Amazing Grace

2 Timothy 1:9-10 

He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 

A few weeks ago, we lost a great leader – a champion of the faith - Charles W. Colson. I wanted to read part of an obituary written by Tom Gilson, a strategist and writer on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ.

Charles "Chuck" Colson has gone home to be with the Lord. The Prison Fellowship ministry family invites you to join in celebrating his life.
Someone once asked me, "Don't you know he's a convicted felon?" The question made me laugh. Yes, I knew that. I was a senior in high school when Watergate happened. We watched the proceedings on TV in my Government class. I read his autobiography, Born Again, not long after it was released, and I heard him speak about it at the Governor's Prayer Breakfast in Lansing, Michigan in 1976.

Chuck Colson himself never lost sight of the fact that he was a convicted felon. He also never lost sight of God's gracious forgiveness through Jesus Christ. He founded Prison Fellowship Ministries, and led it to become a powerful force for spiritual, educational, and social change in prisons throughout American and around the world. But that is not the ministry or the realm in which I came to know and appreciate him. Rather it was in his leadership in Christian worldview thinking.

Along the way to prison, Chuck Colson discovered how desperately he needed the grace and life of Jesus Christ. I've never been behind bars except to visit, but my need is no less. Neither is yours. Chuck's purpose in all his ministry was to lift up the powerful and saving name and life and ethics and truths and glory of Jesus Christ. Now he is raised up with Christ. *

In the midst of the Watergate scandal and proceedings, Chuck Colson read a passage from the book “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis. His life was forever changed. This heavy-drinking, chain-smoking, hard-nosed politician known as Nixon’s “hatchet man” became a humble servant of God who, against the advice of his lawyer, chose to plead guilty to the charges brought against him. He spent 7 months in jail, which ultimately led to his future ministry as a world-changer.

Shortly after his death a few weeks ago, I watched a video that was made to honor his life and ministry. In that video, he is quoted as saying:

It’s hard for me to get through ‘Amazing Grace’ without shedding a tear or two, and especially in a prison because it’s the prisoner’s national anthem. And I’ve never been in a prison and sung that and haven’t seen eyes glistening in the light. It’s so meaningful. I once was lost. They’re lost in that prison. And now I’m found. We were holding hands singing that and all I could think of was what God has done and how great it is that He has given us the privilege of the 35 years of singing that song inside prisons all over the world. And all I could think of was all of the places I’ve been and all of the prisoners I’ve seen and all of the people without hope. And you can join hands - it was one, it was solidarity. We were one with them and they were one with us and we all knew it in that room. And my mind just kept flashing over the sovereignty of God because I didn’t do this, I never strategized this. It wasn’t part of my game plan when I got out of prison. I might do it for awhile to help the inmates but I wasn’t going to spend my life doing this. And yet God ordered my steps every moment - day by day. 

God’s grace has changed our lives in dramatic ways. How are you now living your life to change the world for Christ?

Titus 3:3-7 

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

*To read the entire obituary written by Tom Gilson, click here.

Sing and Be Not Silent

Psalm 30:4-5

Sing the praises of the Lord, 

you his faithful people; 

praise his holy name. 

For his anger lasts only a moment, 

but his favor lasts a lifetime; 

weeping may stay for the night, 

but rejoicing comes in the morning. 

Every person in this choir has been given a gift. Specifically, every person in this choir has been given a voice to sing. What would you do if that gift was suddenly taken away from you?

A friend from college, a fellow music major, spent 2 weeks one September in total silence. It all started with a strenuous prior school year of singing (5 hours of choir rehearsals, a 2 hour concert every week, in addition to voice lessons and practice), combined with a heavy class load, followed by a summer tour with nightly concerts, and it finally culminated with a burst blood vessel in her left vocal chord. Days that should have been spent in the practice rooms, rehearsing for a senior recital, were instead spent walking around with a white board and a marker. No singing. No speaking. No assurance that her voice would ever return to where it had been before.

After her time of complete vocal rest was over, she began to slowly work with her voice teacher to strengthen her singing voice, but that entire fall, and on into winter, she struggled with the ups and downs of good and bad days. In December, her doctor asked her what she wanted to do after college and she told him that she wanted to be a Kindergarten teacher. He told her that he thought that she would recover enough to use her voice some, but not as a career - probably not even as a Kindergarten teacher.

What might have devastated some was a challenge to this young college student. She had faith that God could heal her, but she also told the Lord that if she never sang again, she would still serve Him. During this time, she was greatly encouraged by the testimony of Duane Miller, a pastor who lost his voice to a virus but was miraculously healed in the middle of a sermon, which happened to be recorded.

When it became clear that she would not be vocally ready for a spring senior recital, she postponed it until the fall. She was able to walk at graduation ceremonies with the intent of finishing her recital and one remaining class post-graduation. And then that summer, while playing piano for a summer group overseas, she learned of the sudden death of her voice teacher. The devastating news was crushing.

But, out of this horrific tragedy came something unexpected – another voice teacher was recommended by three different people, and this new teacher brought new techniques, new hope, and ultimately a new voice.

A voice that had to go back to the very beginning, learning basic breathing and other vocal techniques. A voice that got stronger each day and was able to wow those who came to hear her beautiful recital a year and a half after her injury (and then another recital two years after that as she completed her Master’s degree in voice). A voice that we get to hear week after week in our Soprano section – the voice of Rebecca Genzink.

As she was preparing for that senior recital, she told her teacher that she was scared that people would listen and say, “Oh that poor girl. She’s compensating just fine, but imagine what she would sound like if she had never hurt her voice.” Her wise teacher responded by saying, “People will not know. And one day YOU will not know.”

Rebecca says that because of her injury, she is now vocally stronger. Because of her injury she is able to work in a special way with students who are also experiencing vocal hardships. Because of her injury, she teaches in the voice department at Azusa Pacific University and vocally leads our choir here at Pomona First Baptist. (And she could even teach Kindergarten if she wanted to!)

Rebecca told me this week, “When people pay me a compliment about my singing, I've often said, ‘The Lord gave me my gift twice.’ I think that my experience has made me twice as grateful for the opportunity to "Sing to the Lord, and be not silent." To me, instead of hearing that sentence as a command, I hear it as an opportunity, and one that I do not take for granted.”

So what are you doing with the gift God has given you? What an opportunity we have, what a JOY to come into this room on Wednesday night, and to stand in the loft each Sunday morning and share this beautiful gift for the glory of God.

Psalm 30:11-12

You turned my wailing into dancing; 

you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, 

that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. 

Lord my God, I will praise you forever. 

Triumphantly the Church Will Rise

I started thinking this week about life events – those memorable occasions that are anticipated, prepared for, planned in advance. Weddings, graduations, the Olympics, the birth of a baby, Come Celebrate Christmas, a 1st birthday (or maybe a 100th), a golden anniversary.

On December 28, 1996 I stood amidst twinkling Christmas lights, bouquets of flowers, and a church full of devoted friends and family, and became Mrs. Erik Waage. It was a magical, memorable day and as we left the reception, snow began to softly fall outside. My wedding was a glorious event that involved months of careful planning and years of faithful praying. BUT, if you ask anyone who was there on that beautiful day, they will tell you that the days preceding were not as magical! To begin with, our wedding took place in Oregon, 1000 miles away from where I was living and working. Planning a wedding long-distance brought its challenges, but it was worth it! Then, we chose a date following Christmas, right in the middle of my first year of teaching. Juggling a new career AND long-distance wedding planning was certainly stressful, but it was worth it! Two nights before the big day, an ice storm hit the Portland area. Power was out all over the city, streets were closed, flights were delayed or canceled. Our wedding party and many, many faithful friends and relatives made it (some, just barely – ask Rebecca sometime about a spinning car on I-5) but others, including my grandmother, could not. I had to make last-minute changes in my carefully laid-out plans and the frustration and disappointment caused physical and emotional stress that was almost too much to bear at times.

But it was all worth it. 

All of the frustrations, disappointments, and stress didn’t matter one iota when I walked down that aisle. It was beautiful, joyous, fun-filled day that I will treasure in my memory forever.

Planning, preparation – we put so much time, so much emotion, so much of ourselves into the anticipation of these big events in our lives. We’re willing to endure the stress because we know that, in the end, we will be able to say it was all worth it.

Do we eagerly anticipate Christ’s return in the same way? 

While we live here on earth, we will experience joy and sorrow, delight and pain. As believers, we know that trials WILL come our way. Bitter disappointment, frustration and failure, and rollercoasters of emotions are all part of the event-planning, the anticipation of Christ’s coming - the greatest event the world will ever know.

Matthew 24:29-31 

Immediately after the distress of those days

the sun will be darkened,

and the moon will not give its light;

the stars will fall from the sky,

and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.

Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. 

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. 

Triumphantly, God’s church will rise to meet Him in the air, leaving behind every burden of this world.

It will ALL be worth it.

Click here to read the lyrics and listen to a solo arrangement of this song.