Grace Unlimited

Posted on by korgrocker

“Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. 
Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 
Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.”
Psalms‬ ‭51:1, 7, 9-11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

David hasn’t done well. In fact, he has plumbed the depths of depravity beyond even godless people’s experiences. He has coveted another man’s wife, then committed adultery with her, and finally joined the ranks of murderers by arranging for her husband to be killed on the battlefield. And his self-deception was so complete that it took a brave prophet, Nathan, to point out his sins to him. But Psalm 51 is a record of his way back into God’s presence. Surely David’s sins were too great to be forgiven, we might think. Surely what he has done cannot just be atoned for by writing a Psalm. Surely he has to be banished from God’s presence forever. But this is where God’s unlimited grace comes into the picture. God will never turn His back on a truly repentant sinner. 

But we might think that it is unfair of God to forgive someone as sinful as David. After all, my sins are nowhere near as bad as David’s. I’ve never done any of the things David had. The problem is that none of us can live a perfect sinless life that matches up to God’s standard of righteousness. It doesn’t matter how grave the sin is – stealing a pencil from an employer or committing adultery are both sins and both will stop us entering God’s presence. Because of our sinful natures we cannot get into God’s presence through our own efforts. There is only one way into God’s presence and that is through Jesus. Look at the Scriptures. Jesus said in John 14:6, “‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’”. In Acts 4:12 the Apostle Peter said, “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”” It is only by the repentance of our sins and our belief that Jesus died for us at Calvary, that will enable us to become righteous enough to enter God’s presence. 

Back in my Sunday School days we used to sing a song that went like this;

There’s a way back to God
from the dark paths of sin;
there’s a door that is open
and you may go in;
at Calvary’s cross is where you begin,
when you come as a sinner
to Jesus.

Through God’s grace there is forgiveness. Once we have truly confessed our sins, and taken on board Jesus’ righteousness, He doesn’t see our sins any more. They are, in the words of the Psalm, blotted out. They have been erased from His record book. What a wonderful God He is!

But there is then the issue of our memories. Perhaps you are like me and sometimes remember a particular sin, from way back in the past, or perhaps not so long ago. We have confessed it, repented of it and God has forgiven us of it. He has no more record of it, but it is still in our memories. So we try and confess it again, just in case we have forgotten something. But God looks up the sin in His record book and doesn’t find it so He asks us the question, “What sin are you talking about?” It has been covered by His grace and blotted out of His records. Our memories retain it though and this is perhaps what David was referring to when he referred to the stain of his guilt. Sins leave stains in our minds. These can become a constant reminder of God’s grace, so freely and generously given. But also something the enemy will use to torment us, it we let him. If God has forgiven us, why would we not forgive ourselves? Perhaps our lack of faith comes to the fore?

The thing that David feared most, though, was that there was no way back into God’s presence. Verses 9-11 of today’s Psalm express the anguish going on within him. David appealed to God in three ways; to not keeping looking at his sins, to not banish him from His presence and to not take away the Holy Spirit. David didn’t have access to the Son of God, Jesus, as we do today. But he knew his God and knew that His grace and mercy would never reject him.

I wonder if David’s biggest fear, though, was that the Holy Spirit wouldn’t come near him again. What a terrible thought? But, rationally, can I ask us all a question today. Would we know if the Holy Spirit had left us? That’s a question to ponder throughout the day. 

God’s DNA

Posted on by korgrocker

“I take joy in doing Your will, my God, for Your instructions are written on my heart.” Psalms‬ ‭40:8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

How is it that people seem to intuitively know when they do wrong? Even when there are no obvious rules, laws or regulations for them to break. The key could be in the verse we read today from Psalm 40. In the Genesis creation story we are told that man was made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26). Our God is a righteous God, the Creator of a universe that is founded on what is right, a moral universe within which mankind fits like a hand in a glove. That is, if the glove he chooses to fit his hand into is the one God designed. Unfortunately, in today’s Western society there are many people who make a living by manufacturing different gloves for people who have violated the basics of God’s moral design. Gloves for unfortunate and misguided people who are debilitated by their feelings of guilt and who, instead of going to their Creator, instead find a false god in the form of a psychiatrist or counsellor with the hope that they can help them appease their guilty conscience in a way that avoids bringing God into the remedy.

Am I generalising too much? Am I being too harsh about the psychiatric profession? Possibly, or even probably. But what I do know is that God’s moral DNA is inbuilt. It forms a part of us. It leads and guides us through and by our consciences in the way God has designed for us. David, the Psalmist, realised its importance when he wrote about God’s genetic instructions being written into our hearts, into our psyche. And, as the verse today says, by following His instructions, we will experience a joy not possible to achieve by godless methods.

The remedy for a guilty conscience is through repentance and turning to God. And when we are close to God with a conscience washed clean through Jesus’ blood, we will be hand in glove with the Creator who designed us. Experiencing His joy, love and peace. Set free to do His will.

God’s Master Plan

Posted on by korgrocker

“O Lord my God, you have performed many wonders for us. Your plans for us are too numerous to list. You have no equal. If I tried to recite all Your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them.” Psalms‬ ‭40:5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Any attempt to unpick and drill down into this verse can only end up in becoming lost in the depths of our Creator God, full of grateful praise and worship. The bottom line is that God’s wonders, plans and deeds are uncountable because there are so many of them. For example, just take the environment in which we live. The number of conditions that combine to enable life as we know it on this planet are uncountable. And it was God’s plan to create a world where His plans could be developed. And look at the complexities of human life – how could two cells coming together in a mother’s womb ever develop into a human being capable of so much? It beggars belief that so many people believe the lie that our world and all its contents happened by chance. As the verse above points out, our Creator God has performed many wonders and deeds in implementing His plans.

But there is a wonder, a plan, a deed, that is far above anything else God has done for the human race. We find in the Genesis account that God created men and women in His image. And He wanted to have a relationship with them based on love and friendship. But things went horribly wrong with man’s response to God, as we can find in the early accounts of the Israelite nation. God wasn’t going to give up on His creation, though, and He devised a master plan to reconcile mankind back to Him. His love for us was so intense that he wasn’t going to let us continue in living a life less than how He designed it to be. A life without the ultimate richness of being a friend of God. We can read about God’s master plan through the words of Jesus in John 3. This is the Message version. “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.” That was God’s plan. To put the world back into the place He had designed it to be. He wasn’t going to give up on His creation and He never will. Through Jesus, God’s Master Plan, everyone person living on this planet can find out about God’s wonders, plans and deeds. If they want to. The choice is theirs. The choice is yours.

Mud and Clay

Posted on by korgrocker

“I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord.” Psalms‬ ‭40:1-3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Imagine the scene. You have wandered over some fields and come to a bank, down which you accidentally slip. You find yourself stuck in a bog, mud up to your knees and you are starting to sink further. Your cries for help are unheeded because of the remoteness of the place and very quickly the enormity of your predicament floods over you leaving an acute feeling of fear and despair. So you cry out to God for help, waiting with patience for Him to answer, full of assurance that He will do just that. And then, out of nowhere, a rope falls in front of you. You grab it and find a stranger at the other end who manages to pull you out, back up the bank, to a place of firm ground. God hears your cries and prayers for help and sends someone to rescue you.

Imagine the scene. After several days of heavy rain, the local river has burst its banks and your house is being flooded. The ground floor is now under water but you have managed to get onto the roof. You look anxiously around at the water-filled devastation, watching trees, rubbish, even cars, float past. Despair and fear increase. There is no-one to help. But God hears your prayers and sends a rescue helicopter, that quickly lifts you to a place of safety where you can wait for the flood waters to recede.

Imagine the scene. You realise that you are heading for a lost eternity because of your many sins. You are filled with fear and despair. Your situation appears to be hopeless because you realise you can’t save yourself. You cry out to God for help. But God has a plan. He loves you so much that He sends His Son, Jesus, to rescue you. But it’s a costly exercise – to rescue you Jesus has to become a sacrifice for your sins. There is no other way. And through His death on a cross, Jesus takes upon Himself all your sins, leaving you without guilt and shame, in right standing before God and able to say with confidence that your future with God in Heaven is secure. You have found a place of security. Solid ground on which to stand. Paul wrote in his Roman epistle, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” (‭‭Romans‬ ‭5:6‬ ‭NLT‬‬)

Three scenarios. Two of physical danger, one of spiritual danger. But all three a potential “pit of despair”. But after rescue what do you feel? Elation? Relief? Most probably an overwhelming feeling of gratitude to God for His rescue. A song you have never sung before comes from deep within you, as you sing grateful praises to God. A song that tells of God’s amazing works. A song that brings others into a trusting relationship with God too.

Far-fetched scenarios that don’t apply in real life today? God may, or may not, rescue us from all occasions of physical danger. It wouldn’t be danger if He always did. But we can have an assurance that God will always rescue a repentant sinner from spending eternity in that place Jesus called hell. How do I know? The Son of God, Jesus, told me. “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” ‭‭John‬ ‭3:16-17‬ ‭NLT‬‬.

Righteousness

Posted on by korgrocker

“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are attentive to their cry;
The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles.
The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; He protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.”
Psalms‬ ‭34:15, 17, 19-20‬ ‭NIVUK‬‬

Who or what is a righteous person? Does such a person exist? And why does he or she have troubles? These are questions that aren’t easy to answer, especially in a short blog post. From a Christian perspective, people are made righteous through their faith in Jesus. We believe that Jesus was, and is, the Son of God, both human and divine, and that He came to this earth with one mission – to manifest God’s love for mankind by saving them from the consequences of their repented sins, by His sacrificial death on a Roman cross at a place called Calvary. Jesus took onto Himself our sins and in return gave us His righteousness. The faith that we hold, through a continuing trusting relationship with God, in our righteous state, brings us to a place where we can cry out to God and He will answer us. The verses before us today don’t say that we won’t have troubles. But it does say that God will deliver us from them. Sometimes, this deliverance happens quickly. But at other times it will only come after we die. But the faith and trust that we have in God will sustain us through all our troubles.

In the news this morning is yet another story of a person with Motor Neurone disease who wants to end his life through assisted suicide. A person without hope for the future. A person without a belief in God. A person who thinks that only blackness awaits him after death. But a person who will find that there is a worse place to be than this life here on earth. God has compassion and love for all mankind and it must break His heart to see such a person in such a hopeless state, rejecting the very One who will deliver him from his troubles. As Christians we must pass on God’s love to everyone we meet, not just those in such dire needs, in the hope that they too will embrace our wonderful Saviour and find that His righteousness is available to everyone

Judgement

Posted on by korgrocker

“Therefore, let all the godly pray to You while there is still time, that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment.” Psalms‬ ‭32:6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

We live in an age of climate change. Whether or not we agree that global warming is caused through man’s actions, there seems to be evidence that the world is getting warmer. And there is a consequence in that sea levels are rising through the melting of the North and South ice caps. In addition, we also seem to be experiencing extreme weather events – droughts in some places but floods in others. Just over the past few weeks there have been severe floods resulting in loss of life in Europe and India. As in Noah’s day, such events underpin the reality that our lives and circumstances are things we cannot rely on. In one earthly day all will be well, but the next could be a disaster waiting to happen. An unduly negative view or the reality of life today? Thankfully there is a way to obtain life assurance, and insurance, by heeding the verse we have read today. It advises the godly (and the ungodly as well) to make their peace with God while they have that opportunity. Before their lives are snuffed out in the “floodwaters of judgement”, launching them into a future in which the choice about the location of their eternal home will be removed.

The philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal, once said, “If I believe in God and life after death and you do not, and if there is no God, we both lose when we die. However, if there is a God, you still lose and I gain everything.” I know that God is alive and real, and so I would encourage you this morning to, “Seek the LORD while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near.” (Isaiah 55:6). You won’t regret it.

Guilt

Posted on by korgrocker

“Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty! When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night Your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.” Psalms‬ ‭32:1-4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

We continue our pilgrimage through the Book of Psalms with the first four verses of Psalm 32. The Psalmist, David, captures so clearly the dilemma of mankind concerning guilt. God has wired each one of us with a conscience and when we violate that conscience, terrible things can happen to us. In David’s case, it drove him into illness and depression, graphically described in the verses above. Some people spend a lot of money on counsellors and psychiatrists to try and relieve their symptoms. Others will drive the problem deep within their subconscious, suppressing the problem and hoping it will go away. Still others seem to have the strength to ignore the problem. But the guilty conscience is still there, easily resurrected by a passing thought or situation. There is only one remedy for sin and guilt, and that is by coming into God’s presence with a truly repentant heart, confessing the sins that make us feel so guilty, believing that through Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary we are washed clean of sin and are cleansed of a guilty conscience. And the peace and joy of God will flood over us, restoring us to the place God designed for us – true fellowship with Him.

Are my thoughts too simplistic? Do they ignore the consequences of confessing sins, consequences that, potentially, could impact our ways of life, our friendships, even freedom? But regardless of the consequences, I know of no other remedy to cure a soul of guilt.

Integrity

Posted on by korgrocker

“May integrity and honesty protect me, for I put my hope in You.”
“Declare me innocent, O Lord, for I have acted with integrity; I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.” Psalms‬ ‭25:21, ‭26:1‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Two verses from adjacent Psalms. Both mentioning the word “integrity”. And both in the context of the Psalmist David’s relationship with God. The God we worship is a God of integrity, a God who is totally honest, who never lies, and He put within us the same seed of integrity. This is why if we lie, we immediately have a problem with our conscience, causing feelings of guilt which can lead ultimately to mental health issues if unaddressed. Whether human beings like it or not, within them is God’s DNA. It’s how He created us. And to this problem of a lack of honesty and integrity, the word “sin” has been ascribed. But God, in His mercy, could see the problem of sin and guilt and He sent His Son, Jesus, to be the propitiation for our sins. Through Jesus we have the remedy for sin, and the means to return back to God’s presence, to a place of integrity and honesty. Yes, there may be earthly consequences to our sins, but nevertheless, God will forgive.

It was very important to our Psalmist that God recognised his integrity, because through that he knew that God would protect him. Through that relationship, that closeness to God, he knew that he was in the best place, the place God had designed for him. And so it is with us. By reaching out to God this morning, confessing our sins before Him and allowing Him to forgive us, we too can be in that “sweet spot”, that place of relationship with God.

The Sins of Youth

Posted on by korgrocker

“Remember, O Lord, Your compassion and unfailing love, which You have shown from long ages past. Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth. Remember me in the light of Your unfailing love, for You are merciful, O Lord. Psalms‬ ‭25:6-7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Oh dear! Those difficult days in my teen years, when I wore the badge of being a “youth”. When I said things that I shouldn’t. When I did things that hurt others. Those rebellious sins committed when I knew no better. The difficulties I encountered in those days seemed endless. But thanks to our Saviour Jesus, and His death on a cross outside Jerusalem, my youthful sins have been forgiven. But, sadly, the memories remain. Embarrassing. Uncomfortable. But why should they, because God no longer remembers them. As it says in Psalm 103:12, “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” His grace, love and compassion is endless. So if I pray for forgiveness for a previously-confessed sin, God replies, “What sin? I can’t remember it.” God has forgotten it, because Jesus exchanged it for His righteousness at Calvary. Amazing. Humbling. There are not enough thankful words to describe the eternal consequences of His grace. I praise and thank You today for Your grace, love and mercy, Lord.

If you, the reader, are struggling with the weight of your sins today, reach out to our loving Heavenly Father for His forgiveness. And assure yourself a future with Him for eternity.