Grace

The service in church last week was entitled Living a Life of Grace. Just the word "Grace" stirs my heart. There is so much that grace covers that I have a hard time wrapping my mind around it. Last Sunday was also the last day in our old building. The church moved to another building today, moving out of the old car repair shop they have been occupying for the last 6 years into a building that can accommedate the growing seekers. Sitting in that service, surrounded by people I haven't yet met, listening to the stories of how God has shown His Grace in and through this church over the last 6 years brought me to tears. I am not worried about my own sins not being covered by Grace - I know they are, I am confident in my place in God's heart. But yet I am constantly amazed at the POWER of God's Grace - it transforms lives! I sat there and watched more people than I could count come to Christ for the FIRST TIME - because of how amazed they were by God's Grace! Around the room there were candles lit for every life changed forever by Grace in the last 6 years through this church. The 835 candles created such a glow that they didn't need lights, and such a warmth that the air conditioner couldn't keep up. It was so powerful. At the end of the service they had a board on the stage with a layout of the new worship room at the new church. There are 1,000 chairs in the room, and we were given an opportunity to give a "chair offering" - to buy a chair in the name of people we want to see come to Christ. I have been praying about my chair offering for a couple of weeks. As I took my meager Roma's earnings up there, with Todd Agnew's "Grace Like Rain" rocking in the background, I had to surpress the overwhelming urge to just weep, right there in line. I was given a card to put the names on, and a star to place on the chair. I wrote down two names that are very dear to my heart, and with trembling hands placed their star on a chair that one day I hope they occupy. If God's Grace can humble my heart - I know it can work in their hearts as well. I want SO MUCH to be a part of that! I want to see the transformation - I want to see the awe on their faces as they come to realize HOW MUCH God loves them, and how Grace is for them. I just cannont help but be overwhelmed, even now, here, typing this out. The cry of my heart is to share this Grace!

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord's favor has come." - Isaiah 60:1-2

There is a line in an Andrew Peterson song, "We'll see how the tears that have fallen were caught in the palms of the Giver of love and the Lover of all." The tears that I couldn't contain that day I know fell into the palm of a Gracious God - whose heart breaks for same people for whom mine breaks. The palm that catches my tears, is the same one that tenderly places this yearning in my heart. To know that I have been touched by His Grace....wow.