.  I haven’t done anything wrong.  My conscience is very clean.  My soul is as white as those orchids over there, and I should go straight, straight to heaven.”

         Could it perhaps be, that Sophia Loren has been blinded from the sin of self-righteousness that — like the honey mushroom — is growing deeply rooted within her, and yet she’s so close to it that she can’t see that she, too, is guilty of sin and falls short of the glory of God.

         We must all come to recognize that our sins prevent us from experiencing the faith that leads to grace until we are willing to confess those sins and trust in the promises of the One by who grace and redemption are freely given.  Only in that way can we experience the faith that leads to grace.

• What are your feelings (without judgment) about people who believe they have done nothing they need to be forgiven for?
• Is there a way to help them find a faith that leads to grace that glorifies God and justifies them?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Almighty God, grant that in my life’s journey I may always be able to confess my sins so that my faith that leads to Your grace will not be impeded.

         We’re all familiar with the proverbial statement “caught between a rock and a hard place.”  Well, for those of us who seek a relationship of righteousness with God, the rock and the hard place we find ourselves sandwiched between is God’s law on one side and our disobedience (or sin) to the law on the other.  Trying to find a way out is difficult because we find ourselves unable to be obedient to very basic elements of the law.  And yet, God has provided a way out through a gracious gift of grace that came through Jesus Christ.  The beauty of the gift is that it is a transferrable gift, conferred upon one while able to touch the lives of many.  The ease by which this is done has nothing at all to do with any effort made on our part.  It is a gift divinely inspired, created, planned, developed, initiated, carried out, and fulfilled by God utilizing Jesus — God’s Son — as the instrument of divine delivery.

         Before God’s plan was put into place, we were all destined to die, being crushed by death between the rock of God’s law and the hard place of our disobedience.  But because of God’s tremendous love for us, Christ took our place between the rock (God’s law)and maintained it and the hard place (our disobedience and sin) and offered a way out while he died to save us.  Because of what Christ did, we were all allowed to escape death by faith that leads to grace through Jesus Christ.  It is our faith in God’s grace so freely given that saves us.

• Why do you believe our faith in the gift of God’s grace is so vitally important to our salvation?
• What is it about our faith that leads to God’s gift of grace that makes the gift so appealing?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful creator, thank you for providing a gift that frees me from death by offering me a faith that leads to Your grace and my salvation.