Dynamic Duo

 

as we continue with

Grace & Faith

In February, We got some help from our lay speakers, Ray Higdon and Mike Porter as we covered the topics of Faith and Grace. Today, I want to look at them together and see the inter-connectedness of these major tenets of the faith. We find ourselves looking at Ephesians chapter 2 in a very well known passage where the Apostle Paul speaks to our salvation and bring these two word into the center.

 

Paul says it twice in the course of this passage. "it is by grace you have been saved" I'm not sure I fully grasped the intensity with which those words are meant to be delivered with, and so, I wanted to understand what grace really is for us. It's one thing to see the definition of a word. It's something else to see it with our own eyes.  

There's a woman who frequents the pantry at Hopewell. She and her sister are a couple of characters who make the trek out to the church every month with either the help of a transit bus or with someone else's vehicle. It has been described that if the chance were given to them that they would clean out the pantry in one haul. Someone has to walk with them (which is standard procedure for anyone visiting the pantry) and keep an eye on what they are putting in their cart to make sure they don't clean us out of house and home. Sometimes both sisters come and many times just one of them does the shopping for both of the sister's families. I recall last year when i first began to be integrated into the system at the pantry that I was given the task of working with them as they sat on the bus waiting for their order to be filled. We had the task last year of doing the shopping for all of the pantry visitors. No one was allowed to come inside during the stretch of the pandemic. So, our helpers would go out to the waiting cars and trucks that had lined up with clip boards and papers to walk people through what was waiting downstairs and then we would bring the list inside and go through to get them their items. After bagging it all up, we would bring it out to their vehicle and send them on their way. I got the sisters who just happened to be on a Perry County transit bus that day and it was my first time walking anybody through the 4 pages of items that listed all the food in the pantry. I didn't understand what exactly we were supposed to offer them and I think the sisters knew that. With every section we went through in the paper work, they gladly accepted everything that was offered to them. I marked up the papers thoroughly and brought them down stairs to them team that was waiting to do their shopping for them. A few minutes later, our director spoke up and said I had done the list wrong and I needed to go back out and rework the papers with the sisters. We only offer a few items out of each section and not everything on every line of the paperwork. So, I had go back out and explain that to two grinning sisters in their 60's from rural Perry County that they couldn't have all these items. Grace goes both ways in this instance. From the ones taking advantage of the system and the one who didn't understand how to offer it properly.

God offers his hands and hearts to us even though we don't necessarily get what the proper procedure is for approaching him. And, in matters where it seems like our carnal nature wants to take it all fro granted, God still offers his love to us. We don't deserve it. We can earn it. He just does. The sisters have never been turned down or told to go away. The door is always open for them to return next month. And, there is always plenty of food to share with them. God wants us to draw close to him. His arms are always open for us to receive. What we need to learn is dependence on Him. In drawing close to God we learn that the ways we have been handling things can stop dominating our lives. We are used to taking matters into our own hands in order to get what we want the way we want it. God wants something different. His Grace is the way into a life that is drastically unlike what we know. His ways are not our ways. His Grace is not what we are used to. Maybe it's why change takes so long in our world and when it finally does come to a place where what we need can actually be, we fight it and squabble and holler about it instead of simply letting God lead the way. It's never easy to let God be God. Yet, his arms are still open to us; drawing us closer to where he is at the heart of love. 

Now what about faith?

This morning at church was an eventful day, but the thing that grabbed my attention was a competition that had ensued between some of our Sunday School kids. (My son was included in this.) The story of Moses lifting his arms up in the air in the battle with the Amalekites from Exodus 17. As long as Moses kept his arms up, the Israelites were prevailing. But, if his arms came down the Amalekites were winning. The challenege at church today became one of who could keep their arms up above their heads longer.

And, the battle kept up the entire service.

Even after the service, we began refreshment time downstairs in the fellowship hall. The kids still had their arms above their heads. In Moses' story, it took the combined efforts of his brother Aaron and another man named Hur to hold up Moses' arms when they got tired. They also provided a place for Moses to sit down. There is so much grace and faith in the passage that it boggles the mind. Take a moment to read it and see just what we are talking about. Chapter 17 begins with a bunch of grumbling by the Israelites about having water to drink and whether the Lord is actually taking care of them at all. God still does take care of them and go before them into battle. He rescues them, provides for them, and makes a way even though the probably don't deserve any of it. God drawing close to us even though we do not appreciate or understand what He is doing is much of what Grace is all about. Faith is what we need to draw close to God and many time we lack the required need. Still, God is there. And, if that is what is needed for salvation, then how do we make that happens.

We do not. God does. 

And, that's why Grace and faith are so important.
Draw close to God and he will draw close to you.
Have Faith in God, and you will begin to see exactly what it's about.