Grace.....

When Satan tempts me to despair,

And tells me of the guilt within,

Upward I look, and see him there

Who made an end of all my sin

I describe myself as one of those modern type worship leaders, out with the hymns and bring in the real music sort of guy. But quite interesting God has taken me on a tangent from my usual style and made me fall in love with hymns. I remember listening to 'I Exalt Thee' and just having the words impact my heart so much and focus my attention on God. But not to get caught up in dissecting my favourite hymn I guess today just wanted to write about grace, the word the entire gospel is built on. Just looking at guys who wrote hymns, I can't help but marvel at thhey're understanding of grace. Hymns have two common things which i feel are central to the Gospel. One is understanding that God loves you regardless and the second being that the only way we know that is by focusing on God.

I guess a lot of my posts have concentrated on the second postulate (proves i write a lot of scientific reports to use words like this) but today I'll spend time on the first. You know that verse in Psalms that says "But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head." (Psalm 3:3 thank God for the internet). I was watching a series called 'Lie to Me' and this guy has got like a PhD in like Psychology and helps the government and companies spot liars. This one episode was interesting when this one guy felt shame and guilt for something he had done, and the PhD dude says, this guy is showing shame because his shoulders are drooping and his head is tilted down.

Isn't that what its like with us and sin, when we sin our spiritual shoulders droop and our heads tilt down. What's so amazing about this verse is that it doesn't point to 10 step plan to get out of guilt, it points to Jesus. You might say well, Jesus wasn't born yet and blah blah blah, how can it point to Jesus. But something fascinating I discovered recently Luke 24:27, ^" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." All of scripture pointing to Jesus, WOW, I would have loved to have been part of those wide eyed disciples.

So I guess not to go off topic, grace is truly what saves us. Its truly what gives us pride in our saviour. If it wasn't for grace we wouldn't be here. Mercy Me (christian rock band) sing:

And if I boast let me boast

Of filthy rags made clean

And if I glory let me glory

In my Savior's suffering

Isn't that crazy

It would definately be crazy if it all wasn't true. I've got a friend of mine and her name means grace. But the first time i asked her what her name meant she said to me, "It means unmerited favour" (still think she just wanted to make it sound cool." But thats exactly what grace means...

love, peace and happiness

Tau