Today we are going to look at an offer that seems too good to be true, or it is just so good it must be true?
Don’t you just hate it when you have to make a choice? Even worse when your wife asks “Do you like this?” or “Does it suit me?”. Sometimes I feel the best way is to be like the toy dog that is often seen on the back shelf of a car, it just simply nods.
You know there is one decision which I believe we all should make and that is the decision about receiving grace.
This grace is something God offers every human being and has no exceptions based on anything.
We’re going to ask some well-known people who lived in the Bible about this wonderful grace God wants to give us. I hope at the end you will see that whatever and whoever you are, grace is available to you.
So over to you Moses, what do you think about grace?
Well, one day I was told who I really was. I belonged to a nation who had a special relationship with God. I was a prince of Egypt at that time. Then like I said I heard from God, so I made a decision to follow God. Then thinking I was doing right I completely blew it by the killing of an Egyptian. Now instead of feeling good, I felt guilt and shame and the answer was to run away.”
I am now on the run and left to wander in the wilderness for forty years. Was it over? No! As the commentator famously said, “They think it’s all over”. God has other ideas and speaks to Moses at the bush but Moses says who am I?
You see by now Moses has an identity, intimacy, inferiority and inadequacy crisis stemming from guilt and shame.
God said, “I can remove those things you are feeling. In fact, I will be with you. Moses, trust in me and accept your freedom from guilt and shame.”
Today is no different however you feel. You may feel like Moses did, having the same inferiorities as he did, that of identity, intimacy, inferiority and inadequacy, and that like Moses you could never lose them. Yet like Moses when we are willing to receive grace, we accept our freedom from guilt and shame.
Moses went on from that encounter with God to lead over two million people for over forty years, no mean task.
Finally, you may be asking, well what is this grace which can so transform a man with all those feelings into a powerful leader? The answer is that ‘grace’ is an acronym for
- G = God’s
- R = Riches
- A = At
- C = Christ’s
- E = Expense
Yes, when Christ suffered that agonising death on a cross He took all our guilt and shame. When He rose again from the dead He offered us eternal life and a relationship with a living all-powerful God.
You simply have to come to Him and ask Him to remove all your guilt and shame, He will and He can transform your life. I hope you will give it some thought and not live in guilt or shame.
Let me end with this. George MacDonald, the great Scottish preacher, was talking with his son about the glories of the future. His little boy interrupted and said, “It seems too good to be true, daddy”. A smile spread across George’s whiskered face as he answered back, “Nay, laddy, it is just so good it must be true”.
Stay safe and Blessed