Amazing Grace

August 26, 2015

Amazing Grace

This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life.

1 Timothy 1:15-16

Do you ever tire of singing Amazing Grace? I suspect the Apostle Paul had his faults just like the rest of us. However, there is no evidence to suggest that his sins, while serving as an Apostle and missionary, would in any way qualify as the worst of all sinners. I suspect Paul never lost sight of his past. He always remembered the dangers of self-assurance and self-righteousness. In his case, it led him to be an accessory to the martyrdom of Stephen and the persecutor of countless Christians before his Damascus Road encounter with Jesus.

Not long after my conversion experience, I recall asking God to help me always remember what it was like before I knew His love for me. I also recall being startled by my prayer – thinking, “Where did those words come from?” Later I would understand that when we don’t know how to pray, the Holy Spirit teaches us! One fruit of that prayer is that even after almost forty years of following after Jesus, I’ve not grown weary of singing Amazing Grace.

Peter Lord, in his sermon Turkeys and Eagles, asked whether “a sinner saved by grace’ is a good description of a Christian. Most people say, “Yes!” Lord objects and says that while the statement is correct, it is not a good, or certainly not the best description of a Christian. He prefers something like, “The beloved child of God.” I don’t disagree with Pastor Lord. I too believe it is very important for Christians to focus on who we are in Christ. However, lest we get too close and slip into the miry pit of self-assurance and self-righteousness, we never want to forget who we once were, and how it is that we have become the beloved child of our Heavenly Abba.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.