Saturday, October 30, 2010

Grace, Grace God's Grace...

Grace, grace, God’s grace,

Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin.
Anyone else remember this song?  We don't sing it at church anymore (we do more Praise&Worship style), but as a child we sang this hymn and I can remember hearing the harmonies and trying to follow the notes so I'd sing the right part.  Ah, childhood innocence!  I never paid attention to the words.  I just liked the melody of it.
But as an adult I read these words and am awed by the grace that He has lavished on me.  Until 2002, I thought that to be a Christian meant that I had to follow a set of rules that someone else made for me.  I hadn't really read the bible for myself and had no idea what grace was.  But by the grace (no pun intended) of God, my father-in-law's teaching, and Bob George's message on grace I came to know the true freedom that being a Jesus follower can bring.
Grace allows for those times when you just make the wrong decision.  Grace allows for those times when you just say the wrong words.  Grace allows for me to not be making list after list of every sin I've committed every minute of the day.  And heaven forbid I were to die before I could ask for forgiveness for something.  God created the entire universe in 6 days...I think He knows when I commit a sin.  I don't think He needs me to remind Him.  I realize the importance of acknowledging that I've done something displeasing to Him.  But the better response is to thank Him for the work He did over 2000 years ago on Calvary when Jesus died and forgave every sin of every person that would ever live (past, present, and future).  If I have to keep asking for forgiveness then doesn't that mean He needs to die over and over and over again.  He died ONCE for ALL (Romans 6:10, 1 Peter 3:18) not He died for my gossip on Tuesday, my jealousy on Friday, and don't forget my lack of faith---He died for that on Monday!  So silly...
The point is that grace was given freely and it is a gift.  We have to receive the gift from the Giver of life and then we walk in it.  When you truly love Christ and desire to be like Him, you don't want to have sin in your life.  Granted it is still there and we will all sin (present company included) much more that we want to, but there it is--GRACE!

'he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.'  Ephesians 1:5-7

Thank you God for your matchless grace...grace that is greater than all my sin...
For more thoughts on grace, hop on over to Chatting at the Sky and check out to 31 days of grace series...
Grace that is greater than all our sin  I don't know who this guy is, but he has an awesome rendition of the hymn...take a minute to listen it's well worth your 3 minutes :-)

2 comments:

Jill Beran said...

Hello,
I found your blog via Renee's! Love the song you quote here...we actually still sing it and thankful that though the song may fade away, the truth of these words will stand forever!! Wanted to let you know I'm praying God will bless you with courage to open up and a friend who will listen! Blessings, Jill

Kelli said...

Praise the Lord for Grace!We would all be in trouble without it! It's still amazes me to think Jesus swapped our sin for His righteousness that day on Calvary! Nice post!