Our senior pastor preaches most Sundays at our church. I love his messages. One of my favorite quotes from his sermons is posted on the wall by my desk: “The life of the witness should beautifully adorn the message of the Good News.” It reminds me to live a life that glorifies God.
Sometimes we are blessed with a message from our lead pastor and his are always good. He admits that vision and administration are his gifts, but we all benefit from his teaching. Other men from the congregation preach occasionally when the pastors are out of town or need a break.
Recently, a man from our church who is soon to retire from the military to go to Bible college, preached an edifying message from Titus chapter 3, verses 1-7 titled “Saved by Mercy, Heirs Through Grace.” The main thrust was that we can’t live for God by rule-keeping. We don’t bring anything to our salvation, so avoid getting trapped in appearances. It is God’s mercy and grace alone that change us from the inside out. Yet living for Christ is not easy. We can’t do it without God’s power in us through faith.
One statement from his sermon especially encouraged me. He reminded us that loving what God loves or allows in our lives is not always easy, but he went on, “If it seems hard, lean back and pray.”
When the going gets tough, I might complain or ask why. Maybe I’ll text a friend or sit down with Steve and talk it out. But true comfort comes when we lean on our loving Heavenly Father and tell Him all about it. So, when the bills are bigger than the income or the news isn’t good, do what that gentleman instructed: Lean back and pray!
Back when Ray was a little fella and still couldn’t walk. Picking up and carrying around my 25-pound three-year-old son would cause my back to ache. I needed to use a cane because of my back and leg weakness. Thankfully he learned to walk before he turned four.
The problem with my sore back and legs persisted. For years I felt resigned to living with pain or having surgery as the orthopedic doctor recommended. When we moved back to our hometown, I met with a new specialist who diagnosed my problem and offered better options than spinal surgery.
I began physical therapy in 1996. I continued to suffer with chronic pain and wondered if things would ever be different. But each week, the therapist would assign a series of exercises for me to do at home.
One of the therapies was riding a stationary bike three times a week. Other exercises included stretching and core strengthening floor exercises. As I developed a routine of attending therapy and doing the exercises at home, I could walk further without the cane.
I continued to ride the bike and do the other exercises after I finished going to the therapist. Six months after starting PT, my back pain and leg weakness were gone, and I ditched the cane for good. Today, I continue doing the physical therapy routine twice a week and riding a bike four times a week, whether outside or in the gym on the first floor of our building.
How I thank God for the wisdom of doctors and therapists to use their training to bring me healing. The Lord has helped me persist, and as I celebrate my 70th birthday, I’m still going strong.
Titus 3:4-7 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
It was at my 30th birthday party that I learned that there was a God who loved me, and I was forever changed. A group of my work friends and I were gathered in a fine restaurant not far from home, and over dinner the topic turned to religion. One friend asked if I was an agnostic, and I replied, “No, I am an atheist.” Suddenly all ten of them stopped talking, and that helped change the subject. What a relief. The last thing I wanted to talk about was religion.
Later, a few of us decided to stay for a few more drinks. The lights suddenly became very bright for me in that dark bar, and I felt a Presence I never had before. God is real, I thought. At that moment, I realized He loved me, and I wept uncontrollably for some time. I left with no explanation.
When I arrived home, I slurred to my husband, “I’ve had a religious experience, and I’m going to bed.” He had only come over to babysit our little daughter while I went to my party, and he left in a hurry. He had moved out a few weeks earlier. Those were troubled times in our marriage.
When a professed atheist believes that God exists, it’s a mountain-moving experience. The next day at our lunch break, I shared what happened the night before with Sally (not her real name), a fellow administrative assistant who had been part of the celebration. She had been in the bar when I started to cry. At lunch that day, Sally encouraged me to call my brother, Jim, whom she knew was a follower of Jesus.
Long story short (you can read the rest in my soon-to-be released memoir, “A Goldilocks Life”) I started attending church with Jim, and there I began to understand what the Bible says in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” I trusted in Jesus Christ after reading in the Bible, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life…” John 3:36.
My life changed drastically. I quit the rock band and partying. I prayed for the first time in my life, and my husband moved back home. I grew in my faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ with my brother’s encouragement and solid teaching at our church.
However, as days turned into weeks and weeks into years, I became proud of my Christian way of life. It was subtle at first, but I began to think I had to be good enough and keep every rule I heard in church. After a cross-country move to Arizona, the pastor at my new church taught a rule-following approach to pleasing God. As an immature follower of Jesus, I didn’t know any of these distinctions and just followed whatever the pastor told us. Sally, the friend who encouraged me to call my brother, unfriended me when I visited back home and told her how to rightly live for God—do, do, do. —don’t, don’t, don’t.
The Lord led us as a family to Colorado, and at my new church the pastor faithfully taught from the Bible about God’s grace and truth. I realized the freedom Jesus Christ had given me. Too much truth without grace equals harshness, and too much grace without truth becomes an excuse to sin. It was like a breath of fresh air to step away from the rule-keeping way of living the Christian life.
I pray you won’t get caught up in always checking boxes and trying to please God by doing, like I did. Good works are an outflow of the inward life of Christ as we are led by the Holy Spirit. Please avoid the trap of works-based religion and instead follow Jesus by walking in His ways day by day. The result—joy unspeakable and peace trusting what the Bible says in Titus 3, verses 4-7 (above). Like the evangelist Jonathan Edwards said. “You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it possible.”
A Goldilocks Life 