Your Grace to Impart
Come Holy Spirit, and fill my soul.
Come Holy Spirit and make me whole.
Your peace to release, Your grace to impart.
Impart means to give, and it is God’s grace that makes all the difference in our lives.
Philip Yancey tells a story about the significance of grace. He says that during a British conference on comparative religions, experts around the world were debating if any belief was unique to Christianity. And so they began eliminating the possibilities — incarnation, other religions have that; resurrection, there are others that speak about that.
Then C.S. Lewis, the great writer and theologian, walked into the room and said, “What’s going on?” They told him they were trying to figure out what was unique about Christianity. Lewis responded, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.” It’s grace that sets Christianity apart.
Grace: What Makes Christianity Unique
This is why that great song Amazing Grace has survived through the centuries. Singing, “How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed,” is one of the most profound and true things that any Christian has ever written or said or sung.
Have you experienced God’s grace, my friends? Have you experienced the love of God? Somebody once said that grace stands for “God’s riches at Christ’s expense”, because it was when Christ died on the cross that He bought grace for us at His expense. We can now be forgiven and set free.
Do you know that when you come to God in faith and repent and ask Him for His forgiveness, He takes away your guilt? Do you know that God will forgive and forget your sins and not hold them against you? This is amazing grace.
Salvation Is a Gift, Not a Reward
Many people still believe that by being a good person, by doing good deeds, they will be made right in God’s eyes — that God will see them as basically good, and that will be enough. But no, friends, it is by grace alone that we find our redemption from God, not by doing good things. Good things come as a result, not as a cause of our salvation.
Ephesians 2:8 says it so well: Paul said“For it is by grace you have been saved through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.”
The Open Door of Grace
There is a story about a bird that flew into a chapel one day during a church service, which happens from time to time. Full of fear, it flew backwards and forwards, trying to push its way out through the windows. Eventually it rested on one of the beams on the ceiling and saw the open door — and out it went.
The preacher, being sharp and seeing what was happening, said how often we act as foolishly as this bird. We struggle under the burden of our sins and try to get free, trying to force God’s windows open, when all the time there is an open door, and His Name is Jesus.
That is grace — that we don’t have to push and strive and fight our way into God’s Kingdom. We simply need to accept His grace by faith.
And so I pray that you will know His grace today — His love for you, not because of what you’ve done, but simply out of His kindness.
What happens when we receive the Communion elements? We are reminded of the most important event of the past – the death of Christ as the Passover Lamb.