Thinking About Grace...Part 14
There is a phrase from a song we sang in worship today that I can't get past. It keeps going over and over through my head. It's in the song "Rescue" where there is a prayer in the chorus that says, "Capture me with grace." I've sung it a lot of times before...but today, I can't get past it. What does it mean be to "captured" by grace?
To capture something, according to the dictionary, is to take it by force—to take it into your possession or to control it by force. It can also refer to the diverting of a stream or a river by changing its path. Those are striking images...and causes me to realize that being captured by grace is exactly how I want to be.
Some may recoil at the idea of God taking us into his possession by force...and usually we think of "force" in a negative way (unless we're talking about Star Wars, but I digress...). An army takes possession of another country by force, military force. A police officer takes possession of someone who has broken the law often by force, sometimes by violent force. But those images do not describe the way God "captures" us.
The violent force was not done to us...it was done to Jesus. The powers of this world captured him and killed him, thinking they had won and had beaten him once and for all. And for a couple of days, that seemed to be true. Then, on the third day, he busted out of the tomb and everything changed. The violence was done to Jesus, and we are "captured" by what he has done for us, undone by the depth of his love for us.
Which brings us to the other image: the changing of the course of a river. When we allow ourselves to be captured by that grace, that love, our lives change forever. For the better. It's no mistake that the word for "repent" in the Bible means to change direction, to turn 180 degrees and go in an entirely new way. Grace, mercy and love do that for us. We are captured. Captured for good.
I want to be captured by grace. Only Jesus can do that. There's no other name by which I can be saved. Reflect on that image as you listen to the song...
To capture something, according to the dictionary, is to take it by force—to take it into your possession or to control it by force. It can also refer to the diverting of a stream or a river by changing its path. Those are striking images...and causes me to realize that being captured by grace is exactly how I want to be.
Some may recoil at the idea of God taking us into his possession by force...and usually we think of "force" in a negative way (unless we're talking about Star Wars, but I digress...). An army takes possession of another country by force, military force. A police officer takes possession of someone who has broken the law often by force, sometimes by violent force. But those images do not describe the way God "captures" us.
The violent force was not done to us...it was done to Jesus. The powers of this world captured him and killed him, thinking they had won and had beaten him once and for all. And for a couple of days, that seemed to be true. Then, on the third day, he busted out of the tomb and everything changed. The violence was done to Jesus, and we are "captured" by what he has done for us, undone by the depth of his love for us.
Which brings us to the other image: the changing of the course of a river. When we allow ourselves to be captured by that grace, that love, our lives change forever. For the better. It's no mistake that the word for "repent" in the Bible means to change direction, to turn 180 degrees and go in an entirely new way. Grace, mercy and love do that for us. We are captured. Captured for good.
I want to be captured by grace. Only Jesus can do that. There's no other name by which I can be saved. Reflect on that image as you listen to the song...
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