Grace

When we first moved to Oklahoma we were staying in a two bedroom, fully furnished apartment in Oklahoma City.  And the best part was that I wasn't working.  It was wonderful. I was able to catch up on some reading and picked up John Piper's book Future Grace.  I'm pretty sure there was lots in the book that was way over my head, which is probably why I don't write books and give lectures on doctrine.  I don't even know how some one has the question, much less how they get the thought.  Alas.

The basic premise is that grace has already been granted, whether it's for now or in the future.  We can rest assured in the fact that God is sovereign, and He has made provision for whatever our needs are to come.  As our pastor stated yesterday, "We should live expecting future grace because God will already be there."  Piper says,  "...it is all that God promises to be for us from this second on.  Tomorrow's crisis demands tomorrow's grace."

That can be a difficult concept to grasp.  We want security, not uncertainty.  We judge everything by time.  God lives outside of time.  The illustration I used with my junior high students was to take a picture and put a small hole in it.  I would then ask them to look at the hole/through the hole and describe to us what they could see -- only a very small piece of what was actual reality.  If they moved the picture further away from their face, they could see everything.  It was all about perspective.  God sees the whole picture (and has provided for the whole picture), we just see a small, small speck of the picture.  The problem comes when we want to see the whole picture, just like God.

Faith plays a big role in this.  In Future Grace Piper states, "Faith is the act of our soul that turns away from our own insufficiency to the free and all-sufficient resources of God.  Faith focuses on the freedom of God to dispense grace to the unworthy."   Where does faith come from?  Romans 10:17 says this, So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.  

Piper also talks about 'grace denied.'  We pray to have a safe trip or a good day or perfect health.  But then God intervenes and reminds us that it's His way, not ours.  Here's where the rubber meets the road isn't it?  Here is where we can rest in Him and choose to trust, or we can allow our fear and emotions to rule.  Our reaction can be to have a pity party, react in panic, or we can look around during the hard times and see who needs to be blessed by God's all sufficient grace for us.  Piper says it like this, "The freest life of love is the life saturated with the confidence that nothing comes to me but what is good for me."  I would add that it can also be good for those we come into contact with during that time.

My favorite phrase of the whole book?  "His grace may break out anywhere He pleases." Isn't that the best?  Love it, love it, love it!

Grace -- God's Riches At Christ's Expense.  Such an inadequate definition for such a magnificent gift.