Grace (as Bill Beatty Understands It): Prevenient Grace
Okay - I KNOW it's been a looooooooooooooooong time between posts. But I was on vacation. No, really. We went to Idlewild (twice), the Pittsburgh zoo, the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh (um, not that great, really...and WAY too expensive), shopping (not my favorite activity, but we had fun) and caught the movie Cars which was GREAT!! Also got to rent a half dozen "grown-up" movies which we almost never do at home (Capote was pretty good, {proof} was WAY better than I thought it would be, Firewall was about as good as I thought it would be, 11:14 was probably not worth the two hours we spent watching it, The Producers [the musical] was really, really, really...not that good, Munich was good, but not [in my opinion] Oscar material...). So, that was my week off. It was a very good week...
So, Grace. Prevenient Grace. Not sure if this qualifies, but one thing that struck me about last week was that when we were driving down to Blairsville, I said to Lori, "No matter what the girls do, no matter how they behave, I'm going to be calm, kind and gentle." And I held true to that almost the whole week. I was prepared to offer grace to the girls through the week even before they did ANYTHING to need my grace. I wasn't perfect about it, but I managed it...mostly... So, in many ways it was a pretty good week.
That's a simple example of prevenient grace - the kind of grace that we try to hand out to one another in "real life." I'm really not very good at it, but I'm getting better. I really try to reason out how I will respond to things/people, but sometimes I just blow it...
So, God the Father - CREATOR, the example of Prevenient Grace.
Here's how I envision the dialogue that happened before Genesis 1:1 (call this Genesis 0:1, if you'd like...)
Father: You know that if we do this, you'll have to become one of them. You'll have to set aside all that you really are, become fully human, suffer the way they suffer, hurt the way they hurt, be tempted the way they will be tempted - but never give in. You know that they'll kill you - in the most brutal fashion that they can imagine. If we do this, you will have to die for their sin. If we do this, your blood will save them from themselves.
Son: I know. And I know that I don't go alone. You will be with me. You will be in the stable, you will be on the hillsides, in the boat, on the water, on the cross, in the tomb. I know that if we do this we will suffer. But we must do this...
Or something like that. I don't know, that didn't come out as well as the first time I used that idea in a Bible study. But the point is one of PREVENIENT GRACE. Before creation - if such an oxymoron can exist (how can there be a BEFORE time was created...um...) - anyway, before creation, the grace for redemption was already there. Otherwise we have not an omnipotent God who knows the end from the beginning, but an impotent, reactionary god who doesn't see things coming (like the "eating the fruit" or the 5 to 1 vote against going into the promised land or even the death of the Messiah):
Isaiah 46:8-11
8 Remember this and consider,
recall it to mind, you transgressors,
9 remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, “My purpose shall stand,
and I will fulfill my intention,”
11 calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man for my purpose from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have planned, and I will do it.
No, God is God. Grace was at the very beginning of creation. From the very first moment of the story of the fall, God was pouring out His grace. Genesis 3:21, "And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them." And they DIDN'T die right away...though they would die eventually...
Here's what The Book of Discipline says about Prevenient Grace:
We acknowledge God’s prevenient grace, the divine love that surrounds all humanity and precedes any and all of our conscious impulses. This grace prompts our first wish to please God, our first glimmer of understanding concerning God’s will, and our “first slight transient conviction” of having sinned against God.
Prevenient Grace is God offering forgiveness even before we know we have sinned, even before we HAVE sinned, even before we were born.
Jeremiah 1:
4 Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
When Lori and I decided it was time to have children, we went about it the normal way. I won't bore you with the details, of course... But a year went by, then two, then the doctor appointments started... Then we wondered if we would EVER have children. The specialists, the medications, the struggle. It was much harder on Lori who had a passion to have children than it was on me, who really had a passion to not see his wife suffering. But we prayed. For three years we praid for our children who were not yet... I had this sense of peace about it that Lori couldn't understand - that we would have children - yet we didn't even have hope of one child yet at that point.
And that's two examples of Prevenient Grace - we prayed for those we didn't yet know (and Lori has said that she prays for the girls' future husbands, I think...). And God's grace in that - the assurance, even though it wasn't completely understood by either of us, that He was faithful.
I wrote a song for Rachel's baptism and the bridge says:
Okay, it's sappy, and corney. I know. But the point of it is God's faithfulness even "when we couldn't pray." When we can't be faithful, or WON'T be faithful. God IS faithful - completely - perfectly...
God doesn't wait for us to come to Him before He offers us grace. God is NOT an impotent, reactionary god - but the Omnipotent, foreknowing God - Creator of all... Father... Abba... Daddy...
Romans 5:
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.
So this is Prevenient Grace. Maybe not a very eloquent description, not that coherent (hey, I've been on vacation, my brain is still numb...) But, for me, VERY comforting. God loves me. When I didn't care about God, he loved me. When I was telling Him to mind His own business, He loved me. When I was ready, there He was, already offering me forgiveness I know I don't deserve. Already He was prepared for me.
Greg Adkinson (emergingminister.com) once decided to write a song a week (called it 52 songs in 52 weeks). I'd like to take up that challenge sometime - but really don't have the discipline to do it...sigh... ANYWAY, Greg wrote a song called "Are You Out There Tonight?" that is really a song about Prevenient Grace (well, I don't know that he'd see it that way...but maybe...the song, for me, is the cry of a heart NEEDING the grace that God offers). Here's a link to a clip of the song
http://www.emergingminister.com/52songs/outtheretonight30.mp3
It's a great song. And that's how so many of us really felt before we fell into God's grace. Somehow needing, longing, hoping. Not really knowing what we needed, but knowing that we needed. And when our moment of deepest need hit, God was right there for us...
Here's an image of Prevenient Grace that really works for me.
When I was about 7 or 8 I was attacked by a dog. This would have been around 1976. I don't know what I did, or why the dog attacked me, but he grabbed on to the side of my face and literally tried to tear my face off. He missed my right eye by millimeters, my earlobe was dangling... They got the dog off of me, somehow. My parents rushed me to the hospital (of course). I don't remember any pain from the bite. I really have only two memories from the trip to the hospital - I was riding in my uncle's pickup truck (it was a fairly new Ford F-100 - which, ten years later, I would buy from him for the whopping sum of $500) and someone had pressed a dishtowel up against my face to stop the bleeding and I spent the five or six minutes it took whoever to drive me to the hospital holding the towel - and not hurting.
Anyway, we got to the hospital ER and they put me on a table and they started to assess my wound and, as it turned out, Doctor Bentz would have to put well over a hundred stitches in my face. He worked for hours - had to stop in the middle, I think, to get something to eat (as I have been told). What I remember from the stitches is that whatever they used to numb my face hurt like...well, nothing I had ever experienced. I remember screaming for my parents to make them stop. But the doctor and the nurses continued (and I am now thankful that they did). I have only tiny scars, now, thirty years later.
Here's the thing. Ten years or so before I was attacked, maybe two years before I was even BORN, the doctor had trained to save me from that dog bite. He practiced stitching so that he could do just tiny, tiny stitches, so that the scarring would be minimal. He learned to remain calm when the patient couldn't be. He learned exactly what to do for when I would need him - even though I didn't know I would ever need him, even though I didn't recognize him on the street before that day, even though I never thought I would ever need him, he was ready for me.
That's my image of prevenient grace. That's EXACTLY how it works. Only bigger. And better. And perfecter...
Prevenient Grace. God's love for us, no matter what. Getting what we don't deserve, before we even know we need it...
So, Grace. Prevenient Grace. Not sure if this qualifies, but one thing that struck me about last week was that when we were driving down to Blairsville, I said to Lori, "No matter what the girls do, no matter how they behave, I'm going to be calm, kind and gentle." And I held true to that almost the whole week. I was prepared to offer grace to the girls through the week even before they did ANYTHING to need my grace. I wasn't perfect about it, but I managed it...mostly... So, in many ways it was a pretty good week.
That's a simple example of prevenient grace - the kind of grace that we try to hand out to one another in "real life." I'm really not very good at it, but I'm getting better. I really try to reason out how I will respond to things/people, but sometimes I just blow it...
So, God the Father - CREATOR, the example of Prevenient Grace.
Here's how I envision the dialogue that happened before Genesis 1:1 (call this Genesis 0:1, if you'd like...)
Father: You know that if we do this, you'll have to become one of them. You'll have to set aside all that you really are, become fully human, suffer the way they suffer, hurt the way they hurt, be tempted the way they will be tempted - but never give in. You know that they'll kill you - in the most brutal fashion that they can imagine. If we do this, you will have to die for their sin. If we do this, your blood will save them from themselves.
Son: I know. And I know that I don't go alone. You will be with me. You will be in the stable, you will be on the hillsides, in the boat, on the water, on the cross, in the tomb. I know that if we do this we will suffer. But we must do this...
Or something like that. I don't know, that didn't come out as well as the first time I used that idea in a Bible study. But the point is one of PREVENIENT GRACE. Before creation - if such an oxymoron can exist (how can there be a BEFORE time was created...um...) - anyway, before creation, the grace for redemption was already there. Otherwise we have not an omnipotent God who knows the end from the beginning, but an impotent, reactionary god who doesn't see things coming (like the "eating the fruit" or the 5 to 1 vote against going into the promised land or even the death of the Messiah):
Isaiah 46:8-11
8 Remember this and consider,
recall it to mind, you transgressors,
9 remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, “My purpose shall stand,
and I will fulfill my intention,”
11 calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man for my purpose from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have planned, and I will do it.
No, God is God. Grace was at the very beginning of creation. From the very first moment of the story of the fall, God was pouring out His grace. Genesis 3:21, "And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them." And they DIDN'T die right away...though they would die eventually...
Here's what The Book of Discipline says about Prevenient Grace:
We acknowledge God’s prevenient grace, the divine love that surrounds all humanity and precedes any and all of our conscious impulses. This grace prompts our first wish to please God, our first glimmer of understanding concerning God’s will, and our “first slight transient conviction” of having sinned against God.
Prevenient Grace is God offering forgiveness even before we know we have sinned, even before we HAVE sinned, even before we were born.
Jeremiah 1:
4 Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
When Lori and I decided it was time to have children, we went about it the normal way. I won't bore you with the details, of course... But a year went by, then two, then the doctor appointments started... Then we wondered if we would EVER have children. The specialists, the medications, the struggle. It was much harder on Lori who had a passion to have children than it was on me, who really had a passion to not see his wife suffering. But we prayed. For three years we praid for our children who were not yet... I had this sense of peace about it that Lori couldn't understand - that we would have children - yet we didn't even have hope of one child yet at that point.
And that's two examples of Prevenient Grace - we prayed for those we didn't yet know (and Lori has said that she prays for the girls' future husbands, I think...). And God's grace in that - the assurance, even though it wasn't completely understood by either of us, that He was faithful.
I wrote a song for Rachel's baptism and the bridge says:
God give us patience when she's screaming in our ears
'Cause we remember how the silence hurt
As we waited all those years
And we thank You, God, for Your faithfulness
Even when we couldn't pray
And we thank You, God, for this little gift today...
Okay, it's sappy, and corney. I know. But the point of it is God's faithfulness even "when we couldn't pray." When we can't be faithful, or WON'T be faithful. God IS faithful - completely - perfectly...
God doesn't wait for us to come to Him before He offers us grace. God is NOT an impotent, reactionary god - but the Omnipotent, foreknowing God - Creator of all... Father... Abba... Daddy...
Romans 5:
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.
So this is Prevenient Grace. Maybe not a very eloquent description, not that coherent (hey, I've been on vacation, my brain is still numb...) But, for me, VERY comforting. God loves me. When I didn't care about God, he loved me. When I was telling Him to mind His own business, He loved me. When I was ready, there He was, already offering me forgiveness I know I don't deserve. Already He was prepared for me.
Greg Adkinson (emergingminister.com) once decided to write a song a week (called it 52 songs in 52 weeks). I'd like to take up that challenge sometime - but really don't have the discipline to do it...sigh... ANYWAY, Greg wrote a song called "Are You Out There Tonight?" that is really a song about Prevenient Grace (well, I don't know that he'd see it that way...but maybe...the song, for me, is the cry of a heart NEEDING the grace that God offers). Here's a link to a clip of the song
http://www.emergingminister.com/52songs/outtheretonight30.mp3
Are You Out There Tonight?
Greg Adkinson
Are you out there tonight
As I'm driving back home
Could you tell me how long
I'll have to go this alone
Cause I'm lonely tonight
I was hoping that you
Could tell me that I'll be alright
If you're up there tonight
Could you show me your hand
Cause I don't know how long
I will be able to stand
Underneath this weight
The road's getting long
And the hour is getting late
If you're out there tonight
Could you give me an answer
Cause lately my life's been
A total disaster
If you're out there tonight
And if you can hear me
Right now I just need for
You to be near me
If you're out there tonight
As I'm out on the road
And the rearview reflection
Tells me that I'm getting old
Was it that long ago
I was a someone that somebody
Might want to know
are you up there tonight
and are you even listening
there's some broken down prayers lately
that you've been missing
if you're out there at all
and if you still care
maybe you could let me
know if you're there
cause I'm out here tonight
there's no turning back
and the last trace of moonlight
surrendered itself to the black
I just want to go home
You could come with me
You know I hate being alone
It's a great song. And that's how so many of us really felt before we fell into God's grace. Somehow needing, longing, hoping. Not really knowing what we needed, but knowing that we needed. And when our moment of deepest need hit, God was right there for us...
Here's an image of Prevenient Grace that really works for me.
When I was about 7 or 8 I was attacked by a dog. This would have been around 1976. I don't know what I did, or why the dog attacked me, but he grabbed on to the side of my face and literally tried to tear my face off. He missed my right eye by millimeters, my earlobe was dangling... They got the dog off of me, somehow. My parents rushed me to the hospital (of course). I don't remember any pain from the bite. I really have only two memories from the trip to the hospital - I was riding in my uncle's pickup truck (it was a fairly new Ford F-100 - which, ten years later, I would buy from him for the whopping sum of $500) and someone had pressed a dishtowel up against my face to stop the bleeding and I spent the five or six minutes it took whoever to drive me to the hospital holding the towel - and not hurting.
Anyway, we got to the hospital ER and they put me on a table and they started to assess my wound and, as it turned out, Doctor Bentz would have to put well over a hundred stitches in my face. He worked for hours - had to stop in the middle, I think, to get something to eat (as I have been told). What I remember from the stitches is that whatever they used to numb my face hurt like...well, nothing I had ever experienced. I remember screaming for my parents to make them stop. But the doctor and the nurses continued (and I am now thankful that they did). I have only tiny scars, now, thirty years later.
Here's the thing. Ten years or so before I was attacked, maybe two years before I was even BORN, the doctor had trained to save me from that dog bite. He practiced stitching so that he could do just tiny, tiny stitches, so that the scarring would be minimal. He learned to remain calm when the patient couldn't be. He learned exactly what to do for when I would need him - even though I didn't know I would ever need him, even though I didn't recognize him on the street before that day, even though I never thought I would ever need him, he was ready for me.
That's my image of prevenient grace. That's EXACTLY how it works. Only bigger. And better. And perfecter...
Prevenient Grace. God's love for us, no matter what. Getting what we don't deserve, before we even know we need it...
Comments