Grace for the moment.

Steve Brown:
Grace for the moment. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life, here to let Christians know that God isn’t mad at them. Keep listening, and you’ll hear that because of what Jesus has done, you’re welcomed home into the family of God because of his radical grace, free from the penalties of sin and never alone in your suffering.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. We’re talking about some of the reasons there’s laughter in the midst of the lament, joy when we cry, happiness when there ought not be happiness. It’s a part of a chapter in the book that I wrote, and the chapter has an interesting title. It is, Life is Hard and then You Laugh. I think I told you that at the beginning when I started on this book, it was going to be a book on laughter. But I kept hitting the passages that were so sad. You read the book of Lamentations before you go to sleep at night and you won’t sleep. Or if you read the Psalms of Lament before you go to sleep, you’re not going to sleep. So, always use that portion of Scripture as your mourning devotions and, you’ll be able to recover, but not at night. And so, now we’re looking at laughter, and this was to be a book on laughter, but I couldn’t do it without lament. And I couldn’t write a book on lament without laughter. So, we’re looking at some of the other reasons we laugh cause we’re forgiven, cause we’re acceptable no matter what. Then there is, and I mentioned it at the end of the broadcast yesterday, but we’re going to talk a little bit more about it. It’s Grace for the Moment, that was the title of an album, Buddy Greene and I did a lot of years ago because Buddy’s producer was in a Bible study, small group Bible study, and there were a lot of people in that had been going through really hard times. There was a divorce involved, there was a kid that had committed suicide, there was the loss of job. And Buddy’s producer said, I want you and Steve to do an album that I can give to these people that won’t challenge them, that won’t call them to make an impact on the world, that won’t call them to be phony, but will just talk about grace. And so, we recorded the album and it was called Grace for the Moment. I have a pastor friend who’s in his nineties, and I call him often. When I was writing this, that morning, I called him and asked him how he was doing and he replied that he was better. I said better? I didn’t even know it was bad. My friend laughed and said that while he had gone through a dark time, he was now better. And I asked him how that had happened? And he said, I don’t have the foggiest idea, but this morning, I’m better. What was the better? The better was the grace for the moment. And you know exactly what I’m talking about. I remember one after the hurricane, we went through Andrew and lost our house and thought we were going to lose our lives. It was an awful time. Up until, well, there have been some bigger ones, up until then, that was the biggest natural disaster that America had ever experienced. And it was an awful time. Man, the house across the street where we were going to go and shelter was blown away. I mean, it wasn’t there anymore. I mean, it was a horrible, and it was a terrible time, but you know what happened during that time? When it was over and we were out in the street with our neighbors, it was a time of great laughter. A lot of it was relief, but a lot of it was something that happened because God happened in our lives. And it was surprising. One of the most delightful messages God gives us all on occasion isn’t a religious one. It’s when God says it’s enough and then the light shines. I remember speaking of Andrew, when it was over, we did find an apartment about the size of a hotel room. And it had one window and it looked out on a brick wall. It was just a miserable time. And one morning I went out to the parking lot and somebody had stolen my car. And it had one of those locks on the steering wheel. So, they got lock to boot with my car. And before and even today now that that time has passed, I’d get my gun and go and see if I can find where the person who stole it. I came in, I remember coming into our little apartment and wherever I was going, I couldn’t get there cause I didn’t have a car, somebody had stolen it. I said to Anna, somebody stole God’s car. And she said, what? I said, the parking place is empty, somebody stole God’s car. And she said, you’re kidding and she started laughing and I started laughing and we laughed. And it was the funniest thing. You just, it was one more thing and God couldn’t do one more thing for us. Where did the laughter come from? It was grace. It was grace for the moment. The Holy Spirit, John 14:15 through 17.

When the Holy Spirit, the comforter comes.

And don’t forget the intervention of God in our circumstances. We of course shouldn’t be presumptuous about that because lament has a purpose. C.S. Lewis once wrote a book about the death of his wife Joy, it was called A Grief Observed. It was published under a pseudonym. Doug Gresham, who was Lewis’, is Lewis’ son, is a friend of mine. He told me that a lot of Lewis’ friends gave him the book he had written to comfort him cause he hadn’t used his name. Sometimes, God comes and when he comes, there is laughter. And with Mercy in Pilgrim’s Progress we laugh and laugh and laugh. You think about that. Amen.

It’s Wednesday, and sometimes on Wednesdays if I have a little bit of time, I take some time to answer one or two questions. And by the way, as you know, Pete will be in on Friday and we’ll devote the whole broadcast to your questions, which we love, and I really mean that. You can ask any question you want, anytime you want, by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE and just follow the instructions. And sometimes we take your actual voice asking the question and put it on the air. Or you can send your questions to

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or you can e-mail us at [email protected]. And if you can help us financially, please do and we’ll rise up and call you blessed. And so will a lot of other people you never met. And if you can’t, we understand, pray for this ministry. All right, let’s turn to one or two of these questions. This is an e-mail. What does Hebrew 6:4 through 6 mean? Can I lose my salvation? Well, let me read it to you and then I’ll tell you kind of what it means.

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness and the word of God, and the powers of the coming age. If they fall away to be brought back into repentance because to their loss, they are crucifying the Son of God all over. And are subjecting him to public disgrace.

What does that mean? Well, first, there are two views in the Christian church about whether you can lose your salvation. One group says yes, and one group says no. Now, I don’t think you can, but those, Dr. Kinlaw, who was the president of Asbury, I used to say to him, you believe people can lose your salvation, you just don’t believe you can lose yours. No matter which side you’re on, nobody believes you can lose your salvation easily. In order to, if those who believe you can think you have to totally turn your back and intentionally tell Jesus to leave you alone and never again. Now, I don’t think you’ll do that if you’re a Christian. I just don’t think that’s in you. So, I don’t think you’ll ever lose your salvation. And besides, I believe that God holds you, you don’t hold him. And frankly, if you could lose your salvation, I would’ve lost mine on several occasions. Okay, with that being said, what in the world is the writer of Hebrews saying in this passage. He is talking about, and you have to use the hermeneutic, that’s a principle of interpretation, that the entire Bible interprets the particular parts of the Bible, that the New Testament interprets the Old, that the Letters interpret the Gospel. And doing that and knowing what the whole Bible says, this passage is talking about someone who has hung out with Christians, who has experienced what they have experienced, who have danced in the dance of Christianity, but never once came to the point of being born again, of being brought into the kingdom. My old friend, Jim Green, for years, one of the great leaders in Youth for Christ used to say it would puzzle him when kids in high school would be running so well with Jesus, they’d go to college and they would fall away. And then he said he prayed about it and he came to the understanding they left, and John said this, because they were never a part of us. And so, can somebody fake it and then walk away from Jesus? Yes. Can somebody come to us saving knowledge of Christ to be forgiven, to be changed and filled with the Holy Spirit and then turn and walk away? No, I don’t think so. I don’t think that’ll ever happen. I’ve got two daughters and three granddaughters cause God only sends boys to guys that need help. And there isn’t a thing that a one of them, that one of them can do. And I mean, no exception at all. Nothing they could do that would cause me to ever reject them. And if you being evil, Jesus said, how much more your Father in heaven. Got to go. Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.