Captured By Grace

In preparing for my testimony this Sunday, the topic of grace has been on my heart. A lot.

I found in our bedroom a book Dan had picked up while studying for our Graceland series this past fall. Captured By Grace is written by Dr. David Jeremiah and since finding it today I have been devouring the truths and revelations of the true meaning of grace and all that it entails when it comes to our faith in Jesus Christ.

Back before I was a Christian, my life was tainted, ugly, dark and unloveable. Sure on the outside I may have appeared to be a normal, healthy young lady, who had dreams and was talented and smart. But on the inside beat a dark and sinful heart....black as sin. Until I heard the message of God's mercy on the cross and the grace in His gift of Christ to us....I never saw myself as a sinner.

It is not something that people today want to call themselves. Sinners. Wretched human beings.

We live in a world that thrives on being politically correct and embraces the religion of relativism. We refuse to admit that a white lie makes us as wretched and sinful as the man who murders. Whatever is right in our eyes may not be right in another. There is no absolute truth.

But my heart says differently. When I finally recognized that I was in fact a person who sinned and my overall good behavior wouldn't earn me a ticket to heaven....it was time to surrender.

Surrender to the One who paid my debt on the cross.

This passage in Captured By Grace gripped me because it is the essence of why God gave His Son for us. Christ did not die in vain:

"Cornelius Plantinga Jr. assures us that we can never arrive at any definition of grace without sin as our point of departure. Cheap grace, he says, trivializes the cross of Christ. How can we avert our eyes from a cross that is drenched in holy blood? It was for sin that God, clothed in flesh, writhed in agony on our behalf. It was for iniquity; for wickedness; for every manner of wretched, despicable evil that He submitted to beating and humiliation and finally the obscenity of death itself. Grace can only shine in its ultimate brilliance because it emerges from ultimate darkness."

It was for sin that Christ died on the cross for us. So that we wouldn't suffer the humiliation of death for our sins... He took that upon Himself.

Amazing Love. Amazing Grace.

Please pray for me friends as I will be sharing my own story of grace this Sunday at Illuminate. I am afraid of speaking....so your prayers are definitely needed! Please pray that God uses my tale, the one He crafted and pulled me from to reach those who do not know Him. If just one person comes to know Christ on Sunday, then I will be thrilled.

Tiffany

Comments

[harperfamilytrio@aol.com]

Hi Tiffany, I want to read that book, thank you! And I will be praying for you. You are an amazing woman in your walk,and such an inspiration!

[Tiffany Harper]

You will love it!! My eyes have been thrust wide open by the definition of grace!!! And thank you or your prayers! I didn't get sick last night from nervousness. Lol. God is good.