grace upon grace...

I did not understand the emphasis of grace that had been on my heart until recently. 

I was recently faced with a very hard situation.  Someone had brought something to my attention, months had passed and it was becoming harder for me to let it go.  Scripture tells us that sin destroys lives and it's true.  The thing is.... sin disguises itself, it's deceiving and it starts off small and builds until it traps you in and you don't know how you got to that place in your life.  Sin hurts us, but most importantly it hurts the heart of God.  I hate dealing with confrontation, but what would have happened had it never been brought up again?  Things would continue... continue to damage lives, to hurt people, and to affect their relationship with God.  Of course, I am hated by some.  To some... I am the one who is "pointing fingers and not admiting my own sin."  Truth is...

I know whose I am.  For the first time in my life, I know this and I'm walking in that truth.     

I am a warrior.  I will stand for the truth and fight for souls in the kingdom of God. 

I am a sinner... I am the definition of imperfect.  I am made from dirt... and without the very breathe of the living God that is in me, I am nothing. 

I am not faithful... but God is.  He is faithful when we're not.  His strength is perfect in my weakness.

I am a daughter.  I am, amazingly enough, a child of God.  Why He hasn't kicked me out of his family is beyond me.

I am loved.  He loves us when we are unloveable.  He sees every flaw, every mistake, every epic fail in our lives, yet still loves us.  That is grace, upon grace, upon grace....

I am in need of grace... and should show grace to others just as Christ has shown grace to me.

"Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple.  A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them.  As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. 

The law of Moses says to stone her.  What do you say?" 

They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.  They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, "All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone."  Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. 

When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.  Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, "where are your accusers?  Didn't even one of them condemn you?" 

"No, Lord," she said. 

And Jesus said, "Neither do I.  Go and sin no more." 

John 8: 1-11