Bold Humility

Jude 1:1-2  To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:  ² May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you. 

Observation:  Even with the Holy Spirit's calling, the Father's Love, and the keeping of Christ, we still need an ever increasing supply of mercy, peace, and love in our lives.  Yesterday's blessing is insufficient for today's need.

Application:  My heart has been captivated lately by the grace of God.  From Jennifer Jill's book A Most Precious Message to He Knows My Name to Jon Paulien's book Knowing God in the Real World, I have been stirred with a sense of the bigness of God's grace.  I have felt his mercy peace and love being multiplied in my life.  

Yesterday, for the first time in a long time, I found myself saying, I will simply be what I can be.  I'm not going to try and be a hero, I'm not going to try and please anybody, I'm not going to collect stuff, I'm simply going serve with the satisfaction of knowing I'm accepted in the beloved.  And I cannot begin to describe how freeing this is.  Even as I'm writing this I feel a little stress with the fact that I have to lead worship this morning, but I'm entrusting it to the Lord.  The one who knows my name.

For the sake of rememberance, I want to record some of the things which have grabbed my attention in my reading of late.  First, from Knowing God in the Real World:  

When Christians are not sure whether God loves them and accepts them in Christ, they can be even more insecure than secular people because they know the high standards of performance taught in the Bible.

The problem is that whenever we turn away from God's grace and try to build ourselves up through our own efforts (whether secular or religious), we will always feel superior or inferior to others…

The gospel dispels this game.  It creates a new self-image.  The gospel humbles us in the presense of others because it teaches us that we are sinners saved only by grace.  At the same time, it emboldens us before others when we realize that we are loved and honored by the only eyes in the universe that really count.  The gospel gives us both boldness and humility.  It gives us a boldness that needs no grounding in superiority.  And it gives us humility that doesn't depress.  No mere philosophy or religion can accomplish this in us.  We actually get it free!  We are no longer bound by lies.  

This is why I long for the multiplication of mercy, love, and peace in my life.  I want to be bold for Christ and yet held captive in His humility.  I want to serve without apology; love without fear; and live without regret.  And only His goodness and grace gives me the security to do this.  So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. (2 Corinthians 12:9).  

My Hope is Built on Nothing Less

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly trust in Jesus' Name.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,

All other ground is sinking sand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,

I rest on His unchanging grace.

In every high and stormy gale,

My anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood,

Support me in the whelming flood.

When all around my soul gives way,

He then is all my Hope and Stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,

Oh may I then in Him be found.

Dressed in His righteousness alone,

Faultless to stand before the throne.

  

So this is where I stand this morning.  On the Rock of my Redemption, Jesus Christ.  He is my security and strength.  My hope and my salvation.  Whom shall I fear?  He is the stronghold of my life.  Of whom shall I be afraid?   You see, I have heard him whispering to my heart:  

I saw your face when they spit on me.  I thought of your name when they pierced my side.  The Cross wasn't about Me enduring some big religious ritual that had to be performed.  It was about you!  I did it for you because I loved you, planned you and want you, above all things, in My Creation.  The power of My love that was demonstrated that day on the cross has the power to change every aspect of your life forever.  I built you with one central need, and that is to be accepted and loved.  And loved you are!  So when you feel forgotten and rejected, when you fail and don't succeed, when you feel worried and alone, remember that symbol of torture and grace, My cross.   It was there that I gave you what you need most--even more than the air you breathe, I gave you My matchless, enduring, life-changing love!