God’s Gift To Us — Grace!

I was driving to work one morning this week and I heard a new song. A
line in the chorus caught my ear and when I got to the office I texted
the line to myself—and yes, I waited until I inside my office before
texting myself. The line I texted myself was, “I’m just a beggar in
the presence of a King”.  It comes from the song ‘Broken Things’ by
Matthew West and the lyrics are as beautiful as they are powerful.
When I heard the song I keyed in on the word “grace” and the line
above. How very true. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 2:8-9 that we “are
saved by grace through faith…” He continues and tells us that it is
not because of anything we have done, it is not who were are, it is
not from ourselves; “it is God’s gift”. We are truly just beggars in
His presence and how very fortunate that our King is so good, so kind,
so full of love and grace.

However, it was not until I got home later and looked up the rest of
the lyrics that I was truly moved by the song. I have added the lyrics
in the bulletin, so you can see for yourself. As the song title hints
and the lyrics confirm, you and I are broken things. We are the ones
with scars, we are rebels and prodigals and misfits. We are sinners.
And despite that. God uses us anyway. Scripture is littered with
heroes of faith that we broken and busted. Abraham had a problem with
lying. Jacob was called a deceiver. Moses was a murderer. David
committed adultery. Yet all of these were instruments in the use of
God to form His people into the great nation of the one true God.
Similarly, Jesus chose misfits.  Peter was a hothead, he even tried to
to tell Jesus his plans were wrong. Simon was a zealot—today we call
them terrorists. Matthew was a tax-collector, don’t think IRS, think
Bernie Madoff.  James and his brother John were more concerned about
themselves. And Judas betrayed Jesus. (You can check out all of there
stories here: Genesis 12:10-13, 20:1-2, 27:35-36, Exodus 2:11-12, 2
Samuel 11:2-4, Matthew 16:21-23, Mark 3:18, Luke 5:27, Mark 10:35-37).

But that is the nature of our God. He highlights our faults and His
perfection; our failures and His promises; our sin and His
righteousness. So that our only reason to boast, our only claim to
fame is that we are His in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:26-30).