Grace, Truth, and Presence

   I was listening to an amazing round table event from The Cobblestone Project here in NW Arkansas for an event called Present in the City. http://www.cobblestoneproject.org/ (you can listen online) and they were speaking about Grace. The Lord actually stopped me in my tracks because He had spoken to me while journaling about a week ago on the subject of Grace. I want to share what He shared with me and then unpack it for a bit.

  

    “Before you are a man of significance you must be a man of Grace. Grace is imparting the presence of one who is holier than yourself………Be holy as I am holy. Be pure as I am pure. By Grace. “

How do I receive more Grace?

  

    “By honoring the grace you have already received”

   How do I impart Grace?

  

    “By helping them get free. I am able to be in their lives more the more places I am allowed. Freedom is a function of Grace.”

   Present in the City brought up an interesting topic of walking the line between Truth and Grace. It was mentioned that there is often a tension (created by man) between Truth and Grace. We can see this in conversations with people who are bound to some addiction. You want to tell them that they need to get off the stuff, but you also want to tell them that God loves them and is totally willing to forgive. That they should be holy, but that God loves them if they are holy or not. If you have ever had a conversation like this then you feel the tension.

  

    I believe when God gives us Grace what is happening is He is showing up. I think we only really know the Truth when He speaks. We need Grace to look like God. But we also need Truth to know the will of God for our life. The words that Jesus spoke were life, they were Truth, they were also full of Grace.

    

   I believe that what we call the Grace of God is often us simply being aware that our circumstances are pregnant with the presence of God.

   

    There is only One who is pure and holy, and what did He say to do? John 15:4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

    

   If the Grace of God is what helps us to live out our daily Christian walk and bear fruit, then how do we receive Grace to accomplish that? To stay in the presence of Jesus.

    

   Truth can lead to Grace, but only if it is spoken with Grace. Truth spoken out of good intentions can be misinterpreted by the hearer and sound more like legalism than an invitation to let God accomplish Truth in their life.

  

    It is the goal of this ministry to introduce people to Jesus in a deeply intimate and personal level by allowing them to experience the Presence of God. If we can get them to hear Jesus then they will meet and know Grace and Truth in a loving relationship instead of viewing these ideas as theological sound bites.

    

   Grace and Truth happen not when a biblical concept is understood but instead when He shows up in your circumstance. When we see the perfect holiness of Jesus then we can recognize the counterfeit in our own lives. To be holy we must spend time with the Holy.

     Freedom is a function of Grace because freedom happens when God speaks to us about an area of our life He is not allowed in, we say yes, He shows up to remove the pain, and then sets up residence in our newly remodeled heart.

  

    Grace and Truth and Freedom happen when you set out the welcome mat. God always wants to hang out. :)