Pslam 32 and Grace

The book of Psalms is a book full of the grace of God. I want to for the next few weeks share the grace of God from selected chapters from the Psalms.

In Psalm 32 there are five aspects of grace that are mentioned.

Psalm 32:1-2

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

The first grace is forgiveness.

The Psalmist mention three things that God forgives.

Transgression means stepping over a boundary marker.

Sin means to miss the mark.

Iniquity means to willfully and deliberately disobey God.

The grace of God forgives all three of these that should bring death.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is receiving the grace of God’s forgiveness.

Psalm 32:3-5

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me, my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

The second grace is honesty.

In 1 Peter 2:22 Peter says that in Jesus’ mouth there was no deceit found. God’s grace enables us to live an honest, transparent, and authentic life that reflects the truth of Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living an authentic life that shows Jesus to others.

Psalm 32:6-9

Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to You at a time when You may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach Him. You are a hiding place for me; You preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. I will instruct and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding; which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.

The third grace is prayer and receiving answers to our prayers.

Prayer is not a right but a privilege. It is only by God’s grace that we can come into the presence of a holy and righteous God. God actually invites us to come to Him in prayer and this is all through His grace. And on top of inviting us to pray, He promises that anything we ask in Jesus’ name He will do.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is not just believing in prayer, but in prayer taking everything before God and knowing God will answer.

Psalm 32:10

Many are the sorrows of the wicked but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.

The fourth grace is repentance.

Repentance is doing an about face. It is seeing that our lives are going toward sin, which leads to death and turning and going toward God and life.

According to Act 3:19-20 repentance brings times of refreshing and the reality of Jesus’ presence in our lives.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is repenting and experiencing the joy of God’s steadfast love.

Psalm 32:11

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

The fifth grace is deliverance.

God sent Moses to deliver His people out of slavery in Egypt.

God sent numerous judges to deliver His people from many oppressing nations.

The Father ultimately sent Jesus, the Son, to deliver all people from sin.

God’s deliverance is based solely on His grace, not our deserving it.

All that God does for us is based on His grace.

In His Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                     Joe

Grace Gives Second Chances

I love God’s grace.

God’s grace makes me uncomfortable at times.

I know that those two statements seem in opposition to one another. They even seem to contradict each other but I have had and still have both of those feelings toward grace. 

I love grace because, as sinner saved by grace, I know that God’s grace is the only thing that saves me. I still sin and so, it is only God’s grace that forgives and cleanses me. I am incapable in my own human resources to accomplish what God wants in me and through me, and it is the Holy Spirit that empowers to do God’s will and I have the Holy Spirit in me only by God’s grace. So, yeah, I love God’s grace.

But God’s grace also forces me to admit that I am incapable and weak and that I fail. God’s grace makes me realize that, as Jesus says in John 15:5, unattached from Jesus I can do nothing. That is humbling and many times uncomfortable. After all, I am a man and we are taught not admit weakness.

When I think about God’s grace, I am drawn to many passages. But the one that stands out for me is one where the word grace is not mentioned. I have come to understand that grace is more a story than a theological concept. I experience grace more than I understand it.

John 21:15-17

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love You.” He said to him, “Feed My lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” and he said to Him, “Lord, You know everything; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.”

Grace is seen in this passage in that, first, Jesus did not condemn Peter for doing what Jesus had told him that he would do, deny that he knew Jesus. Jesus had every reason to condemn Peter. He had told Peter beforehand that he would deny Him three times. Peter was passionate about not denying Him. Peter even went so far as to tell Jesus that he would die for Him. But even with every reason to condemn him, Jesus does not.

In John 3:17 Jesus says that He did not come into the world to condemn the world but to save the world.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing we will never have to face the condemnation of Jesus.

Grace is also seen in this passage in that Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him.

It may seem that Jesus was asking the same question over and over to Peter to create guilt. Jesus was actually doing it to relieve guilt. Peter had denied Jesus three times and Jesus was giving Peter three opportunities to reaffirm his love for Jesus.

Grace gives second chances.

Grace gives third chances.

Grace in fact gives many, many, many chances.

God’s grace never gives up on you and me.

Raise the Roof and remove the Walls is experiencing God’s grace continually in our daily lives.

But grace is also seen in this passage by the words that Jesus used when He asks Peter if he loves Him.

The English language has one word for love that covers many very different kinds of feelings. I love my wife, I love baseball, and I love seeing people connect with God are very different kinds of feelings. The Greek language has several different words that we translate love.

Jesus first, asked Peter if he agaped Him, if Peter loved Jesus with a divine kind of love. Peter responded that he loved Jesus like a brother. He used a different word for love.

The second time Jesus again asked Peter if he loved Him with a divine love and Peter responded that he loved Jesus like a brother.

The third time Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him like a brother and Peter says that yes, he loves Jesus like a brother.

God’s grace meets us where we are, not where we are going to be.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing God’s love and grace where we are at that very moment.

God’s grace by its very nature goes to those who not only don’t deserve it but also know that they don’t deserve it. We as followers of Jesus and people who have experienced His grace are not given the task to judge or condemn but to give grace to others as we have received grace.

In God’s Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                            Joe

Grace: What God Wants You to Know

 

I recently did a memorial service for man in our community. I didn’t know the man and had only very little connection with his family. Jesus let me to talk about what he wanted the family to know and understand in that moment of grief. When I had finished the service and looked over it again, what I had shared was grace.

God wants you to experience His grace. To do that, we have to know some things and believe them and live based on them.

You have to know and believe that God loves you.

Jeremiah 31:3

The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued My faithfulness to you.

God loves you. God doesn’t love the mass of humanity. That is how I used to see that truth. God loves us individually and intimately. It took me many, many, many years to believe that God loves Joe.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing and believing that God loves me.

You have to know and believe that nothing can ever separate you from God’s love.

Romans 8:37-39

No, it all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death not life, nor angels nor demons, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus not only loves you, but He guarantees that nothing in all creation, visible or invisible, heavenly or earthly will be able to separate His love from you. Jesus does not want us to doubt His love for you for even a second.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living in the reality of Jesus’ love every day.

You have to know and believe that Jesus will never abandon you.

Hebrews 13:5

I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Jesus will never leave you, ignore you, or turn His back on you. Jesus died for you. Nothing can ever force Him to abandon you. Jesus is willing and able to walk through anything that occurs to us in this life.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that Jesus is with us always and living based on that truth.

You have to know and believe that God has a plan for your life.

Jeremiah 29:11

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for evil, to give a future and a hope.”

The plans of God for you are:

For Your Good

To Give You a Future

To Give You Hope

God is for you and not against you so His plans for you are always for your good.

Raise the Roof and remove the Walls is to experience God’s good plans for you.

You have to know and believe that God wants you to experience the gift of eternal life.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus wants you to spend eternity with Him in heaven. In 2 Peter 3:9 we are told that it is not God’s will for any to perish but that all should come to repentance. God does not want any person to die and go into an eternity separated from Him.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that we will spend eternity with Jesus in heaven.

God’s love, the inability for anything to separate you from that love, the assurance that Jesus will never abandon you, the good plans that Jesus has for you, and the eternity that is available to us with Jesus is all true because of God’s grace.

In God’s Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                         Joe