Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

In 1666, English Puritan John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, penned Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners – a title inspired by Paul’s opening words in his first epistle to Timothy.  In Bunyan’s book, he recounts how the Lord, in abounding and steadfast merciful grace, transformed him from a lecherous drunkard to a man burning with a red-hot desire for Christ – a man willing to suffer deprivation and imprisonment for the Gospel.  

By contrast, my own story is not nearly as dramatic or impressive as that of Bunyan, but it is no less a miracle of God’s grace that He would choose to save me out of my sin and rebellion, no matter how respectable or mundane my sin may appear to others.   

“And the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.”

1 Timothy 1:14-16

Humble Beginnings

My story, at least for the purposes of this blog, begins on Friday, March 24, 1634, when the 400-ton, three-masted carrack, Mary and John, set sail from Southampton, England, plying for her fourth and final time, the Atlantic passage, enroute to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Onboard, along with a company of 70 or 80 other settlers, was my Puritan ancestor, John Godfrey. His family would eventually find their way to coastal New Hampshire, settling in what is now Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, less than a dozen miles from where I would grow up, in the quintessential small New England town of Greenland.

Want to know more about my childhood town? Take a look at the 300th anniversary drone video we put together, documenting the historical highlights of our little town – from the perilous frontier to a bustling 21st century growing town.

There, my family faithfully attended service at the town’s old clapboard church, constructed back in 1756. I have many fond memories of life in that church; “our” pew, and Mrs. Hurd, who sat just in front, who every Sunday, had a butterscotch and peppermint for my brother and I; sitting in the balcony with my grandmother as she directed the choir; and then there was that one time i decided to listen to the Weekly Top 40 on my new mini-radio, neglecting to realize that the church was designed before the days of amplification, its curved ceiling delivering my softly playing music directly to my parents sitting in the choir. In many senses, it was a wonderful place to grow up.

But far removed from its Puritan reformed roots, by the time I went to Greenland Community Congregational Church, it had joined the United Church of Christ – a denomination which joked that UCC stood for Unitarians Considering Christ. The joke was, and is, not far from the mark. It was here that I worshiped (or perhaps more often than not, simply attended) for the first eighteen years of my life. Sermons had more to do with fishing or biking than anything to do with the text at hand. In general, the Gospel was not of any significant import, nor understood by the pastor or parishioners. God was a benevolent, warm and helpful grandpa figure, and faith was whittled down to simply being a so-called “good person”.

Yet despite its many shortcomings, I owe a debt of gratitude to the people of the church – their service and sacrifice, love and care – and especially to my family – my Mom, Dad and Grandma (who happened to be the church’s long standing choir director who modeled a love affair with hymns that I carry with me to this day). They helped instill in me, from an early age, a commitment to the church and a desire to serve her that, despite all the twists and turns of life, and by God’s grace alone, I am now blessed to work to instill into my own family.

It’s a Hard Knock Life

Outside of church, life in a small town was admittedly a mixed bag for a chubby red-headed boy like myself. I have so many fond memories from this time – riding my bike to school, summer parades and festivals, town-wide Easter Egg hunts, and so much more. School, on the other hand, was a place of significant trouble. The teachers in my town still marvel at how difficult my class was. And, being in a small town, I was with more or less the same set of classmates from kindergarten all the way to eight grade. Being overweight, not good at sports, and a redhead to boot, it was only natural for me to become fodder for the harassment of many of my classmates. Truth be told, I am still unpacking just how this childhood hardship, and the coping mechanisms I developed to escape it, continue to shape who I am (both positively and negatively) and fuel many of the sins that still cling to my soul. But even in and through all of this, the Lord’s faithfulness and goodness have been evident.

Thankfully, with High School came a sense of belonging among a group of fellow band geeks and tech nerds. One friend, Bryan, invited me to visit his youth group at the local Advent Christians Church. Flowing from it a year or so later, in the fall of my junior year, it would culminate in a fateful drive in my 1984 silver Volvo 240 station wagon, heading home from a youth camp where I had heard about my debt of sin and God’s overflowing grace. It is at that moment, driving along Winnicut Road in Stratham, NH, that I believe Christ irresistibly and irrevocably drew me to Himself.

A New Perspective

As is often the case with such conversions, this began a season of passion, growth and discovery that carried me into my college years at Jacksonville University in Northeast Florida. There, God propitiously gave me a fellow believer and now lifelong friend as a roommate, drew me to Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru), introduced me to my future wife, and led me through a circuitous and curious route, to the Doctrines of Grace, and a fledgling, growing congregation meeting in a dance studio, named Eastside Community Church.

It was in this church that we grew tremendously in our knowledge and commitment to the Lord and His church. And as the church grew, so did we. It was here we were introduced to verse by verse exegetical preaching, and where we learned of God’s absolute sovereignty over all things, the miracle of electing grace, and the call to find our greatest joy and satisfaction in Him. It was here we learned to seek out the objective truth of God’s Word through in-depth, context-based study of the Scriptures. It was at Eastside where we raised our growing family, where I would become a deacon and then elder, and where, in those roles, I would endure some of the hardest struggles of my life. It was there, by the Lord’s gracious hand, that my passion for the Word, exegesis and theology came into sharp focus, as did my desire to make the excellencies of Christ known in every facet of my life, imperfect though that effort will always be this side of eternity.

The Photo Bug

In tandem with God’s unfolding grace toward us through the people and ministries of Eastside, Bryn and I were also discovering a passion for photography. Simmering along in the background, it wasn’t until late 2002, when we found out we were expecting our first child, that we considered making our hobby into something a bit more. So we set about creating a fine art photography business named Deremer Studios, as a way to make some extra income so Bryn would be able to stay home with our kids. We quickly discovered that it’s far from easy to make a living pedaling fine art photography, but the Lord, in His gracious providence, had something else in store for us. At the time, I was working as a jack-of-all-trades sort of marketing guy at TNT Logistics, and one of my coworkers was brave enough to hire us to take her wedding photos. Little did we know that within just three years, the business would grow to the place where I could leave my job to pursue photography full time.

Over the last two decades, it’s been amazing to see the business change and grow – from photographing over 500 weddings in our early years, to becoming a respected commercial and automotive photography studio serving many of the world’s leading brands. And while sure, we work hard, the Lord’s grace toward our business, in big and small, through difficulty and prosperity, all is a testament to his faithful provision and amazing grace. And even now, despite how much we enjoy our commercial photography, its landscape photography that still calls to us from around every corner.

“Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”

Romans 2:4, NASB 1995

Infinitely More than I Deserve

But back to Bunyan, and by extension, a more direct conversation on theology. Though separated by four centuries, like Bunyan, as I recount all that has unfolded in my life – both the blessings and the hardships – the revelrous joys and despondent sorrows – I am struck by God’s abounding grace toward me. I don’t deserve one ounce of goodness from my Creator. What I deserve is wrath, but what I have received is merciful grace. And all of this grace – all of this unmerited favor, I have been the undeserving beneficiary of – and all of it points like a giant neon sign back to the Cross of Christ.

“But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

Galatians 6:14, NASB 1995

Any good I experience – in fact any good anyone, including you, experience – is a gift purchased by Christ through his death on the cross.  The Apostle Paul goes to great lengths to make this point in his writings.  Though most succinctly shared in the Galatians passage above, we see this too through Paul’s letter the Ephesians. 

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Ephesians 2:1-10, NASB 1995

He explains that apart from Christ, we are dead in our sin, and are by nature children of wrath. This is a picture of someone utterly unable to save themselves – powerless to make one’s self right before a holy God. A dire diagnosis for sure! But then comes perhaps the two greatest words in all of the Bible: “But God”. What follows is not just a statement of accurate doctrine, but an exulting in the electing grace of God that is entirely of God’s doing, utterly undeserved, and excludes any grounds of human boasting.

Indeed, all I have received is an undeserved gift from God, so that, no matter the hardship and struggles of the day, I can always say (and ought to remind myself more often) that I am doing far better than I deserve!

Soli Deo Gloria!