NEW MCKENDREE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH IN JACKSON: ARE YOU ADRIFT? GOD CAN HELP

The Rev. O. Otto Steinhaus Jr., senior pastor at New McKendree United Methodist Church in Jackson, is a native of Bolivar. He graduated from Southwest Baptist Junior College in 1949, Central Methodist College in 1951 with a B.A. degree, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in 1954 with an M.Div., and Northwestern University in 1960 with an M.A. in Christian education. The Rev. Steinhaus has served churches in Missouri and Illinois, coming to New McKendree June 1, 1989.

United Methodist Bishop William B. Lewis of the Dakota area tells the story of a little boy who carved a beautiful boat out of poplar wood. He was very proud of what he had done. He took the boat down to the river and put it in the water to watch it float. At first the little boat bobbed up and down on the gentle waves, floating back and forth in the eddy of the river. It was then a wave pushed the boat a little further out in the river beyond the boy's reach, where it was caught by the current. It was carried out into the main stream of the river and began floating downstream. The boy followed it along the bank, but the swift current swept the boat around a bend in the river and out of sight. The little boy went home heartbroken at the loss of his beautiful creation.

A week or so later he was downtown, and in a second-hand store window he saw his little boat, a little worse for wear, but it was his boat. He went inside and told the store owner his story. The store owner said the boat could be his, but the boy would have to pay for it. so the boy did chores and odd jobs until he had enough money. He ran to the second-hand store to claim his creation.

Walking home he held the boat close to his heart and said to it, "Your are twice mine. I made you and I bought you. I created you and I redeemed you."

God's grace is like that. By God's grace we were born and by God's grace we are brought back to new life in Christ, and born again in the spirit, redeemed and made whole again.

But in the meantime, in the time between our physical birth and our spiritual rebirth, what does God do? Is God helpless like the little boy whose boat was helplessly adrift in the swift current of the river called life? I believe not. What God does in this "meantime" is called prevenient grace.

Prevenient grace is the courtship period of our relationship with God. It is a time when God reaches out to us, seeks our attention, and gently "woos" us to a fresh, living and personal relationship. Prevenient grace is God's everlasting divine love freely flowing to our point of need. Prevenient grace acts in three ways; it pursues us, prepares us, and prevents us from doing beyond God's love and care. All to the purpose of our receiving God's justifying grace that pardons and enables us to receive God's sanctifying grace that perfects us in our relationship to God and one another.

Not only is God's grace an everlasting love, but the seeking love of God who is like the shepherd who searches for the sheep that Ezekiel 34 describes. God sent Jesus into the world as that shepherd to seek out the lost sheep. God in Jesus is the good shepherd that knows each sheep by name and when one is missing will go out and find the one that is lost. God's love everlastingly seeks us, and prevents us from moving so far from God that we cannot respond to God's love. I pray that each of us may know the power of God's love in our daily living.