Gift of Grace

I'm stealing a couple of minutes to let my loyal readers (those couple of you that there are :) ) know what's going on in Boston.

First, let me say that we sat on our plane on the ground for almost as long as we were in the air! However, God was awesome and let the bad weather that was plaguing the Northeast ease up enough for us to arrive safely. Since then things have been the typical whirlwind of activity with servant evangelism in the morning to Boston tours in the afternoons to game night this evening. It's been a wonderful trek to meet up with old friends and meet new people!

One story that I'd like to share with you occured while we were handing out granola bars to the rush hour crowd yesterday morning. Most people that you approach with a bar will accept it and carry on with their lives. However, one person's reaction stuck in my head more than most. I went to hand her a granola bar and she asked me to repeat what I'd told her. I said again that it was a free granola bar and then she grabbed it. It was her statement though that stuck with me and that was when she said, "There's not much in life that's free anymore."

I guess the reason that it made an impact is because she is absolutely right, there isn't a whole lot that you get for free. Almost everything in the world has a cost associated with it, whether its financial or physical or mental. This made me remember that what we're doing here in Boston by reaching out to people with nothing more than a kind word and a token granola bar makes an impact. We may not all be called to occupy a pulpit or serve as missionaries in Africa but we can make a huge difference to a world that doesn't see free things very often.

Of course, the other reason that I have mulled over her statement for the last day is because there is a free gift and it's free to everyone who might ask for it. That gift is the salvation that we can find when we place our trust in the Lord and begin to seek after Him. The gift of salvation is just that, a gift. One that we can do nothing to deserve and there's nothing that we can repay. We only have the choice to accept it for what it is and move on with our lives going in a different direction or we can leave it as it is and continue on in the same old paths. It's my prayer for all of you today that you'll remember the free gift that's available to you and those you know and seek after it with all your hearts!

Thank you for your prayers for Boston - they are appreciated more than you'll ever know!

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." - Ephesians 2:8-9