By: Justin Dillenschneider, Director of Student Life
Week of March 7th, 2022
Grace can be defined as the charming quality of being polite and pleasant, or a willingness to be fair and forgiving. Grace the central position of the gospel of Jesus; that God sent his only son to die the death and pay the blood price for sin that we owed even while we were still dead in our sins. This is a free gift, totally and completely undeserved, and it has the power through the Holy Spirit to radically change everyone who accepts it by faith. As I am writing this, the season of Lent has begun and I cannot help but reflect on this time in preparation for the coming of Easter as a loving reminder of God’s grace. Lent is a time to cut away indulgences and the presence of crudity, not to earn favor or as a form of legalistic tradition, but as a time of reflection and drawing near to God. As the season continues and Easter approaches, God’s grace should grow in our hearts and minds until it overflows in every word we speak and action we take.
Continue contemplating grace by looking at this week’s scripture reading from
Ephesians 2:3-10 CSB
“3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! 6 He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—9 not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.”
We want to encourage you to have a conversation this week about the virtue of grace.
Consider these discussion prompts together:
- What tempts you to fall into indulgence?
- Where have you seen people fall into crudeness? Where are you tempted to do so?
- What are some ways you see Christ correcting crudity or indulgence in people in Scripture?
- How do we see the apostles and the early church modeling and celebrating grace?
Hymn to Sing Together: Just A Closer Walk With Thee