Tag: Grace

On Forgiveness

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals, Discipleship, Quotes2 Comments

All sin breaches our relationship with God, but we must never think that the Lord will refuse us if we humble ourselves and return to Him with true contrition.

He longs to take us back, and His willingness to forgive His children is infinite.

No matter where we are or what we have done, we can be confident that God will pardon us if we forsake our sin and turn to Christ alone for our pardon. That is the magnitude of His grace. That is the mercy of the God whom we serve in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Questions for Reflection

  1. How do you think of God’s grace and mercy alongside His justice?
  2. What is the key to the Lord taking us back?

Resources

Table Talk Magazine, Devotional from July 4th

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Thanksgiving: A Reminder To Give Thanks For Everything

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals4 Comments

Thanksgiving is almost here. As I gear up to travel back to my home town to visit with friends and family, I am thankful for all the Lord has given me in my life. Even though I am thankful for what the Lord has done, my thoughts of thankfulness might just be too fleeting and ordinary. As I sat in church yesterday listening to the sermon, our pastor read a quote by G.K. Chesterton that caused me to see my fault in lifting up thanksgiving to the Lord. Chesterton says,

You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.

Chesterton says grace before all these events because he recognizes the Lord is sovereign over all things, and provides him with all things, even the ink in his pen. It was then that I realized I do not always thank God for everything I have or participate in.

Challenge

So let me challenge you, and myself as well, to not just lift up a thanksgiving prayer before the meal the Lord provides, but to lift up a prayer of thanksgiving for all the Lord has done in your life at all times. Give thanks to the Lord always since:

He sustains the seat you are seated in because He is the sovereign ruler of the universe, He allowed you to be born into the family in which you are apart, He provides you with the job you so often take for granted, He has given you your beautiful wife and children, He provides you with the church you attend, the car you are driving, the clothes on your back, the turkey you are going to set on the table, and even the coffee you are going to drink, while eating the dessert He gives the provisions to purchase. He also provides you with the ability to exercise, play sports, and even watch your rivals play football.

Instead of thanking God once over our Thanksgiving meal, we should thank Him always for everything He has graciously and mercifully given us, including the gift of His Son Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins; thus, making a way for us to be reconciled to God.

Praise and Thank the Lord Like the Psalmist

Since the Lord provides for us in every area of life and at all times, we should lift up praises to Him like the psalmist in Psalm 100:

Psalm 100: A Psalm for giving thanks.
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
3 Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
5 For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

What is the Wrong and Right Way to Seek Change in Our Life?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, PracticalLeave a comment

I recently read an article by Tim Keller entitled: Gospel Preaching. In Appendix B: Applying Christ, he gives reasons people may say no to ungodliness before giving us the real way we can change. I would like to quote Keller at length, rather than attempting to summarize. Keller says,

The Wrong Way to Seek Change

Think of all the ways you can ‘say no’ to ungodliness. You can say “No-because I’ll look bad!” You can say “No-because I’ll be excluded from the social circles I want to belong to.” You can say “No-because then God will not give me health, wealth, and happiness.” You can say “No-because God will send me to hell.” You can say “No-because I’ll hate myself in the morning and disappoint myself and have low self-esteem.”

But virtually all of these motives are really just motives of fear and pride – the very things that also lead to sin. You are just using sinful self-centered impulses of the heart to keep you compliant to external rules without really changing the heart itself.

Also, you are not really doing anything out of love for God. You are using God to get things – self-esteem, prosperity, or social approval. So your deepest joys and hopes rest in other things beside God. This kind of ‘obedience’ does not issue from a changed heart at all.

How to Change

Paul is saying: If you want to really change and gain self-control you must let the gospel teach you – a word that means to train, discipline, coach you over a period of time. You must let the gospel argue with you. You must let the gospel sink down deeply until it changes the structures of your motivation and views of things. John Stott says on Titus 2:14: “Grace not only saves, but undertakes our training. Grace bases her teaching upon the great facts in which her first grand revelation of herself was made, and finds all her teaching power in those mighty memories!”

This Does Not Mean

This does not mean that Christians should not use every possible means to exercise self-control in the crucial moment. If you feel an impulse to pick up a rock and hit someone with it – do anything at all to keep yourself from doing it! Tell yourself “I’ll go to jail! I’ll disgrace my family!” Anything. There’s no reason why in the short run a Christian can not simply use ‘will-power’ like that to make a change that is necessary.

But in the long run change will only come from changing the heart’s deepest affections with the melting, moving grace of God.

Conclusion

In this article, Keller provides us with three things that are happening when we do not seek change at the heart level: (1) We will not truly change. (2) We end up using God to build our self-esteem, prosperity, or social approval because our hope lies in something other than God. (3) We end up using sinful self-centered impulses derived from fear and pride to exact external change in order to remain compliant to our social circles accepted actions, or because we believe compliance to rules will gain us favor with God; thus, meriting us health, wealth, happiness, and a ticket out of hell.

In contrast, the only way for us to really change is if our heart is affected by the Gospel. Instead of forcing ourselves to keep external rules, we need to seek change at the heart level by preaching the Gospel to ourselves and allowing the grace of God to melt away our hearts deepest affections for our own self promotion, glory, satisfaction, and pleasure.