Growth

Grace Upon Grace

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When I was in high school, the wife of one of my teachers was diagnosed with a brain tumor. After an intense surgery, tumor was determined to be benign and as far as I know, she suffered little ramifications from the tragic affair. After receiving the good news, many people responded to her husband with these words, “God is faithful.” His response has stuck with me all these years later. He said, “God is always faithful. In this situation, He was especially gracious.”

It’s been an important lesson for me over the years. We are tempted to say “God is good” when we get good news, and yet forget that He is still good when it’s bad news we receive. His goodness, and His faithfulness are not determined by our circumstances. They are the essence of Who He is.

However, there are times in our lives where He pours out specific grace in difficult circumstances. We see this is in the Bible too. Yet too often we are focused on the escape from bad things that we fail to appreciate the many gracious gifts that our Savior has given.

Take Lot’s story as an example (Gen 19:1-22). When we tell this story, we tend to concentrate on two facts – that Lot escaped and that his wife turned into a pillar of salt. However, when we look at only those two things, we fail to miss the many graces that are seen. First, Lot is given safe passage even though the city has so few righteous people in it that Abraham couldn’t safely barter for its rescue (Gen. 18:22-33). In other words, even though Lot choose to set himself in the midst of hedonist and ungodly people (Gen. 13), God graciously rescued him. Beyond that, Lot made a specific request that he not have to escape to the hills (Gen 19:17-20). It’s rather audacious if you think about it, bartering for where safety would be given even though rescue had just been offered. Yet, God graciously provides his preferred place of escape as well (Gen. 19:21), giving him grace upon grace.

There are no doubts moments like this in our own lives – moments where God is beyond generous and gives us grace upon previously given graces. The question is –  are we paying attention enough to notice and do we respond with the gratitude that such generosity so obviously deserves?

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Growth Relationships

Peace & Mutual Upbuilding

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From the outside looking in, it must sometimes look as if Christians are a contentious bunch. It would seem unlikely that non-believers would understand the differences we espouse in the finer points of theological understanding or doctrinal application. This isn’t to say that disagreements aren’t sometimes right, and necessary. After all, Christians’ first loyalty must be to God and His Word. If fellow believers are offering opinions or teachings that are contrary to Biblical truths then we must contend with these things. But dealing with issues is much different than delighting in them. In other words, it can be tempting to enjoy the debate so much that we forget about our witness to a watching world.

Romans 14:19 gives us a manner in which to measure our interactions with other believers. It tells us to “pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.” In other words, what we pursue, what we should focus on isn’t only what makes for peace (i.e. what we can agree on) or only that which puffs up our own opinions and knowledge, but instead, we should pursue both of these things. We can’t just focus on what’s made for peace – if that means compromising on what would be beneficial for each other’s
growth. At the same time, our goal with those who are brothers and sisters in Christ should be peace. After all, if we are united in Him,
why should we be warring against our own?

This makes for a fine line which we must walk. The goal isn’t peace at all costs. If something needs to be said to build each other up – we should do so (directly and to that person only, as Matthew 18 commands.) But we also much consider whether we should be compromising peace for something that is not crucial to our brothers’ and sisters’ growth. If it’s for building up our own reputation or storehouse of knowledge, and not of the mutual upbuilding of the Church, we would be wise to reconsider whether its worth the abdication of peace.

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