Secret Agents of Grace

It is often easy to not recognize the grace of God when it comes.  In fact, sometimes it comes to us and we miss it altogether.  I believe that at times it comes to us most powerfully when we are surprised by “Secret Agents”—people who serve and minister  completely for the joy of serving God and not for the praise or recognition of men.  One of the realities of what it means to be part of the people of God is that we are called and empowered by him to be agents of his grace in the world.  For us as his people, the inescapable reality is that the grace of God is experienced in the context of the people of God.  We experience God’s grace through others—and sometimes we don’t recognize or value it (1 Corinthians 12:21-24).
I experienced the work of these “secret agents” powerfully this last month.  When we had our “Bible and Business” Sunday about a month ago, Creekside was facing some huge challenges.  Our giving was significantly under our budget, and while we have resources set aside for church planting and world missions, the contingency fund we have for the ministry here in McMinnville was quickly being used up.  As we discussed solutions we didn’t really know what to do, so we did the only thing we could do.  We asked the church to pray and fast for God’s provision, will and direction.  As I announced last Sunday, God has fully provided for our need and has even blessed us abundantly beyond what we needed.   Our giving is now over spending and we were blessed with an additional giving commitment so that we are able to bring on Tyler Steele to work with our youth group as an intern for this next year.  God’s grace has been poured out richly upon us through the “Secret Agents” that God has moved to provide for this need.  2 Corinthians 8:1-2 speaks about how the grace of God created such a joy within God’s people that they “overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.”  I believe the same thing has happened at Creekside.  Every single person that is impacted by our ministries here is a recipient of the grace of God demonstrated through his people.  The only proper response for us is to praise God for the grace that he has given!
Each and every one of us, whether we serve publicly like I do, or privately like many do, are called to be secret agents as well.  It is these who will be “repaid” by the Father (Matt 6:1-4).  He warns against giving (Matt 6:2), doing righteousness (Matt 6:1), or even praying (Mat. 6:5) to be recognized by men—if you do so that will be your reward.  He then promises reward and repayment for those that do it for the joy of serving the Father and for the reward that only he can give.
So—to all of those who find their joy in serving our Lord Jesus Christ and faithfully minister to Dwight and me, our wives, and our children–not even to mention the whole church, thank you for being agents of grace in our lives.