Say Grace

"You say grace before meals
All right.
But I say grace before the play and the opera,
And grace before the concert and the pantomime,
And grace before I open a book,
And grace before sketching, painting,
Swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing;
And grace before I dip the pen in the ink."
                              --G. K. Chesterton

Chesterton had it right.
Of course, what he referred to as saying "grace" is what we might call "saying the blessing" or "asking the blessing."
Of course, we may have to define that a little bit, too.
What we are actually doing is asking God, the Creator and Father, to give His blessing on something, whether it be our food or journey or something else.
It is asking God to "grace" us with His good and bountiful blessing.
Grace is a gift.  It is freely given.  Even when we ask God to bless our food, or our home, or our business, we need to understand that even those things are not "ours", but a gift (grace) from God.
So, when we ask the blessing, we are to be thankful to God as well.  Sometimes it is even put as "returning thanks."
Now back to Chesterton's poem.
Life should be lived to the fullest.  And if we are going to do that, by necessity, God has to have a grand role in it.  Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). (That is also a great grace in that Jesus came to us.)
If we are to live life abundantly with God in an attitude of thankfulness to Him, then we are going to do exactly what Chesterton wrote about doing.
We won't simply pray just before, or even a few bites into, our meal; we will pray asking God's blessing in everything we do.
If we ask God for His blessing in everything we do, that will also keep us from doing some things that we know that God certainly will not bless.
Say grace before your next party.
Say grace at the grocery store.
Say grace before you enjoy your next latte or mocha.
Say grace before you play tennis or golf (especially if you play as badly as I do).
Say grace at the game.
Say grace before you wash the dishes at home.
Say grace before you go to work.
Say grace at the recital (sometimes it is a grace to get through it).
And, for heaven's sake, say grace before you go to church.
The point is, whatever you find yourself doing, ask God to give His blessing, His grace upon grace.

"Rejoice always;
Pray without ceasing;
In everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
                                           1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

July Reading List

1. The Grand Weaver - Ravi Zacharias
2. Mere Christianity - C. S. Lewis
3. With Calvin in the Theater of God - John Piper & David Mathis (editors)

June Reading

1. Power For Living - Jamie Buckingham
2. The Secret of Father Brown - G. K. Chesterton
3. The Sacred Meal - Nora Gallagher

The Boy and the Bee

The boy ran up to the bee and said, "Move!"  The bee just sat and looked.

The bee flew up to the boy and said, "Move."  The boy ran away as fast as he could go.

May Reading List

• Blessed Hope - John F. Walvoord and Mal Couch
• Genesis Vol. 2: A New Beginning - James Montgomery Boice
• Excellence In Preaching - Simon Vibert
• Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life: From the Cross, For the World - Stephen J. Nichols
• Jesus the Son of God - D. A. Carson
• The Man Who Was Thursday - G. K. Chesterton
• Father Brown: The Essential Tales - G. K. Chesterton

April Reading List

1. Saint Patrick - Jonathan Rogers

2. Slave: The Hidden Truth About Your Identity In Christ - John MacArthur

3. John Bunyan - Kevin Belmonte

4. A Third Testament - Malcolm Muggeridge

5. The Yellow Feather Mystery - Franklin W. Dixon

6. Genesis: Vol. 2 - J. Vernon McGee

From Old, Even From Everlasting

March Reading

1. The Serpent's Shadow - Rick Riordan
2. Living With Confidence In A Chaotic World - David Jeremiah
3. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
4. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
5. Choosing a Bible - Leland Ryken
6. 7 Men and the Secret of Their Greatness - Eric Metaxas
7. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
8. 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess - Jen Hatmaker

Pair of Sevens

I recently read two extraordinary books that I highly recommend.  What do they have in common?  Yes, of course, they are both books written to encourage and motivate Christians.  However, that's not all they have in common.  Interesting enough, they both have "Seven" in the title.

The first one I recommend is 7 Men and the Secret of Their Greatness by Eric Metaxas.  Many of you may recognize Metaxas as the author of Bonhoeffer, which I also highly recommend that you read if you haven't already.  Metaxas' humor, whit, and distinctively Christian-worldview perspective makes 7 Men a fascinating and fresh approach to seven great men whose examples we would do well to emulate today.  Of all the people that he could have written about, the author limited himself to these seven: George Washington, William Wilberforce, Eric Liddell, Jackie Robinson, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John Paul II, and Charles Colson.  One thing men seriously lack in our culture are good role models, and Metaxas has ventured out to try to reverse that trend.

The second book I'd like to mention is 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker.  Hatmaker's experiment involved seven months of seven identified areas of excess and seven simple choices to fight against those excesses.  The seven identified areas of excess are food, clothes, possessions, media, waste, spending, and stress.  Through the process, Hatmaker, in decluttering her life, experienced God in ways that she couldn't before because of all the "noise."  I found the book to be a delightful read.  In fact, Hatmaker had me laughing out loud several times.  More than that, though, I was led to identify and examine the excesses in my life and to come up with ways to knock them down.  I'd like to attempt my own 7 experiment soon!

Sheep Without a Shepherd

In the Gospel of Matthew we find these words:

"Seeing the people, [Jesus] felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.  Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.'"

I just returned from a trip to Montreal, Quebec, where I met with a few church planters to hear and observe their mission field, vision, and strategy for reaching the most unreached city in North America.  Montreal is 99.5% lost.  It is a spiritually dark place, and yet the light of Christ is beginning to shine in significant ways.  Although the task is overwhelming, the situation is not hopeless.  Jesus told us to pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send out workers to accomplish the mission, and that is just what I did.

Oratoire Saint Joseph overlooks Montreal from Mount Royal.  As I stood on the highest point that I could get to, I prayed, "Lord, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are so few.  Please send your people here to reach this city for your glory.  Jesus, bring your light to this dark place."

I invite you to begin praying for Montreal as well.

• Pray that God would send church planters to Montreal and the surrounding areas.
• Pray that the Gospel will be demonstrated and magnified in the lives of the people.
• Pray that God would raise of people of peace within Montreal.
• Pray that God will continue to provide for the church planters and missionaries already there.
• Pray about how you might be involved with what God is doing in Montreal.

My hope and prayer is that one day Montreal will be so radically changed for the glory of God that they begin to reach and transform other nations with the power of the Holy Spirit and the light of the Gospel.