SERVING GRACE

The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Serving Grace

The movie "Saving Private Ryan" ends with Captain Miller sitting near a bridge after an attack by German forces. His life is ebbing away as he pulls Ryan down toward him. Struggling for breath he whispers, "Earn this! Earn this!" As Ryan stands, his face morphs back into the present as a senior adult searching for Miller’s cross in the cemetery. Crying he turns to his wife and says, "Tell me I’m a good man."

I can relate to the private’s dilemma. When I was a young Christian, growing up, I had a mentality that being a Christian was all about being good and having the proper understanding of biblical doctrine. If I could be good and keep the right doctrine, I would go to heaven. If I was not good, my future would be less certain. When I went to Bible College; that was the mentality I carried with me. I actually thought going to Bible College would be another reason I would go to heaven.

Then I took a class on the book of Romans. The professor, Dr. Mark Berrier, showed us over and over again in the first 3 chapters how that none of us was good enough to go to heaven. Getting religion straight, having “THE” correct doctrine, and being a good person was not going to happen. Later, I told the professor that during the first 3 weeks of the class I grew angry with him. In reality, I was angry with myself because I was seeing that my legalistic false concept of being good and having perfect understanding was nothing more than a myth.

I learned that only Jesus had gotten it right and that his purpose for getting it right was so that he could substitute himself for me because of my error and sins. He couldn’t do anything with me until I realized that any good that I was or any good that I did was only because of what Jesus was doing inside of me. When I finally realized what that meant for me, I was able to rest in God’s grace and begin to be useful to him.

Ephesians 2:7-10 tells us that our good works will never save us. We are saved by the works of Jesus through his amazing grace. However, he does have works for us to do for him, but they are only because of what Jesus has done in us and what he wants to do through us. Verse 10 tells us he has works planned for us from the beginning of time. So embrace his grace and get to work.

This Sunday we will continue our series The Dedicated Church Member; Outwardly Focused Christians with a message titled, Church Dropouts, based on Ephesians 2:8-10; 1 Corinthians 12. In this message we will explore the primary reasons people drop out of church and how we can overcome them. Some of those reasons have something to do with service and attitudes about it. Plan to come and see how God wants to use you.

Serving with you by his Grace,
Jon