A Lesson in Grace! 

I haven’t put pen to paper in a blog for such a long time but there are times when something just hits you right between the eyes……..We are not in Tenerife at the moment but I wanted to post this on our Church page because this is important.

Back in Northern Ireland I learned a lesson in Grace last night!

We live in a ‘graceless’ world.. ’dog eat dog’.. ’only the fittest survive’…..the world of ‘The Apprentice’!! AND by in large we experience little Grace in the places or from the people we most expect it from BUT last night I discovered GRACE in the unexpected place.

Joanne, our daughter who has been so ill, and the cause of our return wanted to get out of the house. It’s her birthday on Monday 3 November and she had had some birthday money she wanted to spend. It was so good watching her try on this and that and then buy some jewellery. She was ‘having a ball’ and Lorraine and I were happy being spectators to it all. To finish the day off she wanted to ‘eat out’ so we went to this fabulous restaurant in Portrush, The Neptune and Prawn’ where Joanne  insisted she treat us to our meal…Now if that wasn't Grace enough there was more to come…… 

We settled on our choice of food and I was given the task to order from the counter. We wanted two steaks and one chicken which the waiter wrote down and repeated back to me before putting it through the till and me paying the bill. Well it wasn't long before the meals arrived at the table.. TWO CHICKEN and ONE STEAK???

“No!! I didn't order that” I said, “TWO STEAK and ONE CHICKEN” Without hesitation the extra Chicken was taken away and the assurance of the other steak would be on its way shortly. Then it dawned on me!!! A quick look at our receipt and yes…I had got it wrong…Somewhere in the ordering my brain switched off and I ordered the wrong thing!!

What followed was the lesson in GRACE from the unexpected place!

No less than THREE members of Staff arrived at our table apologizing profusely for THEIR mistake and despite my self-admission that it was indeed MY FAULT the apologies just kept coming, even from the very waiter who took my original order. There was no sense of ‘I must do this’ or of any kind of attitude, just a genuine word of apology that was not at all warranted, I kept repeating that it was not theirs but my own fault! Next to arrive was a freshly cooked meal, the second steak! BUT that was not the end of it. 

No sooner had the meal arrived but yet another member of staff came hot on the heels of it with an offer of puddings for all three of us as a further token of apology…Joanne and Lorraine didn't know where to turn.. …. all I could do was drool over the prospect of 3 puddings!!! (joking)  and they were good to their word…

A final  handshake with the guy behind the counter who obviously bore the brunt, staff side, of the error and from him a huge small and stiff handshake in return and a word that sent me out with the purpose to write this…”Great to have you, see you again soon”

GRACE…undeserved favour….it’s what the Gospel is all about isn't it…

Perhaps as Philip Yancey suggests people don’t want to hear the Gospel (Good News of God’s Grace) because they see, they hear, they find little of that GRACE in those of us who have the most reason to exhibit it… it rather seems to come from the most unexpected places??? 

A LESSON LEARNED…A LESSON WE CHRISTIANS ALL NEED TO LEARN! 

The Way Old Friends Do!

The Way Old Friends Do!

I haven’t written one of these for a long time BUT I lay awake last night with a song playing over and over in my head…Those from my old neck of the woods and of the same era may well remember a Showband led by George Jones called Clubsound? At the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland they continued to play to audiences that needed to be lifted out, albeit for only a few hours, of the horror of ‘The Troubles’ that had everyone living in fear. At the end of all of their performances they would sing this song, ‘The way old friends do’. Particularly poignant in those days when friends and loved ones were being lost to people almost daily. As I watched the news tonight before going to bed I heard of a glimmer of hope for the families and friends of those still lost since the disappearance of Flight MH370  four weeks ago..I know that there is such amazing comfort found in knowing God, I am so thankful knowing that I and they are never lost to God…I am always gladdened by the fact that The Holy Spirit dwells within me and that in my deepest needs I have One who sits enthroned in the Heavens Who beckons me to come to Him, give Him my burdens, share my anxieties and find sufficient Grace and Mercy and Hope and Peace and Joy…BUT last night as I recited that song over and over I thought once again of a story I have shared in Church before….Suzy was just 6 years old and tucked up in bed sound asleep, when she was woken by the thunder clap outside that announced the storm had arrived at their house. She ran screaming into her parents’ bedroom, jumped in between her mum and dad and said, ‘Daddy hug me quick, I’m scarred’  Her daddy said, “You don’t need to be scarred sweetheart, you know God is with you!’ “I know that daddy” Suzy replied, “but right now I just need something with flesh on it”

We are relational people, that’s the way God made us, that’s what our Gospel Message is all about, a relationship with the living God BUT along the way God knows to we need relationships with ‘flesh on it’…Family, friends, people who come into our lives and make us feel loved, accepted, better! I suppose this blog was stirring within me since last week, when a Facebook friend from Belfast, Mitch, posted his reminiscences of friends past, one of who was my best friend Gerald Titmus, who sadly died a few years ago, just a young man. I miss Gerald, I miss my dad, I miss so many friends that I’ve made along the way in my now almost 60 years..That song I referred to at the beginning, says, ‘times of joy and times of sorrow, we will always see it through. Oh I don't care what comes tomorrow we can face it together the way old friends do’

We are made richer, fuller, better by good friends and family. We are poorer, sadder when we lose them or lose touch with them and sadly both happen all too often and all too suddenly. Just to cap all this off, this morning I was reading my Bible and in Acts Chapter 13 read these words concerning the arrival of Paul and Barnabas in Antioch Pisidia, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, come and give it.” V15

There are people waking up this morning dying for encouragement, whether in Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, London, Belfast or Tenerife.  “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, come and give it.”

There are people in all of those places and beyond in need of friendship and hope. Start building new ones, start re-building  broken ones and when the time comes you’ll always have those who can put their arms around you, be YOUR FRIEND.. who will help you make it to the end and along the way help you face whatever comes good or bad.…Yes and maybe you could start by looking for ‘the friend that sticks closer than a brother’ who will truly walk with you right to the end……..

 

 

You perhaps know the song I mentioned from the one recorded by Abba and the one that ran round my head all night was sung by Clubsound, but here it is for you to listen to by another Irish girl, Philomena Begley, ‘The Way Old Friends Do’ Take a moment or two and just listen to the words.  

Resolute in Resolutions!

Resolute in Resolutions???????

Resolutions are not really what this blog is about simply that it is often the first thing we think about at the beginning of a New Year and also the first thing that gets binned almost as quickly. I do want you to make at least ONE resolution and indeed be resolute in the keeping of it BUT I’ll come to that at the end.

Lorraine and I arrived back in Tenerife on Monday (6^th January 2014). We so enjoyed Christmas with the family and as always it was heart wrenching leaving them all again but those emotions were mixed with the sense of anticipation as we thought about the year that lay ahead of us. ‘Where does time go?’ is the mantra of us who are of a certain age, but it is now one year since we first landed back on the Island with suitcases in our hands, butterflies in our stomachs, dreams in our heads BUT a sure Word from God in our hearts. 2013 proved to be both an exciting and challenging twelve months, with so much to encourage us and just a little to discourage us. We have experienced great times viewing some grand vistas on top of the mountains but have also had to trudge through some darkened valleys as well BUT we have proven the Word God gave us and the God who gave us the Word to be true, faithful and trustworthy..Today while reading a little thought from Anne Graham Lotz we were reminded of a verse from Isaiah 64 “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.” V4 the preceding verses perfectly sum up our times calling on the Lord as we approached the end of 2012, “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence as when fire kindles brushwood - and the fire causes water to boil—to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence!  When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. V1-3

God answered our prayers then and He will answer our prayers now, of that we are entirely confident. (You can read of things we are praying for by clicking on the '5 Great Grace Pledges & Promises' on the ‘Home Page’)

What am I saying to you however??? Well, I don’t know what 2013 was like for you or what expectations, hopes, dreams or prayers you have prayed for 2014 BUT can I just leave you with this thought before asking you make one definite New Year resolution (although with God you need neither a new year nor a new day to make a new resolution…right now is just perfect!!)

About 4.00am this morning (Wednesday 8 January) Lorraine and I were wakened out of our nights sleep with the noise of what sounded like great hailstones hitting the shutter of our bedroom window. We got up to find Tenerife in the midst of another huge thunder storm. Ah! It might not rain here that often but when it rains it rains!!! This was the second such unusual phenomenon to hit the Island within two months, the last in December wreaked havoc its leftover debris still needing to be cleared away even in January. Fortunately last nights storm was not as severe as the previous one, nonetheless it was a scary time AGAIN!!!                  It was only when I woke this morning that I realised something so profound, s-o-o-o amazing!!!! 

(I know you would have got this immediately or would you or do you yet??????) 

You see whilst the storm raged outside I was safe, secure, dry, unaffected and unharmed inside my apartment. I slept unworried and without fear even with the rain battering off the walls outside…..WOW!!! Something was dawning in my head!!!                                                                                                     

Now if you know anything about Tenerife you will know that for most of the year, at least on the South side of the Island, it is a bland, barren, brown coloured landscape BUT as soon as it rains that landscape is transformed and right now after these two huge storms, Tenerife is more like Ireland and the countryside is just a swathe of green, beautiful, gloriously colourful. What seemed dead and decaying is alive and vibrant once again. You see, we can see all too clearly the devastation the storms can bring yet fail to see that through them new and renewed life can also come, indeed, as here, it is only through those storms that the real beauty of Tenerife is suddenly revealed…..

Are you getting this?????

Let me apply this then to you and to me….Storms of life are inevitable. They do come and will come again. If you are not in one right now, likelihood is you have just come through one or very soon will be right in the middle of one! If you are a Child of God I want you to understand that although you may feel the effects of those storms, physically, emotionally and spiritually, yet God will not allow those storms to destroy you or change your standing in Him. You are secure in Him. You do not need to be afraid of any storm no matter how fierce because God is with you and will bring you through that storm and right in the middle of it God Almighty will reveal to you His unmistakable, awesome presence.  King David knew more than most what it was to face danger and peril and anxious moments and brutal storms and this is what he wrote……………………Psalm 91

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High

Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.” 

Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler   

And from the perilous pestilence.
He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. 

A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.

Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
In their hands they shall bear you up, 

Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.                                                              “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble;I will deliver him and honour him.
With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.”

Furthermore, like the storm’s effects on the landscape of Tenerife, life’s storms, those storms God permits to touch your life are the very things that when they are passed might leave the odd scar or two BUT will most certainly bring about new life, new colour, new beauty a whole new you that would not likely happen without those very storms!!! The Bible reminds me that God’s will for me and for every child of His, every believer is this…GOOD, PERFECT AND ACCEPTABLE  so says Romans 12:2 or as another paraphrase puts it, “the plan of God for you is good (for YOU), meets all his demands (pleases Him) and moves towards the goal of true maturity(Christlikeness – Perfection).” Add to that Jeremiah 29:11 you will know this one so well, I am sure, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” In other words what God is doing and however He does it, is always for your good, always for your best and is about perfecting you..and if God could do it any other way He would do it that way..

So as you ponder another new year perhaps you are praying for the storm that has pursued you from 2013 to go away or at least ease a little bit or  like most of us praying  that 2014 will be a Happy New Year, meaning storm and trouble free??? Well my advice to you today is think again, then pray again, ”God I want to know what is your GOOD, PERFECT and ACCEPABLE will for me in 2014”, that’s the only way that you will have a truly Happy New Year and understand and cope with the storms that lie ahead of you and appreciate fully the purpose they bring with them…

Now here’s that resolution I want you make and resolutely keep it….. To read the Bible, the whole Bible this year..You say I want to know God’s will; I want to understand what God’s plan is for me?? Then you need to know god and you need to listen to what God says to you.. Remember that verse I quoted right at the beginning? Let me repeat it “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.” Isaiah 64:4 Notice the last FOUR words of that verse!!! The Apostle Paul uses these same words to encourage the saints at Corinth, “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” Wow, wow, wow…I can’t wait for that….AH! Now there the secret to it all..Waiting on God..Taking time out alone and spending time reading, listening and acting on what God says. That only comes with patience and discipline, a resolution that is well worth making today.. (You can find help in reading your Bible through in a year by clicking onto ‘Bible Plans’ which you will find on the front page of www.cristianoscommunitychurch.com

One final word for you from A W Tozer this time...