Grace...

Every year, it seems that God has some theme for the year for me. This year it was a 'crescendo' for me in the subject of grace, a journey he's been taking me on intensely the past few years, but in gentler ways from my youth til a few years ago. It's been a fascinating, painful, enlightening learning curve and I am humbled that my Father would take such great measures to teach me and to place His thoughts in my heart.

Grace is that power that Jesus brings that changes lives today, the testimony of a changed heart in the midst of brokenness and sin. Grace is the gift that I receive: that love in spite of who I've been and that acceptance in spite of the sanctification He needs to still work in me. Grace is God allowing me to come to light on things that He is bringing my way, imperfectly but wholeheartedly. Grace is His reaching down and giving me a new nature, to restore me to His original plan for me. Grace is Him giving me the truth and then showing me how to apply it to my life while reminding me that He loves me infinitely and above all that I could even imagine.

SO...if I have been given this huge grace...what about giving it to others???????????
I could go on and on, because my heart is bursting with passion on this subject. But I leave you with this:

If God has not destroyed you, and in fact, died for you while you were yet in sin, to make a way for you to receive salvation and escape eternal destruction...what is your responsibility towards others in this world who are all, every one of them, equal to you (same problems, same solution, same Father, same calling, same purpose, same promises, same Redeemer...)?

I call us to walk in grace. For Jesus' sake. I call us to drop the fear (of being mistaken for tolerating their messiness) that might come when we accept them for where they are today, and instead, walk in God's grace and be a light to shine into their darkness because of the Light that shines in ours. I call us to drop the self-righteousness that often causes us to despise others who are different than us or who might even be wrong.

Remember this: Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. I call us to reach out of our carefully made boxes that we build around ourselves and step into someone else's messiness with hope and gently but boldly spoken truth. We are not called to stand aside and let people struggle without giving them the true help that they need: Jesus. BUT...do it with grace and love.

God bless you, my friends.
~Marcia