Grace.

Its hilarious that we sing songs all of the time about grace, and yet not one of us even comprehends how much grace God freely gave to us. I sin everyday. There are things I hope no one ever finds out about because they would either automatically hate me or just avoid me completely. But the thing is, God already knows. Which really makes me feel crappy, you know that feeling after you did something you know was wrong, small or big, you just don't want to look at yourself or make eye contact with anyone, including yourself, you avoid your own eye contact, turn the rearview mirror away so you dont see yourself, thats the feeling I get when I remember that God knows everything ive done. eee. But the incredibly amazing thing is... he has already forgiven me for it. !!! Thats what grace is! God didn't have a form we had to fill out to make sure we qualified for grace, we just have to say yes! I am not only referring to that initial grace when you put your faith in Christ, but the continual grace. I sin everyday, multiple times a day, why? Because I am a dumb sinner. I slip and fall, and God once again bends over backwards, says hey man its okay, and lets me try it again.

Now, dont take this wrong, we all take advantage of Gods grace, but we should never purposely take advantage of his grace! Like saying "oh its okay to do this, cause God will forgive me." Wow, I once heard that said to me, and i wanted to slap the person. That is incredibly wrong thinking. God didnt give us grace so we could live whatever life we wanted and ask for forgiveness later. He gave it as a gift. If you view grace as just a get out of jail free card, you are in the wrong and I would be as bold to say, that you need to look at your relationship with Christ.

God could have done whatever he wanted to us, we were made for HIS glory not ours. "Holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come" This is straight out of Revelation chapter 4. He has 4 angels, around him saying this repeatedly, then he is surrounded by other angels, then he has 24 "elders" who have their own thrones, and who bow down every-time they say Holy, what is crazy is that these elders are humans. In all the commentaries that I have read can really place who exactly these people are, but most say that they are people from the old testament, old testament saints if you will . But anyways, picture that, a God that created these things so he could be worshiped, sitting on the throne and surrounded by colors we have not yet even seen, with lightning all around him, enclosed by at least 28 beings all worshiping him. And this creator, had such a mercy on us that he gave us grace, grace which we never have or will deserve.

What made me want to write this was something one of my friends said in passing. He said "I wish churches acted more like Jesus. He didnt have a set of prerequisites to hang out with him." He was right, he wasn't like a bank loan or credit approval, we were accepted no matter what. And sadly the church isnt like that. We will act like it, but we go home and say "jeez did you see that guy, he was wearing shorts, in the sanctuary!" or "that guy smelled like alcohol." --- As I look at what I just wrote, Shorts to alcohol, I can see the vast difference, and it dawned on me, that in a lot of churches these things are pretty much on the same scale in "church offense." ---But anyways. Wouldnt you rather have these people in the church hearing the name of Jesus then sitting in a bar, or drinking by themselves??

The next time you sing amazing grace, put the emphasis on the word "amazing," cause it is definitely that plus all its synonym counterparts. And on top of that realize that the amazing and the grace part, dont just apply to you, they apply to everyone that accepts it. Even the guy that has shorts on in the sanctuary...