“The Most Important Thing: Grace“, by Rev Angela Martin
Pastor’s Message
For we Methodists, grace is the core of our Wesleyan theology. For John Wesley, his beliefs about grace colored everything else he believed. He understood God’s grace as abundant love (demonstrated through Christ) and an active presence in our lives (through the movement of the Holy Spirit); a gift given free of charge, not because of anything we have or haven’t done. In other words, we can’t earn God’s grace, it is given freely.
Wesley even defined grace as having some distinct characteristics that interact with us at various times in our lives. Prevenient grace is the grace that comes before we know or acknowledge God to be in our lives; it is the grace that draws us to God. Who are the saints who drew you to God through their words and actions? Justifying grace is gifted to us in the moment of our belief in God when we are reconciled to him and sanctifying grace accompanies us throughout our lives of faith, maturing our faith and growing our understanding of God and who we are called to be. Who are the saints that continue to help you mature in your faith?
We experience God’s grace through the means of grace – sacred moments where Christ is re-presented or becomes present to us anew. Our sacraments, Baptism and Holy Communion, are means of grace; also, prayer, reading scripture, and worship just to name a few. Sometimes God’s grace surprises us; showing up in places and people where we didn’t expect it. Where have you experienced God’s grace lately?
~Angela Martin
The Word
Romans 5:18-21 (The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language)
Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.
All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Speak Your Mind