33rd Day in Lent (Friday)
Read 2 Peter 3:1-18 “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.” 2 Peter 3:18 (NIV) ‘Spiritual growth doesn’t happen overnight.’ When backpacking through Europe in 1991, I had to learn things quickly. Each mistake or learning experience leads to a process of understanding how things work. I was in London for a couple of weeks and needed to learn the Underground railway system. I soon learned how to find the platform and pay for my tickets. But the most important learning experience was to always look like I knew where I was going and what I was doing. As soon as a map came out or I looked unsure, I felt vulnerable as if any pickpocket could see I was a tourist – like I had a flashing light, so I made sure I had memorised the route and the stops… this was all before Google! There were steps to my learning process, and with each new city came new learning of the systems and the places and an idea of whom to trust. As each day and week passes, I also learn more about my faith and try to understand God and His will for my life a little better. There is always more to learn and understand and more importantly whom to trust with this learning. My biggest source is the Bible. Like a map, it shows me where I should go and how to get there. My pastor and church family taught me so much, even though they may not even realise that they are teaching through their faithfulness. When things that are scary or make me feel uncertain, my faith wavers; questioning God’s grace and mercy for me. I know that I can reach out like Peter, sinking beneath the stormy waves, and know that Jesus will reach down through the waters to save me. He did that in my baptism and He will do that every day of my life. Jesus is there for you to help you grow and know Him more deeply. Grow in the knowledge and love of a loving God! Prayer: My dear Saviour, teach me more about you every day so that I may grow stronger in my faith. Help me to reach out to you when I need you, knowing you are always there to save me. Amen
32nd Day in Lent Read Titus 2:11-14
“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.” Luke 23:42-43 (NIV) ‘Grace drives our sanctification.’ This last year, my husband Mark and I went travelling to the USA to visit family and friends for six weeks. As well as organising what to take, the house also needed to be prepared – friends organised to take out bins, pick up mail, water gardens, pets, etc. The last thing done was closing all the windows, pulling down the blinds and locking the house. While we were gone the air in the house became stale and musty. The first thing I did when returning home was open all the windows and doors, allowing the fresh air to flow in. I didn’t have to force the fresh air to flow in, it just did! When our lives are open to the saving action of Jesus, the Holy Spirit just flows in and through us. God has set us apart for His purpose to be loved and filled with grace and forgiveness. Sanctification is recognising that our redemption has been fulfilled by Jesus Christ’s actions on the cross, and the Holy Spirit then works in and through us. We are in Christ by faith, and He is in us by the power of the Spirit. Through all this we have been made holy and set apart as His beloved children. Living in this state with our Heavenly Father is living in freedom. Because we have this power of the Holy Spirit, we are empowered to live in a new way as the verse from Titus 2 suggests. This is not a quick and easy process of transformation but takes time as we mature in our faith and in living a holy life. Our relationships with one another, with the communities in which we live, and with the world, should reflect the love we have of God in Jesus Christ. This comes when Jesus enters our lives in humility and love bringing salvation to all. It is through God’s grace that we are made holy in His sight. Jesus died and rose to make us His people. Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for making me holy and sending your Spirit to work in and through my life. May your Spirit also work in the hearts of those I meet and work with. Amen.
31st Day in Lent (Wednesday)
Read 1 Peter 1:18-21
“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” Galatians 3:26-27 (NIV) “Grace is Jesus Christ in redeeming action.” ~ Michael Horton Tom carried his new toy boat to the edge of the river. He carefully placed it in the water and slowly let out the string. How smoothly the boat sailed! Tom sat in the warm sunshine, admiring the little boat that he had built. Suddenly a strong current caught the boat. Tom tried to pull it back to the bank, but the string broke. The little boat raced downstream. Tom ran along the sandy bank as fast as he could. But his little boat soon slipped out of sight. All afternoon he searched for the boat. Finally, when it was too dark to look any longer, Tom sadly went home. A few days later, on the way home from school, Tom spotted a boat just like his in a store window. When he got closer, he could see - sure enough - it was his! Tom hurried to the store manager: “Sir, that’s my boat in your window! I made it!” “Sorry, but someone else brought it in this morning. If you want it, you’ll have to buy it for ten dollars.” Tom ran home and counted all his money. Exactly ten dollars! When he reached the store, he rushed to the counter. “Here’s the money for my boat.” As he left the store, Tom hugged his boat and said, “Now you’re twice mine. First, I made you and now I bought you.” This is God’s redeeming love in action. Firstly, He made us in His image, truly beautiful children of God. Due to sin and wanting to get away from God, God’s people went their own way and were lost unable to make up for all their wrongdoings. Jesus came to earth with His redeeming action through His death on a cross when He defeated Satan, then rose again freeing humankind from separation from God. Through Jesus we have been forgiven and have the promise of eternal life. God has now bought us back with the precious and redeeming blood of Jesus Christ. You have been claimed by God – twice!! Prayer: Loving God, you have always loved me, and I know how much you love me in sending your beloved Son to die for me. Thank you for redeeming me. Amen.
30th Day in Lent (Tuesday)
Read Psalm 18:16-19 “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.” Jonah 3:10 (NIV) “[Grace] is God reaching downward to people who are in rebellion against Him.” ~ Jerry Bridges I love the story of Jonah in the Bible. He is so very real in the sense of his humanity. God asked him to go to Ninevah to tell the rebellious and evil people there to repent. Jonah chose to run away instead of doing what God asked, not because he was afraid of the people, but because he knew God was gracious and would forgive them. How very odd – Jonah did not want God to forgive these evil people who rebelled against Him.
I often wondered why Jonah didn’t want them to be forgiven. Maybe he felt they weren’t worthy like he was and didn’t feel they deserved to be warned because then they would be forgiven in God’s sight. Who can understand the nature of God who would choose to send His Son into a rebellious world, a world full of evil and corruption, to bring this world the grace and forgiveness of a loving God? Like Jonah, we were once against God, even running away from God in our sin, until we were brought back and restored through God’s mercy by Jesus in His death and resurrection. Next week is Holy Week when we focus on the suffering and death of a loving Saviour and a God who reaches down to restore a rebellious people. God forgives you and loves all those around you. Consider the person who hurt you with unkind words – God loves and forgives them; the neighbour who is noisy and unhelpful – God wants them to know Him; the council or town planners who won’t allow you to build – they also have a place with Jesus secured. God reaches down to all His people with love, grace, and forgiveness. It is up to us, like Jonah, to do God’s work in allowing them to know about a loving God who sent His Son to bring them life with Him. Don’t run away from God’s work – embrace it to bring others to know Him! Prayer: Lord Jesus, I know that you suffered and endured so much for me. Help me to do your work eagerly to bring all around me to know you. Amen
29th Day in Lent (Monday)
Read 1 Timothy 1:12-17 “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly... God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:6, 8 (NIV) ‘Grace is unconditional love toward a person who does not deserve it.’ ~ Paul Zahl During my time with Lutheran Youth Encounter travelling with my East Coast team, we had to develop our skits and puppet shows to tell and witness the grace of God. One of the first dramas our team wrote was set in the 1800s during the Wild West. A cowboy ‘Wompum Stompum’ had one of his cows taken by a rustler. The sheriff went looking through the congregation for the cow and the thief. These he found and then according to the Wild West rules, a cow rustler was hanged for his punishment. Just as the hanging was about to take place in the drama, we froze, and the Christ figure came into the scene and put his head through the noose and the cow thief ran away. It struck me every time how God put His head through the noose (died on the cross) when I least deserve His forgiveness and love. He cares so much for me with such an unconditional love that I can never repay, neither do I deserve it. That is why it is called grace. It is a gift that no one can ever deserve, and so we must rely on the graciousness of God’s love for an undeserving world to enter our eternal home. The bible verse above from Paul's writing to Timothy is striking in the fact that Paul doesn’t build himself up in the eyes of the young Timothy, rather he shares his unworthiness to be called God’s child. “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus may display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.” (1 Timothy 1:15-16) Whether deserving or undeserving, God’s grace is given to you! Prayer: Thank you, Jesus, that you died in my place. I could never deserve your grace or love, but through your death and resurrection, my future is assured. I am so thankful. Amen.
5th Sunday during Lent
Read Ephesians 2:1-10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” Ephesians 2:8 (NIV) Grace: “Unmerited divine assistance granted to humans for their regeneration or sanctification” [Webster Dictionary] Co-author of PROOF, a paradigm-shifting book on God’s incredible, irresistible grace, Timothy Paul Jones tells the story of taking his adopted daughter to Disney World. For years she was denied going by her original adoptive parents because she wasn’t part of the family. When the Jones family adopted her, life wasn’t easy until she finally experienced the Magic Kingdom. The 8-year-old girl was overwhelmed and hugged Timothy saying, “Daddy, I finally got to go to Disney World. But it wasn’t because I was good; it is because I’m yours.” Jones continues saying (I couldn’t say it better): “Grace isn’t a favour you can achieve by being good; it’s the gift you receive by being God’s. Grace is God’s goodness that comes looking for you when you have only ignored and rejected God for years. It’s a farmer paying a full day’s wages to a crew of deadbeat day labourers with only an hour punched on their time cards (Matthew 20:1-16). It’s the insanity of a shepherd who puts ninety-nine sheep at risk to rescue the one lamb that’s too stupid to stay with the flock (Luke 15:1-7). It’s the love of a father who hands over his finest rings and robes to a young man who has squandered his inheritance on drunken binges with his fair-weather friends (Luke 15:11-32). It’s a one-way love that calls you into the kingdom not because you’ve been good but because God has chosen you and made you his own. But here’s what’s amazing about God’s grace: This isn’t merely what God the Father would do; it’s what he has done. God could have chosen to save anyone, everyone, or no one from Adam’s fallen race. But God chose you. God in Christ has declared over you, ‘I could have chosen anyone in the whole world as my child, and I chose you. No matter what you say or do, neither my love nor my choice will ever change.’” (PROOF, Pgs. 81-84) That’s God’s gift of grace: truly amazing! Prayer: Lord God, thank you for choosing me to be your child – forgiven and loved. Your gift of grace is incredible and outrageous – I am so thankful for it. Amen.
28th Day in Lent (Saturday)
Read 1 John 4:7-12 “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.” 1 John 4:9 (NIV) “In grace, God gives nothing less than Himself.” There is a story about a man named John Griffith, who in 1937 was involved in a horrific accident. He had moved to Mississippi where he took a job as a bridge tender for a railroad trestle. One day his 8-year-old son spent the day with his dad at work. He poked around the bridge tender office and asked a myriad of questions. Then a ship came through and John opened the draw bridge. Looking around John realized his son wasn’t in the office but saw him climbing around on the gears of the draw bridge. He hurried outside to rescue his son but just then he heard what he knew was a fast-approaching passenger train, the Memphis Express, filled with over 400 people. He yelled to his son, but the noise of the now-clearing ship and the oncoming train made it impossible for the boy to hear him. Suddenly John realized his horrible dilemma. If he took the time to rescue his son the train would crash killing all aboard, but if he closed the bridge, he would crush his son within the gears. He made the awful decision, pulled the lever, and closed the bridge. As the train went by, John could see the faces of the passengers— some reading, some even waving, all oblivious to the sacrifice that had just been made on their behalf. So many of us do the same thing to God. We wave as we pass Him by, never giving a second thought to the sacrifice He made on our behalf. Like John Griffith, God allowed the jaws of death to close in on His Son. Unlike the Memphis Express that caught John Griffith by surprise, the sending of Jesus was not a panic move; it wasn’t a spontaneous decision. It was planned. Jesus’ death was not the result of jealous Jews or hard-hearted Romans. It was the result of a loving God, who in His wisdom, said there was no other way. Jesus chose the nails, to demonstrate just how far He was willing to go to win your heart. Give your life to the one who gave His life for you! Prayer: My dear Father, you gave your precious Son to die for me. To save me you gave everything to make me yours, it was a total commitment. Thank you. Amen
27th Day in Lent Hope Beyond Death 27th Day in Lent (Friday)
Read: Romans 5:17-21 “…just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5:21 (NIV) ‘Grace is the basis for our hope beyond death’. Franklin D. Roosevelt said: ‘We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world just beyond the horizon.’ That is the hope of a Christian, that beyond this world that we live there is a future in glory with our heavenly Father. I have been to many funerals – some personal, some members of the congregation and others whose family want the person to have a Christian funeral. A funeral of a Christian is surrounded with hope for the person’s future life because of the grace given by their Lord and Saviour. I recently read a Peanuts comic strip, where Snoopy is thinking to himself: “Yesterday I was a dog. Today I’m a dog. Tomorrow I’ll probably still be a dog. Ohh… there’s so little hope for advancement.” This is what the world thinks – there is nothing beyond what I am today so I will live for today. Jesus has given us so much more. He has given us not only hope but a future beyond death. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our sinfulness has been covered by grace and we have been fully forgiven, and with it comes the hope of our eternal life. Romans 5, the above reading for today, is filled with hope, promise, and life in Jesus. Through God’s grace coming to us in our baptism, God comes to us and gives us unconditional love and we are made a child of the Heavenly Father. We have received the inheritance God promised at the beginning of time. Sin came through one person, Adam, when the world was first created, but then also life has come to us through another person, God’s Son, Jesus Christ. We have been made righteous through His precious blood and have the hope of eternal life and salvation when our life has finished on earth. Tell others of this hope beyond death! Prayer: My Lord and Saviour, thank you for the gift of your grace given to me. I am your child and have the inheritance of eternal life with you in heaven. Give me the passion to share this gift. Amen.
26th Day in Lent (Thursday)
Read: Romans 6:1-7 “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:4 (NIV)
‘Grace is the basis for our future’. On 1st November we celebrate ‘All Saints Day’ – a time to remember and thank God for all the saints who have gone before us and died in the faith. We recognise that it is through their faith that we also have come to faith and experience God’s grace and the Word of life, forgiveness and our future hope. Each person who has died in the Lord has completed the task God has set them and they are welcomed into God’s eternal kingdom. I love thinking about this: my father, grandparents, friends and relatives all celebrating with our loving Saviour. But we are also God’s saints here on earth and still have the task set before us to bring more to know Jesus as their Saviour. God’s grace is a free gift, but there are so many who have not been exposed to this gift of life. We can’t give up on them. God’s grace is the key to our future in heaven. If God had not done His work through Jesus, we would not have much of a future. Grace is mentioned 124 times in the NIV New Testament (86 times by Paul). Paul, in his letter to the church of Rome speaks of the grace we have received in our baptism and in it we are also united with Him in His resurrection and are freed from all our sins. The grace of God in Christ is, and always will be, the last word. Grace in Christ is always the last word for us, even as it is also the first word that brought us to faith in and through our baptism. Through faith, grace is the first morning word, the word at midday and the last word at night. God’s grace extends to all people at all times and in all situations throughout the world – it is not exclusive, nor can it ever be extinguished. Our Lord’s grace is our past, present and future! Prayer: Loving Saviour, you have promised me a place with you and all the saints. Grow purpose within me to share your grace and love with all who will listen that they too may have a future with you. Amen.