Amazing Grace

Posted by Dion Todd March 17th, 2017 9,646 Views 0 Comments

Yes, all of you clothe yourselves with humility, to subject yourselves to one another; for 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.' Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:5 WEB

A friend of mine stopped by my house one day and asked me to ride to town with him. We played music together on the weekends, he was a drummer and I played bass guitar. I was not much of a believer at the time, but he would tell me about Jesus and the Holy Spirit and would invite me to church with him, all while smoking a joint. He was an humble person and never looked down on anyone, but my did he love the drugs. He often grew his own. Though I didn't really care for drugs, nor Jesus, I rode with him to town because he was my friend.

He drove an old mid 70s Camaro with missing hubcaps, the exhaust pipes dragged under it when you hit a bump, and it was hand painted using a brush and a roller with house paint. There was a knife stabbed in the dash with an FM converter hanging from it by a shoestring. His driver's license had been suspended, he had no insurance, and an illegal tag. Yea, those were the days of young and dumb...

When we started back home and reached the outskirts of town, we ran into the biggest pack of police cars that I had ever seen. There must have been at least eight state troopers parked on the sides of the road and they were just setting up a road check. As we approached, a policeman started walking out into the road to stop us and my heart sank. I knew that my friend here was going to jail for a long time and I could see a big bag of drugs sticking out from under my floor mat as well. This was going to be hard to explain.

We were the first car that arrived at the road check, and man had they hit the jackpot. Then we got about 50 feet away and suddenly the policeman waved us on past, then stopped the car directly behind us. It was a moment right out of Star Wars: 'These are not the ones that we are looking for' when really, we were exactly what they were looking for. We drove on home uneventfully.

I could hardly believe it. I talked with my friend and his motto was 'Never judge anyone.' He took judge not and you shall not be judged literally. It certainly seemed to work for him. He had great grace on his life. In fact, he later painted that on the gas tank of his motorcycle: 'Great Grace.'

Grace is the unmerited, unearned, undeserved favor of God. Even though I was not really a believer at the time, I learned that having a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus is priceless, anytime, anywhere. I am not saying that any of this was right, most of it was certainly wrong and I was just a passenger. I don't do drugs and my car is insured. I am just telling you what happened. That brother loved God dearly, served God just as he was, where he was, and God took care of him. The moral of the story is this: 'You don't have to perfect to have a relationship with Jesus.'

Prayer: Heavenly Father please forgive me for ever looking down on others and spare me from the seeds that my words have planted. Let me learn to walk in Your grace and mercy right where I am, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray.

Note: Good morning! Thanks to all who participated in last night''s FAAD chat. A blessed time was had by all! For next week, the FAAD chat will take place at the same time (Wednesday from 7:30pm to 8:30pm EST), but will also be preceded by a new RHM Live mid-week worship service, which will be from 7-7:30pm EST! For timely announcements on the new service, you can sign up for email announcements by going to the Watch page and click on the "Keep Me Informed Via Email" link. Have a blessed Friday!