Sunday Grace Notes - March 6, 2011

Sunday was Lord's Supper and a thoughtful reminder of why we are all here, right now, on this planet, in this country, and here in His house. Our purpose in life, is to, as the Westminster Catechism says, "Glorify God and enjoy Him forever."

On Sunday we were celebrating His intervention into human history. No matter what else was going on in our lives on Sunday, we focused on the immeasurable gift of God's atoning grace that frees us from all the bonds that keep us estranged from Him.

Yes, it was a great day!

We sang some older hymns and I was struck by the similar phrases from two of them:

'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus, verse 2:

O how sweet to trust in Jesus
Just to trust His cleansing blood
Just in simple faith to plunge me
'Neath the healing, cleansing flood!

and Victory in Jesus, chorus:

O victory in Jesus, my Savior, forever
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood
He loved me 'ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him
He plunged me to victory, beneath the cleansing flood.

I hadn't realized before how similar the words are: we are 'plunged,' beneath the cleansing flood of His redeeming blood!

To be plunged is its own word picture....pushed under, all the way, to be submerged, under the surface. There is no half-hearted illustration here. We have to be, in our lives, completely under the blood of Christ. We can't 'plunge' into a pool with our heads still above the surface of the
water!

And then there's verse 3 of Victory in Jesus.

Last week Bro Mike talked about the crippled man at the temple gate who was healed. Someone in the crowd around Peter --someone who didn't need physical healing--might have thought, "If all he does is heal people, what can he do for me?"

I heard about His healing, of His cleansing power revealing
How He made the lame to walk again, and caused the blind to see
And then I cried, "Dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit,"
And somehow Jesus came and brought to me the victory.

I had a broken spirit Sunday. Somehow Jesus came and brought to me the healing victory.

And all that was just the beginning of the service!

The main focus in the service (And as a friend often says to me, The main thing is to keep the main thing as the main thing!) was God's allowance, throughout history, for sins that result from ignorance, and/or, unintentional sins. (See Part 2)