He Giveth More Grace

Annie Johnson Flint lived most of her life in pain. She was orphaned when she was very young and adopted by flint family. She had a frail body and later she was weekend by cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. When she was interviewed, the interviewer saw that she was in full agony. She even needed several pillows to cushion herself from raw sore from being bed ridden.

Her autobiography interestingly entitled the making of the beautiful. But how can a life of sick and bed ridden person be beautiful? We can find this answer in one of a poem written by her in her sick bed, which later being used as a lyric of a song.


He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.

Ref:
For His love has no limits, and His grace has no measure,
His power has no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Christ Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.

by: Annie J. Flint


Mark the first paragraph of the song. I think it is the most comforting and the most beautiful peace of poetry, and yet this peace can only be understood by one that love him.

Bible scripture: James 4:6

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Listen to the song:

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Meditation on Sin and Grace

Cheap Grace

Grace alone which God supplies,

Strength unknown He will provide,

Christ in us our corner-stone,

We will go forth in grace alone.

The verses above are taken from a song written by Scott Wesley Brown, Grace Alone. A word in this song which burns my heart is the word “Grace”. As we recite the song we encounter a verse that said God will supply grace to us. However what kind of grace it will be? It is not a cheap kind of grace but a grace that handsomely paid by God.

No body will understand grace without, at first; understand the weight of sin that resides in one life. People who are without a remorse feeling over their sin will never be willingly admit grace into their life.

We all have crossed over God’s moral law and sinned against Him. Fourteenth question of the Westminster Shorter catechism has cited: What is sin? Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God. Sin describes here as both passive (sin of commission) and active (sins of omission). We sin when we fail to conform to God’s will. For examples: when we have a duty to prune the garden and we are not performing that duty. From the example, we can see that we sin because we have not done what God requires us to do.

On the other hand, we also actively do what He prohibits. This means we sin because we do the thing that God does not want us to do, transgression unto God’s moral Law. If we transgressed a law written by a state or country, we can expect a punishment. However to transgress the Law of God (sin) is a “cosmic treason”, as rightly pointed by R. C. Sproul. In His book, The Truth of The Cross, he expounds that: “the slightest sin that a creature commits against his Creator does violence to the Creator’s holiness, His Glory, and His righteousness. Every sin, no matter how insignificant, is an act of rebellion against the sovereign God who reigns and rules over us and as such is an act of treason against the cosmic King.” Never overlook sin that you done because it is a serious matter, it is an act of treason against the cosmic king and it required a severe punishment.

10 Reasons Why I Am Thankful for the God-Breathed Bible

1. The Bible awakens faith, the source of all obedience.

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)

2. The Bible frees from sin.

You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. (John 8:32)

3. The Bible frees from Satan.

The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. (2 Timothy 2:24-26)

4. The Bible sanctifies.

Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. (John 17:17)

5. The Bible frees from corruption and empowers godliness.

His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. (2 Peter 1:3-4)

6. The Bible serves love.

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment. (Philippians 1:9)

But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (1 Timothy 1:5)

7. The Bible saves.

Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you. (1 Timothy 4:16)

Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. (Acts 20:26)

[They will] perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. (2 Thessalonians 2:10)

8. The Bible gives joy.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. (John 15:11)

9. The Bible reveals the Lord.

And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. (1 Samuel 3:21)

10. Therefore, the Bible is the foundation of my happy home and life and ministry and hope of eternity with God.

By John Piper.

Published 20 November 2006

God is everywhere, 4/4

Where to Run?

If a criminal run away from police, he might felt save once he thought he has find a perfect hiding place and eludes the police forever. However can we ever do the same when we try to run away from God? If you want to do a secret sin you might withdraw from public place to your house. If you suspect some one is spying on you might withdraw to your room. If you still feel being watch you might withdraw to your heart. However, God is still presences in that little spot of your heart when you meditate upon sin that you are trying to commit.

God will never chase us but we are the one that fleeing from him. He is always presence, so you can’t flee. I have read it some where: “We Got no place to flee from Him but there is a place to flee unto Him.” Repent and confess your sin then you can be sure that He will be presence to bless.

Psalm 139:7-10

7. Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8. If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10. even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.

God is everywhere, 3/4

Hell and Heaven

Have you ever think that God is not presence in your life? Have you ever think that He is leaving you? If the answer is yes, then it will be an apparent contradiction to the notion that God is presence everywhere. If God is truly presence everywhere, how can He be absence or leaving you?

Hell

How about Hell? Does God presence in Hell? In Matthew 18:9 the word hell is describe in Greek language "Gehenna" or often being called "Gehenna of fire". This was originally the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem, where the filth and dead animals and often dead body of the city were cast out and burned; a fit symbol of the wicked and their future destruction. Hell is known as a place of eternal punishment. God does presence in hell; however His presence is not of His benevolent but his wrath. His presence is to punish the wicked. Thus God’s omnipresence is a bad news for bad people.

If you ever have a thought that God is leaving you might need to evaluate yourself (remember God is always presence). You might be trying to run away from Him all this while and you just exhaust yourself. See in yourself if you did sin against God. If you did, you have set yourself away from God. The absence of God is not because of He is leaving you but you are running away from Him. Stop distancing yourself from Him. Instead of dwelling in your sin and guilt, why not you bow down to your knees and humbly pray, “Forgive me a sinner.”

Heaven

Many people thought heaven as a dwelling place of God. However, heaven is not a dwelling place for God; He is not presence in heaven more then anywhere else. Heaven is just the place of focus of his character and presence of his blessing and glory are abundant.

In bible we encounter many of God presences to bless his people. And in our life He will also presence to bless us if we glorifying Him. To glorify Him does not mean that you try to do something to earn your way toward His blessing. To glorify Him means to make Him becomes the focus of your life. To glorify Him means to be more like him.

In our life His presence can be either to bless or to punish. Which one of His presence do you desire?

God is everywhere, 2/4

What is God?

John 4:24 said that God is a spirit and this is means that God is a being that does not have size and dimension. He is not a being that neither can be contained in space nor occupy any space. Beside our physicality we also have a soul. Can our spirit be in different places in the same time? The answer is no. There is a different between our spirit and God. Our spirit is a finite (created) and God is infinite.

Some people thought of God’s omnipresent attribute as something that extends infinitely as an unending space. This wrong conception has categorised God as a bigger space. Another misconception is a pantheistic believes, which assumes that every thing created (this including us, plant, etc) is part of God. Since there is an apparent qualitative different between us and God, how can be the creator be the very thing He created?

Note: I will not discuss my rebuttal toward pantheistic believe in this writing since it required me to explain in a lengthier manner in order for us to get the bigger picture.

God as a spirit presence in every space in the same time, and He not only present part of Himself (1/3 in Australia and 2/3 in Indonesia) but he presence fully in every spaces in the same time. So we can enjoy his full presence in every time and space. This fact will encourage us in prayer where we no need special place to pray (not temple mosque or church) yet we still have God special attention. Most importantly we no need to have appointment with Him.

God is everywhere, 1/4

Limitation

Tsunami was a natural disaster that known to us. This disaster wipes many lives away in a blink moment. In respond to this, a first wave of rescue and relieves worker has been sent immediately. When this group attended the need of people in one place, they couldn’t, likewise, provided cares and relieves unto people in another places of disaster in the same time.

Human have a limitation in space and time continuum. We has size, we has dimension we can only inhabit one space in the same time. Unlike human, God does not have size or spatial dimensions and He presence at every point of space with his whole being. And yet God acts differently in different places. (Grudem, 2003). We are living and experiencing time in a linear fashion, Past-Present-Future. However God is outside and beyond the time, before time He was and He created time.

There is a qualitative difference between God and us. He is the creator and we are the creature. He is living totally in a different dimension compared to us. Although sometime it is hard for our mind to comprehend this, yet it does not mean we can’t understand it. There is a qualitative different between a chair (thing that we created) and us (the designer). Chair does not have mind but we have. Let us parallel this example unto human-God qualitative different: We, human are created by Him and God is the creator. The vast mind of God is totally out of our reach, His mind compared to ours is liken to an ocean and a drop of water. This qualitative different is equally true to His attribute, Omni presence, God is presence every where and we are not.