Living in Grace

I'm so glad you are here! I hope during your visit you get a glimpse of God's heart for we become what we are gazing at. I want to be a blessing to you so I've made these Resources available to you and have the Missional blog tab for practical ideas of how to live on mission right where you are. 

Currently I am writing my way through Judges sharing glimpses of God's heart and character for a weekday devotional. To check out the entire series so far head on over the the Judges Devotional.  And if you are a blogger, come on over on Friday's for a blog hop. 

Which picture best represents grace to you?

How have you seen God's grace in your life?

I've heard grace explained as getting pulled over for a speeding ticket. The cop walks up and says, "Welp, looks like you deserve a $250 ticket. But I'm gonna show you mercy, so I wont give you the ticket." Pretty awesome. But grace would be the police man not only not giving you the ticket but also giving you $250. Not only not getting what you do deserve, but getting what you don't deserve on top of it.

There seems to be at least two ways to abuse grace. Thinking you can earn it and trampling on it.

"A young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, who had been living within the clan of Judah, left that town in search of some other place to stay. On his way he came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim. Micah asked him, "Where are you from?" "I'm a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah," he said, "and I'm looking for a place to stay." Then Micah said to him, "Live with me and be my father and priest, and I'll give you ten shekels of silver a year, your clothes and your food." So the Levite agreed to live with him, and the young man was to him like one of his sons. Then Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house. And Micah said, "Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest."  Judges 17:7-13

Two men, two extremes.
Micah was trapped in performance acceptance, trying to earn acceptance from God by what he did. But grace can't be earned. I grew up with much of the same misconception as Micah (more about that tomorrow).

Jonathan, the young Levite, on the other hand trampled grace. He was given the privileged of being born a Levite and getting to serve the Lord in the temple but he chose to do life on his own terms. Why was he living in the clan of Judah to begin with? A city not assigned to priests and Levites (Josh. 21, Num 35) . And why was he leaving? Was he looking for something more, was he not getting enough income to survive or was the Lord allowing life to become difficult to drive Jonathan to Himself? Jonathan fudged  things just a little and it was the start of the downward sin spiral pulling him further and further away from what God wanted for Him.  

A true understanding of grace leads to love, not performance acceptance or trampling. The more we understand God's grace, the more we love and live for God. 

Oh Lord, please give us an ever expanding understanding of Your grace.

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