Disciples of Grace Today

  all photo credits Storm Knight "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life" - Proverbs 13:12 We don't like to think of God saying no. It seems more comforting to say He didn't answer but such a statement makes Him out to be a liar and He is not. You and I have never prayed a prayer that God has not heard and answered. Our problem is we don't like the answer. More often than not God answers us in a way that's very different than what our imaginations can conjure up and depending on how it plays out to us we think of that as a good thing or a not so good thing.  Ever since I was a child I'd been in love with the news. I knew that's what I wanted to do when I grew up. I was so entrenched with it, that for punishment my mom would make me watch cartoons or go outside and play with other children. I ordered my entire life toward becoming a Producer in Television and Radio but, it never really took off like I thought it w...

 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven - Matthew 5:10 Persecution. Certainly not something we would categorize as a blessing or associate with happiness, but Jesus does and he does so with intent. As he continues his teaching he doesn't let up, he actually doubles down on this truth in the verses that follow and his delivery only gets stronger as he moves on through this 3 chapter sermon (Matthew 5-7) letting us know that God fully expects us to live this way and knowing that we can't. This sermon is designed, like the Law of Moses, to get us to cry out for help. He also lets us know that as we proclaim Truth persecution will follow. As one Pastor has noted, "If you stay silent, you stay safe. If you proclaim The Gospel and live out your faith, persecution will come, because persecution will always accompany proclamation.". This truth is seen throughout scripture from Genesis to Revelation but Hebrews giv...

Sknight Luna 2019 Who is this, who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners? - Song of Solomon 6:10 Oh, how I LOVE this passage of scripture. It has been a constant reminder to me of how God sees me. The Song of Solomon is the passionate pursuit of each other by two lovers. It's a husband and wife and in a New Testament context it is Christ and His Church, because that's what marriage is an ultimate picture of (Ephesians 5:22-33). Chapter 6 in the ESV (English Standard Version) Translation has as its sub title "Lovers in the Garden of Love." The whole of the Song of Solomon is a conversation between the groom, the bride and their guests or others. It's a fascinating read and the original language will leave you blushing.  However, this morning I found myself pondering this passage in a different light. It's early in the year and while I made no resolutions and set no particular goals in my life I did t...

12  Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’  13  Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.”  14  And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”  15  And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.  16  For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” – Exodus 33:12-16 This is a portion of Moses’ prayer of intercession after Aaron, the priest, gives in to the wil...

  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God - Matthew 5:9 Expressions such as “Like father like son” and “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” are common and we know what’s being communicated when people use them whether in a flattering context or a resentful one. Jesus is still shifting our gaze upward. He is laying bare the heart of the Law of God and intentionally making us feel the weight of our unworthiness and inability all the while calling us to Himself to receive the relief our souls desperately need. He began this tiny shift in verse 7 where He commands us to be merciful considering the mercy we have received and then in verse 8 where He commands us to live out of a pure heart renewed by The Spirit. Here He is calling us to be present day peace makers, but what is that exactly? To answer that question, we must look to our example, Christ Jesus – The Son of God. What is the peace that Christ came to bring? Well, certainly there is the coming da...

  Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God - Matthew 5:8 This one statement packs such a punch! Everything that was lost in Genesis 3 Jesus makes a reality for those who will come to Him. From the dawn of creation, we see man walking with God and enjoying fellowship with Him and then the unthinkable happens, man sides with evil and commits treason against the High King of Heaven. God casts man out of His presence and sin separates man from his Creator, but God who is rich in mercy makes a promise in Genesis 3:15. He promises that a Seed is coming and that Seed will crush the head of the Serpent, thus begins God’s unfolding plan of redemption, settled before the foundations of creation were laid. First God chooses a man Abraham, through whose line the Seed would come, from that man comes a people, Israel, who would represent Him among the nations and then there is a deliverer, Moses, who would lead His people out of the bondage of slavery and then there would be the king...

  Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy - Matthew 5:7 Jesus has an uncanny way of staying focused even as He shifts gears just a bit. Thinking back to the 10 commandments we see the same. The first 4 deal with our relationship with God and the last 6 deal with our relationships with each other. Our love and treatment of one another flows from our fear and obedience to God. Jesus Himself gives an excellent example of this in His parable on The Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:21-35. Parables are stories with earthly settings to speak of a spiritual truth. In short in this parable a man owed a king a large sum of money, which he could not pay. He begged the king to have mercy on him and the king being merciful forgave the man his debt, but this same man went out and found his brother who owed him a few dollars. The brother could not pay the debt and begged for mercy, but the man would have none of it! He threw him into prison until the debt was paid. This naturally ...

  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied - Matthew 5:6 Someone wrote a song about not being able to be satisfied no matter how hard he tried. That seems to be the anthem of life sometimes doesn’t it? We fill ourselves with so much and we are still empty. We chase the rainbows of our dreams only to find there is neither a pot of gold nor a pudgy leprechaun waiting for us. We climb ladders that promise success only to find there’s no one up there and we’ve burned people, not bridges, to get here. Just like happiness, we all want a satisfying and fulfilling life and that’s exactly what Christ is promising us here in this statement. Now, before all my Reformed Theology friends think I’ve lost my mind and gone all prosperity-preacher remember what Jesus is doing here. He has climbed this mountain and is giving the people the heart of The Law. The Law was given to show the way we were to live and flourish and worship God. The law was to...

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth - Matthew 5:5 My Grandfather would often say, “Just because you can do something doesn’t always mean that you should.” At the time I had no idea what he was saying to me but as I’ve grown, and particularly as I’ve grown in Christian Faith, what he said makes perfect sense, especially in regard to being meek. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness is strength under control. But how is it that those who are poor in spirit and mourning over sin have strength? How does the eternal worldview play out in the area of meekness and inheriting the earth? This statement is extremely nuanced because it carries with it a humble submission that defers to another. Remember this entire sermon is a description of how people of God are to live in relation to God, each other and those around us. Our meekness towards others stems from our submission to God. The first act of meekness is to lay our rebellion down. We have all sinned against a Just and Ho...

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted –  Matthew 5:4 As we continue our walk through the first blessings and promises of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, we want to make sure that we keep the entire sermon in mind. This sermon spans 3 chapters in the Gospel of Matthew (5-7) and even though chapters and verses make it easier for us to find things, it may also contribute to our picking out parts and parcels and forgetting that Christ is conveying a central idea in this sermon, and that overall idea is the heart of the law and the prophets. He summarizes this in Matthew 22:37-40, where He says the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. In these two commands hang all the law and the prophets. Here, he is spelling out what that love looks like and He starts with God. We started this by defining blessing as being happy, content, satisfied and prosperous; with that in mind how is...

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:3 This is the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on The Mount. It is so simple that a child can grasp its points and so profound that it has perplexed theologians and scholars for centuries. My aim here is not to enter the fray of the theological and scholarly debates, though I commend them to you, but rather to encourage you if I may, with that perplexing child-like understanding that produces an absolute dependency upon The Holy Spirit to speak to us individually and as One Body in Christ. Everyone wants to be happy. We seek it out and sacrifice for it in a myriad of ways, and contrary to popular preaching, God wants us to be happy, but that happiness is not to be found in our 21 st century Western Worldview, for that is ever changing and those things which promise it perish with the using. God intends for us to find our joy in Him. He wants us to be eternally happy and that’s the whole point of the first 12 ...

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.      And what does the  Lord  require of you? To act justly and to love mercy      and to walk humbly with your God. – Micah 6:8 As Christians I don’t think we have a problem with loving mercy and walking humbly but that act justly or in other translations do justice is what trips us up. I hate that words like “Gospel” and “Disciple” are being used in such a way that they are robbed of their authentic power and meaning. The Gospel is the good news that God sent His Son Jesus to pay the penalty for sin that should have been borne by us, for we have all sinned and thumbed our nose at a just and gracious God, and were it not for His love and mercy toward us while we were still rebelling against Him we would all get what we so justly deserve, an eternity in hell. We can’t even come to Him on our own we need the Holy Spirit to open our eyes. It’s the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin and ...

Photo by  Javon Swaby  from  Pexels When He had called the people to  Himself,  with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and  take   up   his   cross , and follow Me. - Mark 8:34 I'll never forget the first time someone asked me to disciple them. I'd never been more terrified of anything more in my entire life. Truth is such a request still terrifies me. It's not that I'm unsure of doctrinal concepts or that my prayer life is somewhere between slim and none. What's terrifying is, that knowing all of what God has graced me to know and praying in the manner with which He has ordained for me to pray and the mercy that He has given me to love Him so deeply and profoundly, that I was and am still one messed up individual. Who am I to teach anyone anything? What's more, all of this was worked out in me in the wrestling match of prayer. How does one teach that? This is how you wrestle w...

Photo by Li Sun Pexels.com 4  Then  Jesus was led up by  the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  2  And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.  3  Now when the tempter came to Him... - Matthew 4:1-11 Often times when this passage is taught it's done from a position of Christ in weakness and while that is not wrong I think in so doing we may miss something really important and that is Jesus operating from a position of strength. Jesus was led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness for the purpose of being tempted by the devil. If the devil can isolate you he may feel he has an upper hand but isolation may also be an opportunity to become strong in the Lord and the Power of His Might. A careful study of the Life of Christ will reveal a pattern for His followers. He often retreated to a place of solitude to pray and seek The Father. Once He emerged from that time He was filled with wisdom, s...