I grew up on a farm in Small town South Dakota, where I went to school with 38 total kids in my grade. My family was part of the local Lutheran Church called Grace Lutheran Church. As a child when I heard the word Grace, I thought people were talking about where I went to church, “oh yes, we go to Grace,” to me “Grace” was where I went to church.
As I went through high school, my family began attending a different church and I became active in the youth group and actually was able to understand sermons better, my idea of grace was shifted when people started talking about this Jesus guy who died on the cross for the sins of all people—this was a gift that humanity is undeserving and pays/gives nothing to receive. Wow—now what in the world does that mean?
In high school, I began to hear friends talk about having to accept Jesus as a personal Lord and Savior before I can have Jesus in my life—later on this was clarified to me that there is nothing I can decide or do to have Jesus in my life, grace is a gift offered to all humanity and Jesus, the creator of our being has died on the cross for the sins of all humanity whether we like it and choose for it to happen or not.
Two years ago I was in a coffee shop back in Sioux Falls waiting in line to order my refreshing vanilla latte. As the woman in front of me went to pay, she caught a glimpse of me and said I am going to buy your drink too, what would you like. As I was caught speechless, she continued to say, you know, you look real familiar…after a few moments we discovered she was the person who had cleaned my teeth once a year since I was five.—I could not understand why this lady, who I only see once a year to get my teeth cleaned wanted to buy me a cup of coffee… I felt undeserving of her generosity.
Undeserving? God’s gift of grace and forgiveness is an expression of his love for humanity. We don’t understand it and we don’t deserve it, but he gives it anyway. Even if you feel like your faith isn’t big enough, it is, we can learn from Jesus about faith as a mustard seed, and how small is a mustard seed? Exactly, really small, if you have even a little faith, you can have great influence in this world and Jesus gives you the strength you need to ‘move mountains.’ You cannot measure a persons faith and you don't have to have 'big faith.' Just remember faith as small as a mustard seed is having faith and your faith is immeasurable and uncompareable to anyone in this world. The most faithful of all is Jesus Christ who offers grace, forgiveness and love to all people.
Grace is a gift of forgiveness and life. We are not perfect but God loves us for who we are no matter what—grace offers us complete forgiveness from all sins.
We don’t have to do anything to receive God’s grace, but we are called to celebrate and respond to God’s grace and share this grace with the world and everyone that we meet. How do you respond to God’s grace? Who do you share God’s grace with in your every day life?
I greatly appreciate the message translation of Ephesians 2:1-10, but I also encourage you to look it up in your Bible and reflect on that text this week. :
1-6It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
7-10Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
