AMAZING...PREVENIENT...PAST...PRESENT...FUTURE...GRACE

Good morning...afternoon...
evening, whenever you happen to reading this Rambling in the stream of the time-space continuum.

We have a few things in common as human beings. We all have the same amount of TIME in a 24 hour day. We may clutter up the time frame with different stuff...but it is 24 hours a day...6o minutes in an hour....60 seconds in a minute. Another thing that we all have in common is the fact that we all have a PAST...we all have a PRESENT/NOW...and we all have a FUTURE. Those who had an encounter with Jesus Christ...our future is changed....our now has purpose...and our PAST has passed away.

"Therefore IF any man/woman is IN CHRIST...he/she is a NEW creation...the OLD things PASSED AWAY...behold...NEW THINGS have come." (II Corinthians 5:17)

The Apostle Paul had some insight into what happened around 2000 years ago on an old rugged cross...that affected his HAS BEEN STATUS...and set into motion his NOW.

"I HAVE BEEN (it's good to be a has been)...crucified (D.B.R.)...WITH CHRIST...and it is NO LONGER I who lives...BUT Christ LIVES IN ME...and the life which I NOW live....IN THE FLESH...I live BY FAITH in the Son of God (Jesus)...who loved me and delivered Himself up for me." (Galatians 2:20)


The first picture shows two men who had an encounter with Jesus on the ROAD TO EMMAUS. Jesus had died...He had been crucified, buried, and risen from the dead. There were rumours of Him being risen from the dead...so as they were walking down the road to Emmaus...they had a lot to talk about. It was at this point that they encountered the Risen Saviour. He walked with them...talked with them...taught them...broke bread with them...he stayed with them...all the while they had NO CLUE who they were talking to...until the breaking of the bread...and their eyes were OPENED...and they RECOGNIZED Him. At that point He disappeared from their sight (now they were walking by faith not by sight). They asked each other..."Were not our HEARTS BURNING WITHIN US...while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" They then got up and returned to Jerusalem at once...and found the eleven apostles and report to them that IT IS TRUE! The Lord HAS RISEN and has appeared to Simon." They then told what had happened on the way...and how Jesus WAS RECOGNIZED by them when He broke the BREAD. (Luke 24:13-35)

I said all that to say this...In this crazy road that we call life...we may be walking along...in our PRESENT...discussing and effected by things of the PAST...that will AFFECT the EFFECT of our FUTURE. The boys on the road to Emmaus...were headed in one direction (Emmaus)...but their course was altered (Jerusalem) by the encounter of their NOW.

A man named Saul had the same type of encounter...going in one direction (Damascus) for the purpose of killing Christians...but an encounter with a blinding light and Jesus...changed his course.
(Read Acts 7-9 for full details)

I was born on August 15th, 1951 in Allen Clinic on East Main Street in Murfreesboro Tennessee. From that point until the Fall of 1970...I experienced many different things in my life...some good...some bad... some ugly. Some things that I expereinced were a result of just living with Lonnie and Elizabeth Boyd...my Mom and Dad. Again...some good, some bad...some ugly. Other things I experienced were of my own choices...some good...some bad...some downright ugly. Other things I experienced were just my general life experiences by the people and situations and world events that I encountered. All of these things SHAPED who I was...and how I reacted/responded to people with who (or is that whom) I came into contact.

Many moons ago...I attended a 3 day weekend retreat called THE EMMAUS WALK. It was put on by the Methodist Church...and I was sponsered by Bruce Coble. It was three days of withdrawing from the world to encounter Jesus on a personal, intimate level as we met Him in the breaking of the bread (the Word and communion). It was a life-changing moment...and my heart ignited and has not been put out yet. WOW....talk about a hunka a hunk of buring love. One of the table lectures...where we would be sitting in a room at individual tables...while someone would come in an give a lecture on various topics. One of the topics that stuck out was PREVENIENT GRACE. I had heard of Amazing Grace...I had heard of saying grace before a meal...I new a girl named Grace...but had never heard of PREVENIENT GRACE.

A definition is taken from two Latin words meaning to come before. It means (1) going before, preceding (2) anticipating; expectant (3) the antecedant to human action. To me it means....God did not just start having an interest in me when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour in 1970. His touch in my life was pre-birth as He knew me in my mothers womb...and as I grew chronologically and physically...He had a great interest in me...and would be able to utilize my expereinces (the good, bad and ugly) for my future. When I LOOK BACK at events in my life...I can see God's hand there for me...waiting for me...to make a decision and choose to follow Him. Now that is AMAZING, PREVENIENT, PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE GRACE. That does not mean that God orchestraed the bad and ugly in my life...but it does mean that as in Joseph's life...what his brothers meant for harm...GOD MEANT FOR GOOD....and that no matter what had happened....HE WAS IN GOD'S PLACE. (Read Genesis 37-50 for full details)

One prime example...at least to me...that really encourages me...is a man named WAYNE BERRY. Wayne is one of my pastors, friends, brothers (it is neat for an only child like me to have brothers and sisters)... who while he is a NEW CREATION IN CHRIST... definitely has a PAST laced with the GRACE of God. This picture is a picture of an album that Wayne recorded on RCA back in 1974...called HOME AT LAST. I was listening to it as I was driving down the road the other day...and I was reminded (not the first time I thought about it)...about the amazing, prevenient grace in Wayne's life. This was not a Christian album...it was not a Contempory Christian album...it was not even one of those albums recorded by a Christian with dual references to a girl friend and the Lord...depending on who was listening.
It was your basic 1974...folk/rock/southern/country rock tinged album...HOWEVER...as I'm listening...I could see it as a precursor to the NEW MAN.

It was a well produced album by Norbert Putnam...with all songs written by Wayne Berry...with the cream of the crop of musicians involved including Jim Gordon on drums...Jesse Ed Davis on guitar...
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter...Jackson Brown...Charley McCoy...Shane Keister and others.

One song...called ALL I NEEDED ...speaks to me of the longing for LOVE (a woman in the song...but I think one of those prevenient moments).

Lovers hurt each other they tell lies
They wind up LONELY then they wonder WHY
Friends forever is a dream
A token promise of a fairytale scened
And I've seen it all before
You don't have to show me the door
I know where I came in
I know you COULD HAVE BEEN....

To me...this kind of is like King David stating the problem...followed up by the solution. In this songs case it is a lament what coulda...shoulda been...

All that I ever NEEDED
All that I ever KNEW
All that I evere DREAMED of or HOPED for
ALL I NEEDED WAS YOU.

Sure...a song bemoaning lost love...but in my prevenient mind set...I see the cry of Wayne for intimacy with God.

There were many other songs that spoke to me like this one...like Black Magic Gun (the devil made that deadly thing...and you know I do not lie...I don't beleive in fortune...but I DO BELIEVE IN SIN)...Another Lifetime (There is more to life than dreamin'...there is moe to love than makin' it...there is more to you than meets the eye)...Welcome Home...(Welcome home, body and sould...welcome home, we all gotta go...welcome home, father and son...welcome home YOU CAN HEAR THE RIVER RUN)

How did that PREVENIENT GRACE...play out from 1974 to 2007. Well...Wayne may had a foundation like a lot of us had...with early, childhood church experiences...that call out to us from our sin enclosed souls...but whenever he met Jesus on a personal level... the impact of his PAST experiences...solidify and gives him a tenacity and passion of faith that is evident today. When I listen to his songs of yesteryear with a vaugness...is now upfront and vertical (towards the Father) and pours out to us on the horizontal plane (as a source of encouragement...prodding...teaching). Thank you Wayne...for letting the Amazing Grace be evident in your life.

Pre-1970...I was a mess. But in 1970...I became a NEW CREATION IN CHRIST...the OLD things past away behold NEW THINGS HAVE COME...and are still coming.

What the devil meant for harm pre-1970...God meant for GOOD. Am I not in GOD'S PLACE?

What about you? What has the devil been using in your life as a point of condemnation? What past event...good, bad or ugly...has the devil accused you with to the point of throwing up your hands and crying NO MAS. Use those things as a stepping stone instead of a mill stone to reveal the mercy and grace of God to the world...and throw your hands up in PRAISE TO HIM...after all...ALL I EVER NEEDED WAS YOU (Lord).

Love and BRAND NEW KISSES
Rodney "Decoloros" Boyd