Read Part 1 of this post here.

Some of you may be caught in a web of deception, others may be caught in the trap of pornography, others may be struggling with drugs or alcohol, and still others may be guilty of verbal assaults and gossip. Some of you are struggling with food – too little, or too much. You may be a victims. Victims of gossip, sexual abuse, abandonment, or other hit & run crimes. But Grace is there at your crime scenes too! Just like it was for Joseph, and just like it was for Moses!

Corrie Ten Boom, author of The Hiding Place and victim of Hitler’s concentration camps, once said, “There is no pit so deep, that God’s love is not deeper still.” Grace loves us PERIOD. It has nothing to do with what we have done, or not done, or what’s been done to us! That’s the point…we do not deserve it! We do NOT deserve it. Grace follows, in it’s relentless pursuit of us, through all of our crime scenes. Grace puts his fingerprints there so that the law will chase Him instead of us. Grace throws the law off our trail. That’s what Paul wrote about in Colossians 3:3. If you have turned yourself into Grace, you are hidden in Christ! The Law and the Prosecuting attorney cannot find you! Grace takes the rap for you!

How does he do that? Jesus, the Son of God, became crime.

Christ became human, while yet remaining God. Why did He do this? Well, it all originates in Genesis 3 in the garden. Adam and Eve brought crime into the world, and separated man from God. We were all created for fellowship with Him, and that fellowship was broken by our crimes. Ultimately, justice had to be served, and that is what Christ came to earth to do on our behalf. We do not deserve that, but that is what Grace is all about. Grace is unwarranted favor from a superior to an inferior. We can say that Christ is the embodiment, the very personification of grace.

When we follow His life, we see that He never committed a crime, although He did hang out with criminals all the time. In fact, crime is not committed in the presence of grace, when those around are truly submitted to Him. That’s what makes Peters assault with a deadly weapon in the garden of Gethsemane so shocking when the soldiers came to arrest Grace. But immediately there is Grace cleaning up the crime scene, tenderly touching the ear of Malchus, that Peter had just lopped off, and making him whole again. Have you ever noticed that none of those soldiers arrested Peter for his crime? Peter’s crime was erased when Grace put His fingerprints all over the crime scene.

The law chased Grace all through the Gospels, and it chased Him down the Villa De La Rosa and finally chased Him up skull hill. Allen Levi wrote, “A darkened hill He walked upon, a bloody battered fool. He’ll deal with death despite the doubts, and shouts of ridicule. See him lay his bleeding back to capture us from hell, to pay a debt he did not owe our dirt beneath those nails.”

How does it do that? Wasn’t Grace killed on the cross? Didn’t Grace die? The law did kill Grace. The law was satisfied with the crucifixion, but the story does not end there! No, Grace rose again! With the power of the resurrection, Graced killed the law! Grace became our crime, and served our time. Then Grace was released from the prison of death by the power of the Holy Spirit! Grace served the time for all time! We don’t have too! Mercy no longer has to make installment payments to justice! NO! Jesus Christ, the embodiment of Grace paid it all!

We are ALL wanted by the Law, BUT we are ALL also wanted by Grace! Grace has chased us all the way from the Garden of Eden. Grace has visited every one of our crime scenes, and wants to turn them all into scenes of His victory and His Glory!

We deserve to be caught by the law, but we can turn ourselves into Grace and be hidden in Christ so that the Law cannot touch us! We don’t deserve it, but that’s Grace.

I’m just thankful that Grace loves criminals – like me.

Tal is the founding pastor of Tapestry of Hope in Birmingham, Alabama and a recovering sex/porn addict. Tal has been in recovery for nearly 10 years, and is passionate about helping others break free from the chains of addiction through engaging in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Tal is married to Teresa (gorgeous!) and they have two beautiful girls (completely adorable!). You can find Tal on his blog, Facebook, Twitter, or (my personal favorite) his weekly Sirius radio show “Tal Prince Live”.

You can read all of the posts in the Grace Week Series here.

Recently, I had the privilege to speak at our nation’s largest maximum security prison. Angola State Prison houses 5200 men who have committed some of the most horrific acts imaginable – and I loved them. All of them have been at crime scenes – and some their lives are crime scenes.

As I hung out with inmates, walked the camps and death row, I was struck by the tangible presence of grace in this place. One inmate said to me, “They didn’t arrest me – they rescued me.” When I asked him to explain that, he said, “Jesus was waiting on me in this cell. I had to come here to meet him. Tal, I had to come to prison to find freedom.” Let that sink in for a second…

So, how are you with hardened criminals? How are you with the thought that God extends grace to criminals? It’s not really anything new for him –

Take a look at the first homicide in history – it appears in Genesis 4. Cain is guilty of murdering Abel, his brother, in the first degree. God had warned Cain that sin was out to get him and that he needed to master it. Cain’s jealousy festered into anger, which developed into rage, which led to murder. Big sins always start out small, don’t they?

When God walks into the crime scene and attempts to elicit a confession from Cain, but Cain never confesses. God passes a swift sentence on Cain and takes from him the one thing he knows how to do. Cain is now a farmer with nothing to farm. Cain actually then has the nerve to complain about the harshness of his sentence, and then we see the fingerprints of Grace at the crime scene. God places a mark on Cain’s head to warn everyone not to kill him.

I believe we can find a trace of Grace at every crime scene in the Bible. Grace is always there if you look for it.

The fact of the matter is that we are all criminals. Let’s be honest, that’s sin really is, right?. We like to call it disobedience, or even better…we love to use “Christian-eze” and call it sin; which we define as “missing the mark.” That’s easy to feel better about isn’t it? It makes it sound so cute. “Oh, I was so close! I tried so hard, but just barely missed the mark by an inch!” How does it feel to know that we are not simply bad marksmen, but we are, in fact, criminals?

Think back over the crime scenes of your life. Can you see the traces of grace? Look hard! I promise you, they are there, whether you were a victim, or the perpetrator. We are all criminals – no better, or no worse than anybody at Angola State Prison. We are fugitives from the law, and both Grace and the Law are in hot pursuit of us. Eventually we have to surrender our lives to one or the other.

If you’re like me sometimes you believe that your crimes are unforgivable. They are too awful for Grace to accept. Not true! Just look at the genealogy of Grace! Look at Matthew 1 – I know – you have trained yourselves over the years to never read genealogies in the Bible, but look! Adam is there…he committed the first crime and brought about the fall of man, Abraham a criminal with a record of fraud is there, Jacob is there, guilty of fraud and assault and battery. Judah is there, guilty of solicitation of a prostitute. Tamar, that very prostitute is there. You say “A prostitute in the bloodline of Christ!? NEVER!” Guess what – she’s not even the only one! You don’t see only sterling citizens in the bloodline of Grace. Jesus was the spotless lamb, but He has a very spotted bloodline. There are criminals all through it! In fact, Grace chose murderers to write most of the Bible! Moses was a murderer, and a victim of child abandonment, but Grace used him to write the first five books of the Bible. David was a murderer and an adulterer, but Grace used him to write most of the Psalms. Paul murdered followers of Grace for crying out loud! But Grace used him to write the bulk of the New Testament. Grace redeemed them all and used them to tell his story!

Tal is the founding pastor of Tapestry of Hope in Birmingham, Alabama and a recovering sex/porn addict. Tal has been in recovery for nearly 10 years, and is passionate about helping others break free from the chains of addiction through engaging in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Tal is married to Teresa (gorgeous!) and they have two beautiful girls (completely adorable!). You can find Tal on his blog, Facebook, Twitter, or (my personal favorite) his weekly Sirius radio show “Tal Prince Live”.

Check back later today for Part 2

You can read all of the posts in the Grace Week Series here.

Grace changes people.

There was a movie several years back that seemed to understand this point better than most “church folk.” (Church folk is what we call religious, church attenders in my part of the country.)

The plot behind Chocolat is not complicated: a single mom, Vianne, and her daughter open a chocolaterie (fancy for chocolate shop) right in the middle of a traditional country village… right in the middle of lent. (Lent is for fasting and chocolate is for… well, not fasting.)

Vianne opens shop in the village, and many of the religiously-minded villagers, at first tentative, slowly begin to shed their inhibitions and experience new vitality as they come in contact with the power of… chocolate.

Of course, the powers that be aren’t pleased with this new presence in town, and as a result, Vianne comes toe to toe with the respectable yet self-righteous mayor, the Comte de Reynaud. Tension builds as Vianne comes to personify freedom and the mayor repression. At this point, one of the major threads of the movie is exposed: religion is used to manipulate and oppress.

As a pastor, you think I would take issue with this movie. On the contrary, I think Chocolat teaches a valuable lesson.

Religion can do a lot. It can give a disunited group of people something to rally around. It can provide structure, order, and morality in the middle of chaos. But the one thing that it cannot do is change people – at least in any meaningful way.

Religion works primarily on the concept of behavior modification. This process relies heavily on fear and shame – fear of consequences and public shame – to keep people in line.

Of the town, one of the villagers says, “You don’t misbehave here. It’s just not done, did you know that?” You maintain a respectable public face, and if you don’t, the townspeople will be sure to let you know.

That is, until chocolate comes to town. And in this movie chocolate is so much more than just chocolate. Chocolate is freedom and, yes, chocolate is indulgence, but most importantly, chocolate is grace. And through a town held in the power of religion like a vice grip, grace, freely offered, starts to flow – changing people, giving them permission to love and forgive one other, ultimately setting them free.

The failure of behavior modification is seen most clearly in the movie when both players take on the problem of a failing and abusive marriage, with Vianne giving shelter to the wife and the Comte attempting to reform the husband.
Vianne simply offers the warmth and love of friendship, and this shell of a woman begins to come to life again.

The Comte however, believing that his religion (and thus his identity) are on the line, enrolls the husband in a program of moral reform with all the vigor of a drill sergeant. Initially we see some results with the husband dressing better and even offering flowers and an apology to his wife.

The good deeds that stem from behavior modification, however, only go so deep. In this case, the flowers and apology do not flow from a truly broken or humble heart – they are only one more attempt to control.

When the husband’s apology goes unaccepted, he flips out and shows the true nature of his heart by exploding in a spree of violence that hurts much of the town.
Realizing the failure of his program of reform, the Comte kicks the husband out of town saying, “What you have done puts you beyond anyone’s help… beyond my help, anybody’s help!”

This is the final failure of religion: behavior matters more than the person. When change doesn’t happen or true brokenness is exposed – you’re gone. You’re out. Done. Finished.

Of course, the Comte at this point is on the verge of his own self-quake. His religious control has been challenged and found wanting. His own identity is being shattered. The false pretense of his life is being exposed. He is on the verge of a breakdown. He is on the verge of repentance.

One thing has to happen first. He has to give in to the power of grace. In pain and frustration he breaks into the chocolate shop bent on destroying it. “I feel so lost,” he cries out.

In his spree, however, the tiniest bit of chocolate touches his lips. And that tiny bit is all he needs. His self-control, gone. His fast, out the door. He looses himself in the largest chocolate eating binge that town has known. He wakes the next morning, lying with chocolate stained face and hands in the open broken window of the chocolate shop – exposed for all the town.

This is where religion ends and the power for authentic transformation begins. This is so difficult, however, because it means following a path of brokenness, where everything you’ve put your trust in or built your life around is exposed and ultimately peeled away.

“I feel so lost.”

And it is here – exposed and broken – our crutches and facades successfully removed, that grace steps in. The brokenness first forces us to say, “I’m worse that I realized.” And that is good. And then grace replies, “Sure. But you’re more loved that you know.” And this – this is even better.

Praise to the One who pursues the lost and gives hope to the broken.

“Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” –Jesus of Nazareth

JONATHAN is a pastor with a passion to equip churches to understand the dynamic nature of the gospel and learn how to better contextualize that gospel for a variety of cultures & people groups. Jonathan was on staff for 5 years as a pastor and teacher at The Journey, a missional church in St. Louis; he is a student of culture and created The Journey’s cultural engagement ministries that have attracted media attention worldwide. Jonathan lives in Tupelo, Mississippi with his wife Ashley and their two daughters Cora & Nola. You can learn more about Jonathan and his organization, Rethink Mission on his website. You can also follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

You can read all of the posts in the Grace Week Series here.

My hunch is that most people reading this will have some type of working definition for the word “grace.” Whether your definition has been shaped by a book or stimulating conversation at a local coffee shop, you most likely can rattle off what grace “is” in a word or a few short phrases. Yet, when it comes to experiencing grace, now that’s a different story.

Ask yourself this question: When was the last time you experienced grace? Furthermore, does your definition of grace match up with your experience of it? Often we link words like “gift” and “compassion” with the idea of grace and, in the process, turn grace into an object, or worse, an “it.” Grace may indeed be a gift, but it’s not a gift in and of itself. Grace is not a “thing.” Grace is not simply a gift from God. Rather, grace is God. The gift of grace is none other than Father, Son, and Holy Spirit encountering and transforming the lives of women, men, girls, and boys. And when we extend grace to others we are extending to them God — his love, redemption, and compassion.

Several years ago, I remember being at a Cracker Barrel with my family for breakfast. Now, I love Cracker Barrel, but I’ve been there thousands of times, so it must have been a significant moment for me to remember this particular morning years later. I was sitting there with my wife and kids when a young man came in with his parents. As the three of them took their seats I couldn’t help but notice that the young man’s face was severely disfigured. I found myself caught in one of those moments when you come face to face with who you really are compared to who you know God desires you to be. I began to think about how I would even begin to serve, love, or care for this young man. How could I extend grace to him when it was difficult for me to look in his direction? A few minutes later I finished my meal, paid the bill, and swiftly left. For days I couldn’t get the image of this young man out of my mind. He represented countless people I had passed on the street, had a short conversation with, and somehow intentionally or subconsciously deemed unworthy of grace.

If grace is a “thing” or an “it,” I wonder if it is easier to withhold. But, if we define grace as God, then how, as Christ followers, can we restrict others from encountering Him? When God calls us to relentless grace, he does not define the acceptable and the unacceptable. In fact, throughout the gospels Jesus is constantly redefining who is “in” and who is “out.” Throughout his life and ministry, Jesus shatters the barriers humanity has constructed and makes God, and God’s kingdom, accessible to everyone.

When we choose to extend grace, we choose to reveal God. When we reveal grace, we often enter into some of the most desperate situations in life and reveal God’s comfort, forgiveness, compassion, love, acceptance, and embrace to people who feel completely unworthy of God. Such action is not for the weak hearted or those desiring clean hands, but for the Kingdom-minded who find it their mission to be God’s hands and feet to broken and wounded people.

DAVID is Teaching Pastor at The Woods, a multi-site church community in suburban Detroit, where he inspires others to share his passion for people and missional service (I’m saying this with authority because he’s our Pastor!). When David isn’t teaching, leading, preaching, vision casting, and all that other Pastor type stuff he’s spending time with his wife Dana and their four kids. You can learn more about The Woods here. You can also follow David on Facebook. (Incidentally, David is not on Twitter despite my constant prodding. Maybe you should leave a comment about joining :)

You can read all of the posts in the Grace Week Series here.

Reading Serena Woods’ Grace is for Sinners is similar to what I imagine it would be like to be a priest in the confessional, listening to someone not only confess their sin, but pour out their hurt, their fear, and their frustration — all the inner secrets we so often camouflage behind the masks we wear. In telling her story, Serena turns a searchlight not only on her actions but on her heart. The result is a compelling and emotional read.

Serena tells how she first came to Christ, how she lived what appeared to be a spotless Christian life for nine years, and how she finally came undone in the aftermath of an extramarital affair which led to her being driven out of her church. Along the way, she wrestles with how to pick up the pieces of a broken life and tackles some sticky issues of church discipline, questioning how we ought to act toward a brother or sister who has fallen and making the case for grace rather than condemnation. She doesn’t offer easy answers, probably because there are none. But she does tell vividly and painfully what it was like for her.

This book tells a story about a sovereign God who is still God even in the midst of our own failures. Having experienced her own guilt and rejection by others, she reminds us that “we are not the worst thing we have done, and until we are dead, our story is incomplete.”

Keep reading and leave a comment to win a copy of Grace is for Sinners.

Q&A with Serena Woods

What does Grace mean to you?

Grace is the absolute covering of the flesh and blood part of me. Grace is so much more than what I think we understand it to be. For me grace has been Him loving me in spite of me, in spite of everything I’ve ever done. God has shown His grace to me when He favored me even with all I have done. Really, grace is hope.

Why do you think that grace is so misunderstood?

For some people in the church grace has become a novelty. It’s a word that is often overused. Not just overused but horribly misunderstood. Because it’s been overused, the power has been sucked out of it. Grace is incredibly powerful. It’s why I have legs to stand on and am not crippled by my past. We have a brand new day because of Grace.

During your experience, what did you learn about God’s grace?

Before, when I was being the best little church mouse that I could be, I thought that sin permanently damaged your relationship with God. I thought that this was especially true for people who do the “big” sins. I hate that Christians have decided that some sins are worse than others, but we have, and we tend to view sexual sins as the worst kinds. Anyway, I thought that these sins were evidence that you weren’t a Christian. I was shocked that I was still able to sin. I’ve spent a long time dealing with these issues and have had to come to terms with undoing all of the beliefs that I held before. Everything I believed about sin wasn’t true. I had to relearn everything. In that process of relearning God opened my eyes to a new understanding of the scripture. I knew what my sin said about me and I knew what I thought about me. What I needed to learn and to know is what God thought of me. He had not left me. Isaiah 54:10 says, “For even if the mountains walk away and the hills fall to pieces, my love won’t walk away from you, my covenant commitment of peace won’t fall apart.” That’s grace. He uses the worst parts of ourselves to complete us.

What did you learn about how people extend grace?

When you sin and you hurt people, or when someone’s image is hurt by the sin of someone else, they need to separate themselves from the sin – from the person- in order to protect themselves from from the hurt or the image damage. Their reaction says, “I don’t know who you are.” They feel that they have to disassociate themselves from you. People, or the church, have a hard time answering one simple question: How do I forgive and restore you with out looking like I’m condoning what you do?

That was my experience when I confessed my sin. People in my church couldn’t believe what I had done and separated themselves from me. But, there was one person who heard my story and knew that I wasn’t a horrible person. She knew me and she knew my heart. She knew that I must be dying inside because of what I had done and she sought me out. That’s the kind of grace we need to show each other in the church.

Why was it important for you to tell this story?

Revelation 12:11 says, “They triumphed over him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.” Satan, our accuser, spends day and night doing nothing but accusing people of their own sin. This verse says that the only two things powerful enough to defeat him are the blood of the lamb and the words of our testimony. Satan can’t do anything about the crucifixion, but he will do whatever he can to keep our mouths shut so we can not share our testimony. But grace is the happy ending. Grace is restoration. There are few things worse than what I did, and I believe that if God can still love me and give me purpose in my failure, I can’t keep quite about that. I can give hope.

What would you say to other women in a similar situation?

There is no way for you to mess up your plan or your purpose. No matter what. We don’t learn from playing it safe, we learn when we take risks. To take those risks you need Jesus, and that dependence on Him is beautiful. For me that risk is telling my story. I feel called to try and reach the people who don’t belong in a world that doesn’t acknowledge Jesus, but aren’t welcome in a world that does. Where in the world are they to go? These people need to hear that they can have faith in his grace and believe that they have a purpose even when they feel they are unclean. I hope that by me sharing my story, and you sharing your story, we can help the church realize that God’s grace is sufficient for all of us.

The [fun]Fact Sheet

What is the one bit of parenting advice you wish you would have had before you had kids?

Just go with it! You’ll mess them up no matter what, then they’ll surpass you in every way – in spite of you, and you can still take the credit.

If you could be on any TV reality show what would it be?

I don’t watch a ton of TV, but I saw ‘The Surreal Life’ with Tammy Faye, Ron Jeremy and Vanilla Ice. I would go on that one. I’d room with Tammy Faye, befriend Ron, smoke cigars with the CHIPS guy and learn some slick dance moves from Yo! Vanilla.

In your opinion, what is the greatest modern invention?

Well, second to the Snuggie (A blanket with sleeves!) is the iPhone. Pretty soon they’ll have an app to filter my blood through. I sleep with it under my pillow, I talk to it when I’m scared and tell it all my secrets.

What living person would you most want to have coffee with?

Brennan Manning, without question. I have specific things I want to ask him. If you see him will you let him know I’m looking for him? Tell him I’ll pay.

What is your life verse?

Easy: Luke 22:31-32, “Simon, Simon. Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But, I’ve prayed for you, Simon, that your faith won’t fail and, when you come back, strengthen your brothers.

Leave a comment to win a copy of Grace is for Sinners. Winner will be announced on Saturday’s post.

You can learn more about Serena on her blog (where you can also buy the book), on Facebook, and on Twitter. You can also read all of the Grace Week guest posts here.

P.S. Serena, I am so honored to call you a friend. I love you and love your heart. Thanks for continuing to challange me, encourage me, and make me laugh. Everyone else – buy the book!

It was 11:30pm, well past the bedtime hour for my kids. The fierce Santa Ana winds had been howling all night, when I heard little Thomas, then four years old, wake up with a terrified cry. Bolting into his room, adrenaline pumping from my fresh Lego foot injury, I could hear the scraping sound of a tree branch on his window.

Ah, the old Scary Monster at the window routine is here. I have an opportunity to teach my child something about feelings, about comfort, presence and ultimately, about God. Here is my chance to model grace and truth… in that order.

Grace First

Now what kind of parent would I be if I ran into the room, heard his cries, and immediately launched into a lecture about how wind is created, how the tree is moved by innocuous airflow, and belittled him for being afraid? What if I confronted his feelings with a boatload of facts that are completely true, but not what he needs at that moment?

What a scared heart needs first is a hug. Not a lecture. Not a Bible verse (yet). A scared kid needs a big strong parent to contain that fear, to comfort and hold them and get those physiological reactions caused by the adrenaline to calm down.

This hug is what grace looks like.

The reason this is important is that for some of us, growing up, this step was skipped. The grace part was left out and for some reason, the grown ups in our lives felt compelled to clamp down on that messy side called emotion. So I have to constantly remind myself: Grace gives the hug first.

Truth Next

But what kind of parent would I be if I ran into the room, gave that big appropriate hug and contained all those scared feelings, but then never corrected the thinking of my four-year old with truth? What if I just got stuck agreeing with his assessment of reality and never moved into offering other ways to explain it?

After the grace comes, there has to be truth.

The crazy thing about emotions is that they are actually neutral. They just are what they are. The fear my son feels is real, but the fear is caused by believing something completely untrue (e.g. that there is a Scary Monster outside his window). This is why I renewing my mind with truth is so critical to my transformation.

Yes, I can pour out my heart to Him at all times, but God loves me enough to not leave me there. Grace and truth fills the One and Only (a.k.a. Jesus) who came from the Father (John 1:14). He had the perfect balance of compassion and reality check.

How beautiful that God gives me now, what I needed then, to pass on to my kids so they can face their Scary Monsters today.

DAWN is a wife, mother of three, and blogger from Riverside, California. Dawn shares her thoughts on parenting, technology, God, and life on her blog, Chronicles of Dawina. You can also see Dawn in her Deidox film, ‘Dawn: A mother of Three Discovers Her Unexpected Purpose’. Follow Dawn on her blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

You can read all of the posts in the Grace Week Series here.

By Tam Hodge

Grace – getting something you don’t deserve.

Mercy – not getting something you do deserve.

Way back in 1994, when I gave birth to my first child, I struggled with wanting her. In fact, the first time I held her in my arms at the hospital I could barely look at her face. Don’t get me wrong, she was perfect. She was everything I imagined she’d be. But holding her that day I couldn’t help but think of the two babies I had aborted just 8 years earlier. The ones I didn’t want. The ones that were an inconvenience. The un-chosen. The guilt that rushed over me was so intense…at times it was hard to even breathe.

I didn’t deserve this child. And she certainly didn’t deserve me…a woman who had been so cold-hearted and selfish to end the lives of the helpless and innocent. In addition, no one else knew about the abortions. Not even my husband. So this burden, guilt, shame, pain and fear was mine alone to deal with.

Or so I thought.

I spent the next 3 weeks battling depression. I battled thoughts of not wanting my daughter. I battled urges to hurt myself. I talked myself into not leaving my new family on a daily basis.

Late one evening I exposed all these thoughts to my husband. Just the thoughts, not my two dirty little secrets. After some wise counsel I decided to hold my little girl with the intention of looking at her, determining to look at her with the eyes of a mother…whether or not I wanted to be her mother. I owed, at least, that to her. It took several minutes to muster up the strength and courage to do so – and when I did – she smiled. She smiled. Babies don’t smile at 3 weeks of age. I knew that. But looking down upon her face, it wasn’t my daughter…it was as if I was looking into the face of my God. I will never forget the words that flooded my mind. Words that rang in my ears so clearly.

Tam, you don’t deserve her. But she is my gift to you. Now be the mother she needs. I love you.

And with that…tears streamed down my face for hours. That evening was the beginning of a chain breaking cycle that would soon release the bonds that I allowed to hold me captive for far too long.

Grace…Receiving something I did not deserve. But that is the kind of God I serve. The ultimate Father who loves this child enough to forgive, extend grace and love unconditionally.

TAM (also known as @inprogress) lives in Oregon with her husband Brent (@inworship) and two wonderful children. In addition to being a rock star wife and mom, Tam is also an amazing friend whose passion for God and people encourages and inspires me. You can find Tam writing on her blog, leading worship at Table Rock Fellowship, or Tweeting on her iPhone. Occasionally you can find her on Facebook (but I wouldn’t count on it).

You can read all of the posts in the Grace Week Series here.

John 1:43-46 reads: 43The next day Jesus decided to leave Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” 44Phillip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one who Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46″Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip.

I love the tone of this passage probably because I can remember being a new believer and the excitement that I felt when I shared what I had found with others. I imagine Philip running up to Nathanael full of energy and talking a mile a minute. And what he gets is a less than enthusiastic response from a very unmoved, skeptical friend. Yeah, that would be me. I have been known to judge books by their covers. In fact, like Nathanael, I had made judgements about Jesus long before I decided to follow him. And as I have admitted many times on this blog, I still question God’s calling in my life even when his voice is loud and clear. You want me to do what? You want me to go where? Nothing good can come from that Jesus!

Here is what I learned from this passage: Even when I think that Jesus’ claims or direction are ridiculous or at best far fetched, I need to follow him. I need to trust his calling. Even though Nathanael was sarcastic and dismissive with his friend (a nazarene, ha!) he went to pursue him anyway. Nathanael obviously had very little faith in Philip’s claim that Jesus was the one Moses wrote about. But he did have enough faith to get up and go. Yeah, that’s me too. Sometimes, that’s all the faith I have. Just enough to get up from my chair (or out from under my fig tree) and see what he has for me. I think it measures about a tenth of a mustard seed.

And here is why (or one of the million reasons why) I desperately love my God. Even with my sometimes lazy, lack luster faith Jesus is available to me and is there when I decide to show up. In verse 47 he calls Nathanael “a true Israelite”, a son of Abraham, the benefactor of his great inheritance. And more than that he blesses him. In verse 51 Nathanael is told he will “see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”  And he blesses me too. Despite my sometimes snarky attitude I have been witness to the miracles of God and my life has been a living testimony of his glory.

And that my friends, is what I call grace.

NICOLE lives in Michigan with her husband, three children, two dogs, and one rather fat, lazy cat named Steve. Nicole has a degree in counseling psychology but as the wife of a recovering addict she has found that personal experience is a far greater teacher than any textbook. When she isn’t managing her household or her business you can find her speaking and writing about God, faith, recovery, redemption… and all that good stuff. You can follow Nicole on her personal blog, XXXChurch blog, Twitter, and Facebook.

You can read all of the posts in the Grace Week Series here.

Theologically speaking, Grace is the Game Changer of the Christian Faith.  It is one of the Quintessential Key Distinctives  of the Christian Faith.  The fact that while we absolutely deserve nothing from God, he extends and offers himself to us, even in our darkest and most desperate state…that changes everything.

There’s infinitely more to say here about the Reality of Grace.  We could spend a lifetime…and all of Eternity.  But the point of this post is not to explore the Definition of Grace, but the Destination.

When it comes to the idea of a Holy and Perfect God offering his life and love to you and I…
When it comes to the idea of Sin being Forgiven…
When it comes to the idea of Grace…
Where Does it go?

For most people the Reality of Grace tends to occupy one of three destinations
The Head
The Heart
The Hands

The Head – You understand the concept, can probably even communicate it well, but have a harder time fully receiving it and offering it to others.  You have probably been going to church for a very long time.
The Heart – You have no problem receiving it but live largely unaware of the cost, the price, the sacrifice of Grace.  Grace is also something you have no problem experiencing for yourself, but tend to keep it for yourself.
The Hands – You love helping people, serving people, making sure everyone else is taken care of, but it is often a subtle attempt to “earn” grace” which by it’s very definition can not be earned.

God’s ultimate desire for you is that you would Understand, Experience, and Extend His Grace as freely as you have received it from God.  That’s how you were created to live, but the reality is, many of us don’t.

So, where does Grace go with you? Head.  Heart.  Hands. Where do you sense God is inviting you to experience his Grace more in this season?  What do you need to do about it?

JARRETT grew up in the East Bay of San Francisco.  He worked at Willow Creek Community Church for 12 years as a Teaching Pastor for AXIS before moving to Atlanta to work with North Point Church.  While there, Jarrett worked as the Singles Pastor and as leader and communicator for 7|22.  He’s the author of The Deity Formerly Known as God as well as the upcoming title, Four Small Words. You can connect with Jarrett on the Soul City Church site, Soul City Blog, Facebook , or Twitter.

You can read all of the posts in the Grace Week Series here.

Speaking of grace, this was my first vlog and it’s far from perfect. It actually cuts out at the end and I’m to tired to fix it. But, were talking about grace so you’ll so cut me some slack, right?

What thoughts do you have about grace and what it is or isn’t?