Kissed by Grace.

12 . 12 . 11

My drive to work is majestic... winding through dense woods, never exceeding fourth gear, soaked in the moist glory of the northwest. Forty minutes there, forty minutes back, gives a guy some time to think ya know?

Grace.

I confronted my idea of the concept recently when on this drive, I was asking the lord to forgive me in some area of my life, maybe for some thing I had done, who know... it’s not really important except for that I felt trapped. I felt trapped by my idea of grace, by the thought that for every action, there has to be an equal or opposite re-action in seeking forgiveness to be saved.

This is not the God I’ve come to know, this way of seeking grace doesn’t bring healing. I felt the shallowness, the hopelessness in the construction of my elementary understanding of this beautiful gift...

With this thought came another...a glimpse of the grace offered... a grace we live into, that soaks us, heals us, makes us strong, gives us freedom. I felt God awaiting an invitation from me... an invitation for him to come and live in my struggles, to be there in the failures.

God living in us.. sure, that is nothing new. If you read my blog often you know my thoughts on the Spirit living within. I rely on it...

When it concerns grace however, this is a new perspective for me... I guess I realized on my drive home the other night how I sometimes worried about my salvation because i maybe hadn’t asked for forgiveness for this that or the other thing.. ways I had turned my heart from God. What a silly system if this were the case...

It’s not that asking forgiveness is any less important, but realizing the gift of God’s grace is I believe of far greater importance. Accepting this gift, He will - if we invite Him to - live among the pain, the failures, and bring healing, salvation, freedom through His spirit... the great messenger of our maker.

Sin does not determine a persons salvation. The condition and content of their heart, by this they will either be accused or excused on the day the creator of all things good returns (rom2)...

Forgiveness is important. ‘ask the lord to forgive, and you will be forgiven... ask those you have wronged for forgiveness, and you will be healed.’ james 5:16?

so much good comes from forgiveness.... but first, learn grace.

A heart living to love God and love others will experience life, and seek forgiveness where the spirit makes plain it’s need. Sin has no power...

“therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through christ the law of the spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the spirit.”

Whew...

A crazy verse from paul in romans 8, immediately after just ranting on about his inability to conquer the desires of the flesh... his conclusion about himself? “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death...”

Enter grace..!.. “therefore, there is now no condemnation...”

Sin will exist. He wants to live among it, bring us through it, and make us stronger in acknowledging the struggle and confronting it with the power of the Spirit... accept this grace, freedom, healing, strength.

Be well friends.