What does it mean to live a life that responds properly to God’s grace?

This is a question that was asked of the prophet Micah when God’s people recognised that they were not living in a way that reflected the grace of God.

Their natural response was to perform religious acts, offering all sorts of sacrifices that they thought might please God by their commitment.

But this was God’s response through the prophet Micah: 

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)

There were three things that they were to do to respond properly to God’s love and grace.

Firstly, they were to act justly, making sure that people were treated in a fair way, and that those who mistreated others would stop sinning.

Secondly, they were to love mercy, having a heart-felt desire for God’s steadfast, covenantal love to be known and experienced by all.

And thirdly, they were to walk humbly, or rightly, with their God, obeying his ways, and following his good commands.

God didn’t want their wealth, he wanted their worship… but not a worship that involved ritual, but a worship that involved genuine commitment to living God’s way.

It is not a recipe for how to become friends with God, but rather a way to show genuine thankfulness to God for the love he showed us when we were unlovable… enemies he saved when our hearts were far away.

When we understand God’s mercy shown to us, we will be people who love to lavish that mercy on others, especially when that mercy is not deserved.

For when we are prepared to love those who don’t deserve it, we will then show that we know what it means to know God’s grace.

JODIE McNEILL

(Photo credit: kerenzayuen via Flickr.com)

When we think of the work of the Holy Spirit, we usually consider his work in the life of followers of Jesus.

However, when Jesus tells his disciples that after his death he will be sending the Holy Spirit, he says that the Spirit will have a special ministry to people who do not yet follow Jesus.

In John 16 verse 8, he says that when the Spirit comes, “he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.”

There are three things that the Holy Spirit says to unbelievers.

The first is that they are in sin because they refuse to believe in Jesus (verse 9), and that if they keep refusing him then they’re in big trouble.

The second is that, “righteousness is available” (verse 10), because Jesus went to the cross, and that they can have this sin dealt with by Jesus and his death for them.

The third thing he says is that, “judgement will come” (verse 11), which is the reason that we need to consider the gracious offer of Jesus as soon as possible.

All of these things are spoken by the Holy Spirit to the world, and they give a clear message about what needs to happen to avoid judgement and enjoy peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is why we can be so thankful that the Spirit works in the lives of the world as well as in Christians, and we can take comfort that when we tell people about the great news of Jesus, then we’re not alone… for he is speaking with us!

Let us pray that the Lord would give us many opportunities to use the power of the Holy Spirit to chat to people about Jesus… and the wonderful certainty for eternity we have when we come to him.

JODIE McNEILL

(Photo credit: Kenneth Reitz via Flickr)

Kanishka Raffel is the Archbishop-elect of our Diocese of Sydney, who was unanimously elected after a three-night selection process involving nearly 800 representatives of our Anglican churches and organisations.

He is currently the Dean of Sydney, namely the senior minister of St Andrew’s Cathedral, where he has served for six years, having previously led a large church in Perth for 16 years, having studied at Moore and served in Sydney and Canberra.

Kanishka is married to Cailey, has two adult daughters, and is aged 56.

Born to Sri Lankan parents in London, he and his family emigrated to Australia from Canada in 1972, where as an adult, he converted to Christ from Buddhism.

I have had the privilege of working closely with Kanishka as I serve as a member of the Gafcon Australasia 2021 Conference committee which he chairs, and I have witnessed first-hand his passion to proclaim Christ faithfully.

As a speaker, he has shown himself to clearly teach the Bible and to lead people to know Jesus better, as he stretches the minds and warms the hearts of the listeners, in obedience to the powerful word of God.

In his speech of thanks to the Synod, he showed his servant heart:

You have elected a weak servant, and you too, are but weak servants.  But we have a mighty Saviour – full of grace, sovereign, sufficient, supreme; having the supremacy in all things so that through him God was pleased to reconcile all things to himself  by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. If I can make a pledge it is this – to stand at the foot of the cross, weak, dependent and forgiven, and from there to seek to serve, as he enables.

Please pray for Kanishka as he prepares for the Inauguration on the 28th May, when he will commence this new ministry to us and with us as our Archbishop.

JODIE McNEILL