Dear Theophilus Archive: April 2001
Rediscovering Grace
By Phyllis Kim"Living by grace inspires a growing consciousness that I am what I am in the sight of Jesus and nothing more. It is his approval that counts."
Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."
2 Corinthians 3:17
Try this puzzle. Connect all the dots with 4 lines only. You can't pick up your pen and when you change direction, that's a new line. Did you figure it out yet? If not, look below:
Most people don't "think outside the box." In order to solve this puzzle, you have to go outside of the box. Some people think that only creative people should be able to do this, but since God is our creator, we all have that creativity in us. What would be a possible creativity stuffer? Well, it seems it could be something called FEAR OF MAN!
All my Christian life, I forgot for whom I was living. I thought I was living for the Lord, but somewhere in my journey, I started turning my eyes off of Him and started looking at myself and those around. All of the sudden, I was trapped by the FEAR OF MAN! When one gets into that trap, the reality of grace becomes very lost.
God tells us, "For it is by GRACE we have been saved..." (Eph. 2:8-9), but do we truly live by grace? Do we truly believe this awesome and powerful truth? If my life was indeed evident of grace, what would it look like? What would my ministry look like?
Would I judge my fellow brother or sister so harshly because they do not live up to a human-set standard? (Those standards are so much more legalistic than being a replica of God's perfect standard of holiness.) Would I be so afraid to express myself because of what others think?
Those who live in this awesome grace seem to reflect a freedom in Christ that is unknown to many of us. I think that they grasp a bigger sense of God as well as the statement that His yoke is not heavy and burdensome. Often, we forget to live out His grace in our lives when we get so caught up in serving Christ. We become so busy with "ministry" and become utterly enamored with the position we hold rather than the God we serve.
How are we to attract those who do not yet know the goodness of God until we experience it ourselves? We neglect His grace and live by the law. To live by grace is a radical life because it affects the lives of those around us. When grace is spread, our reactions, our love, our service become different. It becomes much more far-reaching than we could ever comprehend. Why is that? It is because we rely upon His grace and His love and His strength to help us live that life of grace. If He is behind it, then what we imagine is never what God thinks is enough.
If we want to dream great dreams, we must let go of our human-sized heart and our human-sized effort. Let us embrace the God-sized heart and God-sized efforts that await us in Christ. Our ministry is not within our confines; it goes so much farther than we could have ever thought. But it is by grace that we can go forth. It is by grace that we can love and embrace those around us. Let us not let the Kingdom of God continue to slip away from our availability because we have forgotten about grace. God's grace be with you all.
