GRACE



1.  You cannot give the grace others need—if you do not receive the Grace that God has for you.

 2.  If you operate under law—you push law on to others… and want them to step it up.  You are harsh, judgment, and condemning of others--because,that is how you treat yourself!

As long as we continue  to live as if we are what we do, what we have, and what other people think about us, we will remain filled with judgments, opinions, evaluations, and condemnations.  We will remain addicted to the need to put people and things in the ‘right’ place.  To the degree that we embrace the truth that our identity is not rooted in our success, power, or popularity, but in God’s infinite love, to that degree we can let go of our need to judge.
(from Henri Nouwen Here and Now New York: Crossroad, p 62)
3.  If you don’t walk in grace you cannot give grace to those around you who fail--and fail, they will!  So you are always disappointed with your level of spirituality and other's level.  It is a tiresome road of religiosity where only the strong survive.  You need lots of discipline and determination.

 4.  Your ability to love and accept others grows out of your ability to love and accept yourself.  If you learn to see yourself as God sees you--you will begin to see others as God sees them.

 5.  If you receive and live in grace--that grace will naturally flow out to others.  Striving will cease, and intimacy with God will grow. 





1 John 4:5-12

“5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.

6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognise the Spirit {Or spirit} of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son {Or his only begotten Son} into the world that we might live through him.

10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for {Or as the one who would turn aside his wrath, taking away} our sins.

11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

12 No-one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

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