Lauren Sparks

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Grace Upon Grace

March 10, 2023 by Lauren 8 Comments

“For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.”  Psalm 25:11 NASB

 

Have you ever felt like your sin was so huge and hideous that God could not easily forget it?  King David did.  He’s one of my favorite personalities in the Bible.  So full of fervor and triumph and failures and foibles.  Just like me.  In Psalm 25, he praises God and asks for His forgiveness in the same breath.  David says that his sin is “great” and feels the guilt and remorse of his actions.  Yet, in the very next chapter, David prays, “Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.”  He asks God to test him and says, “I walk continually in your truth.” and “I wash my hands in innocence.”

 

Has David forgotten his “great” sin?  No.  David is not claiming perfection, but rather that he has sincerity of purpose and single-hearted devotion.  He had a good understanding of God’s nature and the grace and forgiveness he affords His children.  Because of that forgiveness, we can go boldly and confidently before the Lord (no matter what we’ve done), just as David did – who was an adulterer and murderer by the way.

 

Upon Grace

 

In the book Why Do Mullets Jump?:  And Other Puzzles and Possibilities of God’s Creation, Gene Zimmerman describes this attribute of God.  “…most of us are poorly equipped for perfection.  We come closer to understanding ourselves when we can see and accept some of our human limitations.  This isn’t an invitation to pass off every failure by claiming imperfection or to avoid trying; but rather it is advice that we need to accept some imperfection and acknowledge that we can’t do it all right all the time.  The encouraging thing about this reality is that God loves us and meets us at these places of imperfection with grace and strength.”

 

There is a difference between accepting that we will sin and choosing to pitch our tent in the middle of sin and live there. “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?  Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” Romans 6:1-2  NASB 

The good news?  Grace doesn’t just cover our past mistakes.  It also keeps us from stepping into new ones, if we let it. 

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“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and in a godly manner in the present age,”  Titus 2:11-12 NASB   I don’t think good news describes this appropriately.  This is great news! (John 1:16)

 

And now for this week’s featured post from the link up!

 

As I am observing lent myself, Thoughts on Lent from instaencouragements.com was so informative and beneficial to me.  Thank you, Elisabeth!

 

The Link Up

1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.

2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.

3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate).

Grace and Truth_Meet Hosts

We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.

MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

LAUREN SPARKS
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

TAMMY KENNINGTON – Restoring hope. Pursuing peace.
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

 Now Let’s Link Up!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Hi, Mom. I’m Home…and Grace and Truth Link Up

July 2, 2021 by Lauren 20 Comments

The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,[a] so that we may serve the living God!  Hebrews 9:13-14 NIV

 

For high school graduation, a relative gave me a laundry bag.  A practical, if unimaginative gift.  It said, “Hi, Mom.  I’m Home.”  During my college years I wore out that bag and a couple of baskets! Every time I planned to go back home to visit my parents, I saved up as much dirty laundry as I could.  Then hauled it many highway miles with me.  In fact, I saved my dirty clothes for so long that I never had any clean ones to pack for the trip!  I wore straight out of the dryer for the entire visit.

 

My mom didn’t do the laundry for me (she wouldn’t if I’d asked anyway).  I happily washed and folded my own clothes there because Mom’s machines required no quarters.  And at Mom’s house I didn’t have to worry that my jeans might get stolen from an unattended machine.  Totally happened to my Rocky Mountains (Anyone else remember those?).

 

When my sister and I came home on the same weekend or for the holidays, that washer and dryer ran around the clock.  We made sure to clean every shirt and pair of socks we owned while there.  After which we hauled everything back to school to hang in our closets – sparkling clean and pressed.

 

Do you know what dirty laundry we never have to carry around?  That which we perpetrated in our own lives.  The blood of Jesus washes us cleaner than any detergent could.

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Christ made the ultimate sacrifice of Himself so that we could be forgiven of our sins and made “whiter than snow”.  I thank the Father that nothing I’ve ever done can be held against me because I’ve trusted Him to expunge it.  No stain sets too dark or too stubborn for those who love the Lord and accept His gift of salvation.

 

 …let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.  Hebrews 10:22 NIV

 

And now for this week’s featured link up post!

 

My writer heart just loves Lois Flowers’ Telling Our Stories (and a Giveaway).  Not only is her post a great philosophy for good writing, but I think it helps with good communication overall!  And the giveaway is so sweet!  Thanks, Lois.

 

Grace and Truth_Rules

1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.

2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.

3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate)

 

Grace and Truth_Meet Hosts

We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.

MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

HEATHER HART & VALERIE RIESE – Candidly Christian
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

LAUREN SPARKS
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

Now Let’s Link Up!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

 

 

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About Me

I love Jesus, my husband and caffeine. The order of these can change depending on how tired I am. When my two daughters, stepson, and 4 grandchildren get to be too much, I practice yoga. God graciously allows me to share our adventures, victories and flub-ups from my laptop. May He be glorified here.
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