Amazing Grace

Main Scripture: Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. Psalms 82:4 (KJV)

Song of Meditation: Amazing Grace – Leann Rimes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT88jBAoVIM)

“Amazing Grace” is an old Christian hymn that I am sure most if not all of us know very well. It was written by John Newton with the message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of sin committed and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God.

Like most of us I have heard this song so often and even sung it myself many times. It is one of those songs that I tell people must be sung at my funeral. Recently, however I saw a Salvation Army commercial that used this song with a twist.

In the commercial persons from various ethnicity and backgrounds who have faced struggles including drug addiction and homelessness recite the song. In soft but earnest tones they say, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a crack head, an alcoholic, a drug addict, a meth freak … a wretch … like me.

I once was homeless, broken, sad, just lost. But now I’m sober, I’m happy, I’m found …” And then the last man looks directly into the camera and says, “ … was blind but now I see.”

Things have been able to turn around for these people with the help of the Salvation Army and now they are able to testify.

The twist to the song reminded me that it was God’s amazing grace that brought all of us to the place that we are now. It was His amazing grace that caused us to have the resources that we are blessed with. We might not have been homeless or drug addicts like the persons in the ad but if it was not for God’s grace and mercies we could have been in similar or worst positions.

This morning I am really grateful to God for his mercies towards me but even more the importance of helping others less fortunate than I am resonates within me. Like the Salvation Army we can play our part in helping someone to turn their life around.

Ladies, you might not be able to provide shelter to someone but you can donate your clothes, your time, your money, your skills and your talent or even offer kind words to someone who needs it. God did not give us such grace for us to keep it to ourselves and our families. As Albert Pike once said “what we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.”

Have A God Filled Day Ladies

Let’s Pray,

Sweet Jesus, thank you for another day. Thank you for your sweet amazing grace that is so readily available so that we might have salvation. Thank you God for taking many of us out of the dumps and have blessed us with jobs, homes and families. Lord help us today to be helpful to someone. Soften our hearts so that we will have no problem donating our time, treasures and talents to help someone who is in need. Again we give you thanks.

In Jesus Name

Amen