A Cold and Graceless Way?

Read the Bible.

Do what it says.

Does that sound...well cold to you?

Or legalistic?

Or graceless?

Like it is too simple to work?

It is.  Up to now we've left out one very crucial aspect.

Did you miss the first two videos?  Video 1        Video 2

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Helene

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Baptism: An Appeal for Mercy

Baptism is one of many Bible topics that suffers from a particular kind of blindness. 

It happens most frequently to important topics.  Once long ago a teacher, an honest and dedicated person, summarized that important topic in one specific way.  He taught that to his followers.  It became a rallying cry, then a way of differentiating themselves from everyone else.  Was the teacher wrong? Not necessarily.  Perhaps not at all.  Yet these pithy ways of explaining complex topics are like a door-one that either opens up clarity into the text or one that closes the door to searching out the Word.     

I want open doors into the Word. I think you do too.  So the only thing is to lay aside what I think I know and go straight to the Bible and ask God some direct questions.  You may be as surprised by the answers as I was. 

Sincerely Wrong

Can I admit something?  There are parts of the Bible I don't like.  They make me uncomfortable; sometimes they scare me.  Lot offering his daughters to the people of Sodom instead of sending out his angelic visitors?  I hate that.  God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son to prove his faithfulness?  Even though I understand the story, I still don't like it.  Sapphira dropping dead because of a lie?  That scares me to the bone. 

Sin

Have you thought about the nature of sin?  Not the doctrinal questions of original sin or the nature of our flesh. I mean the simpler question: have you thought on what sin is? Or how we can recognize it?

Taking Grace for Granted

This month we've tasted grace, through searching, story, and study.  We've rejoiced in our redemption and praised God for his free and abundant gifts.  With all this talking about it there's no danger that we'd take it for granted, is there? 

Graceful Speech: More than "Not Cussing"

When I was in graduate school, my mouth got me into trouble.  We had multiple group projects,  and at times, our professors would choose the groups.  I hated that because there always seemed to be one person in the group that didn't work well with the others. On one particular project, we had what I thought was a great group, except for one guy. He wasn't lazy, and he tried to pull his weight, but he just didn't understand what the rest of us were trying to do in the project.  I'm ashamed to admit that my mouth was a much bigger problem than his misunderstanding.  When our group got together without him, we would all "vent" about it, and I joined right in.  Eventually, as so often happens, word got back to him that people were talking about him.  Not only that, but he knew I was one doing it.  My words were twisted, and he believed I said things I hadn't, but the fact remains that my speech was totally lacking in grace.

Hunger

I am listening to a convicting audio book, More or Less by Jeff Shinabarger. In the chapter on food he describes one January in detail.  Shocked by the ugly wake-up call of the post-Christmas credit card bill, he and his wife decided that they were going to have to cut corners.  They trimmed the budget, and half joking Jeff suggested that they just not buy any groceries for the month.  So they didn't. 

What followed was 9 weeks of rice, box brownies, pancake suppers, and glimpses of the bottom of the freezer and the back of the pantry.  He writes that they gained both a renewed perspective and 7 pounds apiece from their unhealthy diet.  They learned just exactly how far from hunger they were.   

Deodorant, Incense, and the Will of God

I'm not from around here.  When I'm in America, it's my ignorance that makes it plain. Music, movies, TV shows, and all things slang elicit a baffled smile.  When I'm here in Asia, it's my hair.  I'm not too tall, too big, or too oddly dressed but that headful of disheveled brown hair marks me as clearly as a neon sign, "Not from around here!"

I'm cool with it.  

The Grace of Giving

In the past several years, a willingness to give to my local congregation has not been a problem for me.  We make my budget; we get paid; I write the check and drop it in the plate.  Easy-peasy!  I never really miss the money we've contributed, and I don't know exactly where it goes.  We trust our elders to distribute it in an appropriate way.  For instance, our congregation supports four missionaries, gives to the Churches of Christ relief fund, and provides food for the hungry in our community.  While this kind of "put the check in the plate" giving is necessary, I've begun to feel that sharing God's grace through giving involves something more. 

The Pawn Shop

Imagine strolling into a pawn shop. The bell rings as the door opens.  You're struck with the masculine smell of oil and gun grease. Overhead you see things too big to sit on shelves strung from the ceiling: canoe paddles, a bicycle... On the shelves lurk abandoned books, knick-knacks, and depression era glass.  Glancing at the glass counter you see the reflection of wedding rings, the picture of desperation and betrayal.  

Then to your surprise you see a sticker. Peering about you notice lots of big yellow stickers with one word, "Redeemed."  Someone wanted this one back, someone paid back all the money that it was sold for and then some.  Someone thought it was valuable, desirable and precious.  It's no longer for sale.  It may be sitting here, but it's not destined for the pawn shop.  It's redeemed.

The Grace of Adoption

In ESL my class, I often say, "Would you like to hear a story?"  My students may not be children anymore, but they never turn me down.  When I'm lucky sometimes they turn around and tell stories to me.  

One summer day a student began a story with this intriguing sentence, "I am studying medicine because my dad is such a responsible doctor."  I smiled encouragingly at her, waiting for some tale about how he told her stories from work. I guessed wrong.  He brought something quite different home.

The Grace of Forgiveness

Because it was my bright idea to devote a full month to the concept of grace here at Maidservants of Christ, Helene asked me what angle I wanted to take for the month.  If she could have seen me from across the world, she would have witnessed a great "deer in the headlights" look.  I don't know; I just like grace.  It's nice to remember grace amidst our sometimes painful confession filled posts.  Framework?  Um.... I like grace.

Helene was not going to let me get away with weaseling out of a more concrete idea.  "You chose it; you decide how we write about it."  Drat.  So I started a preliminary look at grace as we read about it in the Bible, particularly the New Testament.  I found a lot of verses I memorized as a child about our salvation through grace and how it colors our relationship with God.  That aspect of grace was familiar to me.  

The Grace of Watermelon

I am terrible at giving gifts.  A real disaster.  I get the cold sweats every time birthdays or Christmas rolls around. I never know what to get anyone, even the people I love the most.  I often buy presents in bulk! For example on any given year all the kids in our extended family will get the same t-shirt that has the name of whatever SE Asian country we visited on vacation.  Lame.

The Prophets and Me

eturn

My reading recently took me through the prophets.  The prophets have never been my favorite material to peruse, and I must admit that there was more that I didn't understand than what I did. However, I did pull out a few pearls of truth and wisdom from these final books of the Old Testament.  This week I would like to share a few random thoughts from that reading before moving on to the New Testament next week.  These ideas come from several of the Lord's prophets.

First, Ezekiel got my attention by saying, "When they came to the nations where they went, they profaned My holy name, because it was said of them, 'These are the people of the Lord; yet they have come out of His land'" (Ezekiel 36:20).  As I read these words, I couldn't help but wonder how many times people look at my life and say, "if she is a Christian, why did she do that."  Every time this happens, I am guilty of making God look bad just as the Israelites were.  People are watching us to see if our actions match up with our words of love and faithfulness to the savior.  They notice every time they don't.  

Housekeeping

I have had a housekeeper for years. We could talk about how many more woman-hours it takes to keep my home abroad clean without dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, and a dryer. However, my American house wasn't any cleaner; it was demonstrably worse. My friends like to make excuses for me. They look around and say, "Oh come on, you work," or "You have kids in the house." I do.  But I know the truth.  I need help.

By Grace Through Faith

Let me share a passage that's been troubling me.  "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand;"(Romans 5) See that's a puzzle there, right.  

Shame No More

She was humiliated.  The scarlet blush of mortification stained her cheeks as she looked at the ground.  Surrounded by her accusers and others in the temple court, she felt more exposed than she had when they had caught her in the act of adultery.  She felt every eye on her as the scribes and Pharisees thrust her in front of the teacher and announced her sin for all to hear.  No one stood with her.  Her lover had been allowed to escape, and he left her alone to face the punishment and shame for their sin.  It was the lowest point of her life, and the humiliation threatened to engulf her.

Thankful for Christ

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us to all of you.  No Thanksgiving week blog would be complete without an article about being thankful.  I needed a break from Ezekiel and my husband's work recently led him to an interest in the book of Hebrews, so I decided to read the first ten verses of this book over the weekend.   As I read, I was reminded of Christ's superior power, His humanity, and of the salvation found in Him.  All these are things for which we can be eternally grateful.

 

Gomer: Grace, not Tolerance

Do you know any prostitutes?  I'm not asking metaphorically.  I mean literally, have you ever been well-acquainted with a prostitute? I have-more than one.  Professionally and as a volunteer, I have worked in communities where young women sell their bodies.  One memorable night, I drove in to the neighborhood and passed a string of giggling girls seemingly between fifteen and nineteen.  They struck me so incongruously.   They were of an age to be waiting for the school bus or working nights at the Chick-fil-a.  Yet here they were In their high heels and short skirts, brazenly calling out to the johns who were creeping by with their windows down.  I hurt for them, because I also knew their older counterparts, still trading on assets long past their prime.  I have seen them dying of AIDS or of Hepatitis C.  I have no illusions.  Leaving this life is not as simple as having another option; it needs time and grace.