◄ Amazing Grace (Easter Reflections - (13) ►
Easter Reflections - STUDY
A Never-ending Story
God’s amazing grace began in eternity past and will continue into eternity future, and for a few brief seasons, His grace is poured out over the entire human race. Six thousand years of amazing grace.. and His grace continually draws you and me: that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus – that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church, to the principalities and powers in heavenly places. Eph.2:7
A Never-ending Gift
The death burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus demonstrates God’s amazing grace. It demonstrates God’s gift of SAVING, SANCTIFYING and GLORIFYING Grace. It shows what He has done, (by paying the price for sin and breaking the power of sin and death) And so, I want to I want share one more example of this Amazing Grace.. a demonstration of God’s amazing grace, working through one of His children.. a testimony of my close friend and sister in Christ – a testimony of the way God has worked in one life.. an assurance that God can work through every life… that comes to Him.
A Never-ending Testimony
She writes, “Amazing Grace: This hymn is one of my favourites because it speaks of Father God’s amazing grace. It was written in times when slavery was commonplace and people were reaching out and crying out in their circumstances. I wanted to share with you what the truths written in this hymn means to me and how it reflects the Amazing Grace that has never failed to abound in my life.
Amazing Grace
how sweet the sound
How wonderful is Father God’s Grace. Without it where would we be?
Living in sin?
Feeling the effects of our sin?
No hope?
No future?
No promise of eternal life?
In condemnation?
It is music to my ears, there is no greater or sweeter sound than the assurance of Father God’s grace and the evidence of His grace in my life and the lives of others:-
Amazing Grace …
how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!
How precious is His Saving Grace, He saved me, I am born again. He sent His only Son to die for me.. for us, for our sins so that we may be forgiven and reconciled to Him, with the promise of eternal life. There was no worse a wretch than me when I gave my life to Jesus – no worse a past. Yet Father God’s grace was sufficient for me, it covered all my past, my sins, my hurts – and assured me of a sure, and certain hope for my future. Without Him I am nothing.
When Father God saved me.. He had already found me, in fact, I wasn’t lost to Him ever. He knew me before I was born. He knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I was:-
Lost to the world
Lost to sin
Lost to others
Lost in my past
Lost in my pain (in my past hurts)
But not lost to Father God
I was well and truly lost.. no “Sat Nav” could get me on the right track. I had gone so far down the wrong roads that it seemed that my life would never get back on the right track.
Father God removed the scales from my eyes, He caused me to see:- I saw the pit of sin I was in.. the effect that had on my life.. the effect that had on others. I saw the privilege of knowing Him as my personal Saviour.. the promise of a relationship with Him through faith and prayer and worship. I saw the assurance of eternal life. And I now see the hand of Father God in my life, from creation, through Jesus’ coming and resurrection to His saving grace. I see the errors of my ways and the way I should be. I see the benefits and the honour of having a personal relationship with my Father God. I see the assurance of being reconciled to Him for all eternity. From Genesis to Revelation it’s all there in His Word.
‘Fear not’ said He, for mighty dread had seized their troubled minds. This chunk of scripture replayed in the classic Christmas carol ‘While shepherds watched’, says it all. How we get ourselves when we don’t ‘let go and let God’.. when we don’t trust Father God in our lives and situations and when we don’t allow His grace to abound in our lives . In some situations in life it’s inevitable and sometimes appropriate to express fear. If we went around rushing headlong into life in fearless ways we wouldn’t have to exercise our faith, so it’s normal and healthy to worry about that exam coming up.. and that test at the hospital and whether or not the bills are going to get paid this month. But what isn’t appropriate is allowing fear and worries to ‘trouble’ you then ‘seize’ your mind. In allowing fear to ‘seize your troubled mind’ we allow it to seize our hearts, our faith, our lives, The wonderful part of Amazing Grace is the promise that Father God’s grace can relieve your fears, if you cast your cares upon Him – and if leave your worries and fears at the foot of the cross.
My Testimony
When I gave my life to Jesus during the Billy Graham crusade event in Chesterfield in 1984, I remember being blown away by the fact that not only had my sins been forgiven and I had the assurance of eternal life but I had a direct line to Father God. I could talk to Him about anything in prayer and cast my cares upon Him. Easy Peasy lemon squeezy, but not for me. You see as I went on to pick and choose what I prayed about and worried about. And the hymn so often played at Billy Graham events says it:-
What a friend we have in Jesus
ALL our sins and griefs’ to bear
What a privilege to carry
EVERYTHING to God in prayer
The hymn goes on to remind us that:-
Oh what peace we often forfeit
Oh what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry
EVERYTHING to God in prayer
Twenty-five years later I’m much better at it.. and yet I’m still learning to rely on His Amazing Grace to abound in my life and my trials.
Through many dangers toils and snares
I have already come!
‘Tis Grace that brought me here thus far
And Grace will lead me on
Battle-Scarred and Weary
I was born with my ‘dukes up’ fighting for my life and with Father God’s grace I won that battle – the first of many to come. Not surprisingly each battle I have fought, each trial in my life I have had to face, more often than not I have tried to ‘go it alone’ and I have been well into the battle and sometimes battle-scarred and weary, before I have ‘Let Go and Let God’! What a crying shame, oh what peace I forfeited – oh what needless pain I bore! It’s only by maturing in my faith and by looking back on my life, and seeing Father God’s hand on my life and the evidence of His grace abounding in me and my life, that I come to a place of peace, pain-free and in the perfect state of grace. For only by His Grace can I write these words. Only by His Grace am I here to tell this story. Only by His Grace have I come ‘thus far’ and I can only carry on by His Grace – only by His Amazing Grace
When we’ve been dead ten thousand years
Bright shining like the sun!
I’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when I first begun!
Crucified For Me
I believe that when our Lord Jesus Christ walked amongst us knowing full well what His fate would be that He also had to draw on his Father’s Grace, when for instance He was tempted by Satan in the dessert.. when He knew one of his closest friends would betray Him.. when He pleaded with our Father to ‘take this cup from me’ and pleaded with Him ‘is there no other way’. The clearest evidence I see of Father God’s Grace abounding in Jesus’ life is in the run-up to His death on the cross, in particular when He said ‘Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do’! Not only was He willing to die that horrible death on the cross for their sins and ours, but by His Father’s Grace, He was also able to forgive them, then and there – as He was crucified.
Forgiven and Free
No greater love,
No greater forgiveness
No greater grace.
In dying on that cross our Lord Jesus Christ, as He had promised, reconciled us to Father God in the forgiveness of our sins and the assurance of eternal life with Him and His Father – and the promise that He was leaving His Holy Spirit with us to live in us and amongst us until we die or until He returns. And it is for these reasons that I am beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will be ‘singing Father God’s praise with the angels for all eternity. I know that sounds like a rehash of a Robbie Williams song but it wasn’t intended and it’s the truth. The truth of Father God’s Amazing Grace!
Amazing Grace – Amazing Love
For those who have not read her story you can read it here:
or just settle down for an hour or so and just listen to the audio of:
… a story that continues to be lived out through His AMAZING GRACE…
I encourage you to take time today… to read it through and to marvel at
God’s Amazing Grace
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