Stamped with Grace

Upon entering the saving faith, we are marked with the ultimate stamp of approval, not won by merit but by grace through faith alone. This "seal ... who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance" is none other than the Holy Spirit. We've been stamped with grace.

Just as God's acts of redemption did not start or stop with the ultimate act of saving redemption, so His stamps of grace do not stop upon our entrance through faith's cross-door.

This past Sunday, the Sunday School lesson centered on a selection from Exodus 4. A comment was made in regard to Moses' staff - that it would serve as a reminder of the power of God - not Moses - over the deliverance of Israel. I think someone suggested that if Moses had decided not to follow God, his staff would have been a constant reminder of his disobedience. Interesting that an everyday object can act as a memorial stamp of God's grace and provision in times of obedience, and likewise that the objects could serve as reminders of God's grace needed to cover particular acts of disobedience.

Sometimes the stamps may feel more like scars of grace. In a sermon I heard last year on Hebrews 2:10-18, it seems we were told to "celebrate [our] scars." Do we seek to embrace or erase our scars? In the sermon, Amy Carmichael was referenced. I did a search and found the following poem attributed to her authorship:

Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot or side or hand
I see thee sung as mighty in the land
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star
Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers
Spent
Leaned me against a tree to die
I swooned
And was rent by ravening beasts that compassed me
Hast thou no wound?

No wound, no scar?
Yet as the Master, so must the servant be
And pierced are the feet that follow me
But thine are whole.

Can he have followed far who has no wound or scar?

Indeed, Jesus endured the ultimate wounds for us. He can provide the strength to endure ours. The One who once wore a crown of thorns would not take away Paul's thorn in the flesh. And sometimes we must endure ours. But as we do so, may we seek God through His Word and prayer, perhaps raw prayer. I think someone once mentioned the presence of teardrop stains on another's Bible. Perhaps for that person bleary tear-stained words acted as a reminder of the grace of God felt in times of despair.

Whether or scars are physical, such as stretch marks or scars from tragedy, or emotional, may our ponderings shift from the ugliness of the scars to the beauty of the sufficiency of His grace.

Truly, we are stamped with grace and sealed with His deposit. May we embrace the scars and grow through His strengthening grace.

Flavors of Grace

Colossians 4:5-6 says: "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone."

From the post Purposeful Words on the girl talk blog:

So if a friend is condemned or legalistic, I want to give her justifying grace through my words. And if my husband is struggling with a particular sin, I want to give him sanctifying grace through my words. For a fellow church member who is suffering I want to give them comforting grace through my words. If a child is disobedient, I want to give him or her convicting grace through my words. And if a friend is weary, I want to give her sustaining grace through my words.

Perhaps the ways in which grace is sprinkled could count as the 'salt', such as the different types of grace mentioned in this blurb: justifying, sanctifying, comforting, convicting, and sustaining.

Grace enhances the flavor of the conversation through its many forms just as salt flavors food in different ways.