Put On Your Grace Face

WOW! I just got back from a conference near Seattle, WA and it was amazzzing! I was blessed to see teens worship GOD with excited enthusiasm and an almost reckless abandon. The teens we brought with us were so touched and inspired to speak more about Jesus and HIS great grace. Jealous yet?

Here's the scoop - we were taught by a man who has prostitues and strippers at every service (his church is in Las Vegas) and guess what? THEY FEEL WELCOME THERE!! Why? - because Jesus is the embodiment of grace. HIS best friends were fishermen (and y'all know most anglers are great liars!) and tax collectors and sinners. HE was followed by protitutes too, and they loved HIM. The question to ask is not why Jesus hung out with them but why did they hang out with HIM?

Simply put, that's the grace of GOD.

GOD is a holy GOD. HE cannot be in the sight of sin and cannot even look on it. But Jesus, as a human, could. HE shows us the grace that balances the justice that gives us the complete picture of GOD.

As the church Jesus trained and left behind on earth, it's our job to continue showing that grace to every person who needs to see it (that's everyone, right?) Welcome them to church. Sit next to them, no matter how bad they smell. And when they inform that they still sin, you can tell them what the Bible says and love them through it all, even when you don't see them changing anything. It's NOT your job to make them quit sinning. GOD alone has that power.

So this weekend I learned a lot about GOD's grace. We judge so easily and mete out GOD's justice readily, but what we really need to hand out is the same thing we all need the most - HIS unending grace.