God of Grace through Shades of Grace
“With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.”
Isaiah 26:9
An example of the Appalachian District United Methodist Church, “Shades of Grace,” at 313 West Sullivan Street embraces the least, the last, the lost and the lonely. Brother Will Shewey chooses Psalm 121:5, “Thy Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand,” and Isaiah 26:9, “With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.”
Grace: Grace is the Gift of God which contains all of the other gifts: Love, Joy, Peace, Long-suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance, (Galatians 5:22, 23.) Yet for us, grace is the giving of His only Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)
Yet it is more, shades more, in that it is the gift of Almighty God that radiates the generosity of the giver who receives the gift of grace, and envelopes the giver with this generosity It is through the unmerited love of God that the one who receives the gift of God’s Grace, finds the gift of grace and favor in the sight of the Lord.
Listen to God’s own definition of Himself, as we find in Exodus 34:6 “And the Lord passed by before Moses, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.”
Life, the most precious of all blessings, pales before this divine generosity, this inexhaustible source of loving-kindness.
Since God’s grace is the Creator’s principle of transformation and action, it calls for constant vigilance. II Corinthians 4:1, instructs us,
“Seeing that we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we faint not.” Be constantly on alert to obey grace and to respond to it. In other words, the grace God is looking for a communion, an exchange, a partnership: “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” (Deuteronomy 10:12)
Link to YouTube Video – Grace That Is Greater Than All Our Sin
