Every safe home has circuit breakers. They are usually found in the breaker box, usually outside the home, apartment or building. The newer style breakers act like switches. If there’s a short or an electrical overload, the breaker will trip or turn off the power to a particular circuit to protect the appliances, devices and even the house or building. The whole purpose of a breaker is to break the flow of electricity to keep something bad from happening.
The old style of breakers were the type you would screw in. They were actually called fuses, and they were one and done. If there was a short or overload, they would just burn out, stop the flow of electricity, and you would need to replace them. My family and I once lived in the Soviet Union in a 5-story Soviet-built apartment building. The breaker box was in the hall across from the elevator. One day the breaker blew. Back then, everything was a deficit; sugar, butter, socks, and shampoo were all in short supply. So, when the fuse burnt out, I spent a whole day going from store to store and every open-air market I could visit to find one. Finally, after a whole day of looking, I found one and the power was restored. I spent the whole day looking because you really can’t function well in our modern way of life without electricity.
Without electric power, appliances won’t work. The food in the refrigerator will go bad quickly. There are no lights to be able to see at night. And, in Arizona in the summer, no power means no air conditioning – yikes! No electricity also means no internet and maybe even no entertainment through a TV. We need electricity, and when it is interrupted, we have chaos.
In the spiritual world, there are also breakers that stop the flow of God’s power (which is grace). The Bible says that we face a dangerous spiritual condition when grace is interrupted from flowing into our lives, causing us to miss it. Hebrews 12:15 says that it’s toxic if we miss grace. Without grace, we can easily be spiritually poisoned (that’s what “bitter” means in Heb. 12:15). And when grace is interrupted, then it is nearly impossible for grace to flow out of us to others. It’s absolutely vital that we make sure the flow of grace is not interrupted.
Starting this Sunday, we are beginning a new teaching series called Interrupting Grace. We’ll explore three of the main things that attempt to interrupt the flow of grace – our mistakes, our hurts, and difficult circumstances. God’s grace is free and powerful. It is life-changing. We need to be alert and not allow anything to block grace from filling our lives or impede the flow of grace through our lives.
And this Sunday, we are going to give everyone an opportunity to say “yes” to grace. Saying yes to grace is saying you are ready to trust Jesus, ready to follow the way of Jesus, ready to accept the grace, love, and forgiveness of Jesus. If you are ready to start the flow of grace that’s greater than your mistakes, hurts or difficult situations, then say yes right now. And, plan to make a promise to follow Jesus to the best of your ability and commit to living in the grace of Jesus through baptism this Sunday.
