Grace
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December 01, 2013 |
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 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:11)
Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
On Thanksgiving Sunday, we can see the abundance of harvest and its beautiful colors by seeing many kinds of fruit, vegetables, and grains that decorate the altar. We give thanksgiving worship services to God thinking of God's overflowing grace that has poured upon us and His blessing that has been given to us both in spirit and body.
The God of love has always given us the best things. Then, in 2013, what kinds of grace has God given us?
1. The grace of looking at us with the eyes of love
If a couple's baby begins to speak just a couple of days sooner than other babies, they think their baby is exceptionally smart. Later, if the child begins to hum melodies, the parents think their child is musically talented. If the child does anything well, the parents harbor great expectations, and if the child is short of anything, they try to cover it over. Parents just think that their children will become great people or at least live happy lives. They will expend all their dedication and efforts to see it happen.
The love of God is similar to this. But the love of God is perfect and unchanging, and He only wants our happiness. 1 Corinthians 13:7 says love "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." God is looking at us with such eyes of love.
Since God began human cultivation, He knew everything that would happen in the future. He knew that if He created Adam and gave him freewill, Adam would betray Him. He also knew that many of Adam's descendants would stand against God. But God believed that eventually there would be many true children who would love Him. For this reason God would not give up human cultivation.
Many people have been born and many have died on this earth, and God looks at each and every individual's life with so much care and attention. He loved each one even to the point of giving His only begotten Son to die on the cross. He is still looking at every soul living on this earth with the eyes of love.
He is also looking at all of you exactly the same way. He does not just look at the individuals who stand on the rock of faith with the eyes of love, or at those who are in spirit or whole spirit. He also looks at everybody with the eyes of love no matter whether they are in the 1st, 2nd, or beginning of the 3rd level of faith. All of you who long for God's love are etched in the heart of God.
As a shepherd, all of you believers are so precious to my eyes. Even when I see a member who is not changing even after a long time, or a member who is stuck in his self-righteousness and frameworks, I have never thought they are hopeless. I thought of the ways to give them more strength, and I have waited for them to come into spirit every day. If they had just a little bit of goodness or faithfulness for God's kingdom, I remembered their good points and interceded for them. When they changed and improved just a little bit, I was so happy. It is as if I received some great gifts.
If I feel this way, how much more love would God have for you? Even when you feel embarrassed about your own shortcomings, God does not focus on your shortcomings. He believes in you thinking you have many good points and waits for you to be made perfect. Because we have this grace of God who looks at us with the eyes of love, we have been able to reach the measure of faith that we have now.
2. The grace of giving us helping hands
Psalm 146:5 says, "How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God." Non-believers have no place to go and nobody to rely on. Even if they have those who support them well or are wealthy, there are things in their lives that cannot be done by human power. They may believe certain people will be on their side and help them no matter what the situation, but in desperate situations, those people actually turn their backs on them.
But we who believe in the Lord do not have such worries. For big problems or small problems, if we ask in the name of the Lord with faith, God the Almighty helps us. So, even in situations where the unbelievers might be afraid, we can have confidence. Even in dire and depressing situations, we should not lose hope. Even though everyone in this world turns their backs on us, God will not forsake us.
In 2013 alone, we have testimonies from our families and workplaces of having received answers from God when we sought His grace and power. In situations where we were unable to do anything God gave us comfort and peace and gave us His helping hands. Just with our own strength alone, we cannot do anything to cast away sins, to have the heart of spirit, and to open our mouth to pray. We are able to do them only with the grace and strength of God and with the help of the Holy Spirit.
When people really try to pray with their heart, He gives them strength. When they are tired in spirit, He stretches out His comforting hands. When they long to change, He lets them realize themselves. When they try to live by the Word, He gives them the power.
3. The grace of warmly holding us in His bosom
If just held in the bosom of their mothers, little children have nothing to fear in this world. If a sheep is at the bosom of the shepherd, it does not even fear ferocious animals. If the children of God are in the bosom of God, they have nothing to fear either.
Isaiah 40:11 says, "Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes." In spite of the rough waves of the world, when we commit every worry to God's care, we can enjoy the rest of our soul. We believers have felt the love of God and enjoyed peace in His bosom at each moment of your life in 2013.
But some children of God do not deeply feel His love and cannot go into His bosom. They rather feel that God is a fearful God and they try to hide themselves from His face. God is unchangingly the God of love, but once men create a wall of sin, they feel the love of God is very far away from them.
Sometimes, they feel the burden of sin so heavily that they do not even have the strength to repent. Even if they repent with their lips, unless they repent from the heart the affliction in their heart will not go away. They cannot lead a happy Christian life either. They can only lead a life of faith in fear thinking, "I am not able to do anything. It is so difficult to live by the Word. What if I face tests and trials when I do not keep the Word? What if I fall into Hell?"
Many members were thinking this way in the past, but now they have been able to lay down the heavy burdens of sins. And, they can make their profession of thanksgiving and love in peace. They feel that God is not a fearful Judge, but the Father who warmly holds them and gives them strength.
They do not keep the Word feeling coerced because they learned that they have to keep the Word, but instead they obey God's Word with happiness just to please Him. Now they do not feel New Jerusalem is somewhere so far away, but they have the hope that it is a place that they will definitely go to and they really want to go there to see the face of the Father and to be at His bosom.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the grace received in 2013 was not given just for the happiness of that moment, but it was also given to increase your measure of faith. It was the grace that was intended for you to eventually enjoy the best thing, which is New Jerusalem. I ask you to imprint on your heart all the grace that you received. In doing so, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will enjoy all the blessings that God has in store for you, always.
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