Sunday, November 14, 2021

There is No Peace Without Grace and Mercy

The Gospel message is of Christ’s Life Saving Grace in propitiation for our sins to reconcile and make a relationship with our Holy Father possible. Until our relationship with God was restored, we would not have peace in our lives and minds. And that would have never happened except through Christ’s saving sacrifice.

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us,

from God the Father

and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father,

in truth and love. 2 John 1:3

Everywhere we look, there is iniquity, bias, self-interest seeking, maliciousness and sheer confusion. Everyone has their own definition of peace, as though peace is only possible through a relationship they are trying to solidify with their own god(s). But, their own god(s) does not offer the long-lasting peace they seek.

There is only One God. He is Holy and He is not pleased with our efforts to substitute other gods for Him.

It is obvious that our society does not have peace with God

When I tried to explain to my Uncle Jaime in Monterrey, Mexico, how peace was my lifelong ambition, I remembered how he asked:

“Peace, Peace, Peace, what peace?
Everyone has a different definition for peace.
What is yours?”

He was ultimately pointing out that finding and keeping peace was utterly futile without God and Christ's sacrifice in the equation. Uncle Jaime is right; there is a real peace about which our society does not seem to know.

It is a peace that transcends our meager understandings. It is the peace with God that surpasses all comprehension (Philippians 4:7) and guards our hearts and minds only through our belief in Christ Jesus, His sacrifice and His resurrection on the third day.

It is the kind of peace over which those who have it will rejoice! It is a peace that evokes a gentle spirit from and to all; one that calms and soothes an anxious heart; one that comes just by asking that Jesus live through our lives.

There is no magic to it; it's not a gimmick or short-term fix. It is a mindset and requires practice (Philippians 4:6-9). God's peace manifests and is manifested by the following:

Click for free 8.5x11 download of Philippians 4:6-9 on parchment pdf file

(Please donate whatever you feel this parchment is worth to keep this non-profit initiative going with the links provided)

Click for a beautiful YouTube version of this life fulfilling and mind cleansing song

(Please acknowledge your liking the video; consider purchasing it from the deserving artist, Michelle Wagner)

I urge you to visit and become a subscriber to Dr. Hezekiah Walker's video, "Every Praise." If you find it in your hearts, I invite you to reinforce his kind of viral evangelism. Your visit to his site adds to the value that YouTube may place on his ability to reach you and all of us.

This video just never gets old to me, and it never fails to bring tears of joy out of my eyes. In fact, I hope it lifts your heart so much that you will join with others by doing what Dr. Hezekiah did in your town.

Looking for Peace?

When lovingkindness and truth show up at the same time; you'll find that peace and righteousness have kissed each other.

Lovingkindness and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Psalms 85:10

This posting is copyright protected by Creative Commons requirement that credit must be given to the creator and allowances are given to only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted. Any adaptations of and to it must be shared under the same terms.

More Grace Worthy of Praise

Even in Tragedy

ADONA (January, 1998)

For whose benefit is Grace? When I think of this remembrance, it is clear to me that Ephesians 3:20 NASB is so true - “Now to Him Who [GOD] is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask [or can ask] or think [or imagine or dream], according to the power that works within us.” ([emphasis] is mine)

Go ahead and stretch your imagination to the greatest or worst thing that could possibly happen— and then realize that God can go beyond that to spread His Grace. What do you want God to do in your life? Help you with a problem? Ask him. Help you with some goals? Ask him.

Before I met Adona, I had a fairly good understanding of Grace. But I did not realize that my understanding then was so immature compared to the Grace God showed me a good 10 years after I met her. Grace worthy of praise occurs in many ways. Bear with me a little if you please, as I put my memories in context for you.

I, at the time a 42 year old never-married single, had welcomed myself to a Bible study class for 30's Singles. As far as my new church goes, the gulf between 30's singles and 40's singles was equivalent to the grand canyon in my feeble mind.

Though I found out later that many of the females in the class were over 40 as well, the class was very gracious to allow me to stay. I had heard talk of a female member whom I had never met and the best I could gather, she was ill, and that is why I had not seen Adona, and would not see her for another year.

"But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."

Fast forward another year. The Lord was working mightily in my life. There were so many divorced 30's in the Bible study class that the numbers of singles at the church had swelled out of proportion to what they had ever been. In about a year, God had fed me His Word in such quantities it was like I was trying to drink water from a firehose. Soon, I became the Bible study teacher for the whole 30's class, and the Singles became my ministry at the church. The number of singles 18 and over swelled from about 75 to 400 plus. Such an increase in numbers in attendance at a church is an indicator of God using the church to fulfill His plans.

The church Deacons voted to anoint me as the church's first and only ever Single Deacon, and the church's Singles population was growing exponentially. There may be more Single Deacons now, but at that time I came to be known as "Oh, you're the one," to the other Deacons. Right before I took the reigns of teaching the 30's Singles Bible study class, I was sitting in the audience of the class, when in walks none other than Adona. I saw a beautiful young lady with jet black long hair, impeccably dressed.

Adona invited the class and told us the bar-b-que entertainment would be Marcia Ball. Right after she finished saying Marcia Ball, I jumped up and said, "Marcia Ball!, I'm going. I would even pay to see her."

Marcia Ball is a favorite entertainer at Austin City Limits music venue that showcased local and regional talent. Marcia played the piano, as no other woman I had ever seen and was a huge motivator for my buying and grand piano. I wanted to learn her style of foot stomping boogie-woogie Louisiana piano playing. Her style of play was a cross between Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Mickey Gilley and guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughn.

The bar-b-que was wonderful and the entertainment even better. I saw Adona walking about and with purposeful timing a slow dance song started up. I humbly asked Adona if she would honor me with a dance. During the dance, she whispered to me in my ear, "Thanks for what you said at the Bible study, I'm not sure if we would have had this good a turnout if you had not done that." I admitted to her that I had a selfish motive for attending. One reason was Marcia Ball was one of my favorite entertainers. I confessed that the other reason was that I couldn't take my eyes off of her.

The world seemed to stand still as Adona and I danced in slow circles. She explained that she was getting cancer treatment and the proceeds from the bar-b-que would help her parents with the expenses. I was so saddened to hear her tell me that her doctors said she had a very aggressive form of cancer. The song ended and I kissed her on the cheek and asked her if I could see her again. She said she would like that.

I didn't see Adona for another year. The word was that she was being airlifted to Houston's M.D. Andersen Cancer Institute from Dallas, where she had been getting treatments and living with her parents. She apparently had taken a turn for the worse and her prognosis was not good. In fact, they had decided shortly after she saw the medical team in Houston to be an outpatient. They said that she did not have much time left to live. I too was crushed in sorrow.

Click on this link to read a recount of the last time I saw Adona. Your Grace Downloadables.

The Rest of the Story

It had been about twenty years since Adona’s passing; I had not thought too much about her. On a lark, I had decided to try opening another Facebook account, as I had taken my previous pages down twice for their getting hacked. My new Facebook page had been up about six months and I felt great that I hadn’t accumulated very many “Likes.”

Out of the blue, I got a query on my Facebook page asking me if I was the person who knew Adona. I nearly jumped out of my desk chair. I responded that I did indeed know a person named Adona, and I asked what I could do for the person making the query.

I got a quick reply that the person making the inquiry was Adona’s mother. She explained that she was reminiscing about Adona and that she still grieved over her passing. She had been cleaning out Adona’s closet and came across a shoe box with one of Adona’s journals in it. She said that she thumbed through the journal and had come across my name which Adona had written as she recounted how I rallied our Sunday School class to attend a benefit concert Bar-B-Que to raise money for her medical expenses.

I answered that I remembered the Bar-B-Que benefit quite well as it was the only time I had gotten to dance with Adona. It was a slow dance and she held me as tight as I held her as she whispered, “Thank you for the dance,” in my ear. Then, I asked her if I could send her a copy of my brazen but well meant memory of the last time I saw Adona. She responded that she would very much like that because she was wondering what Adona’s mindset was in her last days before going to Heaven.

About two weeks after I had sent the recount of my last meeting with her daughter, I got her mother’s response. She said that she cried and cried. She then sent what I had written to Adona’s sisters and they had cried and cried. She thanked me for the memories because they all missed her very much and that I had soothed their grieving to know how I had an opportunity to spend some time with her before she passed.

I told her that I knew Adona only a short time when I was single and that I was very sad that she had passed before I had gotten a chance to know her better. I added that I was still single and have wondered how Adona felt about me. Her mother cryptically replied, “Oh, I can assure you that she felt you were very special to her.”

Speaking of being special, Og Mandino reminds us that we are all God’s greatest miracle. He writes:

"From your father’s four hundred million seed and your mother’s one cell, two cells united in a miracle, each cell containing twenty—three chromosomes and within each chromosome hundreds of genes, which govern every characteristic about you. All the combinations from this can result in three hundred thousand billion different humans. But God made you."

You and I are God’s blessings to the world. Just as you posses all the faith you need to move mountains, you already posses every blessing necessary to achieve great glory (1Cor.1:4-7).

Remember that. And remember what a waste these blessings would be if you failed to use what God has given you.

Ever since I can remember, God has been tapping me on the shoulder now and then to say, “Hey, hey, hey, ..., did you see that sunrise this morning or that lightning storm last evening, did you see the mackerel sky above and hear the good morning hymn of that passersby? That, that was ME...”

How does all of that just said relate to God's Grace even in strife? Click on the following to download a true story of a time when I was not at the pinnacle of productivity, if you will. As I read this recount, I am offering some revised thoughts in the following pdf: Who Got More Grace and Mercy?

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

God's Grace of Economy is Worthy of Praise

Have you ever thought you have been on the short end of Grace?

Paul prayed for believers to bow to God's Grace in generosity in his testimony of Ephesians 3:14-19, he implied that it is beyond out ability to fathom God's love for us through Jesus Christ:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

There is Grace Even In Strife

One the one hand, David wrote in Psalms 50:10, “For every beast of the forest is Mine; the cattle on a thousand hills" (basically all of them are in reality His).

In return for His love and riches, God is not looking for a blood sacrifice from us because Jesus has already offered His life for our sin-debts. Our thanksgiving and honor to Him is all He seeks in return for our asking His help in our times of trouble, according to David's subsequent testimony in Psalms 50:14-15: “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving; and pay your vows to the Most High;" Further, He promises His help when you call on Him, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.” In return, we vow our belief and faith in Jesus Christ's sacrifice and freely love, honor, and obey God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for what's left of our lives of earth.

Have you ever asked God for help? Sometimes I think people expect a quid pro quo deal with the Lord, you know, a sort of scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Almost all business and governmental machinations seem to be predicated in the question, "What's in it for me or my stockholders, or my constituents.

I often catch myself being kind of selfish in my prayer expectations. I listened to myself. Of course, some of the things I prayed for was world peace, security and plenty for everyone. Most of us do, I am sure, right? Yea right, sure.

In reality, I realized that most of what I prayed for was for my own benefit first. One day in the Lord convicting me of this, I vowed to go on an "I" Fast. What is an "I" Fast, you ask? Well, I am glad you asked. An "I" Fast is saying prayers or making requests to the Lord without saying the words "I," "me," or "my." I remember being terribly convicted after reading the "I's" of the Bible.

Check out Isaiah 14:11-15:

11. ‘Your pomp and the music of your harps
Have been brought down to Sheol;
Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you
And worms are your covering.’
12. “How you have fallen from heaven,
O star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who have weakened the nations!
13. “But you said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.
14. ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
15. “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol,
To the recesses of the pit.

Notice the lines I underlined in the Scripture above? To who do you think the "I" is referring? Well, it's none other than satan. We always want more than what we have and almost always think more of ourselves without regard to others. We live in an age of self-entitlement, when we should be happy that we are just alive despite the evil all around us in the world.

I suggest that you try the "I" Fast one of these days. I found it was one of the hardest things for me to do. Invariably, when I prayed to the Lord, I found myself not asking God how His day was. Instead, I would share with him my plight and inability to get what I felt I needed and I asked for His help in getting me what I thought I needed. And that is OK to do; I'm sure that God wants to have a dialogue with you like that. But praying for others and praising God changes your focus to more than your own circumstances, which for sure He knows, praying for others is akin to sacrificing your self for the sake of others. And that is what Christ did for you.

If you do go on an "I" Fast, you will soon realize that about the only way to complete it successfully is by using the sincere phrase, "Thank You," more and more, over and over.

Once I started thanking the Lord for everything, even the smallest of things God did for me turned out to be much greater than I would have first thought. "Oh Lord thank you so much for keeping that driver from running that red light." If you just snickered, I did not intend to make you snicker. It wasn't the red light that kept that driver from running the light, you see. It was the consequences of breaking the Law that kept that driver from running the light. Sin made the Law necessary. Breaking the law exposes sin to ourselves and others (Romans 3:20b: ...through the Law comes the knowledge of sin). Wouldn't it be great if we did not have to have Laws?

How well do you think we are all doing with the Laws we have now? Check out what Barry McGuire has to say about how we're doing by clicking for his thoughts his song.

Enough said on that; it is much easier for me to admit that I am a sinner who is prone to breaking even the smallest of Laws, and thanking God for sacrificing His Son, Jesus Christ, so that I could have an eternal relationship with Him through Jesus' sacrificial propitiation.

Sincerely thanking God, over and over, for anything and everything, is the only way I ever managed to complete an "I" Fast for just an ever so small moment.

Who Got More Grace and Mercy?

Sunday, August 22, 2021

There is Grace Worthy of Praise Even in Tragedy

ADONA (January, 1998)

By the time I was blessed to meet her, I had learned a little more about God's timing. And because of the role Adona was to play in my life later, God's words in 2Peter 3:8-9 are fixed in my mind now and forever: "But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."

The church Deacons voted to anoint me as the church's first and only ever Single Deacon, and the church's Singles population was growing exponentially. There may be more Single Deacons now, but at that time I came to be known as "Oh, you're the one," to the other Deacons. Right before I took the reigns of teaching the 30's Singles Bible study class, I was sitting the audience of the class, when in walks none other than Adona. I saw a beautiful young lady with jet black long hair, impeccably dressed.

I stayed fairly quiet during the Bible study being conducted. And then as the end of the study approached Adona went to the front of the class to announce that there would be a benefit bar-b-que for her in Magnolia, a nearby rural town just north east of Houston, Texas. Adona invited the class and told us the bar-b-que entertainment would be Marcia Ball. Right after she finished saying Marcia Ball, I jumped up and said, "Marcia Ball!, I'm going. I would even pay to see her"

Click on this link to read a recount of the last time I saw Adona. Your Grace Downloadables.

Now for the rest of the story, fast forward about 8 years, to 2006.

I hope it does not typecast me to anyone when I say that I am not a big fan of Facebook, any social media other than blogging for that matter. You see, I was a Facebook member years ago, but my page was hacked by a phishing malefactor. All of my likes got sent emails as though they were from me soliciting business that they said I recommended. I closed my membership to Facebook and sent apologizing emails to everyone I could.

Sometime in the second half of 2007, I decided that a Facebook account might be useful for the Math classes I taught. So, I opened a new one. But, I left it untouched for over six-months thinking about how I could securitize it better than my first membership site.

Another one of those "out-of-the-blue" events happened through of all channels, Facebook, when I got a message on my Facebook page.

The email started out sort of tentative: "Are you the person who knew my daughter Adona Ball?" it queried, and it was signed by a woman I assumed to be Adona's mother. Her mothers explained briefly that she was clearing out her closets when she came across some of Adona's journals. especially one of those recounting Adona's last year and a half before she passed on to be with Jesus. My name happened to be in the journal. So she thought she would try to find out who I was based on what it said. But, she never told me what Adona had written.

Adona had not been on my mind. I had certainly shared the story of my last visit with her with my Bible study classes, but, I had not been thinking about her that day at all.

An avalanche of memories occupied my mind's very soul. "What in the world is this about?" I wondered.

I responded to Adona's mother in like fashion. "Of course," I told her, "I was very, very sad that she had passed on, but, that I was positive that she was anxious for our arrival in Heaven with her." I also attached my recount of my last visit with her to give her a little context as to what Adona may have said. And I added that I hoped I had not upset her. "Oh, I don't think you need to worry about that," Adona's mother chuckled a little. "In fact, something tells me that we all may have gotten to know you a lot better if she had recovered," she said.

Two weeks after sending my reply, Adona's mother sent me a longer email back. She was so grateful I had attached the story of the last time I saw Adona. She aid that she remembered the day I visited, and Adona had told her and her father about how I explained her negative reactions to scents and food. She also said that she had sent my story to Adona's sisters who were mourning her absence with them but, praising her presence with the Lord.

My story had brought back many, many memories of their loved one, and her sisters cried and cried with tears and laughter at my story. I responded that I was again very, very sad that Adona had passed away, that I had never married when I had met Adona and that the Lord's purpose for me had not changed that since then. She responded for the last time, "By what she wrote in her journal, you can be sure that you were somehow very, very special to her."

That is my last contact with Adona's family. But, I will continue to remember her words to me that told me the kind of Christian she was. "I never thought of our senses that way," she said, "Thank you, Oh, thank you for sharing that with me."

We cannot out-grace God. The gift He gave us is the maximum Grace possible, Jesus Christ's sacrifice in propitiation for the sins of those who love and believe in Him.

I want to invite you to share your stories of Grace that is worthy of praise. I would love to read and post them to glorify God and to reinforce in all our minds the certainty of His Word and all of our eternal futures. Your Grace opened the door to Heaven; Your Grace welcomed us in; Your Grace wonderful gift You've given; Your Grace is Worthy of Praise.

2 Corinthians 6:1 "And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain."

If my email address is too difficult for you to find on this blog somewhere, attach your story to an email to George, addressed, aulygeo@gmail.com.

In a tribute to your time and attention, please feel free to download suitable for framing or laminating, a small token of the Lord's gratitude and certainly mine by clicking one or all of the following reminders of GOD's Living Filters:

GOD's Living Filters