Charisa Stories

Tag: grace

  • Why Grandparents Are So Important In The Lives Of Their Grandchildren

    This past week I was blessed to spend family vacation time with my eight grandchildren. It was wonderfully exhausting.

    I always think about the impact of my grandmother when I grew up. My life was influenced then and to this day by my dear Granny Davis. She had taken on the name Davis from her second husband Raymond. 

    Talitha Alice Burchett remarried a few years after enduring the unthinkable tragedy of losing her first husband to typhoid fever when my dad was only six-months-old. A widow with a newborn living in dirt poor Appalachia would have reason to be bitter. But not this remarkable woman.

    So many words come to mind as I remember Granny Davis. The first word is always gratitude. Anytime I visited she was grateful for one minute of my time or for many hours. She was grateful for everything and everyone.

    Another word is joy. Granny Davis had a ready and sometimes mischievous smile that cheered me constantly through the trials of growing up. She was my champion and she never once showed disappointment in me. Not once!

    She had no formal education yet she was one of the wisest women I have ever known. Perhaps that is because she spent so much time absorbing God’s Word through consistent reading of the Bible. I remember her lamenting that she wished she was smarter so she could understand God’s Word better. But few people I have met have allowed God’s Word to penetrate their heart and actions more than my Granny Davis. I bought her a copy of The Living Bible and she read through it with notes and markings from Genesis to Revelation. On August 26, 1977 she wrote this at the end of the book of Revelation.

    “Just finished reading this through. Thank you David. It’s meant a lot to me.”

    She was my first messenger of grace, although I did not realize that until later in life. She modeled unconditional love through some very difficult seasons with my parent’s marriage. No matter how I responded during that time I never once felt guilty or unloved in her presence. That was grace in real life.

    To this day, I think of her grace filled responses whenever I feel ungrateful for some real or perceived slight. When I got my driver’s license, my visits to Granny Davis’s house became more and more unannounced. I would run there when I was sad or afraid. She was my refuge. In her presence, I experienced unconditional love, more than in any other place in my early life.

    Granny Davis earned extra money by taking on sewing projects. Joni and I often tell the story of how desperately poor we were when we were newlyweds and our firstborn son came along. There were many times when we scavenged for coins to scrape together money for milk. Whenever we were most in need, a letter would arrive postmarked “Chillicothe, Ohio.” In her distinctive scribble, Granny Davis would write a note of encouragement to us, accompanied by money from her sewing projects. Whether it was five dollars or twenty, it always seemed to be just what we needed to get by for that moment.

    That was no accident. This was a woman who was dialed into the Holy Spirit, and she demonstrated that God knows our needs and He moves before we have any idea. It gave Joni and me a very early and unforgettable example of how God provides. We have never forgotten that lesson. When we face uncertainty, we know that He provides, in part because of a five-foot-two dynamo of faith who showed us what faith and grace look like in our daily journey.

    Isn’t it interesting how a simple person of faith, kindness, joy, and grace can have such an influence? She knows I loved her but she had no idea how much her walk with Jesus affected me. Part of that is because I didn’t recognize it myself until later in life and I look forward to telling her in heaven. 

    Proverbs 17:6 says that “Grandchildren are the crowning glory of the aged”. 

    Amen.

    What a wonderful gift from God to have the opportunity to love, care, and share your life with these precious little ones. We can have a unique connection and voice to our grandkids. I share the hope of John who wrote these words.

    I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children (and grandchildren) are following the truth. (3 John 3:4, NLT)

    I hope I am having an impact in my beloved grandkid’s lives. I won’t know the whole story on this earth but I will do my best to show them the love and grace of Jesus. 

    Billy Graham summed up my goal perfectly. 

    “The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.”

  • Was This Insight One Of Einstein’s Most Important Theories?

    Albert Einstein is often credited for this quote.

    “Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution.”

    If so it may be his best theory! I have reached and exceeded my saturation point on negative discourse.

    Our leaders on both sides, the media, and social media platforms spend a ridiculous percentage of their energy on what is wrong with this world instead of ways to address those problems. Their solutions are often soul-sucking condemnation, judgement, and dismissal of people who simply ask questions. Perhaps the most distressing thing is that many in the church have fallen into the same dark space. Christian social media responses to cultural and doctrinal issues may be slightly less profane but not much, if any, less negative.

    Brothers and sisters, we are supposed to be light! But please don’t take my word for it. Your argument is with Jesus. 

    “In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will 
    praise your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:16, NLT)

    Paul addressed why we should be eager to be light in the world in Ephesians 5:8. 

    “For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!“

    My heart breaks when I see how many followers of Christ seem to have forgotten they were once full of darkness. It is only because of God’s grace that you have light. 

    For the spiritual hall monitors I am willing to have thoughtful discussions about tough issues. But I am done with negativity and it is not because I am naive about the condition of the world. I am done with negativity precisely because of the condition of the world. This hurting, fearful populace needs hope, light, and grace. They need thoughtful listeners with a message of love. They need the positive message of the Good News. That is my goal for the rest of my days. I feel quite comfortable that the negative side will be well represented by countless others. 

    Everyday I need to make choices.

    I can be judgmental or I can be joyful.
    I can be pessimistic or I can be prayerful.
    I can be condemning or I can be caring.
    I can be fearful or I can be faithful.
    I can be grace-filled or I can be graceless.

    We make those choices and I know they are not easy. Making the choice to eat better is hard. Making the choice to work out is even harder for me. Those are decisions with good but temporal benefits. But making the choice to be a positive, loving light in this world has eternal impact. Warren Wiersbe is one of my favorite writers. His book Be Joyful: Philippians): Even When Things Go Wrong, You Can Have Joy is a great study to reorient your negativity.

    “When you have the single mind, you look on your circumstances as God-given opportunities for the furtherance of the gospel, and you rejoice at what God is going to do instead of complaining about what God did not do.”― Warren W. Wiersbe

    That response ain’t natural my friends. That is a mindset based on who God is. It is a choice grounded on the grace He has lavishly given to each one of His children. I’m done with negativity. I don’t know if I have two weeks or two decades left on this planet but I don’t want to spend my time wallowing in pessimism. I remember joking with my television production crew a few years ago that I was in the 4th quarter of life. One of my dear, encouraging friends said this with a smile on his face. “What if you’re in overtime?” That could well be but no matter how much time is on the life clock I want to be a positive light. I want to remember and live out the truth of John 13:35.

    “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

    The choice to love and be light is infinitely more important than winning online arguments, getting social media likes, and racking up followers. I want to be a loving light for the Good News of the Gospel. Nothing is more important.

  • Love People Of All Colors Because We All Bleed The Same

    My heart is so sad as I think about the tragic death of a young man in Frisco, Texas. The families of both Austin Metcalf and Karmelo Anthony will never be the same. I have also been deeply saddened by the rhetoric from some people on both sides. Please read the rest of this blog before you condemn my statement. Sadly the previous sentence might actually be too late for so many respondents.

    I remembered a duet from Mandisa and TobyMac that touched me deeply. They addressed the heartbreaking issue of political division that affects our culture and often impacts the church.

    These lyrics immediately grabbed my heart.

    Are you left?
    Are you right?
    Pointing fingers, taking sides
    When are we gonna realize?

    We all bleed the same
    We’re more beautiful when we come together
    We all bleed the same
    So tell me why, tell me why
    We’re divided.

    Why indeed? Martin Luther King Jr taught us that hateful rhetoric never, ever, ever changes a heart. 

    Followers of Christ have a message of hope and light that is desperately needed. But we can get caught up in the politics of our world and snuff out that light. I have been guilty of that in my journey at times. I pray it will not happen again.

    I fear our culture will get darker in the days and months ahead. Followers of Christ have to make a decision. We can decide to complain that Christians are no longer respected and valued in the culture. Or we can decide to show the kind of kindness, forgiveness, grace, and love that early Christians demonstrated to change a hostile culture. Christianity really functions best as the underdog. We can ask God to give us the strength and grace to be a light in the darkness.

    Perhaps the fact that grace and forgiveness are rare commodities in this society is a big reason we see such anger and hopelessness.

    Our natural reaction to those who denigrate our faith is to strike back. Jesus knew this would happen and He had some very radical instructions.

    “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. (Luke 6:27-28,  NET)

    I wonder what God could do if we followed those words?  And if we remembered that we all created in the image of God but our different experiences and stories can divide us. They don’t have to. The song lyrics have grace filled insight.

    If we’re gonna fight
    Let’s fight for each other
    If we’re gonna shout
    Let love be the cry
    We all bleed the same
    So tell me why, tell me why
    We’re divided

    My prayer is that we do not focus on the multitude of political issues that divide us but on the one healing name that can unite us.

    Jesus.

    His blood was shed on the Cross for all races. If we believe that then why are we divided? We don’t need to be if we keep our eyes on the Cross.

  • Division Impacts The Power Of The Gospel

    My head explodes when I allow myself to wade into the political discourse between followers of Jesus Christ on Facebook, X, and other social media. There are important cultural issues that Christians need to prayerfully and gracefully seek God’s wisdom to address. What I read is rarely graceful and that makes me wonder how prayerful the messengers have been before hitting the send button. What gives you the right to judge the faith status of another believer because you disagree with them? I was wrong about many political things in my life but I did believe in Jesus (in spite of what some critics thought) and God patiently changed my heart.

    Because of the nature of social media a topic that should be thoughtfully debated instead becomes an us versus them. I can assure you that no one’s mind is changed by a name calling rant. If fact, that person is more likely to dig in even deeper to what may be incorrect opinions because of your unkind comments.

    These judgements of motives and personal attacks are so damaging to the message of grace that I hold so dear. Sometimes I try to imagine myself as a skeptical seeker looking to explore this Christianity thing. I am pretty sure if I stumbled on some of these mean-spirited threads I would run straight for the secular hills.

    The irony of this need to “win” the argument at the expense of Christian charity and love may be one more profoundly effective tactic of the enemy. The moment the Church is divided by culture instead of united in Christ is the moment our light for the message of the Gospel dims. Paul noted that God’s sovereignty can take any proclamation of the Gospel and use it for His glory.

    “It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. 16 They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. 17 Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. 18 But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.” (Phillipians 1:15-18)

    I hope that most followers of Jesus wish to communicate the incredibly liberating forgiveness of the Gospel. I hope that most of us wish to be accurate in that communication. But I also hope that most of us wish to be gracious, kind, loving, and thoughtful toward all in the body who desire to celebrate Jesus. 

    When asked what the most important commandment was Jesus replied without hesitation.

    “And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.”

    And he added a second part…”Be accurate and angrily make sure others are accurate at all costs.”

    Hardly.

    His convicting command is well known.

    “The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.” 

    Don’t hijack my point. Accuracy is important but you cannot love your neighbor as yourself by condescension, assigning of bad motives, and smug righteousness. 

    I wish followers of Jesus would proclaim what we are FOR more passionately than what we are against. What if we decided to spend all of our energy proclaiming that the Son of God came to earth as a human, lived a sinless life, was crucified as a sacrifice for my sin and yours and then was resurrected to show the ultimate victory over sin and death?

    What if we decided to be a little kinder, give a little more, serve a little more often, and commit to unity in our ranks?

    My concern is that the lack of unity is the single biggest problem in the universal church and, of course, in our individual fellowships. There is no more powerful community than a group of believers who live in unity. Nothing levels the playing field like genuinely following Jesus. 

    Famous preacher D.L. Moody had this warning. “I have never yet known the Spirit of God to work where the Lord’s people were divided.”

    The One that unites us is so much more important than the things that divide us. Can we commit to encountering others in grace based on our unity in Jesus Christ? 
    The choice is ours.

  • How Focused Time With God Enhances Spiritual Growth

    Every day I am gifted with 86,400 seconds of precious time. I cannot possibly use all of it wisely. But I can invest more of that daily gift into my relationships with God and others. I can’t draw interest on unused time to be used later.

    Time is far more valuable than the money we so doggedly pursue. I can lose all my money and make more later. But if I lose my time, it is gone forever. Solomon actually beat me to this message by about three thousand years, give or take. He decided that, all things considered, the best way to live is to enjoy the moment.

    “Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life.” (Ecclesiastes‬ ‭5‬:‭18‬ ‭NLT‬‬)


    Not to be maudlin, but that is the reality of this earthly existence. We don’t know if we have tomorrow or even the rest of today. Certainly we must be wise to plan and prepare for a long future. But we must also invest in now, in case that is all we are given. 

    Maybe the message that resonates the most for me is that we cannot receive postdated grace. We cannot order grace for the future. We receive grace in the now. Grace is God’s greatest gift of my being present with Him. When we are disconnected or distracted, we miss that blessing of real-time grace.

    If I had to write a one-sentence summary of what I learned on this odyssey, it would be very simple. Spend focused time with those you love and with your God. Speaker-writer Zig Ziglar wrote about spending time with loved ones. 

    “One of these days you will say either, ‘I wish I had,’ or ‘I’m glad I did.’”

    How heartbreaking would it be to find yourself at the end of this pilgrimage with the regret of “I wish I had” roiling in your soul? My heart’s desire is that I will gratefully say, “I’m glad I did.” If you want to give the very best present to your spouse, kids, friends, and God, the grace challenge is simple. 

    Be present.

    If a friend is suffering, you can show no greater love than to simply be there for him or her. Not offering great theological insight or stories of your own or other’s suffering. Just be present.

    When you talk to a friend, be present. Not looking around as if your friend is merely a temporary diversion before someone more compelling comes along. That is the best thing we can give to others. Nothing makes a person feel more valued than being fully present.

    And being fully present is the best worship we can give to God. We can sing and raise hands in worship to God, and that is good. We can talk about His love and forgiveness, and that is good. But nothing communicates our adoration for God more than being fully present with Him.

    The enemy will remind you over and over of all that needs to be done. He will remind you of past wounds and failures. It would be wise to remember something incredibly encouraging. Jesus has experienced exactly what you are going through right now. He was tempted in the desert by Satan. He was tired, hungry, and lonely. Jesus experienced the lies of the enemy and He conquered them with a simple strategy. Jesus focused on the Father and rebuked Satan with what? A powerful argument?

    Nope.

    Just

    Quoting Scripture was all that Jesus did to defeat the enemy. Satan has power, but it is limited. God has the authority, and Jesus used that power.

    My desire is to serve the Lord with single-heartedness. I cannot multitask and hope to be fully present with God. 

    Spiritual cynics might call quiet moments of presence with God and others unproductive time. I am learning that there is no more productive way we can spend our time. Everything that truly matters grows from that enriched soil of quiet presence in the Spirit.

    My heavenly Father is always present. I just need to show up for Him. That is the essence of spiritual growth for me. Just showing up in humility every day, seeking His presence.

    I will stumble in this journey to be present. I probably will need a refresher course often. But I am confident beyond confident of one truth that Paul wrote to the church at Philippi, which is true for you and me today.

    I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. (Philippians 1:6, NLT)

    One day I will wake up glorified in His eternal presence. I believe the epithet written on Ruth Graham’s tombstone will also describe my journey: “End of construction—thank you for your patience.”

  • Legalism Takes You Down A Lonely And Dead End Highway

    The start of my faith journey was mired in legalism. Starting down that rugged highway led me to years of sadness, tiredness, and performance bondage.

    I think that is why the song “Redeemed” recorded by Big Daddy Weave remains one of my favorite descriptions of what it means to understand the redemptive gift from Jesus. Lead singer Mike Weaver wrote Redeemed while feeling broken and inadequate despite recognizing God’s presence in his life. He said, “For as long as I can remember I have always never felt like I was enough.”

    I can so relate to the opening stanza of Redeemed.


    Seems like all I could see was the struggle
    Haunted by ghosts that lived in my past
    Bound up in shackles of all my failures
    Wondering how long is this gonna last…

    I remembered day after day of agonizing self-loathing because I kept failing. I did not understand the mercy of Jesus nor did I believe I could fall on His grace. I was taught that such an attitude showed a lack of obedience and a dependence on “cheap grace”. Somehow I missed that obvious scriptural message from Jesus to his followers because I was influenced by the preaching of shame. Mike Weaver wrote how Jesus responds when we surrender and finally listen to His message of grace.

    Then You look at this prisoner and say to me “son…Stop fighting a fight that’s already been won”

    I was released from that doctrinal prison after spending too many years not understanding the fight had already been won.

    Legalism takes the sweet Gospel of Jesus Christ and mixes in some “churchified” version of the law. Church by-laws can occupy equal footing with God’s Word. Righteousness is no longer about Christ but about right behavior as only they can define it. Legalism cherry picks verses that support behavioral control while conveniently ignoring dozens of verses about grace, forgiveness, kindness, love, gentleness and forbearance.

    Focusing on right behavior can make you moral and perhaps a good person. It does not make you righteous. Such focus is not much different (if at all) from an agnostic or sporadic church-goer who really tries hard to do right and moral things. Tim Keller wrote this provocative thought about legalism in his wonderful book “The Reason for God”.

    “The devil, if anything, prefers Pharisees—men and women who try to save themselves. They are more unhappy than either mature Christians or irreligious people, and they do a lot more spiritual damage.”

    I spent many long and frustrating years trying to do all the right things to be righteous. I got tired. I became discouraged. I reached the point of brokenness that allowed me turn over the keys to Christ. I reached the point where I no longer had to be right. I had reached the point where I didn’t want to wear a phony mask of holiness. I had reached the point where I was willing to trust God completely with everything about me. I had reached the point where I was ready for grace.

    The chorus from Redeemed lifts my heart in worship!

    I am redeemed, You set me free
    So I’ll shake off these heavy chains
    Wipe away every stain, now I’m not who I used to be
    I am redeemed, I’m redeemed

    If you are tired enough, discouraged enough, wounded enough, and ready to give up then I have a very odd statement to make.

    You are in a wonderful place.

    You are ready for grace.

    Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. (Romans 6, NLT)

    You are ready for change from the inside out. God is waiting for you to experience His grace. Legalism is a dead end street to misery. There is a better way to live.

    In freedom.

    In Christ.

    You are redeemed!

  • How Can Grace Change Our Faith Stat Sheet Completely?

    I lived for decades in the performance driven world of sports. We too often measured value not by character but by statistics like how many tackles for loss, field goal shooting percentage, or batting average. Character was a nice bonus but performance was king.

    I remembered a comment from former Northwestern University football coach Pat Fitzgerald about the impact of negative stats on a football player’s performance. Coaches often talk about the need to reduce “missed” tackles and they keep track of each miscue. Coach Fitzgerald had a different philosophy. His staff did not keep track of missed tackles at all. The staff evaluated each player by their effort even if it did not produce perfect results. His next comment stuck with me. “I don’t like to put negative results in their minds because you become what you think about.”

    It immediately hit me how profound that comment is for followers of Jesus. We tend to keep spiritual stats on failure. We beat ourselves up over “missed” opportunities. We fixate on what we have done instead of what Jesus has already done for us. We write our game plan to do better on the board.

    Don’t sin.
    Do better.
    Pray more.
    Study more Scripture.
    Be more forgiving.
    Less angry.
    More loving.

    And we try really, really hard to do all of those things. But the bad stats overwhelm and discourage us. We do sin. We don’t always forgive. We get angry. We don’t study or pray as much as we think we probably should. The net result is frustration and spiritual fatigue.

    I wrestled with idea of how we can deal with sin in my book Stay: Lessons My Dogs Taught Me about Life, Loss, and Grace. 

    In Hebrews the text tells us to “strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”

    Even though it sounds like a daunting and even impossible task, the author of Hebrews sums up how to do that in one powerful sentence: “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2, NLT).

    That is it.

    There is no other way to consistently live that life apart from keeping our eyes on Jesus.
    The same is true for me. When I keep my eyes on Jesus, I have the strength to be bold and the ability to produce fruit that is pleasing to God. When our rambunctious Labrador Maggie could not settle down, I told her to sit so she could focus on calming down and doing the right thing. When she stayed and regrouped, things went well for her. When my thought life and actions cannot settle down, I need the Holy Spirit to firmly but lovingly tell me to sit . . .stay . . . abide.

    Only then do I realize that I have turned my eyes away from Jesus. When I stay, I can focus on His peace, love, forgiveness, and grace, and have the ability to resist sin. If I am anxious, fearful, have doubts, or am sad, I need to sit, stay, and abide, looking at the One who initiates and perfects my faith.

    What a difference between that approach and what too many of us experience. We tend to address the sin first. Stop that! Quit! Do better! And by the way, Jesus loves you. Or worse, He will love you when you do better. Paul always took the grace exit instead. Remember who you are! You are saints! Beloved! Adopted! Redeemed! Those same truths are ours to claim as we keep our eyes on Jesus. When we quit fighting to get better and do that one simple thing, something amazing happens. We get better.

    We do become what we think about. It is always a pretty good game plan to think about Jesus. And His gift of grace eliminates our spiritual shortcoming stats. Thank you Lord!