Page 6 - Grace150 Devotional

Foreword by Pastor Bryan Chapell
From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. John 1:16
When the apostle John wrote that we have received “grace upon grace,” he was
recounting the history of Israel that had culminated in the coming of Jesus and
would result in the security of our eternity. Every provision had been of grace,
every prophecy had been fulfilled by grace, the Savior came to provide us grace,
and our Lord Jesus Christ will return to usher in the eternal promises of grace.
John looked backward and forward to communicate such “grace upon grace,”
and we have the same privilege. We celebrate the grace of God’s provision by
remembering 150 years of His faithfulness in establishing and flourishing the
ministry of Grace Presbyterian Church.
Begun as a mission school for children in a railway car while the Civil War was
raging, this fledgling work shared the grace of Christ with those needing the hope
of the gospel in desperate times. The church formally organized in 1868, moving
from a small frame building on Green Street to a new church building at Madison
and Wayne Streets in 1873.
The church has gone through a succession of three more buildings (a rebuild at
Madison and Wayne, then at Forrest Hill and Knoxville, and finally at North State
Route 91), enduring fires, tragedies, World Wars, a Great Depression and a Great
Recession, congregational ups and downs, doctrinal challenges, and pastoral
transitions that have regularly reminded God’s people of the beauty and necessity
of God’s grace—His willingness to provide for those who look to Him in faith
despite their weakness, frailty, and sin.
From 1883 to 1982 the church affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in the
USA (PCUSA). No evidence of this people’s faithfulness was more apparent or
tested than the 1982 decision to leave the PCUSA, following the leadership of
long-term pastor Dr. Bruce Dunn. He desired to affiliate with the Presbyterian
Church in America (PCA), so that this church’s commitment to the full truth
and authority of the Bible would be maintained. The church has continued to
resolutely hold firm to all the Bible teaches about the virgin birth of Christ, His
sinless life, atoning death, physical resurrection, and eternal provision for all who
will confess their need of His grace.

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