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My heart beats for love. I want to be different. I want to be who I am called to be. WORTHY and LOVED!

Sunday, May 17, 2015

“Grace: Moving Us Forward”

For the last two weeks we have been discussing God’s gift of grace - which is sort of like a house in structure. Previent grace is the foundation of the house, laid before we even knew God out of love for us.  The activity of God from the moment of our conception to the moment we say yes to all that God is offering us. Justifying grace is the porch, the place where neighbors come to visit and be invited into the house.  The place where we accept God’s love for us and invitation for salvation and the relationship that God offers us through Christ. Sanctifying grace is actually entering the house. Passing through the threshold and being totally committed and in the presence of God. 
I cannot remember the exact day and time when I moved from the porch of God’s grace into the house. In actuality there have been many experiences where I have moved into that space and have grown in my relationship with God - or experienced sanctifying grace. Moments when I knew that this time, and that this experience, were nothing short of a gift from God. Times that sang to me of God’s love and care for me and propelled me to “see Thee more clearly, follow Thee more nearly, and love Thee more dearly” in the lyrics from Godspell. In that moment something clicked for me about God’s love and the gift of grace. 
At the end of the day, all grace is God’s grace. But each type of grace describes a different aspect of God’s love for us, as if exploring it from different angles or looking through a prism. Sanctifying grace is the gift that God that provides the desire and power to grow in our relationship with God - forever. While justifying grace may represent a moment in time, sanctifying grace lasts forever. For we are on a journey with God that never ends and we always have room to grow even closer, and more committed, to God. All grace is God’s active love for us. Our response to sanctifying grace is actively loving God in return. Grace is God’s love in action - towards other and towards the world, and our response to that grace is our love in action for others.
The means of grace, those ways that we can tangibly experience and express God’s love for us, help us celebrate and strengthen our relationship with God. This is a continual process that moves us forward, but it can have obstacles along the way - those attitudes and actions that hinder our relationship with God and with our neighbor. During those difficult times, or times when we falter, we must remember that through the cross, Jesus has overcome every obstacle for us, if we would only claim the power of grace. 
As we respond to sanctifying grace we open ourselves up to the movement and work of the Holy Spirit through divine energy and power. Each of us may experience this movement of the Spirit differently, but the Holy Spirit alway moves us forward in our faith, with both uncontainable force and gentleness. This ability to grow in our relationship with God lasts forever. Just as physical birth begins the process to grow and mature, so does spiritual birth begin the process of growing towards spiritual maturity. 
Sanctifying grace is the process of opening ourselves us to the work of the Holy Spirit. Sanctifying grace is the divine energy transforming our hearts and life. As we mature the Holy Spirit brings us strength and courage to be made ripe for glory in the following ways:
One, restore our relationship with God and others. This is a mark of growth along our spiritual walk. The desire to restore relationships that have been broken because of sin. We cannot earn God’s love by changing our ways. Rather, we change our ways because God loves us and gives us the grace to make a fresh start, day by day, hour by hour. There have been countless times in my life when I have screwed up and hurt others. But the more I live into God’s grace, the more I realize when I hurt people and seek both reconciliation and to prevent me from hurting them again. This change can only come from God’s Spirit, “bearing witness with our spirit”, which the apostle Paul reminds us in Romans. Because my identity comes from being a child of God, I can begin to see others as a child of God, and seek to not hurt them. In medical terms, one could say this restoration of relationship with God and others is the process of spiritual growth and the recovery of our health, since we were once sick with sin.
Second, imparting newness. New life, new light, new strength, and a new heart. The Spirit gives us insight into this newness so that we can seek it out and fully embrace our new status in life as a child of God, because of Christ’s death for us on the cross. Justifying grace is the moment when the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. This means that we are declared “not guilty” because of all that Christ did for us on the cross and we experience a change in status. As we continue along the spectrum of grace, sanctifying grace is the process by which the righteousness of Christ is imparted to us - it becomes a part of us, and we experience a change in heart. Through these changes we become more like Christ, day by day, as we grow and mature spiritually. 
Sometimes it is difficult to grasp the concept of grace imparted to us. There is an old saying that you cannot choose your family. You are born into the lineage that you have,complete with our hair color and texture, our temperament, our family drama. In other words certain characteristics were handed down to us at our birth. However, as we grow and mature those characteristics are imparted to us as we make them our won. Sometimes we succeed and are able to separate our identity as an individual from the things we like least about our heritage while maintaining that which we claim as the best. 
Thirdly, the Spirit drives to perfect ourselves in the image of God and the likeness of Christ. God perfects us, but not all at once. We are rising to the likeness of Christ that is in us. Sometimes this perfection involves pruning, cutting away the areas in our lives that will not lead to growth and life, which can sometimes be painful. Christian perfection is both instantaneous (as in justifying grace) and extended over tie for maturity (as in sanctifying grace), thus making conversion a process. It happens once, but not all at once. It is a lifelong process of doing what is right and resisting what is evil. 
I used to really dislike the idea of being made perfect. It sounded boring and impossible. But then I stumbled upon what John Wesley felt that perfection was - growing in relationship to other people and in love with God. That is achievable. That is something I can work towards and I can find hope in! 
And best of all, God does not send us out to seek perfection on our own. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts to help us grow and build up the body of Christ. As a Christian matures, his or her life displays certain qualities known as the fruit of the spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. In talking about this passage in a Bible Study a few months ago, we realized that these are the characteristics that we want, because they best exemplify Christ. They show what it means to lay our lives aside for other people, because they are the marks of God using us. And we can all have them. The fruits of the Holy Spirit, each and every one of them, are available to all of us who have gathered here today, if only we will start to use our liberty, our freedom, to live a life of service for others.
Perfecting involves pruning. The Bible tells us that every vine and fruit tree requires pruning, and so do we. A life in grace is a life in process, and some of this process is painful. Christian perfection is both instantaneous and progressive. The Greek word for perfect can also be translated “mature or complete” Just as a person can be mature or complete as a five-year old, the same person years later can be quite different and still be a mature and complete fifteen year old, or a mature twenty-five year old, or complete sixty-five year old. This is both God’s call and promise. This is the doctrine, or belief, of the more - that God has even more to offer us, and we have even more to grow into, more of the fruits of the spirit to bring to maturity in our life.s
When we stay connected to Christ in a healthy and vital way we open up our hearts to receive grace as a gift and we can share grace in the community of Christ’s body, where we can continue to come more alive in Christ. 

Remember when you enter into a house, the journey is not over, in fact it is just the beginning. The beginning of new opportunities, conversation, and experiences in the warmth and love of family and friends. So it is with our journey with God, never ending, always inviting us to the new experiences and growth in store for us. Amen. 

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