Judah Smith

It seemed too good to be true. That's grace.

Sometimes we are outright rude when we interact with people. We meet a gay guy or a couple living together, and we think we have the obligation and right to warn them what God thinks about their sexuality on our first meeting. As if their sex life is the first thing on God__ agenda.It__ not.Love is. Grace is. Mercy is. Jesus is.

But freedom starts with honesty. We aren__ doing ourselves any favors by defining our- selves as good and others as bad. Let__ just agree that we all need help, that we are all in this together.

A moment with Jesus changed everything.

Jesus is not your accuser. He__ not your prosecutor. He__ not your judge. He__ your friend and your rescuer. Like Zacchaeus, just spend time with Jesus. Don__ hide from him in shame or reject him in self-righteousness. Don__ allow the opinions of other people to shape your concept of him. Get to know him for yourself, and let the goodness of God change you from the inside out.

When we meet grace, it becomes the fuel of our faith. We pray, we read our Bibles, we worship and we live the purest lifestyle we can because we love a person.

When you look in the eyes of grace, when you meet grace, when you embrace grace, when you see the nail prints in grace__ hands and the fire in his eyes, when you feel his relentless love for you - it will not motivate you to sin. It will motivate you to righteousness.

No sooner do I conquer a bad habit than I become the biggest critic of anyone who still does what I just stopped doing.

Grace is a person. And his name is Jesus.

We need to abandon our scale and adopt God's because our misguided labels keep us from the right kind of interaction with people.

Sometimes God takes your life for some crazy twists and turns.

God transforms us one area at a time.

Grace is God-given power to live differently.

We are often harsher judges than God himself.

We need a bigger estimation of God and a smaller estimation of sin.

Nowhere in the Bible, however, do we find God distinguishing between levels of sin. God doesn't share our rating system. To him, all sin is equally evil, and all sinners are equally lovable.

Don't allow the opinions of other people to shape your concept of him. Get to know him yourself, and let the goodness of God change you from the inside out.

Rules are not proof of our spirituality. If anything, they are proof of our sinfulness, a reminder that we have a tendency toward wrongdoing and that we need help.