In the Sea of Grace - Part 3

The significance of standing before God must not escape us. The more we consider the incongruity of this act, the more amazing it becomes. Angels bow before Him. Seraphim cover their faces and feet when they are in His presence. Cherubim will not look upon Him as they attend His glory. Living creatures ceaselessly describe His supremacy, His glory and His ascendancy. Demons and all the minions of Hell cringe before Him, and Satan constantly submits to His sovereignty and authority. The universe and all creatures who inhabit it bow in humble obeisance before their Creator and Sustainer.

But when a human being steps into redemption's room of saving grace, he stands! God's grace stands men up! It makes winners out of history's sorriest losers. It makes saints out of Hell-bound sinners. It lifts a sin-scourged soul from the pits of hoplessness and elevates him to the hghest heights of honor. GOD'S GRACE STANDS HUMAN SOULS UP!!!

This proclaims the supporting bouyancy of God's awesome grace. It emanates from His gracious nature. It is an effusion as big and generous as He is. It flows unendingly into our emptiness. We need to ponder this. The nature of the human soul is cavernous. We are by nature in constant need of filling. Our emptiness is spacious and exists without limit. Its appetite is a vast, astronomical openness by design.

When we are so very dry and bring our pitiful, little meauring cups to Him, He just lets His grace flow, and our cups run over. This is the kind of a Person He is, a "running over" God with oceans of grace and pity and mercy. What a contrast for contemplation: Our emptiness...His fullness.

Because of the grace of God revealed through the life and death of Jesus, persons stand in the presence of heaven's God. This act is without precedent in the order of God's relationships with other beings. We can only contemplate...not understand this grace.

God wanted to give something special to humankind. He wanted to share some of the greatness and love and depth of His being with other persons, so He reached out to us in the Person of His Son. We are innundated in His grace!

In the Sea of Grace - Part 2

Individuals are important to God. One human soul is worth more than Satan. St. Augustine noted that: "God loves each of us as though there were but one to love". The weight of this truth needs to press in upon us. We are not "nobodies going nowhere", or maybe reincarnated from some lower life form from some dim, past existence. We are "somebodies" on a definite, distinct journey occupying a unique and everlasting identity in this universe as individual beings with individual personalities.

This is why God has invested so much of His grace in us individual humans. When God's Holy Spirit convicts us...when He gets our attention...when He arrests our downward plunge towards Hell and destruction by convicting us of our personal sinning, and we come through that door as redeemed and transformed beings, we stand! because we discover that we are surrounded by His grace!

This awakened individual stands in a veritable sea of grace. His feet are firmly planted on grace. His landscape is grace. His sky is grace. His sunshine is grace. He sees grace, he hears grace, he feels grace. Grace is the atmosphere. Grace is the language. Grace is the music, and grace affords the relationship!

And all of this overwhelming grace of salvation is individually imparted. It is a private audience with the God of the universe. The awesome specialty is unquestionably lost on us. You may be hurting until you cannot sleep, but you get in line and wait your turn to see the doctor. You can wait for appointments with lawyers, preachers, mechanics, plumbers, electricians, repairmen and even the poodle parlor, but God's throne of grace is always open!

No offer is more generous, no gift is more gracious, no opportunity is more available than this. Anyone can come into God's presence and instantly be aware that he is being received privately. We may stand before God. It is not an award. It is God's free grace provided by Jesus.
(The third installment next week)

In the Sea of Grace - Part 1

The phrase from Romans 5:2: "This grace in which we stand", sits like a giant diamond in the midst of a veritable landscape of jewels.

All that is redemptively afforded to humankind is because of Jesus. It is as though Jesus became the road or the pathway or the avenue to accessing the grace of God. All that God's grace bestows upon us has been accessed by Jesus. If Calvary is anything at all, it is ACCESS. Every step toward heaven and eternal safety has been afforded and guaranteed by a payment so costly that understanding persons weep as they walk.
Standing in grace! What a concept to challenge the mind of the most mature saint! We can see that the word picture of the Apostle Paul uses here is significant. The position of the persons referred to here is not lying, or sitting, or even prostrate, but fully upright. In fact, in the presence of God's grace afforded by Jesus Christ, any other position would be out of character with grace. The the entire idea from the Greek language presents an atmosphere of royalty.

Here is the picture. It is of a degenerated, lowly outcast, who has no level of position or rank to a royal relationship, approaching a palace door. This person has in fact been an antagonist, a rebel, an opposer to the king. He has spent his entire life until this moment in opposition to this great king before whose castle gate he now stands. But now he is vanquished and subdued as he answers the strange summons to be presented to this great king. The door now is opened, and this lowly peasant, who would customarily fall on his face to the ground before this man, is ushered into the palace of this great king...and he stands in his presence!

He does not know why he remains upright. He cannot seem to prostrate himself, even though he wants to with all that is within him. But he cannot! Still he stands! But why is he standing? No other person is there to force or restrain him, for he is alone with this king...and not a word is spoken. But why is he standing? He is like a child speechless and lost in wonderment. He is like wordlessly witnessing the silent spectacle of a golden dawn. He is like two loved ones quietly holding hands.

It is the atmosphere! This is what it is! The atmosphere is like...it is like..."all is well. Everything is OK!" That is exactly what it is! Even though no words are spoken..."All is well".

This former outcast is being received by this greatest of potentates as a friend, as a guest, honored, respected and accepted. How can this be? Why does the atmosphere fairly radiate and vibrate with happy acceptance? He wonders, "How can I feel so encompassed and enfolded? How can I feel so accepted and...wanted?" This is the word! This is the feeling! This is the idea gently pressing against him. "He wants me! I am wanted!"

(Second installment next week)

A Man or an Angel?

A man who had spent the last 20 years of his life away from God, most of the time fighting the demons of alcoholism, lay in a Washington State jail with six or eight other drunks and drug addicts. In misery and defeat, scant inches from the other hapless souls, he lay on a narrow cot with his face turned to the wall in the silence, for none of his vile companions wanted to talk, and neither did he.

He heard the door of "the tank" open and close, and in all of that dim, foul smelling atmosphere, a very young man came over directly to where this man miserably lay. "I am a heroin addict, and you are an alcoholic" he simply stated, and stood awaiting a response. The first thought to come to his mind was to tell him that he was in jail for unwittingly violating a "no contact order", but in those few moments (as only God can do) this dear man openly admitted that, "Yes, I am an alcoholic"...and said it more to his God than to the young "addict".

In that moment, and just that briefly, he knew that he would never take another drink, and that he was through running from God, and had peace and forgiveness with God. God can, and does, communicate with us in ways that not only defy description, but are more direct and certain and effective than any human voice or logic. I marvel at the grace of God, and rejoice that He is the same today in His delivering power as He ever has been!

Was "this young heroin addict" a man or an angel? We do not know...but we wonder?

Standing Up to Our Eyeballs in Grace!

No blessing from our gracious God is greater than that of "standing" referred to by the Apostle Paul in Romans 5:2, where he states:

"By Whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand...".

No offer is more generous; no gift is more gracious; no opportunity is more available to humankind than this. Anyone can come into God's presence and instantly be aware that he is being privately received. No possibility known to man on earth is so valuable and rare. WE MAY STAND BEFORE GOD. It is not a dessert or a reward. It is because of the gift of His grace.

The significance of standing before God must not escape us. The more we consider the incongruity of this act, the more amazing it becomes. Angels bow before Him. Seraphim cover their faces and feet when they are in His presence. Cherubim will not look upon Him as they attend His glory. Ceaselessly, day and night, living creatures describe His supremacy, His glory and His ascendancy. Demons and all the minions of Hell cringe before Him, and Satan constantly submits to His sovereignty and authority. The universe and all creatures who fill it bow in humble abeyance before its Creator and Sustainer.

But when a human soul steps into redemption's room of saving grace, he stands!!! GOD'S GRACE STANDS MEN UP!! It makes winners out of history's sorriest losers. It makes saints out of Hell-bound sinners. It lifts the sin-scourged soul from the pits of hoplessness, and elevates him to the highest heights of honor. GOD'S GRACE STANDS MEN UP!!

This proclaims the supporting bouyancy of God's awesome grace. It emanates from His gracious nature.

It is an effusion of the kind of Person He is, and it is as big and vast and generous as He is. It flows unendingly into our emptiness. We have within us this huge emptiness that requires fresh, new infusions of God's grace. We are in constant need of being filled and then refilled.

When we are so very dry and bring to Him our little measuring cups of need, He just lets His grace flow into them, and they run over! All of heaven is programmed for giving. By design and nature the action of grace is benevolent. It flows into every crack and corner of our emptiness with His fullness. What a contrast for contemplation! Our emptiness...His fullness!

Copyright by W.L. Boone.

(Anyone desiring the entire message entitled "The Face of Grace" from which this article is gleaned may receive it by e-mailing me at lesboone@juno.com with your PO mailing address.)

How Big is God's Grace?

God's grace is not specific. It is general and comprehensive. It is not available in certain situations, but withheld from others. There are no restrictions or exceptions to its adequacy.

There are no circumstances in any human eventuality that are not covered by His grace. Every promise of God is inclusive and bears on any realm of our need.

God never says that His grace and power are adequate for everything BUT this one, certain kind of eventuality. There just are no categories that are out of or beyond the reach of His grace.

There is hope in any human situation because of His grace. Grace is what brings possibility into hopeless circumstances. Grace is what brings meaning into misery and abjection. Grace is what injects potential into ruin and loss. Grace is what breathes life into the corpse of horrible failure. Grace is the heartbeat and pulse of resurrection. Grace is the green light to regeneration. Grace is the starting gun to trying again!

Grace is the indefatiguable encourager. God's grace insists that we can make it...that we can do it. It never gives up or in. Grace is the drumbeat of perseverance. Grace sees no mountains or valleys...it sees no barriers or chasms. It knows no impossibilities, considers no limitations, and has no restrictions, for grace is born in the character of God.

God's grace missed nothing and identifies with everything. It does not overlook anything. It permeates. It saturates. It touches the tiniest detail and relates to every situational nuance. It even ministers to what we cannot understand about ourselves and our involvements. How great is God's grace!

Whatever aspect or variation of human reason or logic the human mind can conceive of, grace has already been there and asserted provision. Grace is all over the place, like a billion little cheerleaders, jumping and smiling and encouraging! God's grace cannot be excluded if we wanted to or tried to. Grace is effusive and locomotive and pervasive and thermal. It is like the inexorable rising of the sun as it shatters the night and dispels every vestige of darkness.

Everything that comes to us is because of God's great grace. All emanates from this. The start of everything is His grace.

Copyright by W.L. Boone.

(Anyone desiring the entire message entitled "The Face of Grace" from which this article is gleaned may receive it by e-mailing me at lesboone@juno.com with your PO mailing address.)

Why Are We Here?

Our humanity and our mortality are the results of God's grace. I mean by that that when we realize how extremely different and opposing humankind is from God, we wonder why He has the slightest interest in us?

When we view how we treat God, how we treat one another, how we treat ourselves (especially how we generally abuse our minds and bodies), and how we treat our environment, and how we treat our potential, there just is no other explanation for our having being than the grace of God. No being known to us is so selfish, so arrogant, so wasteful, so insensitive, so hateful and vengeful, so hurtful, so domineering and so repressive as humankind. We enslave the weak, impoverish the unsuspecting, take advantage of the trusting and poor, trash the planet and curse God all the while. Why would God...why did God...give us being? If most of us were God, we would have doomed and destroyed us long ago.

The saintliest and the nicest and the wisest and the best of us are a sorry lot when we take any honest look at our myriad imperfections. I am constantly puzzled at how any person could call himself a god...and then try to sell that idea to any other rational being.

The smartest people I have ever known have done some very stupid things. All of us spend way too much time eating crow, getting feet out of our mouths, and wiping egg from our faces to be gods.

If humankind is God's crowning creation (and we are), we have to look beyond the present product to discover why God did it.

There can only be one answer: it is because of His grace. It is only discovered in His grace. The Lord is gracious! God is a giver. He is a sharer. This is what makes Him gracious. It is grace that He does not need me for anything - though I need Him for everything - yet, He seeks me. He wants to let me know Him.

He constantly seeks for my attention so that He may communicate with me. Whatever He gets from our relationship enlarges me and not Him! His relating to us is all of grace.

Copyright by W.L. Boone.

(Anyone desiring the entire message entitled "The Face of Grace" from which this article is gleaned may receive it by e-mailing me at lesboone@juno.com with your PO mailing address.)

Just How "Personal" is God?

Whatever is occurring between you and God is as personal as God with Moses. Whatever it is of God (which is grace) that results in creativity, involves Him with you and me, and that personal involvement is more generative and creative than it is historical. What is meant here is that His relationship with you is original and unprecedented. It is brand new. There is no other like it. I repeat that whatever is occurring between you and God is as unique as it was when He conversed with Moses. God plows ground with you that is eternally virgin, for God is essentially generative in nature...especially in His relationships. His dialogues with you are as creative as a new galaxy or solar system.

It needs to be repeated that "God's involvement with you is more generative and creative than it is historical", and what we see here is that His gracious approach to you and me personally is not a re-run. It is not a repeat. It is not a replica. It is not predicated upon any previous dialogue with any other person...even Moses. His relationship with you and me is not the "cookie cutter" kind where He sort of stamps out another one that He has used from a schematic a few millions times before. It is as personal as personal can be.

The greatest value to be found during one's lifetime must be in the relationships we form and maintain, while the greatest fact of humanity is potential. God graciously extended to each person both possibilities as He reached out to us in Jesus. He is a blank check when it comes to knowing Him, and "the sky is the limit" in our pursuit of Him.

Copyright by W.L. Boone.

(Anyone desiring the entire message entitled "The Face of Grace" from which this article is gleaned may receive it by e-mailing me at lesboone@juno.com with your PO mailing address.)

The Boldness of Moses

Numbers 12:3: "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all men which were upon the face of the earth."

Moses said to God in Exodus 33:13 for Him to "...show me Thy way, that I may know Thee". Mankind has never produced a more daring explorer than Moses. The Phonecians and Norsemen and Magellans and Columbuses and Pilgrims and Lindbergs and Yeagers and Glenns and Armstrongs must all reverently bow before this meekest man of all men as he dares to present himself before the heavenly holy of holies, and boldly asks God to "...show me Your way. Show me Who You are! Show me what You are like! I want You to show Yourself to me! I want to know You. You tell me that I have found grace in Your sight, and yet I do not know Who You are! If I have found grace in Your sight, reveal Yourself to me."

Imagine that! Talk about nerve! Let it never be said that meekness and boldness cannot co-exist, for Moses obliterates such a myth at this point in his relationship with God. And there is not even a hint of reprimand from God to Moses' impassioned demand. In fact, in this instance with Moses and God, as with a good many after it, God seems to invite and reward such bold excursions into His nature. I think that we need to draw a bold line under the statement that God portrays great desire to make Himself known to individuals. He is the God Who ever beckons us to come closer; the God Who invites scrutiny; the God Who wants to reveal Himself; the God Who seeks to share Himself with humankind.

God's immediate response to Moses' impassioned demand is as incredible as the request when He replied, "I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for you have found grace in My sight."

It is obvious that this is a private dialogue between God and Moses. Can you beat that? I do not know what an almighty God does as a regular matter, but it has to be wondrously complex and universal in nature.

I say this as reverently as I can, But God has a universe to run, and billions of human beings to care for, and here He is hunkered down and locked into a private chat with a mere mortal who knew how to ring the doorbell of heaven's resident Deity! Sinai's Mountain groaned and writhed in a blazing, jolting, pounding, smoking, quaking cataclysm as He touched down on a fragile, trembling earth. The elements constricted in transformed convulsion as His presence arrived at this untimely summons from a yearning mortal! But He came...and He stood...toe to toe and face to face and heart to heart with a frail mortal who hungrily asked Him Who He was!

Whenever God communes with a mortal...this is grace. When He stoops to communicate with us...this is an act of infinite grace. When He allows our finite, limited minds to meet with His mind, and match our thoughts with His thoughts, and reason with Him...this is an exercise of grace!

Copyright by W.L. Boone.

(Anyone desiring the entire message entitled "The Face of Grace" from which this article is gleaned may receive it by e-mailing me at lesboone@juno.com with your PO mailing address.)

God Doesn't Strut

It is true. Those who know the most, advertise it the least. We are correct to be suspicious of those who promote themselves.

If any person has a right to strut, God does... but He does not. He does not strut because He has nothing to prove. He does not strut because strutting is intended to impress. God is impressive in every aspect of His Person, but He never tries to be impressive.

You have noticed (as I have) that strutting is generally disliked very much! Few of us consider it a positive. Self confidence, yes. A PMA (positive mental attitude), yes. Optimism, yes. Leadership, yes. Success and winning and victory and overcoming, yes. But generally, most of us disdain and reject strutting.

It comes as a surprise to most of our minds that God is characteristically an humble Being, for pride is of satanic origin. Satan's heart was "lifted up with pride" when he sought to be like the Most High (see Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28) and failed in his effort to displace God.

The biggest proof of God's intrinsic humility is in His perfection. A perfect Being needs nothing, cannot evolve, appreciate, develop, mature, age or improve. And yet! He created other beings! Not for Himself, for He needed nothing or no one, but He created other beings to know Him, and have a personal, everlasting relationship with Him.

And the method He used to tell the human family about His great plan of the ages farther proves His humility. He made the connection between Himself and us humans by allowing His divine Son to become one of us, and eventually become the sin sacrifice for us after Satan has plunged us all into helpless lostness.

The Bible explains it all in incredible terms found in Philippians 2:6-11, and I quote from Nestle's Greek New Testament:

"Christ Jesus, Who subsisting in the form of God, deemed it not robbery to be equal with God,
"But emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming in likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man,
"He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, and the death of a cross.
"Wherefore God highly exalted Him, and gave to Him the name above every name,
"In order that in the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of heavenly beings, and earthly beings, and beings under the earth,
"And every tongue should acknowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ is to the glory of God the Father."

The only appropriate response here is to bow and weep before Him in humility, gratitude and submission for doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

AMAZED!
by W.L. Boone
I am amazed! That God would think of me
When robed in heavenly glory.
That One who wore eternity
Would start the human story.

I am amazed! That he would plan
Beings such as we--
Endowing minds and wills that can
Decide our destiny.

I am amazed! That He would move our way,
Reserving a special place
Within His great and gracious heart--
Room for the human race.

I am amazed! That He who saw it all
And knew the deepest cost;
Looked far beyond our miserable fall
Agreeing to save the lost.

I am amazed! At these great Three
Who sees end from end;
Would effect a plan so perfectly
Designed to be man's friend.

I am amazed! That He would care
Enough to invite the pain --
Long before He started there,
Knew would pierce His heart again.

I am amazed! That He could see
It clearly at the start;
Knowing it would surely be
The blade aimed at His heart.

What kind of God is this
Who suffers in man's place?
What hope? What help? What love? What bliss?
IT'S CALLED AMAZING GRACE!

Copyright by W.L. Boone.