Odds And Ends
by Art Licursi
NOT ALWAYS SO BAD!
The Price Paid
Thoughts of Grace
Chronological Order of Epistles & Notable Events PDF file
###################################################################
NOT ALWAYS SO BAD!Have you heard the story of Honus? Honus was a wicked old renegade who lived in a small country town. When he died his body lay in the funeral parlor for three days without anyone even taking notice. Finally, on the day of the burial, a few of his old cronies did stop by to at least pay their respects.
As they gathered, the funeral director said: "Now fellows, we can't bury Honus like a dog. We've got to have some kind of service for him. Won't somebody here take charge?" But the silence was profound, so finally the funeral director himself agreed to take charge.
He began by asking whether there wasn't someone who had some good word to say for Honus before they buried him. Again there was a deep silence, until finally one old man stood up and said: "Well, I can say this much for Honus; he wasn't always as bad as he sometimes was."
To be honest, isn't this true of all of us? Some people take offense at Rom. 3:22,23, which says: "For there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Some think there is a difference, and that they have not been as sinful as others. Ah, but while there may be a difference in the nature or the degree of our sins, Romans 3 is right when it says that there is no difference in this: that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." A person may put up a good front, feeling that he is not nearly so great a sinner as others, but whether a bridge is ten feet or a hundred feet short of spanning the chasm, it is still useless, so don't try crossing it.
This is why we all need "the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of [God's] grace" (Eph. 1:7). And we may have this by trusting in the Christ who died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3). "For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8).
######################################################################
The Price Paid
There once was a man named George Thomas, pastor in a small New England town. One Easter Sunday morning he came to the Church carrying a rusty, bent, old bird cage, and set it by the pulpit. Eyebrows were raised and, as if in response, Pastor Thomas began to speak..."I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming toward me swinging this bird cage. On the bottom of the cage were three little wild birds, shivering with cold and fright. I stopped the lad and asked, "What you got there, son?”! "Just some old birds," came the reply.
"What are you gonna do with them?" I asked
"Take 'em home and have fun with 'em," he answered. "I'm gonna tease 'em and pull out their feathers to make 'em fight. I'm gonna have a real good time." "But you'll get tired of those birds sooner or later. What will you do?"
"Oh, I got some cats," said the little boy "They like birds. I'll take 'em to them."
The pastor was silent for a moment. "How much do you want for those birds, son?"
"Huh?? !!! Why, you don't want them birds, mister. They're just plain old field birds. They don't sing. They ain't even pretty!"
"How much?" the pastor asked again.
The boy sized up the pastor as if he were crazy and said, "$10?"
The pastor reached in his pocket and took out a ten dollar bill. He placed it in the boy's hand. In a flash, the boy was gone.
The pastor picked up the cage and gently carried it to the end of the alley where there was a tree and a grassy spot. Setting the cage down, he opened the door, and by softly tapping the bars persuaded the birds out, setting them free.
Well, that explained the empty bird cage on the pulpit, and then the pastor began to tell this story.
One day Satan and Jesus were having a conversation. Satan had just come from the Garden of Eden, and he was gloating and boasting. "Yes, sir, I just caught the world full of people down there. Set me a trap, used bait I knew they couldn't resist. Got 'em all!"
"What are you going to do with them?" Jesus asked.
Satan replied, "Oh, I'm gonna have fun! I'm gonna teach them how to marry and divorce each other, how to hate and abuse each other, how to drink and smoke and curse. I'm gonna teach them how to invent guns and bombs and kill each other. I'm really gonna have fun!"
"And what will you do when you get done with them?" Jesus asked. "Oh, I'll kill 'em," Satan glared proudly.
"How much do you want for them?" Jesus asked.
"Oh, you don't want those people. They ain't no good. Why, you'll take them and they'll just hate you. They'll spit on you, curse you and kill you. You don't want those people!!"
"How much?" He asked again.
Satan looked at Jesus and sneered, "All your blood, tears and your life."
Jesus said, "DONE!"
Then He paid the price.
With that, the pastor picked up the cage and he walked from the pulpit.
_______________I enjoyed this story above, passed onto me, but one important correction needs to be noted. Satan does not give edicts to God our Father. It was not Satan who set the price of your and my redemption and freedom from the penalty of sin.
It was God our loving Father, whose righteousness would not permit our freedom except by the offering of His righteous Son.
2 Cor. 5:21 For he(the Father) hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Jesus was the Father’s lamb offered for us. Only in this way would righteousness be preserved and the demand of the law fulfilled.
It was the Father who gave His Son that we might become fit partakers the eternal life of God, by simply receiving the Seeded life of His Son.
John 3:16 For God (the Father) so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Art Licursi.#########################################################################
Thoughts of Grace
The law demands good works and uses its terror -- rejection, shame, fear of punishment, unanswered prayer, personal tragedy, etc. -- as motivation. Here performance is a necessity to secure the blessings and avoid the curses. Law always works on the basis of "If you will do this ... or not do that".
Grace, on the other hand, allows us to serve on a different basis -- not from fear, but on the basis of love and gratitude, from appreciation and gladness for blessings freely given and freely received.
An example: Under law, in Matt 6:12, 14-15, Jesus gave the Jewish disciples a prayer that says ... we are to be forgiven, only if we forgive others. Yet, on the basis of grace we forgive because we have already been forgiven (Eph 4:32).
Grace is not against good works! It simply does not respond on the basis of good works. We receive the blessings of the grace of God based solely on the merits of His Son -- blessings freely given to us "in Christ," and nowhere else. The completeness that is in Christ means deliverance from trying to "be good" and "do right" in order to be accepted by God.############################################################################