This is a wonderful article....
In my own Christian walk I have learned that the core of my belief is grace. The unmerited favor that was bestowed upon me by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead for the salvation of my soul. I take it personally. He did it for me so that I might live.
All that can sound like mumbo jumbo to a person who doesn't share my faith, though. I think the key is in the word "live". In my opinion, it is the "living" that defines how I feel inside. Am I in competition for favor among other people or am I accepted just as I am? I have spent the better part of my life trying to achieve the acceptance of my peers. It wasn't until I changed who I considered my closest friend, that I achieved the kind of acceptance I was searching for. I finally was able to accept who I was when I started looking at myself through the eyes of Jesus. I am worthy to die for. I am someone who matters and I didn't have to do a darn thing to earn it. The act of acceptance by my closest friend occured more than 2000 years ago.
If He did it for me then he must have done it for everyone. So who am I to judge or second guess his motives? Then and there my perspective began to change from being self centered, even in my salvation, to seeing the love Jesus has for everyone. I realized that his ways are best even when I don't understand them.
I understood that grace was the forgivness of transgressions and the loving of another without malice. I am not perfect, but I am forgiven. I am forgiven ALOT. The list of my transgressions and sins and faults and weaknesses would stretch around the globe. But in front of God, I can stand blameless and pure as the day I was born and knew nothing of this world. The day I first smiled at the face of my mother just because her face was the first thing I loved. I am accepted this way before my Father and Creator because of what his Son did for me on the cross and through his resurrection. He took the bullet for us all. Who am I, little ole me, to question the method in which he provides that bridge? Therefore, if grace is mine and everyone elses, then in order to model the love Jesus has shown for me, I am to look beyond the weaknesses and faults in others. I am just to accept them. I am just to love them. I am to hold to a higher standard by the way I live, not through what I preach. For that's truly what Jesus did.
