Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Grace Will Lead Me Home

Dear Worshipers,

"There's no place like home."

Grace is not just something that helps us make it home; it is Grace that leads us home. There is a significant difference between these two thoughts which I did not realize until I was reflecting on that. The difference is as significant as the one between the driver and a passenger in the vehicle. The driver is the one in control; the passenger is really just along for the ride.

The problem we get ourselves into arises too often from the fact that we think we are driving. Grace is such a patient leader that often we actually think we are driving, when in reality we simply reaching over and turn the wheel this way and that as distractions to the journey pull us off course. Grace does not slap our hands and put us in our place. Grace gently turns the wheel with us, allowing us the choice, all the while knowing the true path and refiguring the course back to it, painful as it may be for us.

Yeah, you know what I am talking about. You find yourself in that place and you question Grace for allowing you to come this way. Slowly Grace begins to show you the way back, points out you departed, AND uses the little jog in the journey to show you something about Himself. We have the opportunity to reflect that or ignore it.

Grace does not only help me when I take the wrong turn in the road, it is grace that leads me back. And Grace does so without ever making me fell like an idiot for getting lost, and for not asking for directions in the first place. After all, that is just how Grace works. This analogy could go on and on, and I pray it will in your journey today and tomorrow and…but for now, let us focus on going home.

You know the old phrase that Dorothy used to get back to Kansas, "There's no place like home." Oh, how true that phrase is for any weary traveler as they cross the threshold and enter into that place of rest that is home. In our analogy, and the hymn it was originally stated in, I am speaking of course of heaven, our eternal home. Dorothy's phrase rings truer in this context than in any other, as we will continue to see in Pastor David's series.

Grace WILL lead me home. Have you ever thought of that? It doesn't say, “Grace MIGHT me home" or "Grace COULD lead me home", it says will. For the believer, one who has said essentially, "I have chosen to walk the path of Grace” there is the calm assurance that our journey with Grace will conclude in heaven. For the unbeliever, the one who has chosen not to walk His path, Grace will lead them to their destination as well, but with tears in His eyes for the countless opportunities missed to turn from certain ruin.

I have written today to try to give you a better idea of what Grace looks like. I trust that as you read images came to mind that represented for you the driver of your life, Grace. I trust that you have noticed my capitalizing the word "Grace" through the Tuning, and that you realize the purpose in that was to remind you that Grace is a person. He more often goes by His preferred name-Jesus. I think you know Him well, but pray you will know Him better as you experience Him through obedience to His leading this and every day until Your journey finally finishes and you find yourself at HOME!

In Christ,

Pastor Scott

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