Ocean of Grace...

I read Psalm 130:4 in the Good New Translation yesterday and pretty much stopped in my tracks. The verse:

      But you forgive us
           so that we should stand in awe of you.

Good News Translation (GNT)  Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society

Such an elemental doctrine of the Christian Faith.  So simple yet profound.  In our "advanced" world where we have access to hundreds, if not thousands, of Bible studies, many different translations/transliterations of the Bible at our fingertips, classes and courses to help us become better verse in theology at large, we seem to overlook the simple which is right before us.

We have lost the simple truths.  God forgives us.  That, in and of itself, should cause us to be awestruck.  Sadly we have also be desensitized to "Awesome."  I looked up several different dictionaries for a definition of Awesome which is fitting, but they all seemed to have desensitized with the current culture.  Awesome now means terrific or great.  That falls so short of what it should mean; might as well go all 'Leave it to Beaver' and say "Swell."  I can just hear the late Rich Mullins singing "Our God is a Swell God..."  NO!  We need to recapture awesomeness!

Look up the definition of awe: a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear and wonder. That is more like it. This NEEDS to be the base of our understanding of awesome. Respect mixed with fear and wonder; beyond our comprehension, and leaves us a little bit fearful of the prospect.  Awe should always have a question mark associated with it.  Once we CAN understand, we lose the awesomeness of it all.

There is an ocean of grace available to us.  We should not continue sinning due to this knowledge, we should be actively pursuing holiness, purity, and perfection (as God defines it, NOT us).  The ocean of grace concept also caught my attention recently.  It is such a beautiful and awesome concept.  (YES, I said AWESOME!).

The David Crowder Band  song "He Loves Us" (which was written by John Mark McMillan) includes the lyric from the graphic lead in of this post: 'If love is an ocean, we're all sinking.'  Wow.  Listen to it.  His love is manifest in our forgiveness.  We should never forget this.  It should be the anthem of our daily praise.  Without His forgiveness and grace, we have nothing.

Make today about pondering the awesomeness of God's grace to you.  If that doesn't make you want to praise Him, I don't know what will.

Rejoice and be glad.