Surviving Grace

 

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Rom 8: 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A well known blogger recently posted about "loosing faith", her trials and tribulations in her ex-gay journey through the Real Love Ministry in Malaysia ultimately made her to question the reality of Christ Himself in her life.

The damage done through ex-gay ministries are grave, and we need to speak out of the harm caused and the faith unduly manipulated with an anti-gay aggenda. The result is self destruction and a demise of Christian faith.

Christian Faith if genuine is not only a tradition or sacraments, nor a mere connection to a higher spiritual reality. It is communion with Jesus Himself, and becoming a child of God. We belong to Jesus in the baptism of faith. His righteousness becomes ours.

The hardship, pain, despair and loneliness we suffer, the thousand arrows by the church, society and family takes a grave toll on our faith and trust in God. Where is God? where is Jesus to defend the weak?

The church which was supposed to represent Christ becomes the symbol of oppression. The hand of mercy and grace, becomes the hand of hatred and harm. We take away the Saviour from the weak, the wounded, the lost who needed Him most and replaced it with law based religion.

Even an affirmative christian church would hardly work, because it is much more than saying God loves you, and put on some bandage and then commission them to do good and to love the poor. We end up with an elite gay church of the wealthy and well to do intellects.

Because ultimately, we have lost everything, our lives, our hope, our faith, and our family and relationships. We stare at the sky and say "Why Lord!".

At the end of our lives and strength, an intellectual religious tradition does not replace the need for the reality of Christ in our lives as we are spiritual beings. Without the Blood of the Lamb, there is no power, no touch of the Holy Spirit. Only in Christ saving grace, do we become the temple of the Holy Spirit.

When you lost everything, nothing much matters anymore. The sound of the ringing gong of anti-gay rethoric by FCBC, and the veil homophobia by NCCS means little. You can only die once. You can't die again and again.

That is when you reach the point of God's grace, when you know there is non left of you. All your pride, hopes, and faith is nailed to the Cross of Calvary.

There is two choice, just as the prisoners on the left and the right hand of Jesus. We can mock Jesus, or we can still worship Jesus when we have nothing.

When your faith is lost, you realised you can't save yourself. Let us be found resting at the foot of calvary. It is not your faith that matters, it is His faith.

When we stoop low at the Cross of Calvary, to worship the resurrected Christ, when we open our arms wide, we come to a position to receive God's grace and mercy. There is nothing of us to boast, but all of Christ.

The Holy Spirit is often referred to as the Oil of Annointing in our lives, and we the lampstand of the Holy Spirit.

We can't survive long in these harsh and hostile world we live in without the oil of the Holy Spirit to keep us burning full of faith and fire for God.

It is only at the Cross of Calvary, because Jesus has paid the price, and has resurrected, that we can receive God's abundant grace. Our oil jar is full and never shall the oil stop flowing.

When we have nothing left, the only thing left is to get ready empty jars, to expect God's grace to fill our lamps.

Give me oil in my lamp keep me burning
Give me oil in my lamp, I pray,
Give my oil in my lamp, keep me burning,
Keep me burning 'till the end of day.

Sing hosanna, sing hosanna, Sing hosanna to the King of kings! Sing hosanna, sing hosanna, Sing hosanna to the King!

Give me peace in my heart, keep me resting,
Give me peace in my heart, I pray.
Give me peace in my heart, keep me resting,
Keep me resting 'till the end of day. 

Keep me burning O Lord by your abundant grace and mercy till the end of day when Jesus comes back.

Give me peace Lord, give me rest in my heart today, for I can't go on no longer without Your Holy Oil.

Light my lampstand O Lord and may the light of the Holy Spirit in my life keep me at rest and give me peace.

Let there me waves upon waves of God's grace in your life through Jesus Christ. Where each wave ends, may another wave of God's grace comes unto your life because God is a good God and His mercies endures forevermore. Praise the Lord.

Let us be found ready to expect God's grace with an empty Oil jar ready and waiting when all is lost and when we are empty and thirsty for God.

  

 
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