“Provoking Christian Insights” series

Part 23

Being absent from the “chain of Grace”.

I ran across the term “Chain of Grace” in evangelist Steve Hill’s “Daily Awakenings” given me by some former Sunday School students. Our Sunday School class has been growing, I suspect because of the “Chain of Grace.

If you wonder what the “Chain of Grace” is, it works like this: One person will be saved on a Wednesday night and bring a friend on Thursday. The Thursday person will get saved and bring a neighbor on Friday. The next night, the neighbor’s unsaved friends show up and receive Christ as Savior, and the chain continues to grow.

What happens when a person is absent from the “Chain of Grace”?

Many of us really enjoyed the Christmas season with all of its music and worship. For me Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years are times of celebrating God’s blessing and faithfulness. For many the season is filled with testing and trials.  The New Year begins with eager anticipation. However, many Resolutions didn’t have the glue of vows in them and are already history. Some who attended church and religious services have already slumped back into their Lazy-Boy’s and won’t surface again until Easter.

Is this sort of worship going to get us into heaven? How many Christians will fall because they don’t have the nourishment of being with God’s people? Hill says a lot of Christians will join the ranks of the lukewarm, and many will never return to their first love. This is pretty scary.

Marvin Dennison wrote; “I have tried to imagine what life will be like to live with our Lord without Satan’s influence. Yet, the Bible tells us that our wildest dream will not come close to what our Lord has in store for us. I can hardly wait!”

What about those who are ‘left behind’?

The Scriptures tell us “In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:3). Often we overlook the value of free gifts. We have the free gift of salvation. That gift comes with all kinds of trials. The trials have come so that your faith may be proved genuine (1 Peter 1: 6,7).

Evangelist Dwight L. Moody warned of this impending danger: “I would that everyone who today is being lulled into a belief that his appetite is gone, could see his danger and understand that the enemy is not gone … but only lurking. The ranks of the backsliding army draw all its recruits from those who think they stand (are safe).”

Are you “absent without leave”?

Is it time to “get back to base and surrender yourself to Jesus? He is ready to welcome you back. Get yourself out of your “Lazy-Boy, or Girl” and shift your focus back to Jesus. Your faith will grow and He will restore your peace.

INSPIRATION: “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker (Psalm 96:6).

Write: croneis@embarqmail.com