Beautiful Grace

"Beautiful Grace"
written by Sara Sather
June 26, 2008

What Beautiful grace now I see,
That He electeth me!
Before the world began,
Before the fall of man!

Yet sinners all are we,
by nature and by choice!
Not one man's lowly voice
Will's to praise the King.

No pow'r to choose my Lord,
Only His call did afford,
To bring me from death to life--
All praise be to His might!

The cross, though foolish once,
Now beautiful to me!
For there Christ did absorb
God's wrath that b'longed to me!

Making his grace so free
To whoever may believe!
From every tribe and tounge,
A people ransomed by God's own Son!

Died Jesus for His Sheep
And they He'll always keep!
For it is grace that holds me still--
According to His will!

So look ye to the cross,
And endure the wave's strong toss.
For God it is who wills
And works within you still!

The elect He will not loose,
For we have not the pow'r to choose!
So all praise be to God's grace,
That I will behold His face!

“His grace shall triumph o'er us!”

canoeing...bad idea.

Today Dad and I tried to canoe down the Minnehaha Creek. Put it this way, it was a bad idea.

Good conditons for braving the creek usually range from 75--150 cubic feet per second. Anything 150+ is deemed "very dangerous."

After the battle we found out that the creek's discharge ws 250 cfs. As you can imagine, this presented some problems for us.

Not two minutes into the three hour trip we capsized, drenching ourselves and learning for the first time how to get all the water out of the canoe...and get back into it without tipping over again. That was interesting. The first two tips were definately my fault--I guess you're not supposed to lean in the direction that you want to go...you're just supposed to keep paddling (live and learn)?

We went under a bunch of interesting bridges, saw a man who lived under a bridge, and one bridge almost claimed our life. Bridges...tell you what, passing under them is a lot more thrilling than crossing them.

We stopped at a portage right before we reached that dam. Which was a good idea, considering if we had kept going we probably would have died (maps are helpful). After lunch...the adventure only became more life threatening. We had to put in right by that dam, so the water was going real fast (prob a lot more than 250 cfs). And a few minutes later I guess we passes a sign that said "Portage Required." I guess dad mentioned it to me, and I guess I didn't hear him.

So we were heading for this bridge... this low, arched stone bridge. We were going to clear it easily. Until I noticed that it had this thing (I don't know what else to call it, if I were to call it something else it would probably be "death" or "hate for canoers"). This thing was under the arch of the bridge, spanning from wall to wall. It cut the clearance into basically nothing. We were heading to our decapitation. The current was incredibly fast on the other side of the dam. We tried to paddle to the left side of the creek to grab a tree, or rock, or something! I steered directly into the side of the bridge, hitting some other rocks, and my dad and I both tipped out of the canoe--crashing our knees on the stones and turning the canoe upside down--which was ready to keep heading down the stream with or without us. My dad yelled something like, "oh no! my ring! Chris' ring!" And when I looked back his wedding ring had fallen off...and we were being swept into the bridge that still looked like it really wanted to clothesline us. We grabbed the canoe and ducked under the metal thing in the bridge and got to the other side.

At that point, dad was bleeding from the knees, had lost his wedding ring, and definately seemed eager to take my cell phone, call mom, and say "come pick us up!" But we got back in the canoe and kept going. For a while we rode smoothly, through old Edina...very beautiful expensive homes and gardens... pretty much the only scenic part of the trip lasted about 15 minutes of the 3 hours.

We encountered some more rocks. Head on. Tipped in deep waters, with no place really to get back in. We drifted a bit with everything and found some footing on some rocks. After we got back in we were by this point, quite determined to go home. Finally we were in Minneapolis, ready to head for Lake Nokomis...but were headed towards a large tree branch that covered the whole width of the creek. Dang. We had to turn around and paddle up stream...to somewhere and pull out. We found out that were we at W Minnehaha and Harriet on the north side... we dug out my cell phone and called mom to come pick us up.

Overall it was a really frustrating, freaky day. But I enjoyed it so much because I got to sit in, or swim next to, or fall out of the conoe with my dad. He lost his wedding ring, and in all honesty we were foolish enough to be on the creek after Gray's Dam opened earlier this week, we could have been seriously injured. But I guess the risk made it all the more exciting.

I'd do it again, but...probably not tomorrow. I have a feeling my arms won't be working...

That being said, I am thankful for a dad who not only enjoys and desires and pursues to spend time with me, but he also encourages me to know God, to seek truth, to do hard things, and to have a passion for God's glory. He has a willingness to walk through difficult times with me, whether in a creek with a discharge of 250cfs, or in the pursuit of Truth "so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the Truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love" (Ephesians 4:14-16).

Grace Abounds,
Sara

Lillian

Tonight I sat listening to God's word, absolutely numbed by its relevance. Relevant not in the sense of "felt needs," but relevant to my actual needs. Feelings do not always tell us what it true, so what does? Truth does--the Bible. How obviously the Bible states that I do not have "free will." We are all (and by all I mean, every human born of Adam) "slaves to sin." And only by grace, God intercedes and calls people from any and all nations from death to life--from blindness to sight!

Jesus died on a cross, became a curse for us and was RAISED, conquering death--so that whomever believes in him will have eternal life--to the praise of His glorious grace. Jesus said, "the only way to the Father is through me." We all have sinned, fall short of God's glory and are captive to sin--bound for destruction. Yet there is hope! Jesus says, "repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15).

And this repentance, this faith is sparked by the New Birth. Just like we had no choice in our physical birth--we have no choice in our Regeneration--and how sweet that is!!! We do not cause it--God does. 1 Peter 1:3 says, "he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."

And how are we born again? John 3:3-8 tells us that it is by the Spirit of God--who is like the wind: "the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." The Holy Spirit is not bound to a sacrament created by a tradition in a church--the Holy Spirit IS God and moves as he pleases and as he wills, not as a human commands or institutes.

The New Birth, that only the God of the Bible causes, sparks CONSCIOUS faith and repentance. John 1:11-13 says, "He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

A.W. Tozer's words are so helpful: "This intercourse between God and the soul is
known to us in conscious personal awareness. It is personal: it does not
come through the body of believers, as such, but it is known to the individual,
and to the body through the individuals which compose it. It is conscious:
it does not stay below the threshold of consciousness and work there unknown to
the soul (as, for instance, infant baptism is thought by some to do), but comes
within the field of awareness where the man can know it as he knows any
other fact of experience... Being made in His image we have within us the
capacity to know Him. In our sins we lack only the power. The moment
the Spirit has quickened us to life in regeneration our whole being senses
kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition. That is the heavenly
birth without which we cannot see the kingdom of God...That is where we begin,
I say, but where we stop no man has yet discovered, for there is in the awful
and mysterious depths of the Triune God neither limit nor end."

1 John 5:1 says, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him." God regenerated my heart, which awakened immediate faith in Jesus Christ for the propitiation of my willful disobedience towards my Creator. Yet faith, is also a gift! It has been granted--Phil. 1:29, Acts 11:18, 2 Tim. 2:24-26.

God has removed my will of resistance, which was not "free will" at all--it was enslaved, and my master was Sin---but praise be God through Jesus who removed my heart of stone, replacing it with a heart of flesh, making me a slave to righteousness---not by my doing in any sense--but totally God. HE "has done what the law weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

And so now that my will is enslaved to a Master of righteousness is it my doing that I choose to pursue holiness by the faith God deposited in me? NO! Philippians 2:12-13 says, "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." So also, the answer is YES! Because God HAS exchanged my will, that I now DESIRE to do what is right--for he has written his law on my heart, and has called me his child! Yet it is fully GOD that works in me to "both will and to do."

Jeremiah 32:39-41:
"I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul."

Wow.

While reading through these Scriptures earlier tonight, I took a break. And a kind lady named Lillian introduced herself to me. She has kind eyes that were so sincere--as though she has lived through much suffering, yet much grace. And through her story...she finally said, carefully: "It's good to wait on the Lord," and she paused as if she understood it is not an easy task. And then she said, "and not run ahead..." How valuable are the words of those that have gone before us! What sincere fear of the Lord Lillian depicted to me tonight, after years and years of journeying she recognized that the more she knows, the more questions she has. The more she understands the Bible, the more IN AWE and in trembling fear of her creator she stands. Psalm 111:10 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!"

May I follow in Lillian's example, fearing God above all else--that I might treasure Christ as he ought to be, and by doing so glorify God...not by any power I have--but by God's work, to "will and to do."

Grace abounds!
Sara

the calmer of the seas

"The Calmer of the sea Here in this room with me So gently welcoming The weakest things in me You are the blood over The door of my heart What pain You spared me from How could I know it all? Oh Jesus, You became what was my deepest shame That at Your very name My calloused heart would change How could You, oh perfect One Love me, when I have done nothing that's worthy of My freedom You have won?" --Bethany Dillon, "Let your light shine down"

The God of the Bible, the one True God, here--with me? The depths of my heart have been so aching over divisions on doctrines. And how graciously, yet firmly God has revealed to me the importance of standing on the Word alone... and the necessity of division.

"God gives good press to doctrine... In God’s book, knowing his Son and believing true things about him is liberty. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). God’s self-revelation in the Bible is not a wax nose. Paul calls it “the standard of teaching to which you were committed” (Romans 6:17). It’s a standard, a yardstick, a pattern. You measure truth by it. Elsewhere he calls it “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27), and the “pattern of the soundwords” and “the good deposit entrusted to you” (2 Timothy 1:13-14). It does not change. Our everlasting salvation is determined by whether we believe it: “Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son” (2 John 1:9). Depart from the doctrine, and you depart from Christ. Or, better, keep watch over your doctrine and “you will save . . . yourself” (1 Timothy 4:16). " --Desiring God Ministries

It is therefore much needed that we pursue the Truth, and right-thinking in the Word relentlessly--so that as ideas of man or even doctrines of a church or school of thought arise that declare to be of the Bible...we measure it by the Truth...holding it up to the entire Word, and examining it by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The quest for joy is found so fundamentally in the truths of Scripture--and that is why we must have right thinking about all the Bible teaches. And what could be better or of more value than this? That by doing so, God is most glorified in us because of Jesus Christ--who is the centerpiece of the Bible--because of his death for sinners, and his ressurection--which is "history's only essential message (CJ Mahaney)."

Ephesians 4:25-27 "Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil." along with Ephesians 4:1-16 has continually led me to stand firm, striving to speak truth in love--yet how slow of a student I am!

He can calm the seas--he can surely calm my heart. God says, "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). What stillness and peace comes even in the midst of struggle, loneliness, or longing when the Absolute Sovereignty of God is so clearly evident in all of Scripture.

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him" (John Piper). May Paul's heart be my prayer: "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith--that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. NOT THAT I HAVE ALREADY OBTAINED THIS OR AM ALREADY PERFECT, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:8-14).

Grace Abounds,
Sara

captive to truth

The Absolute Sovereignty of God

By grace, as my pastor John Piper would say, may I always start as a Bible-believing Christian that desires to put the Bible above all sytems of thought... not start with a doctrine in order to defend a system.

So here I am, at the tail end of about 8 hours a day of study for the past three days, absolutely enjoying, being encouraged by, challenged by, and in awe of the Scriptures. And so helped by Martin Luther, John Calvin, Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, Pastor Piper, J.I. Packer, and C.S. Lewis (The Weight of Glory).

God's sovereignty over all things has brought me down to me knees literally and humbled my heart more times in these past few days in the Word than ever before. Reading the Word is not only a command, but what a delight!

Isaiah 46:8-10
"Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,'”

Daniel 4: 34-35
At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?"

Psalm 115:3
"Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases."

Romans 9: 18-23
"So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, 'Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?' But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, 'Why have you made me like this?' Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vesseld of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory."

Job 42:2
"I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted."

Psalm 33:8-10
"Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the word stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples."

Ephesians 1:11-12
"In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who are the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory."

Psalm 135:6-7
"Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses."

Romans 13:1
"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God."

Proverbs 19:21
"Many are the plans of man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand."

Proverbs 16:33
"The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD."

Proverbs 21:1
"The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will."

Amos 3:6
"Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?"

Isaiah 45:7
"I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things."

2 Thessalonians 2:11-12
"Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

Matthew 10:29
"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father."

Three stroies of God's sovereignty:
Job 1:1--2:10: the Sabeans killed his servants and stole his possesions, The fire of God burned the sheep and servants, The Chaldeans took the camels and killed his servants, a great wind knocked down the house killing his family, and Satan struck Job with sores--yet the Bible says "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord," "Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" God has power of Satan.

Joseph in Genesis "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good." (Gen 50: 20a)

Luke 23:1-46 The most evil act ever commited, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Acts 4:24-30: "And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, "Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, "'Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed'—for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus."

Isaiah 53:10
"Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand."

Romans 8:32
"He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?"

"God wills in one sense what he disapproves of in another sense."
God is fully good, with absolute sovereignty.

Grace abounds,
Sara