Just A Little Grace...

That's a line from a song, "Grace" by "The Choir" a band first introduced to me by Terry Davis while he was the youth minister at Westside Christian Church in Jacksonville. I tell you all this because I've been listening to this song since the summer of 1992. It was part of a mixed tape Terry created (copyrights included) for the summer. More than almost any other song on the album, this one has stuck with me. Go on,take a listen and read the lyrics:

  Lyrics from Genius.com:

Grace Lyrics

 

[Verse 1]

 

Screaming at the newsman Telling him to take it back I'll sue him if he won't retract Crying to the hangman Begging him to render slack If I could, I would go back

 

[Chorus] Will you extend me Will you extend me grace? Just a little grace Will you extend me Will you extend me grace? Just a little grace

 

[Verse 2] Were you talking to the shrubbery? Did you cut the roses down? Someone oughta till that ground You thought I had a pure heart, well I thought you were an angel, girl Mercy is the silver pearl

 

[Chorus] Will you extend me Will you extend me grace? Just a little grace Will you extend me Will you extend me grace? Just a little grace My mother deems me ever dear I'm less a liar than sincere

 

[Guitar Solo]

 

[Verse 3] When you cut me in the alleyway You don't have to turn that knife I'll suffer in the afterlife Praying to the Father Sorry, did I grieve the Ghost? You're the one I love the most

 

[Chorus] Will you extend me Will you extend me grace? Just a little grace Will you extend me Will you extend me grace? Just a little grace You gotta give me You gotta give me grace Just a little grace Will you extend me Will you extend me grace? Just a little grace My mother deems me ever dear

I wish I could take you on a mental journey back to 14 year old Me, figuring out the world. I was high on the love of God, and the youth group at Westside had my back. I cannot emphasize to you the importance of "belonging" to a young man of that age, but I will say this again: This song has stuck with me, it helped me understand that I existed as a person right where I belonged. I knew it was an important song then, but I didn't know how important it would be to me now. First, let's look at it's stucture. I took the song as a pastiche of several of Jesus' parables about Grace. Notably, I believe we're given a scene of people, some refusing to show grace, others begging for grace, and the point is the question that keeps being asked: "Will you extend me grace?" In the first part of the song, I think the question is being asked to people like you and me. Will you give me grace? I think the implied rhetorical answer is "usually not." This brings us to the second part. The People (Church) who are rhetorically answering "No" in part one, are now under attack, and they are asking "Will you extend me Grace" to the Lord. The rhetorical answer is supposed to be yes, as emphasized by the begging line: "You gotta give me grace". There is danger is obliging God to do anything, it's far better to trust God to keep his Word, and listen to Him. Here's how the Lord commands us to be in matters of Grace and Forgiveness:

21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. 23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

Matthew 18:21-35 ESV, copied from Bible Gateway

This is really kind of a simple parable. If you call out to God for forgiveness, you must expect to forgive others too. We can't earn the forgiveness we beg God for, but we can be grateful for it. If we're grateful for the grace we've received, we will show it in kind. That is all. Enjoy the music! Show some grace. No I don't know why the album date is 1993, and I know for a fact we had that song on a mixed tape earlier than that. the only thing i know is that Terry Davis is The Man.

Valentine

Love is a battlefield
Love hurts
Love me tender
What is love?

I'll tell you what love is.
Love is nothing to take lightly. I don't know how I feel about having a day devoted to "love" and having the primary color for the day be my least favorite (red).
That's right, I don't like Valentine's day because red is my least favorite color.
And it's a made up holiday designed to sell candy and cards.
No card can express how I feel about my wife.
How could it?

it was literal love at first sight. I knew when I saw her that I could marry her and be happy for the rest of my life, or learn to be content as a single man knowing I'd met the one, and said no. It's a strange thing to relate to you.
A better color for today is green,  because green represents growing, and I want to grow.
I don't want to be content with who I am. I'm not worth my wife's affection, she makes me grow. That's what love is.
Growth.
Love always will be. According to the movie "Interstellar" gravity and love are transcendent to this plane of existence. I don't know about gravity, but I do know that love certainly is. It's the one thing God said we will have when we die:

1Co 13:1-13  If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  (2)  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  (3)  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.  (4)  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant  (5)  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;  (6)  it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  (7)  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  (8)  Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  (9)  For we know in part and we prophesy in part,  (10)  but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.  (11)  When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.  (12)  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.  (13)  So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Love never ends.
One day we'll be faithless (for we shall see), hopeless (because we'll have won our rest), but we'll never be loveless.

You can't be loveless if you're going to be with The Father.