For the staff, faculty and students at Sidwell Friends School in Washington where Malia and Sasha attend to have great wisdom and grace as they partner in the girls� education
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
--Proverbs 22:6 (NIV)
Tender God, Your unending love for children is clear from the Bible. The next generation is important to You, as is their training and equipping to impact the lives of other people, to Your glory. Thank you, O God, for caring so deeply for the youth in our lives and around us, and for giving all adults the responsibility to participate with You in the development of children to become responsible, effective adults.
We ask You now, precious God, to endow the staff and teachers at Sidwell Friends School with all they need to properly instruct and discipline Malia and Sasha Obama. Use them to adjust the desires and conduct of the Obama daughters so that they may be trained in the �way they should go,� and Lord we ask that You would draw these two girls to You in the process. We ask this in the name of Christ, amen.
3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
"The rest of mankind, it is true, seeing they were created by him, belong to his empire; but he who occupies a place in the church is more nearly related to him. All those, therefore, whom God receives into his flock he calls to holiness; and he lays them under obligations to follow it by his adoption."
(Commentary from Heart Aflame: Daily Readings from Calvin on the Psalms)
I will, from this point forward, stop myself anytime I am tempted to judge someone's status before God based on an action that they have performed. I've had it done to me. I remember vividly being handed an evangelical tract one night at a previous job. The guy thought I couldn't possibly be a Christian because I had gone to a Rush concert. Heh.
'Nuf ced.
Jude 3-8
3-4 Dear friends, I've dropped everything to write you about this life of salvation that we have in common. I have to write insisting�begging!�that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish. What has happened is that some people have infiltrated our ranks (our Scriptures warned us this would happen), who beneath their pious skin are shameless scoundrels. Their design is to replace the sheer grace of our God with sheer license�which means doing away with Jesus Christ, our one and only Master.
5-7 I'm laying this out as clearly as I can, even though you once knew all this well enough and shouldn't need reminding. Here it is in brief: The Master saved a people out of the land of Egypt. Later he destroyed those who defected. And you know the story of the angels who didn't stick to their post, abandoning it for other, darker missions. But they are now chained and jailed in a black hole until the great Judgment Day. Sodom and Gomorrah, which went to sexual rack and ruin along with the surrounding cities that acted just like them, are another example. Burning and burning and never burning up, they serve still as a stock warning.
8 This is exactly the same program of these latest infiltrators: dirty sex, rule and rulers thrown out, glory dragged in the mud.
What is the meaning of license or lawlessness? I think that the most basic meaning is to do whatever you feel like doing. To put it in semi-modern phraseology, "If it feels good, do it."
What is the meaning of grace? (I find it very interesting that this reading and the article I spoke about earlier fell on the same day.) Someone once tried to define grace by using a cutesy acrostic, "God's Riches At Christ's Expense." That doesn't really work does it? In fact, that doesn't even begin to define grace. My favorite simple definition of grace is receiving something you don't deserve. I didn't deserve salvation. I didn't deserve any of the blessings that God has lavished on me.
This is closely tied in with the definition of mercy, which is not receiving something you did deserve. I didn't receive the eternal punishment for my sin, which I do deserve. That's mercy. When we, as humans, choose to overlook the shortcomings of others and do good for them, in spite of themselves, that's grace.
But we need to contrast grace with license. Our passage of Scripture today says that some want to come into our midst and replace God's grace with "sheer license."
When Peter denied Christ, he received grace and mercy. However, Peter did not (most assuredly) go into that situation thinking, "Oh, I'll go ahead and deny him; he'll forgive me later." That would be license. We are not free to do as we please. There is a fine line. We must be careful that we don't drag the glory in the mud.
There have been times when I have acted against what I knew to be right. And during those times, it felt as though I was being driven by a force outside of me. I cannot honestly ever say, "I couldn't help it." That would be a lie. However, I felt powerless. That, too, is a lie, though, because I was not powerless. I never am.
Your grace has showered upon me for many years. My life has been like Todd Agnew's song..."Hallelujah! Grace like rain pours down on me..." I thank you for your grace in my life. I praise you that, even though I have failed you many times, you continue to pour that grace down on me.
Help me to stay away from license. Let me be more aware of your grace and mercy in my life. You are the most stable thing in my life right now, Father. I must hold on to you with all I have. Please hold on to me, too.
Grace and peace, friends!