All the paths of YHWH are grace and truth
To those keeping His covenant and His testimonies.
Psalm 25:10
"Why me, God?"
The question was thrust heavenward countless times throughout my younger years. As a child, as a youth, as I entered adulthood, life piled distress upon insult upon injury, over and over. And though I resolved to ever avoid causing pain to others, I nonetheless failed on countless occasions. And I wondered why I'd been cursed, oblivious to the curse upon every one of us—oblivious to the Grace available.
And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
~ John 1:16-17 (NKJV)
Truth rushed into my life when the Bible I'd only known as "The Good Book" was personally introduced to me as the Word of God. I knew at once, in the deepest core of my soul, that no Truth I'd ever heard was truer. Grace became visible a few years later, when I surrendered myself to the Lord and His Holy Spirit entered my life in a big way.
"There, but for the grace of God, go I."
~ Unknown
"Why me, God?"
When the Lord got a hold of me twenty-four years ago, I started asking the same question with a completely different perspective. Why did He reach out to me? Why did He enable me to know Him? Why was The Way revealed off the path of destruction and onto the path of life?
"He who smiles rather than rages is always the stronger."
~ Japanese Proverb
The world is filled with the injured and the injurers, none of us wholly escaping being both. Seasons of distress and insult and injury return. What makes the difference between the abused who becomes abuser, and the abused who becomes healer? How does any person choose between taking all they can get, and giving all they are? Where is the path to the place that the deed intended for evil is transformed into good?
Grace is the only answer; Grace provides the response to all that has gone by, and the assurance of hope through all that is yet to come.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
~ John 1:14 (NKJV)
By New Year's Day, Christmas gifts have been folded into the ordinary fabric of our lives. But The Gift celebrated by Christmas—the fullness of Grace and Truth that is God Himself become a Man of flesh so He might dwell among us—becomes ordinary in the new year only if I fail to worship, only if I fail to give testimony of Grace.
Thank You, Father, for sending Jesus to Earth, and for keeping Him here through Your Spirit. For Your name's sake, my Lord, please keep Him most extraordinary in our lives, worthy of all worship and testimony.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Monday, December 24, 2012
Fortress of Grace
When the offices and stores and restaurants have finally quieted on Christmas Eve …
Amid the gifts and feast-laden tables …
Will we manage to lay aside all the trappings of Christmas and perhaps encounter Christ?
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
~ John 1:14 (NKJV)
Matthew tells of Joseph and Magi, Luke tells of Mary and angels, and we receive images of another time and place. John shares the most fundamental Nativity truth in a single sentence—God laying aside one form of glory for another so He might become Man—and we receive Grace and Truth.
Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”
~ John 18:37-38 (NKJV)
Truth—cause of the Christ Child’s birth—is a rare commodity these days.
Statisticians and politicians shape facts. Educators and businessmen barter in information. Sages and philosophers ply abstracts.
God alone supplies Truth solid enough to build one's life upon. Truth is found in His Word. His Word is named Jesus, both the Babe in a manger and the King on a cross.
For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
The LORD will give grace and glory;
No good thing will He withhold
From those who walk uprightly.
~ Psalm 84:11
Grace is simply having favor with God, the Father Who provides and protects His precious children. Grace holds us up and encompasses us and covers us, a sun and shield, blessing and buttress. This fortress of Grace, built upon Truth, is our storehouse of blessing and security in an uncertain world.
“I am not worthy of the least of all the grace and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant.”
~ Genesis 32:10
When other gifts are unwrapped this week, in celebration of God’s ultimate Gift, remember that a fortress of Grace may also be yours, wrapped up in Jesus.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
~ Hebrews 4:16 (NKJV)
Thank You, Father, for matchless, amazing grace. Thank You for sending us Truth, wrapped up in a Baby, unveiled by our King.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Amid the gifts and feast-laden tables …
Will we manage to lay aside all the trappings of Christmas and perhaps encounter Christ?
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
~ John 1:14 (NKJV)
Matthew tells of Joseph and Magi, Luke tells of Mary and angels, and we receive images of another time and place. John shares the most fundamental Nativity truth in a single sentence—God laying aside one form of glory for another so He might become Man—and we receive Grace and Truth.
Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”
~ John 18:37-38 (NKJV)
Truth—cause of the Christ Child’s birth—is a rare commodity these days.
Statisticians and politicians shape facts. Educators and businessmen barter in information. Sages and philosophers ply abstracts.
God alone supplies Truth solid enough to build one's life upon. Truth is found in His Word. His Word is named Jesus, both the Babe in a manger and the King on a cross.
For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
The LORD will give grace and glory;
No good thing will He withhold
From those who walk uprightly.
~ Psalm 84:11
Grace is simply having favor with God, the Father Who provides and protects His precious children. Grace holds us up and encompasses us and covers us, a sun and shield, blessing and buttress. This fortress of Grace, built upon Truth, is our storehouse of blessing and security in an uncertain world.
“I am not worthy of the least of all the grace and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant.”
~ Genesis 32:10
When other gifts are unwrapped this week, in celebration of God’s ultimate Gift, remember that a fortress of Grace may also be yours, wrapped up in Jesus.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
~ Hebrews 4:16 (NKJV)
Thank You, Father, for matchless, amazing grace. Thank You for sending us Truth, wrapped up in a Baby, unveiled by our King.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Façade of Grace
For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
~ John 1:17 (NKJV)
To live under the moral law is to live under an intolerable burden of fear and guilt, inequity and judgment, condemnation of self and neighbor. One who lives by this law sees unrighteousness everywhere and is miserable at the sight.
"Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."
~ Matthew 5:17 (NKJV)
To make an exchange of my life for the life of Jesus Christ is to live under moral law fulfilled, in the freedom under the law of the Spirit of life …
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
~ Romans 8:2 (NKJV)
… in the freedom of being an eternal debtor to grace.
Living as a debtor to the moral law—the law of sin and death—is torment. Living as a debtor to the law of grace is to comprehend the price paid for freedom from the former law, to revel in new-found worth and gratitude, to indulge in lavishing grace and love upon others.
"Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold."
~ Matthew 24:11-12 (NKJV)
The lawless person refuses to acknowledge a debt to any law. If knowledgeable enough to hear that forgiveness of sins is available through Jesus, but unwilling to conduct the transaction of life for life with God, such a person is compelled to build for himself a façade of grace. He will assert—indeed, he may demand—an entitlement to grace from God and fellow man alike.
Such a one is unacquainted with grace and has rejected truth. He would be better off as a slave to the moral law, that he might hunger for freedom.
"Then Jesus said to those who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
~ John 8:31-32 (NKJV)
Father, thank You for sending Truth to us. Lord Jesus, thank You for paying the price of freedom. Holy Spirit, thank You for unfathomable grace.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
~ John 1:17 (NKJV)
To live under the moral law is to live under an intolerable burden of fear and guilt, inequity and judgment, condemnation of self and neighbor. One who lives by this law sees unrighteousness everywhere and is miserable at the sight.
"Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."
~ Matthew 5:17 (NKJV)
To make an exchange of my life for the life of Jesus Christ is to live under moral law fulfilled, in the freedom under the law of the Spirit of life …
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
~ Romans 8:2 (NKJV)
… in the freedom of being an eternal debtor to grace.
Living as a debtor to the moral law—the law of sin and death—is torment. Living as a debtor to the law of grace is to comprehend the price paid for freedom from the former law, to revel in new-found worth and gratitude, to indulge in lavishing grace and love upon others.
"Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold."
~ Matthew 24:11-12 (NKJV)
The lawless person refuses to acknowledge a debt to any law. If knowledgeable enough to hear that forgiveness of sins is available through Jesus, but unwilling to conduct the transaction of life for life with God, such a person is compelled to build for himself a façade of grace. He will assert—indeed, he may demand—an entitlement to grace from God and fellow man alike.
Such a one is unacquainted with grace and has rejected truth. He would be better off as a slave to the moral law, that he might hunger for freedom.
"Then Jesus said to those who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
~ John 8:31-32 (NKJV)
Father, thank You for sending Truth to us. Lord Jesus, thank You for paying the price of freedom. Holy Spirit, thank You for unfathomable grace.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
What I Learned about God, the First Fifty Years
For my birthday last week, I shared a handful of the things I've learned about life. (Thank you to my readers for all the nice comments and tweets.) More important, this week, are just a few of the things I've learned about God, in roughly the order He revealed them to me.
Jesus is living God, to be worshiped for Who He is.
The more you look closely at nature, the more certain you are there's a Creator.
If you reach out for God when you're really scared, He reaches back.
You can only believe what other people tell you about God if it's backed up by what God says about Himself.
You cannot know God apart from truth. Pure truth has a quality that facts alone can never touch.
Hell is horrific and I belong there. Jesus loves me and He died so I can stay with Him instead.
You can't have all of God until you give Him all of you.
When God's Spirit moves in, sin needs to move out.
God can play a fierce game of Hide & Seek, but He loves to be found.
God is God, and He must be met on His terms, not ours.
When you seek God first, you receive blessings you'd given up on.
My best ideas are garbage unless they're part of God's plan.
God never intended for any of us to go it alone. We really do need one another.
God cares passionately about what we think of His Son.
God has a tender spot for the people who love His Son.
God's not particularly interested in making us comfortable.
Be very careful about what you pray for. God has an outrageous sense of humor.
Always pray for others what you'd want them to pray for you.
God repays good for good generously and bad for bad mercifully.
When we think we're waiting for God to move, He's probably waiting for us to move.
Don't ask God for new instructions until you've followed the last ones He gave.
God does not change and His feet do not move. But prayer can move the arm of God, the face of God, and the heart of God.
God has great compassion for the sorrowful heart turned toward Him.
God has little tolerance for whining when He's been so good to us.
Sometimes, God is only waiting for us to ask.
God can and does speak to those who know His voice.
God has no condemnation for His children, only discipline.
When we think we can't endure another moment of pain, God knows how far to stretch us.
If you seek blessings before seeking Blessor, you're sure to be disappointed.
God is seriously in love with His people.
God is too great to ever be understood by mortals.
God loves us too much to let us understand too little of Him.
We won't get tired of an eternity with God.
No matter what else or who else you think you need, God really is enough.
God never gives up on those in whom He's taken up residence.
Thus says the LORD:
"Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool.
Where is the house that you will build Me?
And where is the place of My rest?
For all those things My hand has made,
And all those things exist,"
Says the LORD.
"But this one will I regard:
The one who is afflicted and of a smitten spirit,
And who trembles at My word."
~ Isaiah 66:1-2
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Jesus is living God, to be worshiped for Who He is.
The more you look closely at nature, the more certain you are there's a Creator.
If you reach out for God when you're really scared, He reaches back.
You can only believe what other people tell you about God if it's backed up by what God says about Himself.
You cannot know God apart from truth. Pure truth has a quality that facts alone can never touch.
Hell is horrific and I belong there. Jesus loves me and He died so I can stay with Him instead.
You can't have all of God until you give Him all of you.
When God's Spirit moves in, sin needs to move out.
God can play a fierce game of Hide & Seek, but He loves to be found.
God is God, and He must be met on His terms, not ours.
When you seek God first, you receive blessings you'd given up on.
My best ideas are garbage unless they're part of God's plan.
God never intended for any of us to go it alone. We really do need one another.
God cares passionately about what we think of His Son.
God has a tender spot for the people who love His Son.
God's not particularly interested in making us comfortable.
Be very careful about what you pray for. God has an outrageous sense of humor.
Always pray for others what you'd want them to pray for you.
God repays good for good generously and bad for bad mercifully.
When we think we're waiting for God to move, He's probably waiting for us to move.
Don't ask God for new instructions until you've followed the last ones He gave.
God does not change and His feet do not move. But prayer can move the arm of God, the face of God, and the heart of God.
God has great compassion for the sorrowful heart turned toward Him.
God has little tolerance for whining when He's been so good to us.
Sometimes, God is only waiting for us to ask.
God can and does speak to those who know His voice.
God has no condemnation for His children, only discipline.
When we think we can't endure another moment of pain, God knows how far to stretch us.
If you seek blessings before seeking Blessor, you're sure to be disappointed.
God is seriously in love with His people.
God is too great to ever be understood by mortals.
God loves us too much to let us understand too little of Him.
We won't get tired of an eternity with God.
No matter what else or who else you think you need, God really is enough.
God never gives up on those in whom He's taken up residence.
Thus says the LORD:
"Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool.
Where is the house that you will build Me?
And where is the place of My rest?
For all those things My hand has made,
And all those things exist,"
Says the LORD.
"But this one will I regard:
The one who is afflicted and of a smitten spirit,
And who trembles at My word."
~ Isaiah 66:1-2
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
What I've Learned, the First Fifty Years
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
~ Galatians 2:20 (NKJV)
Today I complete fifty years of drawing breath. I don't feel fifty years old unless I look back at all I've lived through or look forward to all I wait for, so I simply try to live in the present—to "seize the day" while remembering to plan for the future and see the past as no more than my schooling in life.
Here is a handful of some random things I've learned in my first fifty years.
The more I learn, the more I realize how ignorant I am of all there is to know, and the less I want to say.
The less you speak, the more likely people are to listen to what you have to say.
Strive for excellence and leave perfection to God.
Kindness is more important than efficiency.
Unkindness is never justified, however necessary or difficult the truth.
Force, even painful force, is necessary to authority and most effective with absence of anger or malice.
Neither debtor nor the one owed a debt is truly free. Forgiveness means living free of debts.
A good physician facilitates cures, but healing comes only from God.
(Likewise …) Any one of us can be an agent of rescue, but deliverance comes only from God.
There's no better place to be than the center of God's will.
Comfort can sometimes be purchased, but peace is a gift of God.
Joy is the product of expressed gratitude.
Money is a problem if you have too little or too much. If you have adequate food and clothing, you don't have too little.
Jesus died to save sinners, of whom I am chief, and there is no cause to look down on anyone.
The most important thing I will do today is express my great love for God in my love of neighbor.
Love doesn't eliminate sin, but it does cover a multitude of sins, and that's enough for mortals.
The Lord's Prayer covers everything. Pray it often and slowly.
There' s nothing in this world truly new—
That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.
~ Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NKJV)
God makes all things new (Revelation 21:5), every day—
This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
~ Lamentations 3:21-23 (NKJV)
Finally:
God is good. ALL. THE. TIME.
Gracious Father, if I have found favor in Your sight, please grant to me:
humility without defeat,
joy without pride,
peace without complacency,
faith without presumption,
hope without expectation,
passion without impatience,
and love without constraint,
for Your glory alone.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
~ Galatians 2:20 (NKJV)
Today I complete fifty years of drawing breath. I don't feel fifty years old unless I look back at all I've lived through or look forward to all I wait for, so I simply try to live in the present—to "seize the day" while remembering to plan for the future and see the past as no more than my schooling in life.
Here is a handful of some random things I've learned in my first fifty years.
The more I learn, the more I realize how ignorant I am of all there is to know, and the less I want to say.
The less you speak, the more likely people are to listen to what you have to say.
Strive for excellence and leave perfection to God.
Kindness is more important than efficiency.
Unkindness is never justified, however necessary or difficult the truth.
Force, even painful force, is necessary to authority and most effective with absence of anger or malice.
Neither debtor nor the one owed a debt is truly free. Forgiveness means living free of debts.
A good physician facilitates cures, but healing comes only from God.
(Likewise …) Any one of us can be an agent of rescue, but deliverance comes only from God.
There's no better place to be than the center of God's will.
Comfort can sometimes be purchased, but peace is a gift of God.
Joy is the product of expressed gratitude.
Money is a problem if you have too little or too much. If you have adequate food and clothing, you don't have too little.
Jesus died to save sinners, of whom I am chief, and there is no cause to look down on anyone.
The most important thing I will do today is express my great love for God in my love of neighbor.
Love doesn't eliminate sin, but it does cover a multitude of sins, and that's enough for mortals.
The Lord's Prayer covers everything. Pray it often and slowly.
There' s nothing in this world truly new—
That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.
~ Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NKJV)
God makes all things new (Revelation 21:5), every day—
This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
~ Lamentations 3:21-23 (NKJV)
Finally:
God is good. ALL. THE. TIME.
Gracious Father, if I have found favor in Your sight, please grant to me:
humility without defeat,
joy without pride,
peace without complacency,
faith without presumption,
hope without expectation,
passion without impatience,
and love without constraint,
for Your glory alone.
Comments are welcome (including respectful disagreement) and will receive a reply.
You may also contact author via Twitter – @anne4JC
or e-mail – use @gmail.com *after* buildingHisbody
Copyright 2012, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
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