Wednesday, November 08, 2006

God's grace

How uplifting is the grace of God. I've seen it time and time again. When I think I'm in some kind of trouble. Or have fallen short. Or am grieved over something of the past. God's grace in Jesus comes in. This grace works in us to free us. To accept God's forgiveness and live in his love. And to do so, much more aware of the depths of who we are. And something more of who he is.

Paul made it clear, "By the grace of God, I am what I am." And also that God's grace was at work in him, and is at work in all believers in Jesus. And with this grace comes God's truth. Which alone, by the Spirit gives us freedom. And this grace is good, even when things seem bad. I might add, especially when things seem, and are bad.

It's a grace that draws us in to "the Jesus Creed": to love God with all our being and doing, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Who can receive it? Anyone. Look at the gospels. To come to the Lord and be at table with him was, and is open to everyone. Grace can begin there. And it needs to begin time and time again even for us who stand in that grace (Romans 5). We need it as much as we did, when we first came to the Lord.

What would you like to share about your experience of God's grace? Does God's grace stop with just one's self, when one is experiencing it?

4 comments:

L.L. Barkat said...

I like your question about whether God's grace flows outward when one is experiencing it. Perhaps this is a kind of red flag for us... if grace is not flowing outward, we may need to step back and experience once again the love that embraced us into hope.

Ted M. Gossard said...

L.L.,

God's grace certainly has an overflow to it. It puts our hearts in line, or in tune with "the Jesus Creed", surely. To love God and our neighbor.

Otherwise, apart from what I might call, that sense or experience of overflowing grace, I'm normally turned in on myself. Though even when we seem dry we need to bank on that grace, and pray and reach out to God and others. Then God can lift us up out of ourselves and into him and his kingdom work of love to others, in this world. And that's certainly where we want to live, in Jesus.

Thanks.

L.L. Barkat said...

Thanks, Ted, for your gracious kindness... passing my link on to Scot. How thoughtful of you!

Anonymous said...

L.L.,

Your welcome!

Scot appreciates getting links from others. And I thought it was a great post, and the kind that Scot likes and likes to link. A good story. Here's the link for readers here:

http://seedlingsinstone.blogspot.com/2006/11/how-do-i-love-thee.html

Hopefully you'll get more readers and lookers at your creative writing and pictures on your blog. Though you do seem to have a good faithful following. Understandable as it is a really nice blog.