Grace: The Pure Gift That Only God Could Give

Ephesians 2:8-10
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God--not the result of works, so that no one may boast.For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life."

There was a time in my life where grace was a very foreign concept. It was as if the idea of grace took whatever last bit of control that I had over my life away from me. But over time I began to realize the true gift that was involved here. A gift that was and is, completely undeserved. And the more I became aware of what it took to bestow that gift upon us, the more I realized that my need for control, over my life, over other's lives, over whatever I could, was adamantly contrary to who God is in Christ Jesus. And as I began to receive that gift of grace in Christ, I began to experience a true freedom. A freedom from the need to control...I could finally trust.....Faith.

Pastor Joel Martyn
Hope Lutheran Church of the Sierra