You are Making it So

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fulness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation-- having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."

 Ephesians 1:3-14.

["blessed us", "chose us", "freely bestowed", "in Him we have", "He lavished upon us", "He made known to us", "In Him we have also obtained", "were sealed in Him"] 

We have an obsession with wanting others to think we are generous.

We want the appearance of hospitality.

But You are a God of all treasure and blessing!

All of life and goodness is wrapped up in You.

So, would you rescue us?

Would you teach us to receive?

Would you teach us to value most what we did not contribute to?

                                 to rejoice at the glories of God not made with our hands?

When we taste and see Your goodness, and catch glimpses of your glory-

we see that it was never about what we did, but what you gave.

Teach us to receive, to worship, to love Your lavishing.

Then will we be hospitable!

Then will we be generous!

Then will we love our neighbor!

Not because we wanted them to think we were nice,

but because through faith we will see who we are:

Swallowed up in Jesus- at peace with God in His righteousness.

We will see who we are in seeing You,

we will give of ourselves in faith that all has been given to us.

You are making it so, and we praise You.

"Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary,

some in the wrong direction.

Practice resurrection."

Wendell Berry

Jesus is His Name

I thought grace was just about second chances, third chances, fourth...

I thought it was just about excusing mistakes, turning a blind eye to sin.

I thought it was about a foundation for better living next time.

We tally the wrongs against us, deciding how many more chances to give. Sometimes we have had enough, sometimes we forgive. We feel like we should forgive because You did, and so we do- sometimes, reluctantly, in bitterness. We hope in our chance-giving or chance-receiving to save us.

But what if you did not just live perfectly on earth and leave?

What if you are not just our example, but our Savior?-

    our Savior from the score-keeping games,

    our Savior from calculating what we deserve.

And so You are.

We shy away in shame after moments of wrongdoing- hoping, praying no one will see, or that they will excuse us if they do. We don't want to deal with consequences of our actions, so we hope to just be let off the hook. We hope in temporary "blindness" to save us.

But what if you did not just come to condone sin?

What if you came to bear it, to absorb it, to die under its weight?

What if you became sin for us, 

   Forever crushing it and nullifying its power.

And so You have.

We set our gazes to our improvement charts, kicking ourselves in moments of failure, and puffing up when we feel we should be proud. It is all about improvement, and we must improve at _____ , or else our life is meaningless. We hope in the towers we build to save us.

But what if you will continue to rescue us from our deeds?

What if you will keep revealing the irrelevance of our production?

What if you will open our eyes on that day,

     establishing yourself as our only source of life and meaning.

And so you will. 

No, it doesn't mean we should take advantage of your chances,

       it doesn't mean we should just do what we want because you forgive,

       it doesn't mean our life choices are irrelevant.

But thanks be to God, who raised us up with Christ!
His life, his blessings, his provision are ours to know.
There is life in no other.

Give us faith in Him-
Who gave of his body and blood, doing away with our tallying.
Give us faith in Him-
Who continues to intercede for us, nullifying the power of sin.
Give us faith in Him-
Who is bearing fruit in us, inviting us to rest in his faithfulness.

Magnify grace to us, Christ to us.
Let us see not just how grace benefits us,
but what it cost You.
In seeing, may we worship instead of taking advantage. 

And when we take advantage, grace You will give,
Yourself You will give. 
We are a people saved by Grace,
and Grace is not an arbitrary gift, but a person.
Jesus is his name.

Hallelujah.

3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindnessand love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 

Titus 3:3-7

More Certain

"On Friday a thief, on Sunday a king
Laid down in grief, but woke with the keys
To hell on that day, first born of the slain
The man Jesus Christ laid death in his grave"
                          - Audrey Assad

We praise you, Jesus, for being raised on the third day.
We praise you for raising the sun each day thereafter.

We have life because You have risen.

Awaken us anew to this-

That life is more certain than death,

That peace with God is ours to know, to rest in.

Oh the reasons to sing!

Taste and See

We are bystanders to the rising sun.

We witness seasonal change.

Fruit grows independently from us.

The rains come without our consent.

In a world in which all of this is so,

in which you are the orchestrator of it all-

Our obsession with control is obscene.

Our need to work is an atrocity.

Blessed with tasks and jobs as we are,

free us from the grip of our schedules and budgets.

In creation you gave bare people free access to bountiful supply.

Yet we cover ourselves in self-righteousness and manufactured goods.

You are the God who causes fruit for us and in us.

Give us delight in this process which you have worked for-you and you alone.

We come in our ignorance and stubbornness,

for this is all we have to offer.

We praise you for not qualifying our worthiness to come,

for not asking us to "dig deep", or to try harder.

Forgive us for trying to fill up what we find lacking in creation.

The work is finished, the harvest has come.

His name is Jesus.

May we taste and see this goodness who fills all in all.