Oh How He Loves Us

Sorry for being in hibernation for too many weeks on my blog.

However, as a result of an experience I had last night, I wanted to visit with you about GRACE.
Theologians define grace in different ways. "Unmerited favor" is the classic definition. Others have proposed the acrostic, God's Resources At Christ's Expense. Some say grace is getting what you do not deserve and mercy is not getting what you do deserve.

All these definitions have merit and value but the definition I have always held to, the one I have used to teach grace and seems truest to the scripture is as follows: "The empowering presence of the Holy Spirit, enabling the believer to become all that God wants him to become and to do all that God calls him to do".

Last night we sat in an Iowa City hospital with Dave and Steph Ricketts as they said good bye to their son Ben. Twenty-two months old Ben had gotten tangled in curtain chord at home, some of the chord had gotten wrapped around his neck and Ben ended up on a ventilator in the Iowa City Hospitals. It was a tragic accident and a parent's worst nightmare. Please continue to pray for Dave, Steph and their family.

In the early evening yesterday, Ben was taken off the ventilator. Due to fluids on his lungs, Ben struggled to breath on his own. And this is where the grace comes in.

Dave, Ben's dad lifted Ben out of his hospital bed and held him in his lap, draped his little body with a green blanket and caressed this precious boy, carrying on a sweet conversation. I didn't hear everything because it was a private conversation between father and son. But what I could hear, Dave assured Ben of his and his mom's love for him and the loss they felt. As he stroked Ben's forehead, he talked to Ben about God's great love for him and that unless Father decided otherwise, that Ben would be face to face with Jesus soon.

And then Dave asked for his computer. I thought he was going to drop someone an email or get on Facebook and write another wonderful entry in his log. But instead, he went to I-tunes and selected a few key songs and he began to worship. The first song he played was one he said he and Ben had both worshiped to.

Oh How He Loves Us
He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us so

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And the heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

John Mark Mcmillan

Here is a Dad and Mom, sitting in a hospital room, watching their beautiful son breath his last and they are worshiping. What enables people to do such a things? GRACE!

The powerful presence of the Holy Spirit who enables we as followers of Jesus to become all God wants us to become and to do all God has called us to do. Oh how He loves us.