“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

I do not like how I sound on a message machine, or on a video tape, and I do not like how I look on pictures. I am very critical of my voice, and my looks. It is not so much that I am a depressed individual, but I just believe that I have a face for radio, and a voice for the typewriter.

Seeing ourselves for what we are, good or bad, is a very important first step in understanding the richness of G-d’s grace. Grace becomes an amazing gift when we finally see ourselves the way G-d sees us—up close and personal, magnified hundreds of times, warts and flaws front and center. The apostle Paul wrote, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

G-d knows all things about us, our actions, attitudes, thoughts, and responses. I’m a sinner, and so are you — and G-d knows it. We don’t need a Sunday morning article on the front page of the news to tell us that. What is so surprising is that it is our terribly broken condition that prompts G-d’s grace and love to flow to us. It’s our blemishes, our sin, and our stupid self-centeredness that makes us desperately in need of G-d’s grace. And thankfully, G-d gives it to all people abundantly!

Through the years of my marriage to my wife, I have not gotten better looking. Far from it. I am heavier, I am balder, and I look more and more like my father every day. And yet, my wife continues to love me — and thinks, I believe, that I look the same as I did the day we were married. Of course she sees that I have changed in my looks, yet there is no difference in her love for me, nor my love for her. She will always be my beautiful, blushing bride. And I thank G-d for that. Her love for me is like G-d’s love for all of us. It was demonstrated in spite of our failures, not withheld because of them. That’s the grace that G-d chooses to love us with. And that’s the grace that drives me to want to love G-d in return.

Feeling broken today? Feeling unloved, out of place, behind the times, too little too late? Are you stuck in a stubborn pattern of sin you can’t break? G-d’s got you, nothing is hidden from G-d’s view, and still in this moment you are the object of G-d’s love, mercy and grace.

What makes it hard for you to see yourself as the sinner you really are—Comparison, rationalization, excuses, pride?

Write down the sins that constantly pop up in your life. Ask yourself, “Where would I be today if it weren’t for G-d’s grace in my life?” (Some of the thoughts in this devotion were taken from a devotion by Joe Stowell, Strength for the Journey, website.)

Pastor Dave

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

Do you know the name Auguste Bartholdi? You should. Back in 1856 he had travelled to Egypt. There he met a man who was trying to sell an idea to build a canal from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea (eventually called the Suez Canal). Bartholdi conceived of an idea to build a light house that would stand at the entrance of this canal. But this light house would be no ordinary light house. It would symbolize the light of Western civilization flowing to the East. In the ten years it took to build the Suez Canal, Auguste drew plans, made clay models, and scrapped plan after plan. Finally he came up with the perfect design. There was only one problem — no one was interested in building the lighthouse, or paying for such. The Suez Canal was opened—without a lighthouse. Auguste went back to France defeated, ten years of toil and effort wasted.

Now, you may recognize his idea for the lighthouse. He conceived a colossal robed lady that stood taller than the Sphinx in Egypt. She held books of justice in one hand and a torch lifted high in the other. Sound familiar? After Auguste returned to France, the French government came to Bartholdi asking him if he would use his artistic services to design a gift to America. The Statue of Liberty today stands in the New York harbor — and has been a beacon of light for western civilization for those coming to America seeking opportunity. The idea that Bartholdi finally got to share his vision of a “lighthouse” demonstrates what happens when in the midst of disappointments, along can come good things beyond our imagination.

Using this image of a lighthouse as a beacon for those seeking new paths or opportunity, we know that Jesus himself said he is the “light of the world”. Jesus also said he is the “way, the truth and the life” and he is “the resurrection and the life”. Jesus, like a lighthouse, is a path forward toward better times, safer passages, and straighter roads. This is how we can move forward in times of trouble, or when the devil begins to tempt and test us in life. In all things, we have to believe that G-d uses each situation as a process of our “Life education” — and as our “spiritual development”. Each of us is a work in progress. Though G-d loves and accepts us the way we are, G-d also sees all that we can become. Pleasure has a way of making us satisfied with ourselves, while pain catches our attention so that G-d can develop us and our path in life. Behind the scenes of our life story is the hand of G-d — moving, changing, limiting, applying pressure, providing strength, rearranging. G-d is the one working all things for our good.

Once we understand how the process works, we always have to come back to God’s purpose: to conform us to the image of His Son.  Anything that will bring us to a more reflection of the “Christ-like Life” is good — though it may not feel good at the moment.

Think of a time you experienced a season of disappointment or despair. How did G-d work through that process to conform you a little closer to the image of His Son?

Perhaps you are going through a painful process right now. What aspect of the process is most encouraging to you—that is all-encompassing, continuous, or divinely inspired? Ask the Lord to give you patience as you feel the Holy Spirit guide you through the process, and look forward with anticipation to the outcome yet to be! (Some of the thoughts in this devotion were taken from a devotion by Joe Stowell, Strength for the Journey, website.)

Pastor Dave