Grace

He loves me,

Religion says, "He loves me."
"He loves me not."

Grace Says, "He loves me."
"He loves me a lot."

by   Jeremiah Johnson

Love & Grace

 

Love is an ocean; grace, an invitation to swim.

by Mick Mooney

Unballanced Grace

Unbalanced Grace From Jason Clark's Blog  

http://jasonclarkis.com/

I was hanging out with a friend the other day. He is in his mid sixties. He is coming into such a wonderful revelation regarding our Fathers love. He has lived his whole life enslaved to a harsh master, need, but He is beginning to discover an always good and loving Father. This beautiful revelation has entered his life in the form of Grace.
For twenty minutes he spoke excitedly about how miraculously astonishing Grace is. As he shared, I whole-heartedly encouraged and agreed with him. When he told me about the incredible freedom he was discovering through amazing Grace, I laughed with him, reveling in the wonder. When he described how Grace was setting him free from sins that had haunted him his whole life, I grinned and nodded my head enthusiastically and said, “Grace is good like that!”
He was well into praising how Grace was changing the way he saw people when it happened. I’ve seen it before, heck, I’ve done it myself. Suddenly, like a fist to the jaw, he balanced it.
While describing the most beautiful revelation, while speaking with more passion and freedom than I had encountered in my 18 years of knowing the man, suddenly, and at absolute odds with what he had been sharing, he blurted, “I know you can abuse it, grace.”
He balanced it.
I could almost hear his thoughts “maybe I have gone too far, this grace thing is starting to sound too good to be true.” And I understood what happened. Grace can be a scary thing, especially when no one balances it. You see, I had been agreeing with him without reservation and I think that ugly religious muscle spasmed.
It’s not his fault. That ugly religious grace has been dished out and taught by those who have a greater fear of the world we live in than revelation of the kingdom of heaven; those who focus more on need than Love, on not sinning instead of becoming His righteousness (2nd Cor 5:21). When need trumps love, grace is a cheap parlor trick – empty rhetoric.
Those that teach us that we can abuse grace don’t fully know Grace. That teaching looks at Grace through the lens of need. It dumbs Grace down to a commodity that can be traded for freedom, or forgiveness, or favor. Balanced grace is a lie that enslaves us to live in the reality of need. A balanced grace is simply another way to control. If Grace can be balanced, its power is neutered. And a powerless Grace is a cruelty greater than no grace at all.
Grace wont be balanced! He is too perfect, too whole, too free, too just, too pure, too kind, too strong, too wild, too holy… Grace won’t be belittled, Grace can’t ever go bad or run out, He is the good news – always.
After my friend attempted to balance it, there was a dark silence that threatened to ruin everything. For just a moment we teetered on the brink of a faith crisis, but Grace would have none of it. Right there on the verge of hopelessness, I told my friend the beautiful truth I am always growing in,  “You can’t abuse Grace.”
I went on to tell him that Grace isn’t too good to be true, just the opposite, its too good not to be true. Grace is unmerited favor. We can’t do anything to earn it and we can’t do anything to abuse it. It’s the gift of His nature given through Jesus. Its one of the most beautiful expressions of His always-good love for us. Grace releases us to see ourselves from His perspective and empowers us to live in agreement with how He sees us, as saints of the highest One…
…I would like to suggest that this journey we are on is about discovering unbalanced Grace.

BY JASON CLARK        http://jasonclarkis.com/

Grace reveals who we are

“Jesus’ Grace reveals to us who we are and sets us free from the inside out," 

 People can say grace gives people a license to sin all they want to, but that is NOT a biblical statement. According to the bible Grace is the ONLY deliverance from the dominion of sin. The bible says in  Romans 6:14  'For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.'
The dominion of sin is not fixed by telling people not to sin. The dominion of sin is destroyed by revealing the beauty and loveliness of Jesus. That is done in understanding his AMAZING GRACE. Either we believe the bible or we do not. If we believe the bible we know that statements like “greasy grace” come from men’s minds and not scripture. The grace message has personally set me free from destructive habits. In this message we take a look at HOW grace sets us free from the dominion of sin. Grace brings us to a place of honesty within ourselves and those around us. Grace teaches us how to operate out of our heart. Grace reveals to us who we really. Come join us as we experience Jesus and his AMAZING GRACE.

by Jeremiah Johnson

From John Crowder's Book 'Cosmos Reborn - Happy Theology on the New Creation'

He doesn’t say: Why no faith? He says: Here’s the Answer. He doesn’t say: Why are you sick? He says: Here’s the Answer. He doesn’t say: Why are you poor? He says: Here’s the Answer. He doesn’t say: Why is your marriage broken? He says: Here’s the Answer. Having spent years in healing ministry, I’ve seen the whole machine become obsessed with looking for roots and causes to the problems of sickness, rather than resting in the simple reality that by His stripes we are already healed. The Gospel is always the antidote. Let’s start with the answer, not the problem. It is the higher reality to which we continually appeal, even when circumstances fly seemingly opposite.

A mixed life of guilt and grace - No way

"God doesn't desire for you to live a mixed life of guilt and grace. He desires you to be truly free, alive, and active in his grace alone. When a Christian sits under a mixed covenant teaching for long enough and as Paul says, “puts up with it easily enough,” they can, like the churches in Galatia, truly start living in confusion and never grasp the reality of their God given right to find their rest in his grace. Instead they find themselves on a religious performance tread mill and end up spending their time striving to receive from God based by what they do instead of freely receiving everything from him based on his love. The foundational truth of the New Covenant is one of grace."

From
God's Grace Apart From Law: A Biblical Explanation On Living A Victorious Christian Life By Grace Alone  by Mick Mooney

By His Grace, for His Glory

Living in the Unforced Rhythms of Grace (by Godfrey Birtill)

Grace poured out

by Mick Mooney

Jesus' parable of the prodigal son was offensive to the Pharisees, not because the younger son rejected the father and went his own way, but because when he returned he was welcomed with great joy by the father, without a word of judgment about the younger son's previous rebellious ways.

Straight back in as a son, no questions asked. He was embraced, given a ring and slippers, and a great party thrown in his honor. The older son expected the father to be just! To treat him not as a son, but a traitor! He expected judgement, but instead he witnessed his father pour out an abundance of grace! Unfair! Unfair! Unjust even! The older brother thought.

The Pharisees believed in the coming of a messiah, but what they expected was a messiah that would offer salvation from the hands of an angry God. What Jesus revealed was something totally different, totally unexpected and deeply offensive to the religious... Jesus revealed God the Father was not angry at all. He revealed God our Father is love.

Welcome home.

Expect love

"They found grace out in the desert ... and met God out looking for them!" GOD told them, "I've never quit loving you and never will. Expect love, love, and more love! 

Jeremiah 31:2-3 (MSG)

Bono on karma vs grace

Super abounding Grace

Grace

“Grace is God walking into your world with a sparkle in his eye and an offer that’s hard to resist. ‘Sit still for a bit. I can do wonders with this mess of yours.'”

          by Max Lucado

More splendidly

Grace is the gift of feeling sure that our future, even our dying, is going to turn out more splendidly than we dare imagine.  —LEWIS SMEDE

Definition of Grace

Definition of Grace  by Rob Rufus

- Grace is the divine characteristic that enables, furnishes and equips human beings to live in a supernatural dimension.
 - Grace carries the refreshing reality of God’s ongoing acceptance of us – an acceptance not dependent on our failures or successes.
 -  Grace is God’s desire to bless us – not on the basis of our performance, but on the basis of Jesus’ performance on our behalf.
-  Grace rescues us from the syndrome of rejection and insecurity, the tyranny of performanceorientated living and the endless anxiety associated with trying to achieve and earn acceptance by keeping laws and regulations.
-  Grace reveals that we are loved, valued and accepted by God as we are.              - Grace means that God’s correction and rebuke does not involve a withdrawal of his acceptance but, rather, a proof of his love for us.
 -  Grace delivers us from self-effort and the heresy of the self-made person.         -  Grace is not about what we do for God, but what God does for us.
-  Grace – true grace – turns disappointment into divine appointment, and failure into a stepping stone to success.                                                                                      -  Grace brings the sunshine of heaven into our hearts; it releases us from the oppression of people’s opinions, it nullifies Satan’s accusations and it evaporates guilt and regret.
-  Grace sets us free to be what God created us to be – an enthusiastic, joyful, spontaneous, unpredictable, risk-taking and secure people.
Thank God for grace

Accepted without performance

Grace carries with it the revelation that you and I are accepted by God – regardless of our performance. It is the mysterious ability of God to accept us irrespective of our successes or our failures in life.

People in this world are trained to feel valuable on the basis of what they do; they live under the tyranny of their performance. Remember when you were a child and you brought your school report home, and your brother or sister achieved more that year than you? Many children feel that acceptance by their parents depends on their performance at school, and consequently feel that their successful brothers and sisters are more accepted than they are. (Wise parents accept all their children – not based on performance, but on their intrinsic value.) 

Whenever I have had to discipline my children, I have impressed upon them that I love them exactly the same whether they are good or bad. My love for them is not based on their performance, but on the fact that they are my children.

We need to understand that we have value in God, irrespective of how much we are doing for God. Even if we never read the Bible again, never witness again, never pray again, never go to church again, God would love us exactly the same as if we were doing everything perfectly! 

by Rob Rufus

God's final word on your life

difficulties and God's Grace

 

 

"All our difficulties are platforms for the manifestation of God's grace, power and love"

Hudson Taylor

Grace

“A grace revolution is sweeping across the Church. Many Christians are making the transition from legalism to grace. …..Legalism is the belief that my works are the basis of God’s acceptance and blessing. …….Grace is the belief that I am always accepted and qualified for every blessing because of the finished work of Jesus. …… Legalism says, “Do”……. Grace says, “Done!” There is nothing I can do to make God love me more; and there is nothing I can do that will make Him love me less. “

Quote by Kenn Legg - Grace Roots