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A Reformation of Grace
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In these last days, the Lord has begun to call His servants out from among the traditional and denominational boundaries that currently define much of His church on earth. His servants will be called Christians once again - people of The Way, disciples of Jesus Christ - no more denominational qualifiers attached. This will happen not because His servants have agreed on every issue. Jesus himself said that all men will know that we are Christ's disciples, not because of our doctrinal distinctives, not because we are right, but because of our love one for another. The last generation of the church will come to unity of the faith and knowledge of the truth, because this generation of the church will experience a reformation and rediscovery of the grace of God.
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Many sections of scripture come under scrutiny because of the scholar's claim that certain passages do not exist in the oldest and most reliable manuscripts. Would you guess that one of the most contentious sections of scripture happens to be the account of an adulterous woman encountering the extreme grace of the Savior? Yes, it is true! The self-righteous heart is irked by the fact that the love of God covereth a multitude of sins. As Jesus gasped his final breaths upon the cross, Jesus covered the sins of ungodly, unrepentant Roman soldiers when he cried out, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” It is the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance.
Is correction and truth a part of loving one another? Yes! But, if you cannot be good and kind to someone as if they had never committed the crime, you have no right to correct them. The love of God demands that you cover your brother’s sin, because Jesus covers your sin. God's love demands that we cover not just sins, but the multitude of sins that have been and will be committed against us. Again, it is the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance. There is only condemnation for those of us that refuse to live our lives upon this foundation of God's grace.
One day, the Lord's people are going to stop exacting payment from those that offend them - demanding that the offender right their wrongs. This is not the way of our Savior. Christ demonstrated to us who would follow in his footsteps this way of grace, extreme grace, and extreme love that reaches out to the most vile and wicked and says, "I forgive you, because Jesus has forgiven me." Oh, saints of God! How a reformation of grace is needed amongst the people of God. It is this grace and love demonstrated among the family of God that will enable the testimony of the Church to shine brightly in these last days. Oh saints of God, it is time to stand in wonder of his grace and marvel at His love!
This message was born out of a time of serious conflict among a small gathering of believers that would have divided and ended their fellowship. Many nights of anguish and prayer resulted in the Spirit giving a powerful message and reminder of God's grace. Because of this sword coming from the Lord's mouth, hearts were changed and stones were cast to the ground. May this message serve to help re-form the foundation of the true Church according to the pattern of grace given by our Savior. Let it be Lord. Amen.
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