Grace Notes & Announcements

Dear Grace Family,

     Some of the best people I know have come from some pretty dark places.  We tend to think that the best Christians are those who have led exemplary lives, but I would challenge you to find one real and honest person who hasn’t had something in them that needed to be changed.  If we think someone has never had a sin-challenge, it’s because we can’t read them like God can. 

     Despite His complete lack of sin Jesus recognized our failings even while in His human form.   And He understood even better our desire to look at the bad in someone else to make ourselves feel just a little bit better.  In the eighth chapter of John we find one of the most profound stories in scripture.

     In an effort to trap Jesus into saying something that would be considered blasphemous, the Jewish leaders brought a woman to Him that had been caught cheating on her husband (I know, it begs the question “why only her and not the man she was with).  Under the law, she was to be stoned to death for her sin.   But Jesus simply answers their demands by saying “those of you who are without sin, cast the first stone” [John 8:7].  Because the truth is the truth, it wasn’t long before it was only Jesus and the woman who stood there, as the others slinked away in the painful knowledge of their own secret sins.

     We often cite that story as validation that we can’t judge someone else, and that’s absolute truth.  But I think the most important part of the lesson comes in verses 10-11 where Jesus speaks to the woman directly saying…“Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”“No, sir,” she said.  And Jesus said, “Neither do I.  Go and sin no more.”

     Not only are we told not to judge others, we are told that God doesn’t judge in the traditional sense,  but just wants better for us.  He wants change, not perfection. Christ, although blameless Himself, understood our sinful nature and still didn’t walk away or shun the woman.  We turn our backs on those who have led obviously sin-filled lives, all the while hiding the things in our own that would make us unworthy.  Is it because it’s easier to look at someone else’s’ failings, or because it allows us to feel better by comparison? 

     Some of my favorite people have a story to tell.  Not just a story, but a testimony.  Several nights ago I was with some of those amazing souls at a graduation service for the Salvation Army in Oakland.  Everyone there had one thing in common…  and it’s not that they had all been imprisoned by some darkness.  It was that they had the guts to reach for Jesus. And while healing... reach for someone else to help.

When we are tempted to condemn someone just because of their past, let’s remember that only God determines the future.  

     Our one job here is to make sure we’re reaching out to everyone around us and showing them that there is no judgement from our Father.  And that, no matter how clean we may think we are now, there is always stuff buried that God can make better.  And, by the way, we’re all just one slip away from needing that helping hand ourselves.

Be blessed my Grace Family.  God is on the throne!

   Pastor Bobbie