It All Comes With Jesus - Immanuel!

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

(Hebrews 4:16)

Where else could we go in time of need? His Throne is the only place we can receive mercy because He is the only One who can extend it to us. With open, empty hands we approach Him and He fills them to overflowing with His mercy and His grace.

Mercy is when we don't get what we deserve. We deserve judgment, but we get mercy. It's a full pardon for all we have done that shows our disobedience and rejection of God.

Grace is when we get even more than mercy -- we get the added bonus of Christ's righteousness being credited to us.

So mercy is when we don't get what we deserve. And grace is when we do get what we don't deserve.

It's the ultimate exchange. We get rid of our dirty, sinful clothing and replace it with the perfect spotless new garments of Christ's righteousness.

There is no better deal in the universe. It's the most drastic, and certainly most important, makeover ever!

Everything in our life is reversed. Everything is turned upside down.

We approach the Throne, which should be the Throne of Judgment for us, where we should receive His just punishment for our sins and failures. But because we come dressed in the righteousness of His Son, our Redeemer, God is able to be kind and gracious to us, without in any way trivializing His requirement for perfect holiness.
He welcomes us as we approach Him.

The Cross took care of all of it!

So this is the picture we have as we approach the Throne. He is there waiting for us -- eagerly desiring to bless us. A throne is the symbol of authority. And God's Throne is where He commands His goodness to fall upon us.

We so approach with grateful hearts, in confidence, knowing He has already extended the scepter -- not like an early king's scepter -- His scepter is shaped like a cross -- and we approach as children to their loving Father.
 Remember what it was like to fun full speed, laughing joyfully, into your father's arms?

Is there a more joyous place in the universe? I don't know of one.

Neither did the Psalmist.

You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

(Psalm 16:11)

There's a sign over the gate to Disneyland reminding us that we are entering "The Happiest Place on Earth." And it is a very happy place!

But that happiness pales when compared to the joy we find at the eternal Throne of God.

Sometimes we get carried away with comparing the various words associated with joy.
We define "happiness" one way, and "joy" another way.

The Psalmist approached it differently:

But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful.

(Psalm 68:3)

Look at those words: be glad, rejoice, be happy, joyful -- four different words, and they all result from being in God's presence.

The Psalmist who write those words was King David, the one who sang and danced in the procession that brought the Ark of God's Presence into Jerusalem.

He was joyfully celebrating and dancing before God. It wasn't planned. It was a spontaneous reaction to just being close to God. And that's the kind of joy available to us! Today! Right now! At this precise moment! Just grab it!

Satan's Strategy of Attack

 

The very fact that you are under attack must mean you're on the right side, accomplishing important kingdom work that annoys and frustrates Satan. 

Notice someone else who struggled with his attacks: Read Romans 7:14-25. See how the Apostle Paul describes it -- "I do not understand," "It is sin living in me...", "I do not do the things I want...I see another law working in my body...what a miserable man I am..."   

He is writing in the present tense, describing a struggle at the present time. This means the Apostle Paul battled sin while he was writing a book in the Bible!

Can you think of a more strategic time for Satan to attack?

Grace Notes

A Glimpse of Grace
           .....from an unexpected place....

"Because of the love that was between this man and me, My Lord King Arthur and his noble knights now lie dead. Therefore, Sir Lancelot, I now repent; and I would enter the kingdom of heaven through the grace of the passion of our Lord Jesu: for many are now in heaven who were on earth as sinful as we."
(Words of Lady Guinevere)
                 
--from Le Morte D'Arthur [The Death of King Arthur], by Sir Mallory, published in 1485





From Jerry Bridges, written in 2008. "Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace." We are never 'beyond the need' or 'beyond the reach.'




From Philip Yancy, written 2007. "There is nothing you can do to make God love you more. And there is nothing you can do to make Him love you less."

What Does It Mean to Open a Bible?

 From David Platt in his book "Radical" --

"God has chosen in His matchless grace to give us a revelation of Himself in His Word.

It is the only Book that He has promised to bless by His Spirit to transform you and me into the image of Jesus Christ. It is the only Book that He has promised to use to bring our hearts, our minds, and our lives into alignment with Him.

I'm not saying that God has not used or blessed other books throughout Christian history, but there is only one Book that He has perfectly inspired by His Spirit for the accomplishment of His purpose.

When you or I open the Bible, we are beholding the very words of God -- words that have supernatural power to redeem, renew, refresh, and restore our lives to what He created them to be.

If we want to know the glory of God, if we want to experience the beauty of God, and if we want to be used by the hand of God, then we must live in the Word of God."

[supernatural power to restore us to what He created us to be....]

God's Right Man for the Right Job

Wisdom from C S Lewis

   "We have in our day started getting the whole picture up-side down. Starting with the doctrine that every individual is of 'infinite value,' we then picture God as a kind of employment agency whose business it is to find suitable careers for all of us, square holes for square pegs. 

In fact, however, the value of the individual does not lie in him. He is capable of receiving value. He receives it by union with Christ.

There is no question of finding for him a place in the living temple which will do justice to his inherent value. The place was there first. The man was created for it. He will not be truly himself until he is there."

Ephesians 2:10 --"For we are His handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."