13 Evergreen Road, Lebanon, PA 17042-7422
Phone: (717)273-4832, Fax: (717)273-0132
E-mail: midway_cob@verizon.net, Web site: www.midwaycob.net
_______Senior Pastor: Rev. Charles L. Ilyes_______
_____Associate Pastor: Rev. Carl L. Brubaker_____
from our Associate Pastor
In the past week or so, I’ve been updating a message I plan to preach at a revival service in September. It’s a message about “grace”. God’s grace; infinite, marvelous, and amazing. We usually define grace as “God’s unmerited favor”.
Many times we pair grace with mercy. They are similar in meaning but there are differences. “Mercy” is not getting something we deserve. If a policeman pulls me over doing 45 in a 25 mile speed zone and just gives me a warning, I have experienced mercy. I am guilty and deserve a fine. “Grace”, however, is getting something we don’t deserve. If I forget to pay my insurance premium, my insurance company will usually give me a grace period to get it paid. Legally, I wouldn’t deserve coverage until my payment is made. I have experienced grace.
All of us are sinners (Romans 3:23). We have all broken God’s perfect moral law. And because of sin, our relationship with a Holy God is broken. The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). But God loves us and has shown His mercy and grace to us through His Son, Jesus, who went to the cross, shed his blood, and died to pay the penalty for our sins. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”(Romans 5:8). By confessing our sins and accepting Jesus as our Savior, we receive salvation. We experience God’s mercy…for we are forgiven even though we deserved hell for our sins. And we also experience His grace…for we are given the gift of eternal life…the abundant life now in this life and heaven for all eternity. We don’t deserve it one bit. But that’s God’s grace. GRACE = Gods Riches At Christ’s Expense.
Philip Yancey, in his bestselling book, “What’s So Amazing About Grace”, tells of a teenage girl in Traverse City, Michigan who clashed with her parents. One night, after another argument, she decided to run away. She hopped a bus to the big time, the city of Detroit. Before long she met a man. A nice man, or so she thought. He bought her lunch. He got her a nice apartment. He gave her pills that made her feel wonderful. Before long, he taught her what men like. Since she was underage, her services were at a premium. Set up in a penthouse with room service at her fingertips, life was great. But after a year, she began to show signs of illness and was thrown out on the streets with nothing to her name. he money she got for turning a few tricks a night went for drugs. But one night, while trying to stay warm on the sidewalk grates, she began thinking, “Why did I leave? My dog back home is treated better than I am”. Sobbing, she went to a phone and called home. Twice she hung up on the answering machine. But the third time, she left a message. “Mom, dad, it’s me. I want to come home. I’m catching a bus up your way and I’ll get there at midnight tomorrow evening. If you’re not there, well, I guess I’ll just stay on the bus to Canada.” She had no idea if her parents got the message.
Now it’s midnight, the following night. A shivering, trembling girl steps off the bus into the terminal. To her utter amazement, there stands a group of about 40 family members: mom and dad, grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins all dressed up in party hats and noisemakers under a computer generated banner that said “welcome home”. Her sobbing parents hug their broken daughter and whisper, “honey, let’s go home, there’s a party tonight for you.”
Wow! Talk about love and forgiveness! Talk about grace! That’s how God welcomes each of us to himself. We are saved by GRACE… and it is so amazing!
- Pastor Carl