What's so amazing about Grace?

What is so amazing about grace? Grace is a story. It begins with the great gaping chasm that stretched between creator God and his created humanity. That chasm was the work of man and the heartbreak of God. Grace is that our holy, infinite God was not pleased to be separated from his people. So, he reached down and healed the gaping wound. He healed it with the very blood of his own Son.

Then humanity was, again, invited to walk towards God and hide in His embrace. So, grace is also an invitation. It is an invitation out of loneliness and struggle. It is an invitation to draw near to the One who loves us most.

Psalm 27:7-8 Hear me as I pray, O LORD. Be merciful and answer me! My heart has heard you say, "Come and talk with me." And my heart responds, "LORD, I am coming."

Have you heard God say to you, "Come and talk with me"? Today, be still and listen. There is an invitation waiting for you. Will you respond like David? David said: "And my heart responds, 'Lord, I am coming'."

To worship God is to walk towards him, to walk with Him. He is not asking for perfection, only nearness. To worship God is to turn our eyes towards the author of grace and the lover of our very souls.

Hebrews 10:22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

Jesus gives us confidence

Hebrews 10:19-22 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God's house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

In the temple in Jerusalem, only a priest could enter the most Holy Place, and only on the Day of Atonement, when he made the annual offering for sins. But when Jesus died, the temple curtain was torn in two. The wall between us and God was shattered.

Because of Jesus, anytime we have need, without ritual or special dispensation, we can come into the presence of God. We can come boldly, with confidence that we will be received by the Father who adopted us through His Son's blood. Because of the relationship with God we have through Jesus, we can approach Him with a free, untroubled heart.

May that give you comfort, confidence, and a bold conviction that you are very special in God's eyes.

Jesus really does love us!

John 15:12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.

We watch Jesus loving people throughout the Gospels. Sometimes His love is exasperated, like when He laments over Jerusalem, "How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" Luke 13:34b......Sometimes it is challenging, like when He challenges the rich young ruler to give up what was most important to him. And sometimes His love is simply indescribable, like when He stretches out His arms and allows Himself to be crucified.

Jesus loves us with an everlasting love. And He shows us His love in many ways through our lives--but never more plainly or powerfully than dying on the cross.

Father, please let us ever be mindful of your amazing love....your amazing grace! May we never get comfortable with your love. May it bring us to our knees every day. Thank you for your love, Jesus......Now, may we be a church....a people who loves like you love. Make us more like you today than we were yesterday!
In Jesus precious and holy name.....Amen.