Ask yourself this question: How many times would I watch a person betray me, talk about me, stab me in the back, and ask me to forgive & forget before I say, “No more?”  When was the last time you took your income tax money, put your plans on hold just to free someone else from the stress and slavery of their debt?  Oh, and by the way, what you ask in return?  Nothing.

Pretty stupid, huh?  Pathetic? According to our “Give-to-get” society it is.  To God, this is one of the Greatest Gifts He has given to us.

GRACE – God’s unmerited favor (Salvation-Grace)

It is characterized by God looking at our helplessness and ridding us of a debt we could never pay in the first place.  The one place where this is most evident is at the point where we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior.  The Apostle Paul reminded us that we are saved by grace (Eph. 2:8-9) through faith.  Let us take some time to examine this.  We are not saved through any skill, talent, value, or merit of our own.  This is because in God’s eyes, they are not enough to fulfill His standards of righteousness.  The reason why this is important is the Sonship & Adoption cannot override His inherent Attribute of being Holy (Ps.99:9, Ps.145:17).  This means, that if we are to be a “Son” we would have to find some way to pay the “Fee” if you will (the atonement for our sins) .  While we want to be close to God, our “pockets” are no where deep enough to pay that price.  No need to fear.

Jesus comes along and pays that debt for us so we can walk through that gate or partition which separated us from God.  The “faith” in Eph. 2:8-9 is necessary because we have to base our access and reconciliation with God upon another (Jesus Christ) and we have to believe:

• That He really did exist
• That He was more than just a man
• That He bore our sins upon His shoulders
• That He is authorized to set us free
• That all this is possible without having to see God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit

The scripture reminds us that grace is the, “Gift of God.”  This point, to me, is the catalyst for True Worship.  When we can inflect to our own human flaws, accept the fact that we are prone to failure.  This does not give us an alibi for foolishness and luke-warm living.  Our sins still have consequences.  I have found though,  the extent to we accept our own inability to “justify ourselves” or “be our own saviors”  would determine our depth of Worship to God for His gift of Grace towards us.

I finally brought myself to the computer to view the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated Haiti on Tuesday. The pictures, videos, and stories all did their part to tear away sense of bliss I had previous to my viewing.  Pictures, much like this one, reminded me how vulnerable we are to sudden tragedy.

It felt like I was there, walking helplessly among those who lost their house, family, and trusted faced that looked for in their neighborhoods. I watched as hundreds of bodies and bloody faces were piled into the makeshift morgues & hospitals.

The thought hit me, “What can I do to help?” At first, I figured there was nothing I could do but pray both for my feinting heart, and for a people in dire need.

This morning, the Lord answered my innocent question.  We cannot just sit back and accept that we cannot do anything.  We have to find a difference.  “To Do nothing is to Feel Nothing.” We cannot allow distance and geography to coerce our humanity into a dormant state of indifference.  You can help. No matter how insignificant it might seem.  You just haven’t found the way to as yet.  Keep looking, as I am, and God will reveal the way He wants to use you to show His love and Salvation.

I our final series of 2009, we looked at what Jesus was really talking about when He faced His antagonists in John 10:1-10.  They considered His a thief because His teachings were unorthodox.  Jesus explained to those who would listen that the thief does not come through the doorway to the sheep but, through some hidden breach in the shepherd’s keep.

He, then, revealed one of the most assuring glimmers of Divine intent ever recorded in Scripture:

“The thief cometh not but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly Jn. 10:10.”

It would have been enough to promise only life.  Gk. zoe which is our life force & existence, which He has delivered on.  In fact, you would not be able to read this entry without being alive.  However, I have come to realize most people are stagnant at this level of merely existing.  They are led into the rat race in a quest o fill the empty shell that is their life & existence.

I am so glad that Jesus did not just promise us existence, but ‘life more abundantly.’    So what is the abundant life?  It will blow your mind but I will explain:

“The abundant life is one that overflows the boundaries of one body.”

Abundance means overflow.  The Life Christ promised was life that could not be contained in one life.  You have so much joy that you have to share, such a blessed assurance that you have to assure the insecure, and finally, you have so much (even though your material possessions may not be evident) that you don’t think twice about giving.

In conclusion, I would share this phrase which I believe sums up the abundant life in Jesus Christ.

“Live your life like you know that there is more than enough.”

This morning, I woke up with an overwhelming sense of activity in my head.   While finishing some chores around the pad, the things I felt I needed to accomplish, attain, and complete by the end of this year seemed to flood my senses.  If you have ever ventured down this same path, you already know that one thought spawns 6 and those six, twenty and those twenty, enough to give you brain freeze and keep you feeling helpless.

It almost happened to me but, thank God for the Holy Spirit, our friend, our guide, our Lord.  In that split second,  the soothing voice of the Holy Spirit whispered to my heart, while I was washing a cloth over the sink, “You are right on time.”

I began to rehearse the phrase, believing more and more each time I mumbled it.  Unsatisfied with just being, ‘right on time’ I wanted to know the how or why.  While meditating on this revelation, He helped me again by giving me the hint that made it all click.  In a moment of divine enlightenment, it all made sense,  “I am right on time because I follow an On Time God.“  Wow!!  I realized then, that the World is full of things to do but, God filters events and goals according to my life.  He custom fits the affairs of this life to me.  He has everything lined up in a orderly sequence of cause and effect, Action and Re-action, Preparation for Actuation; All in a well thought out plan that may take a little time to work itself out. How much more can one soul ask for.

So, when you feel like there is so much to do but only one person, ask God to control of  the filtering process in your life once again.