For our prayer I want to share one that Billy Graham prayed in 2008 as that year came to a close. Someone shared it with me today.
"This prayer from Billy Graham, written for The Saturday Evening Post in 2008, is just as relevant more than a decade later.
Our Father and our God, as we stand at the beginning of this new year we confess our need of Your presence and Your guidance as we face the future.
We each have our hopes and expectations for the year that is ahead of us—but You alone know what it holds for us, and only You can give us the strength and the wisdom we will need to meet its challenges.
So help us to humbly put our hands into Your hand, and to trust You and to seek Your will for our lives during this coming year.
In the midst of life’s uncertainties in the days ahead, assure us of the certainty of Your unchanging love.
In the midst of life’s inevitable disappointments and heartaches, help us to turn to You for the stability and comfort we will need.
In the midst of life’s temptations and the pull of our stubborn self-will, help us not to lose our way but to have the courage to do what is right in Your sight, regardless of the cost.
And in the midst of our daily preoccupations and pursuits, open our eyes to the sorrows and injustices of our hurting world, and help us to respond with compassion and sacrifice to those who are friendless and in need.
May our constant prayer be that of the ancient Psalmist: “Teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end” (Psalm 119:33).
We pray for our nation and its leaders during these difficult times, and for all those who are seeking to bring peace and justice to our dangerous and troubled world.
We pray especially for Your protection on all those who serve in our armed forces, and we thank You for their commitment to defend our freedoms, even at the cost of their own lives. Be with their families also, and assure them of Your love and concern for them.
Bring our divided nation together, and give us a greater vision of what You would have us to be.
Your Word reminds us that “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12).
As we look back over this past year we thank You for Your goodness to us—far beyond what we have deserved. May we never presume on Your past goodness or forget all Your mercies to us, but may they instead lead us to repentance, and to a new commitment to make You the foundation and center of our lives this year.
And so, our Father, we thank You for the promise and hope of this new year, and we look forward to it with expectancy and faith.
This I ask in the name of our Lord and Savior, who by His death and resurrection has given us hope both for this world and the world to come.
Amen."
Christmas Eve at church we read from John 1. The focus was on the phrase “grace and truth”. Grace AND Truth captured my interest so we shall pursue that together tonight.
Let’s read John 1 and watch for “grace and truth”.
It says:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Dodi Note: I LOVE this passage. Many years ago I memorized part of it. It just touches my heart so much still. Think about it…”in the beginning”…that means at Creation when God SPOKE and the world began.
Notice also the capital “W”. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. “ This is The Trinity present and all inclusive from the very beginning.
The Word is Jesus. In the beginning was the Word, JESUS, and the WORD/Jesus was with God (Elohim) and the Word WAS God.
See it?
Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
The word God is Elohim which is PLURAL.
Verse 3 ALL things were made through Him and without him was not any thing made that was made. Him who? Jesus the Living Word. Elohim, the Triune Godhead.
Continuing with verse 6. Remember we are watching for “grace and truth”.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
Dodi Note: This was John the Baptist.
10 He (Jesus) was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Dodi Note: Jesus came FIRST for the Jewish people. “His Own”. But they or many of them rejected Him. But those who did not reject Him became true children of God who were born of God. And isn’t it grand that we are included in those “children of God”?
14 And the Word (Jesus the Living Word) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Dodi Note: See it? Jesus was full of BOTH grace and truth.
Continuing in John 1:
15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
Dodi Note: ”From his fullness” reminds me of the verse that says, in the fullness of time. Meaning the JUST RIGHT PERFECT time. It is in Ephesians 1.
The text reads:
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Dodi Note: Isn’t that neat how those two passages, written by different people, but both inspired by the Holy Spirit say close to the same thing? Jesus, who was full of GRACE and TRUTH came in the FULLNESS of time, (at just the right ordained by God time) in order that we might become, Children of God.
John 1 continues:
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
Dodi Note: See it repeated? Grace and Truth through Jesus’ birth.
Grace and Truth is interesting to consider. They seem opposites in a way.
Colossians 1:5-7 speaks of grace and truth too. It says:
5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf
And again in 2 John 2-4 (ESV)
2 because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever: (Jesus aka Holy Spirit)
3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love.
4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father.
Dodi Note: Truth says, we are sinners. We deserve death for our sin.
Jesus who is both truth AND grace, says…yes you do deserve death but I come and take that penalty for/from you because I am GRACE.
Truth condenms, Grace covers. Both are found in Jesus.
Let’s read 2 John (ESV)
Greeting
1 The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, 2 because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:
Dodi Note: Do you think “truth that abides in us and will be with us forever is the PERSON of Jesus in the form of The Holy Spirit?
3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love.
Walking in Truth and Love
4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father.
5 And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.
Dodi Note: Yes, people annoy us. They can get on our last nerve. They sin against us. They hurt us. That is the truth…but we also do that to God don’t we?
And what does God do? He sends Jesus full of both grace and truth and FORGIVES us.
Do you think we are called to do likewise? We are not called to deny our hurt, but we are called to let it go and apply graceful forgiveness.
6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.
Dodi Note: Notice LOVE is an action. Love means to obey. Love is not just a feeling or just when we feel like being nice. Love is a command. First to love God by obeying His Word and then to love others.
Forgiving and loving others by no means excuses their actions toward us.
It also does not exclude having boundaries for our safety.
It does mean, letting them go into God’s care. And refusing to bad mouth or try to “get even” in any way.
Sometimes repentance requires us to accept and respect their boundaries also, when we are the one who has wounded another.
7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.
8 Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.
9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God.
Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
Dodi Note: Do we see that we need to abide…to continue to learn, to continue to rest in and on Jesus’ completed work on the cross?
We are also to judge. YES JUDGE. But we judge if teachings or people who bring teachings are following God as set forth in the Bible. We do not follow any false teaching however cool it seems.
10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, 11 for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.
Dodi Note: Be careful who we keep company with and where we go and what we do.
Randy Alcorn says: Grace and truth found their perfect union in Christ, but the rest of us tend to gravitate toward one or the other.
Truth without grace breeds self-righteousness and legalism.
Grace without truth breeds deception and moral compromise.
The key to true Christian spirituality is to integrate these two qualities into life, imitating the character of Christ.
Our ability to be gracious flows from recognizing how much God has done for us and how little we deserve it.
Truth acts upon us, helping us to see reality according to God’s perspective.
As we learn to apply the truth in a gracious manner and to be gracious within the bounds of truth, we will indeed reflect Christ to a world clamoring for authenticity.
Maybe next week we will delve into abiding. I am not sure yet.
But for tonight, one week or almost one week after Christmas and right before the New Year. Let’s cling to grateful hearts that Jesus was born and because He was, we can become Children of God. And also that Jesus is both Grace and Truth. He was born to bring both.
Father God thank you for sending Jesus. Thank you for Truth so that we can know right from wrong and make informed choices but also thank you for GRACE when we mess up. Be with us all until we meet again.
In Jesus name amen.