Friday, September 14, 2007

Mercy and Grace

Ok, so after my Chinese, I felt ready to tackle the serious topic I mentioned in my previous post... :)

We attend a small group (Bible Study) on Thursday nights. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our small group. We have an amazing group of people, all in different stages in their walks with Christ. I know I can count on these individuals for love, support and prayers and that is an awesome feeling. I feel like the small group is where I really learn and grow, not that I don't learn and grow in weekend services at church, but small group is just different.

So, anyway..... back to my post.....

This Thursday we talked about God's mercy and grace- two words I have heard over and over and over, but honestly, never stopped to really question their meaning. Our leader gave a really great definition of the two. He said grace is "receiving what we don't deserve" and mercy is "not receiving what we do deserve". I hope that makes sense. Hearing those two words defined like that, gave me a totally new outlook on God's grace and His mercy. I'm still in awe.....

We also talked about how when a person becomes a Christ-follower-WAIT- let me explain what I mean by this. I have heard a lot of confusion about this. There is a difference in a person who believes in God and a person who has accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Believing in God will not get you to heaven. John 4:16 states that Christ is the way, the truth and the life. No one can get into heaven without Christ (kind of paraphrased).

I think this is a difficult thing for some people to grasp. My husband had a hard time with this one before he became a Christian. I hear so many people say that if you are a good person, that will get you into heaven. It's just not the way. Actually, I am glad that is not the way into heaven. If that were the way, we would constantly be insecure about how much good we have to do, if what we were doing is actually good enough, if we were doing as much "good stuff" as our neighbor..... and on and on and on. I am so thankful that Christ died for us, our sins, and all we have to do is confess that we are sinners and accept him as our Lord and Savior.

Yep, it's just that easy. I remember the night I received Christ. It was 2 days after Christmas and I was with two of my high school friends. I didn't exactly know what it meant to be a Christian, but I knew I wanted it. I saw the peace and joy that my friends had captured and I wanted it, with all of my heart. When they prayed that little (or BIG, considering it changed my eternity) prayer with me, my first response was "THAT'S IT?!" I could not believe that praying that 2 minute prayer, and meaning it, was all I had to do to secure my place in heaven. It seemed way to easy, but it was true. Jesus did the work for us. God's grace and mercy are offered to all, it is up to us to accept His gifts.

God gives us a choice. He is a God of free will. We get to choose whether or not we want Him to be a part of our worldly life. He loves us all and longs for each of us to have a relationship with Him. He loves us so much that He lets us choose.

I could go on and on and on about this subject. It is one of my favorites to talk about. I never get tired of discussing God. I pray that someone reads this post and it triggers something for them. I pray that this post makes someone want to search a little deeper, learn a little more about our amazing God.

5 comments:

Alexis Jacobs said...

Beautiful post :) I am sure this will touch many more than we ever will know.

Karen said...

Miss Corrina Habernathy.....
As you know, I am agnostic (maybe).....don't really know what I believe basically. I can tell you this though.....There was a period of a few years when life was particularly difficult for me. I used to sit in the bathtub at night and pray, pray, pray.......I had some kind of thought at the time that being in the water helped God hear me????? Sometimes all I would say is God please help me feel better...but I would just repeat it over and over again...Like for an hour straight...until I felt better.I don't know...but I believed in God then AND I remember thinking that the prayers were being answered because things did get better. The only people I ever told that to were the guys that lived at Salus. They were having such difficult times with their own lives and the only help I could offer was "get in the bathtub and pray". I would even go out and buy them candles and bubble bath...SERIOUSLY!! Anytime you want to talk about God, I have absolutely NO PROBLEM listening. As far as I'm concerned, that's just another chance for me to learn something new. You really do teach me alot even though you may not know it. Look Corie....who in the hell else could have EVER gotten me to join the Y ????? AND you may not know this but our job??? You know how much I complain about it right? Guess how much more I'd complain if I was working with someone else... You help me with that too. (Boy, I ain't kiddin about that either) So...maybe God is already working through you (and trying to straighten me out)

Louise said...

Great post :)

Anonymous said...

thanks for reminding me how easy it was to enter his gates, maybe now my sacrifices won't seem so big! Love and miss you........me

Sarah said...

I can't tell you how often I thought about this post this last weekend.

I really liked what your study leader said about mercy and grace. Love the clear picture.

Thanks for your post!