The Grace That Still Amazes

My faithful Father, enduring friend, your tender mercy is like a river without end.
It overwhelms me, covers my sin, each time I come into your presence, I stand in wonder once again...
Your grace still amazes me, your love is still a mystery. Each day I fall on my knees, because your grace still amazes me.
Oh, patient savior, you make me whole, you are the author and the healer of my soul. What can I give you... what can I say? I know there's no way to repay you... only to offer you my praise. It's deeper, and wider and stronger, and higher than anything my eyes have ever seen. Your grace and love still amaze me, and I am on my knees in the light of your mercy.

Written by Connie Harrington and Shawn Craig

How is it that a song can so deeply touch the heart when many times words and gestures cannot? How is it that God has placed in all of us a different and unique "doorway" that He can use to touch us, when nothing else will? What do words like "grace", "love"... "mercy" really mean to a world that cares little for the teachings of Jesus?

Those words mean as much now as they did when Jesus Christ walked in dusty sandals the lands around Jerusalem, when the world cared little for His teachings. He is still faithful, and enduring, and merciful, and He still loves those in this world that are lost and lonely, dying, hurting. He still loves those that would curse Him to His face, still merciful to the point that He died, willingly giving up His body, that if anyone would come to Him and say "OK, yeah, I need you, and I believe in YOU, not the Hollywood you, not the you that the world doesn't know, but the REAL YOU. The You that has been pulling on my heart, the You that has changed other people's lives, the You that is still mysterious, and perfect, and upright, and able to give peace that the world can't , won't ever understand. Lord I give you my heart, I give you my all, change me forever."
God's grace still amazes me...and His perfect mercy and love drive me to my knees every time.
Have you been amazed today?
May the Lord make His face to shine upon you... and give you peace.

Commitment

Commitment comes in several different forms. A commitment to be there when it's convenient, commitment when it's a show, sometimes there's a commitment to be non-committal. There's a song that goes "Even though you've made a choice not to decide, you've still decided".
Then there's the kind of commitment that mirrors Christ and his dedication to us.
Christ died on the cross, willfully for you and me; people that were enemies of the cross, He died for people that are still enemies of the cross. Commitment to the body, and a love of Christ led someone I know to serve the body today, even though her father passed away on Friday, the 12th. That's the kind of commitment I'm talkin' about. Not just serving when it's convenient, but even serving Christ when it hurts, and there is a sacrifice involved.

Galatians 2:20 -
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

To that person... you know who you are.... and I won't try to rob you of the treasure that you have just stored in heaven at the feet of God himself, Thank You for a lesson that is touching, sweet, and as strong as God's Call. I love you and thank you for teaching, even when you didn't mean to. May He make His face to shine upon you, and may the Peace of God, which transcends all that the world understands, fill you and your family.