Mark Boone in Concert

Mark will also be singing and giving his testimony in the 11:00 a.m. service.

Rags

This was the answer to a clue in a crossword puzzle this past week. The clue was "a worn out cloth". I took immediate exception to this...that is...that it was "worn out".

Rags are very useful to us. Maybe even could be considered a neccesity. What would we do without them? A world without rags would be a poor one indeed.

In my youth for sure, rags were a necessity, and they were never thrown away. They were used for all kinds of cleaning chores, in and out of the house; for many medical needs - bandages, sore throats, slings, mustard plasters, boil and cut dressings; for strainers of all kinds; for paddings and cushions; and for absorbents of all kinds.

I have a small, fuzzy, yellow, was-at-one-time pajama top made by wife, Deloris, and worn by daughter, Trella, that has been in my shoe shine box for at least fifty years. Shoe polish smudges of all colors are evident, but there are still some unused places that will probably be useful as long as I live. I have already "willed" it to Trella. Just think of all the hundreds of shoes it has shined?

It has always been right where I last used and placed it. It has never complained or been unwilling to be pressed one more time into gooey, oily, smudgy shoe polish. It has never been washed, dried or ironed, and it has never been recognized or honored until this writing. I have never once thanked it!

IT'S PURPOSE HAS BEEN TO SERVE ME, AND IN THE PROCESS MAKE HUNDREDS OF SHOES LOOK NEW, AND SHINY, AND THEIR WEARERS LOOK GOOD. What would I do without a shoe polish rag?

Even lowly rags have a highly useful, significant purpose. Surely there are ways I can bless others.

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)

David

I know many Davids, and probably you do also, for it is a very common name for a male.

The David of the Bible - who incidently all Davids since him probably have been named - was a man who you could easily know. Not only because there is so much biblical history written about him, but maybe more so because fo his writings; primarily in the Psalms. So a reader might ask, "Why would you write about him this morning if we already know so much about him?"

The reason is because of my great, personal admiration for the man. There are so many characteristics about David - courage, godliness, merciful, wise, obedient and fairmindedness - that a person could write books about him, and still not be exhaustive.

A single character trait has dominated my personal admiration for David since I was a lad, and it is his innate humility. This is demonstrated so many times throughout David's life that it seems to me that it was a major motivation in all he thought, decided and did. I will refer to just one time of his life - when his son Absalom conspired to kill his father and assume the kingdom of Israel.

When David knew about it, the very first thing he did was to plan to leave Jerusalem. He did not "flee" as some suppose. David was not a coward in any cirsumstance, and all Bible readers know this. The reason he hurriedly left Jerusalem is discovered in 2 Samuel 7:14d, "...Arise and let us flee, lest...he smite the city with the edge of the sword". David was more concerned with the plight of the people, with the tabernacle, and with the city if the battle would rage in Jerusalem.

A few verses later in the same chapter, Ittai, a recent convert to Israel and a king's son, offered to go with David, and he told him not to because (in verse 20, and I am paraphrasing this) "Ittai, I do not know where I am going or what will happen to me, or if I will ever return. Stay here where it is safe". Ittai's answer to go with David even if it meant his death is one of my favorite readings, but it is not Ittai's loyalty and courage and commitment to David that impresses me now. Here again you can see the basic humility of David as he thinks more of this stranger than himself.

When Zadok, the priest came with the Levites, carrying the precious ark of the covenant with them, (the ark symbolizing the very presence of God), David told them to return it to the tabernacle in Jerusalem with the words that (in verse 25), "Carry back the ark of God into the city: if I shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me again, and show me both it, and His habitation". What a beautiful spirit!

And then catch the atmosphere of the entire scene as King David and those who were loyal to him and his God as they departed Jerusalem (and it is almost reminiscent of Jesus many centuries later) in verse 30 of 2 Samuel 7: "And David went up by the ascent of Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot: and all the people who were with him covered every man his head, and they went up (emphasis mine) weeping as they went up".

The broken, lowly, and humble spirit of God's servant follows him from his earliest days of youth, and right down to his last days on earth. God cares for, and pays special attention to, persons with an humble spirit!

Amanda and Mama Fox

"Amanda" (substitute for actual name) is the cross country coach for the Middle and High schools in The Dalles, Oregon. Though a teacher, she has participated in many, gruelling cross country races, and keeps herself in a toughened, physical condition as an excellent example for her students. But, as we shall see, being a good example is only one reason for her disciplined life style.

At a mile and a half, cross country, race two weeks past, the young athletes were giving their best (or at least thought they were), exhausting their young bodies to the breaking point. Young men and young women (in their appropriate divisions) strained and pumped flaxen legs from one point to the next, trying to maintain strides and distances, wondering if they could make it all the way? Suddenly, at the halfway point, here was their coach, Amanda, shouting their names and adding strength and adrenaline merely by being there!

As the runners neared the three quarter position, here was Amanda - again - yelling support and calling their names! Then she popped up again as they neared the finish line, shouting and yelling words of encouragement and support. Then, as each runner, crossed the finish line, here she was again with hugs and smiles and "I knew you could do its".

All through that gruelling obstacle course race, Amanda was all over the mile and a half area, and the Lord only knows how many miles she ran that day, but everywhere, shouting names and yelling encouragement!

Just like Jesus does for us as we run the Christian race!

And the mama fox? Where does she come into this true story? One of my dearest preacher friends grew up in old Virginia, where foxes and hunting hounds are part of growing up. Brother Flexon tells of watching their hounds on the chase, and after a young fox. He was scared half to death, running for dear life, and those old hounds were gaining on the little fellow. His route was circuitous, naturally returning to the place where his mother kept watchful eyes on the scene before her. On the next round, just when she knew the little fellow was about to collapse, the wizened, experienced mother headed him off to their lair while she took up the place in front of the hound.

She had done this many times before. She was a veteran, and had whipped those dogs many times before. She easily led that old hound away from her babies, and on a race that was not even a contest for her.

Our Christ is so much like this! The devil gets on the trail of many of us by siccing his old, Hell hounds on us, and we are pressured by them, and do not know what to do or where to go. Just when it seems that we can go no further, either Jesus or His faithful Holy Spirit sets us out of harm's way and leads the Hell-hounds far away from us. He knows when we can take no more. He knows when and where we need encouragement.