December 18, 2015

Advent 3-Friday-Grace and Mercy

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen

All week we have been looking at the Collect (prayer) for the Third Sunday of Advent. We have been thinking about how the great might and power of God very often change the direction of our lives. This can be in big ways, or in small.

Paul was another person in the Bible whose life was radically changed when he encountered the grace and mercy of God. In the First Letter to Timothy he recounts, “even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.” (1 Timothy 1:13-15)

Our past doesn’t matter to God. It is our present actions that God can work in and through. As the picture today reminds us, “your sins are forgiven”. Every moment of every day we are forgiven for those things ‘done and left undone’ (as another prayer says). Because of that we can move forward in joy to greet the coming Lord of All.


Do you remember that you are forgiven, or do you think there are some things that God just cannot forgive? Remember-God forgives EVERY thing when we repent.

Palm Sunday

 We are almost at the end of Lent. We’ve traveled through the 40 days and through the promises of the Baptismal Covenant found in the Episco...