Alone With God
I went to Barnes and Noble a few years ago to finish out a gift card my choir gave me. I picked up The Way of the Heart by Henri Nouwen. At the time, I was starting to leave Science Fiction behind. SF, as the pros call it, had been a favorite genre of mine, and I still respect it a great deal. However, I was being led in a different direction; one of spiritual enrichment.
The first section of the Nouwen book, which I still own, deals with solitude. I am an incurable early riser, and I love the early morning time with coffee, my books, breakfast, writing in my journal, or whatever I happen to be working on at the time. Ok…I confess, sometimes it includes morning tv during breakfast, then journals, books, etc.
Nouwen has some stern things to say about solitude. He says that solitude is more than just alone time. True solitude can reveal your true self. Solitude can conjure up past failures even though forgiven, current failures, and those places in our lives that we never realized were troublesome in the first place. Nouwen calls solitude “the furnace of conversion”.
Also, according to Nouwen, solitude does not include books, coffee, Cheerios, my computer, or my journals. It is only me alone wrestling with my inner self. Temptations, mind wandering, inner struggles are all there. I would call it risky. Nouwen calls it dangerous.
However, the time of quiet for me, being alone with God, is usually early in the morning. Carol is upstairs still asleep. I am typing away with my coffee close by. Clocks tick. Appliances run. Traffic zooms by on Middle Belleville Road, while I await the sunrise.
I may never get to the place of solitude where so many saints of the past left all to live alone. I do find the early morning hours a good time to get alone with God using whatever helps I need and listening to what he has to say. I love my NIV Study Bible, my Lucado, Buechner, Mother Teresa, or other devotionals, and anything else I may be reading at the time. I love the quiet time of prayer. I love to write down my thoughts, some profound, most not so much. This is a time of refreshment for me; a time to think, meditate (I almost said, ‘medicate’ — that too). It is a place where we gather new strength, receive nourishment through God’s word, prayer, and general communion with him.
If God is calling you to get alone with Him on a regular basis, then nothing is as important as that. It may be something that takes a concerted effort to make happen.
It is helpful on many levels to spend some regular time alone with God, using whatever helps you may want to include. It may require you to deliberately set some time aside, or you may find it sort of naturally like I did, with a good time becoming available as a result of other factors coming into play. Your best time may not be early in the morning, but whenever it is, set it aside. If your days are busy, it may only be a few minutes, just pondering a verse or two in your Bible. You will learn a lot about yourself, but most of all you will be partaking of the spiritual food available through Christ.
Whatever the call is, just do it.
Thanks be to God
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Monday, February 11, 2019
Keeping Grace
Ok, I’m going to tackle a tough one. These are in no way the words of an expert, just some thoughts that hopefully don’t ramble too much.
Grace is our greatest God-given blessing. It is hard to imagine why it exists, except for the fact that the primary characteristic of the Father is Love.
When did grace begin? It seems that the plan of salvation was already in God’s mind when he created things. When Adam and Eve fell, it was put into motion. Israel experienced it on numerous occasions. When Jesus came, grace took on flesh. His death was the greatest expression of grace. After all, he took our place. We should have been punished, but he was punished for us. When he was resurrected, that plan of grace that existed before time began was confirmed.
We have nothing to do with the call of grace. That is all God’s doing. Even when we accept Christ, we do so at God’s calling. John 6:44 states, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.” (NIV) Initial grace takes place when God calls us to himself. At the age of nine, I felt that gentle tug on my heart to give myself to Christ. I wanted whatever mom and dad had, and that in itself was the beginning of the call of grace on my life.
Saving grace is what brings us to Christ. Paul stated in Ephesians 2:8 that we are saved by grace, and not by works. If we were saved by works, some would be able to achieve it, and some would not. It’s not something we have to achieve anyway. It’s a gift.
Sanctifying grace is that which constantly remakes us into the image of Christ, putting to death the old self in us. Second Corinthians 3:18 states, “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (NIV) Ups and downs, successes and failures are part of this process. Bruce Demarest states, "God uses life’s painful misfortunes to drain us of self-sufficiency, and lead us to trust and depend on him.” (Seasons of the Soul) Someone else said that we grow more during times of crisis than any other time.
As many of you know, my oldest brother, Tom, died last May. Tom was a likable, generous guy who had a lot of friends but had never made a profession of faith, in spite of being raised in a Christian home. He had attended the Fairfax Church of the Nazarene some, and really liked the pastor, Jack Bimber. Jack had attended God’s Bible School in Cincinnati, and my other brother, Buddy, got in touch with Jack and asked him to check on Tom during his stay in the hospital and other facilities. Jack and Tom talked about Tom’s confessing his sins, but Tom could not see how he could possibly confess every sin he had ever committed. Jack, wisely, told him he did not have to. Just, “Roll them all up, put them in a basket, give them to God, and begin your walk with Jesus.” This made perfect sense to Tom, and from that point on, Tom enjoyed Jack’s visits, read scriptures, and prayed with him. My family is confident that grace took Tom home to heaven. This is grace that prepares you to move into eternity. It was there for Tom, and he took it.
In the broadest sense of the word, our entire lives are being sustained by grace. God’s grace calls us, saves us, makes us into his image, forgives us when we fail, keeps us from falling (Psalm 37:24), lifts us back up, warns us of potential danger, takes us through life, and then finally takes us home to be with Christ at the end of life.
Grace is ours for the accepting. It delivers us from constantly having to strive to achieve God’s favor. We are his beloved. We are his sons and daughters. He loves us with a love that is beyond comprehension, and that love is expressed in grace.
Thanks be to God.
Ok, I’m going to tackle a tough one. These are in no way the words of an expert, just some thoughts that hopefully don’t ramble too much.
Grace is our greatest God-given blessing. It is hard to imagine why it exists, except for the fact that the primary characteristic of the Father is Love.
When did grace begin? It seems that the plan of salvation was already in God’s mind when he created things. When Adam and Eve fell, it was put into motion. Israel experienced it on numerous occasions. When Jesus came, grace took on flesh. His death was the greatest expression of grace. After all, he took our place. We should have been punished, but he was punished for us. When he was resurrected, that plan of grace that existed before time began was confirmed.
We have nothing to do with the call of grace. That is all God’s doing. Even when we accept Christ, we do so at God’s calling. John 6:44 states, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.” (NIV) Initial grace takes place when God calls us to himself. At the age of nine, I felt that gentle tug on my heart to give myself to Christ. I wanted whatever mom and dad had, and that in itself was the beginning of the call of grace on my life.
Saving grace is what brings us to Christ. Paul stated in Ephesians 2:8 that we are saved by grace, and not by works. If we were saved by works, some would be able to achieve it, and some would not. It’s not something we have to achieve anyway. It’s a gift.
Sanctifying grace is that which constantly remakes us into the image of Christ, putting to death the old self in us. Second Corinthians 3:18 states, “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (NIV) Ups and downs, successes and failures are part of this process. Bruce Demarest states, "God uses life’s painful misfortunes to drain us of self-sufficiency, and lead us to trust and depend on him.” (Seasons of the Soul) Someone else said that we grow more during times of crisis than any other time.
As many of you know, my oldest brother, Tom, died last May. Tom was a likable, generous guy who had a lot of friends but had never made a profession of faith, in spite of being raised in a Christian home. He had attended the Fairfax Church of the Nazarene some, and really liked the pastor, Jack Bimber. Jack had attended God’s Bible School in Cincinnati, and my other brother, Buddy, got in touch with Jack and asked him to check on Tom during his stay in the hospital and other facilities. Jack and Tom talked about Tom’s confessing his sins, but Tom could not see how he could possibly confess every sin he had ever committed. Jack, wisely, told him he did not have to. Just, “Roll them all up, put them in a basket, give them to God, and begin your walk with Jesus.” This made perfect sense to Tom, and from that point on, Tom enjoyed Jack’s visits, read scriptures, and prayed with him. My family is confident that grace took Tom home to heaven. This is grace that prepares you to move into eternity. It was there for Tom, and he took it.
In the broadest sense of the word, our entire lives are being sustained by grace. God’s grace calls us, saves us, makes us into his image, forgives us when we fail, keeps us from falling (Psalm 37:24), lifts us back up, warns us of potential danger, takes us through life, and then finally takes us home to be with Christ at the end of life.
Grace is ours for the accepting. It delivers us from constantly having to strive to achieve God’s favor. We are his beloved. We are his sons and daughters. He loves us with a love that is beyond comprehension, and that love is expressed in grace.
Thanks be to God.
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