My phone failed to rouse me from my slumber this morning so I could go swim. Lately, I’ve fallen into the habit of oversleeping by a half-hour, and my eyes have been heavy throughout the day. 6 am is when I woke up, strange to think that this is late for me now, but the repercussions affect my day in a real way. Now, I have insufficient time to swim and have time with God. I would have to choose one or the other, and half-asleep, Groggy me fumbled to try and makes sense of what I should do: God or Exercise.
The Ultimatum lay before me. These past two days I chose exercise in an effort to energize my day, and God made it distinctly clear that He wanted my time, the only time I would be able to relinquish to Him throughout the day.
It was as if God I had spat in God’s face.
Romans 2:4 “Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”
God is extremely patient with us. Our sin is pervasive. It sticks to us like tar on the insides of our stomach and there is little relief from it. The reality of sin is a gruesome animal to come to bare against, so much so that to try to overcome sin on your own means lying to yourself about its nature or being crushed under its weight.
Romans 7:24 echoes the “weight” when Paul exclaims, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?“
It is in our nature to sin, as this well known hymn points out,
“Prone to Wonder
Lord I feel it
Prone to Leave the God I love”
The human condition seems quite hopeless when staring into the darkness of sin and hell.
However,
The beauty of the Gospel shines when you have stopped lying to yourself about the nature of sin, are about to be crushed by it, feeling the weight of your sin, but realize that Christ has taken the burden from you. That is Grace.
Grace is overwhelming! The Bible schooled believer probably has the textbook definition in the back of their mind, “Grace is, ‘unmerited favor from God'” True, oh so true, but so much more than those words can unveil. Grace is reconciliation, Grace is Friendship, Grace is Safety, Grace is Freedom.
God has loved you, yes you who read this, so much that He did not spare His Son the Cross, but God poured out His wrath upon His own Son, the wrath that was meant for you that we might be reconciled with God, that we might receive blessings from God, that we might receive Friendship from God, we might receive safety from God, and Freedom through His Spirit.
C.S. Lewis, in his book “The Weight of Glory”, talks about the nature of God’s glorification of us in heaven, and the conclusion of His thought is that full force of glory comes to us in the form of God’s favor. What it means to be glorified is to have God delight in us, and that is the true nature of Heaven. To have ourselves be as we are, and to have an awesome, all-powerful, omniscience, Good, God take complete pleasure and find favor with us!
Romans 8:30 “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
God has given us Grace that we might receive His Glory! God has taken your guilt, your punishment, reconciled you, given you blessings that He might give you the gift of delighting in you! in Glorifying you!
Is it not amazing to think about!? How underserving, how sinful are we, but He has made a way where there was none!
Thanks for reading this far along, and if you have been blessed by this post please consider supporting me financially as I set out to share the Gospel with nations all around the world. It is a costly endeavor and I will need all the help I can get. A monthly gift of $50 or $100 dollars would go so far, but any amount helps. If 340 people gave a one time gift of $50 each I would reach my goal. It’s possible, and any support financially or through prayers is readily accepted. I am thankful for all of your support.
God Bless.
Quick update on deadlines for support:
August 21st – $10,000
October 31st – $13,000
December 31st – $16,267
How to make a donation:
ONLINE GIVING:
- I will continue to blog from now until the end of the trip here:stephenzenner.worldrace.org
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