Tag Archives: grace

Every knee shall bow…

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Psalms 66:3-4 Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah

It is hard for me to think of the Lord or His works as terrible. But to the enemies of God that is exactly what He is. To be Gods enemy, is the ultimate deception. To make the decision to hate something that you neither know nor understand, baffles me. Because if you truly know God, you know that He is good. This life is not always good, but no matter, He is good. To have that knowledge in the midst of this life, I have no problem worshipping Him. Worship is an intense feeling. You cannot truly worship half heartedly. That is why it says in Revelation 3:16, So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

When I think about the scripture that says, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, I have thought of it in the way that, almost begrudgingly, they will admit the sovereignty of God. But reading this passage in the Psalms, that is not the posture of their heart. Those that have made God their enemy, will 100% completely, recognize Him as Lord. Their souls will know with the most intense passion they have ever felt, that He is God, He is good, and He is worthy to be worshipped. And they will worship Him. They will praise Him with song and with complete understanding. Their hearts will simultaneously worship and weep, because at that time they will fully understand who He is. They will fully understand the depth of Satans deception. I cannot imagine the pain and grief that they will feel. The word regret does not even begin to express it. And with that knowledge, my own heart weeps. As an empath, I truly hurt to think of people that I know, that have no concern for God at all, and their reality on that day. It will indeed be a great and terrible day!

As I write this, my intention is not condemnation.I pray that you would consider the one you call Lord, or the enemy that you have made Him out to be, and search your heart for what it is exactly, that He has done to cause your rejection of Him. If you call Him Lord, but do not love Him, and worship him, then by default you reject Him. God will not send you to hell. You will send yourself. And He will allow it. This does not make Him bad or unfair. It will be the result of your own choice.

16 For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.

Kissed by Grace

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Where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. (Romans 5:20b)

Why? Why does God pour out so much grace into our lives? Why, no matter how often we fail, or how far we run, or how sinful we can be, does He continue to pour out His grace on us? Is it merely to save us from hell? Our eternal “ticket” to heaven? Let us not forget the high price He paid in order to  offer us such abundant grace.

No matter how hard I try, or perhaps, more correctly, how little I try, to truly press in to His high calling, I continually fall short. I tarnish my witness with my words, or I walk in a way that deems me completely unworthy of the title “Christian”. My heart can often be hardened by others actions or inactions, and I look anything but “like” Christ. Yet, when I approach the Majesty of Mercy with humility and full knowledge of how unlike Him I continue to be, He pours the oil of grace over my head and covers me so completely that , in His sight, all of my unrighteousness completely disappears.

I cannot comprehend why God would do this? Perhaps…could it possibly be…that He actually thinks I am worth it? That I am so precious to Him that He desires to be with me for all eternity? That truly sounds absurd. But that is exactly the reason God pours His grace, His limitless grace, on me.

His desire from the moment He breathed His eternal breath into man was intimate relationship. Think of the intimacy of a kiss. Imagine the actions of someone attempting to revive a person that has drowned or for some other reason is no longer breathing. Mouth to mouth. God literally kissed us into an eternal existence with complete knowledge of how unfaithful we would be. He knew before His lips ever touched His creation that it would be a relationship that would cost Him everything. Yet, still He leaned over and bestowed the first kiss recorded in all of history on the lips of His creation even as the smell of the damp earth, used to form him, lingered.

The only thing I can think to compare that kind of love with is how I felt when they placed my newborn child into my arms for the first time.  I was overwhelmed with a desire to protect and a love that was so intense it caught me by surprise.

And if I, a parent full of shortcomings and imperfections, can love like that, than it becomes easier to understand, or perhaps in some small way comprehend, the reason for God’s abundant grace.

Do you think you have fallen to far to feel His grace? Are you haunted by your past? Or perhaps there is a particular sin that you can’t seem to shake, and you wonder if you can really come to Him one more time for the same sin.  Hebrews 4:16 tells us to  come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

I pray  today that you feel the gentle kiss of grace that is freely offered from your loving Father.

Is He talking about me?

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I don’t know about you, but I have this tendency to put a face/name to things I hear. For instance, when I am listening to a sermon, I will often think of who I wish was sitting next to me in the pew, because I know that they would really benefit from that particular message. Lately I have been reading Proverbs because I am needing an extra measure of wisdom for some things I am going through. But as I have read the Proverbs, I think each one applies to many different people that I know. So in so is proud, and so in so doesn’t listen to good counsel, and you know who complains all the time. The funny thing is that, I will tell others how important it is to read their Bible because it is God’s word to them personally.  Hmmmm…. guess that doesn’t apply to me.  Does it? Because it seems to be God’s word to everyone but me. I love this verse from Psalm 19:12 But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. The funny thing is that I just read this verse a week or so ago, and it literally jumped off the page to me.  I read it and reread it, and it is one of those verses that will go into my memory bank to be used frequently…. as it pertains to others.

I am a very visual person, and I am convinced that when God is watching me, He shakes His head frequently. He very possibly lets out a long sigh, and looks up to ….. heaven?…. well maybe He just looks up. But anyway, I digress (I love that word…digress).

So today as I was reading Gods word to me… about everyone else… I realized that I need God to speak to me.  I can trust Him to speak to so in so and you know who about all the Proverbs that pertain to them. But the only one that will stand accountable to God for me, is me. Another thought that occurred to me is that when I am doing this, I elevate myself in my mind because I don’t act like that. Really? Hmmmmm…. I think a ton of introspection may be needed on my part.

My prayer for today is… God speak to me. When I read your word, show me things I need to change. Reveal my hidden faults and errors. And when someone does cross my mind in reference to your word, or through a sermon, help me to show them the same mercy that I desire from you. Help me to take a moment to pray for that person in love, and then to reread or rethink what I have heard, and see how it applies to me.  What I realize is that trying to change myself is a huge undertaking. It takes all my efforts and tons of help from God to see the most minuscule changes in myself. With that in mind, I truly don’t have time to try to change others or worry about things that I think they need to change.

Maybe, just maybe…. when people see changes in me…. it will help them reflect on things in their own  lives. Not really because of the greatness that is Marcie…. but because hopefully it is a change that reflects Christ. After all, that is ultimately my goal.