By Grace Through Faith

I don't know if you were there or not; but I was, and I was fairly well blown away.  "Where?" you ask.  At the performance of our first grade choir at the Green Campus.  You'll have to ask Mrs. Seacrest about the history, but somehow it became a tradition for our sixth graders and our first graders to sing and to put on a musical at Christmas.

The gym was packed with students and parents; and I was thinking, "These first graders are gonna be scared by all these people.  I don't know if they'll be able sing so the crowd will even hear them.  I'm not sure this is gonna work out!"

Silly me.

Not only did they sing, but they sang with enthusiasm and joy; and they filled the gym with music!  As I watched them I remembered that this was the class that had invited me to their picnic just last year when they were in kindergarten.  Two of the children that befriended me immediately when I started my new job were Grace and Faith from this class.

I located them in the choir and sure enough they were singing with mouths wide open, totally caught up in the message of Christmas.  Faith was singing so hard that she had her head thrown back and her hands placed firmly on her hips; I guess just to brace herself, so she didn't go backwards off the risers.  Amazing!

Many of us older types were wiping our eyes; you'll know why when you're our age.

It got me to thinkin' of a song and a Scripture.  Amazing Grace and Ephesians 2:8-9.


Yes, our girls Grace and Faith are Amazing, but even more Amazing is God's Grace that I can receive through Faith. 


 Get ready for a big word kids: REDEMPTION.  It means that God's free gift (His Grace) is to buy us back from being stuck in and stained by sin.  We receive the gift by believing, yes, trusting our lives to the person of Jesus as the One who bought this gift by His death and resurrection.


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


Hey, Grace!  Hey Faith!  Thanks for the reminder!  


Dear Lord, thank you for first graders that sing with all their might about Your coming to earth in the person of Jesus.  We are grateful again this morning that you came to rescue us, "rob our sin and make us holy."  Give us Your full Faith in Your Amazing Grace!   In Jesus' name, Amen.


Proud of you,
Pastor Wilson