We don't want your money. We want you!

It is by their fruit that we would know if they are saved by grace. Yes it is by God's grace that we are saved, through faith alone, and never by works so that no one can boast. If it weren't for grace where would I be?

God, by His grace has picked me up and dusted me off, not once but many times. But once I am on my feet, do I just bask in His glory and feel good about myself that I made it or do you want to reach out and help someone else onto their feet. Grace is more than how you are saved. It is how you live. We are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling and faith without works is dead. We have not been put on this earth to have a nice worship session. Doing some work is the dreaded word in Graceland.

We have been saved by grace to be used by God to bring others into grace. The other side of grace is called works. Two sides of the same coin. Grace - Works. You can not have the one without the other. We don't want your money. We want you!

Wallow in Grace

I haven't written for sometime now but here goes. At our Home Circle group we have started a new DVD series by Louie Giglio called "The Other Side of Grace". I must say that in the first episode "The Homeboy is Holy", there was so much to digest that it is hard to put a finger on the key truths.

Let me start with a quote from Louie at one of the Passion concerts "The greatest cause of atheism is Christians acknowledging Jesus with their lips but deny him with their lifestyle. That’s what this unbelieving world finds unbelievable."

Louie's core message in this DVD is Grace on one side and Fear on the other. Through the amazing grace of God we are forgiven. The slate wiped clean. Louie states that we tend to galvanize into two groups. One group makes Jesus our "Homeboy", our buddy while the other group separates themselves out of the world to be holy.

The Homeboy Group:
"God is Love. He only wants to bless us with all we need and want." How easy it is just wallow in grace and not be holy? While we enjoy all the blessings that come through grace, we must remember the Messiah is not another friend or homeboy. He is the same God yesterday, today and forever. Grace takes dead people and makes them alive. Not for our own enjoyment but for good works.

The Holy Group:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. What is the fear of God? A good definition I found is "The acute awareness of the presence of God's power that produces in me a sense of awe and calls forth from me honor, respect and reverence." Grace gets us real close to someone who is terrifying and righteous. We must not be so out of touch with the world that God can't use us.

Louie said that we must be in the middle of the two. If someone says to you "I don’t fear God, I love God" is out of touch who God really is. In other words, they don't even know God. Don't tell me that you love God. Show me! Be in the world but not of the world. As a Christian, the unbelieving world is watching you. The homeboy is Holy.