The Oasis Of Grace

This is a core truth. This truth is an oasis for the self-image...

"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain..." - 1 Corinthians 15:10a ESV

Whatever you 'are' since the moment you first believed can only be understood in God's grace. Every other lens is deceitful.

I have met some awesome people. I'm thinking of a few of them this morning. These people are radically different from one another in so many ways. They look different. They have different personalities and tendencies. Some are so talented and creative. It shocks me. Some are steadfast and patient. Others are quiet and I feel I barely know them because who they truly are is only partially on display while other wear their hearts right out there where everyone can see.

I sit here comfortable in my own skin because I am what I am by grace and I know that is true for each person I love and admire.

I often have wished I had other talents and abilities. I have wanted to be something or someone else. But God's grace is an oasis from all of that. In that place called grace, YOU are loved and grace given is never in vain.

We can seek to understand, praise and affirm people and that is needed but giving and explaining grace by living in it has no substitute.

I pray for the ones in my circle that are so different from me and each other. I pray that God would make me a minister of reconciliation. A priest. A friend. A fellow traveler. A broken man made whole on display.

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God's grace..." - Hebrews 13:8-9a NLT

Yes. Yes, It does.

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Giving God Glory

"Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands." - Isaiah 42:11-12 KJV

Giving glory to God is illumination mixed with recognition.

I love this verse because it reveals different cultures all recognizing God. The city, the village, the island people and mountain people all can see God's illumination and respond with true recognition.

Some will dance and sing and others may have a tendency to be quietly in awe. Some will focus on the practical while another dwells more on the philosophical.

Grace has an appeal to all people of all cultures. Grace is God's chosen method of expression. It is the avenue the God's attributes will be revealed.

"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." - Ephesians 1:6 KJV

Grace has been revealed and a recognition of acceptance is the result.

If you look at Jesus in the Gospels He Is every type of healthy personality. In one instance He appears to be an extrovert and in another He looks like an introvert. He relates and influences. He excites and Is strategic.

The island people can relate to Him and so can the mountain people. The wilderness person and the city dweller all can recognize Him and identify with Him in some way.

He Is grace and truth.

Let's give Him glory.

Let's recognize who He Is and not make Him into who we want Him to be. When we function in that which is contrary to His character we cease to give glory to God.

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" - Hebrews 12:1-2a KJV

After we see Him we will have something to say. When we see Him as He really Is it will motivate us to action.

Then God will get His glory and we will be in sync with Heaven here on Earth.

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