A Great Dynamic

February 10, 2012

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work.”     (2 Corinthians 9:8)

The mercy of God withholds from us what we deserve and the grace of God bestows on us all kinds of wonderful blessings we do not deserve.  Grace is also the dynamic we must receive from God to do what He calls and leads us to do.  This is the most superlative verse about grace in the Bible.

It tells us that God is able to make all grace, not just some grace, abound toward us and not just trickle in our direction.  Then we may have all sufficiency, not just some sufficiency in all things, not just some things.  We are then equipped to abound, not just do our duty, as we do every good work He leads us to do, and not just the works we like to do, ALWAYS!

Twice in this verse Paul emphasizes the reality that this grace is for you – not just for the pastor or the missionary – but you!  Is this grace a reality in your journey of faith?

I once heard Dr. A. W. Tozer preach on this verse.  After he read the verse there was an eloquent pause and then he said, “Sometimes you cannot help but allow the thought that God oversold the product in the New Testament!” He then preached a powerful message challenging us to believe that God has not oversold His grace but we need to learn how to access His grace.

The hymn writer wrote, “The favor He shows and the joy He bestows are for those who will trust and obey…”

That is a good place to start.

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Posted by Dick Woodward

Apprenticeship

February 3, 2012

“If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether My teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” (John 7:17)

The Apostle John records the claim of Jesus that His teaching is not merely the teaching of another Rabbi coming down the pike.  His teaching is the teaching of God.  If we want to prove that, we must choose to do what He is teaching.  When we do it we will know it. The doing leads to the knowing according to Jesus.  The intellectually sophisticated person usually claims: “When I know it I will do it.”  Jesus told us when we do it we will know it.

That profiles what we call “discipleship” and “apprenticeship.”  These two words are actually synonymous.  A disciple is literally “a learner who is doing what they’re learning and learning what they’re doing.”

I once heard the vice president of a large shipyard explain to the business community of Norfolk, Virginia how they had just been given another contract to build yet another large aircraft carrier.  He said he could answer their question in one word: “apprenticeship.”

He explained that a college student takes in huge amounts of information and then regurgitates that information periodically.  After doing that for four years they are given a piece of paper that says they’re an educated person.  But often they cannot actually do anything.  He explained that at the shipyard they put a person in the classroom for two weeks and in the shipyard for two weeks.  After five years the graduates of their apprenticeship school build large aircraft carriers.

Have you been apprenticed in your journey of faith?  Are you apprenticing others in their faith journey?

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Posted by Dick Woodward