Here it is some 40 years later since I first learned of God's Amazing Grace! It was in the basement of a Queens home where Bible study was taught every Saturday night. It came as quite a surprise to me because up until that moment, I was really completely and utterly oblivious to the fact that I even needed grace for anything, let alone for me. I mean, sure as a member of the Williams Institutional CME Church, I knew about God and had sang the song Amazing Grace many, many times before. I just had no idea what it was, or why I or anyone would have a need for it. 

Let’s be clear here! I knew NOTHING about salvation, or the grace that it takes to obtain it. We were religious yes, but not regenerated. We went to church faithfully every Sunday but knew nothing about the process of BECOMING the church personally. Oh, but because of Jesus and His Amazing Grace, I was introduced to Him on a warm summer night in June of 1979. Some of His representatives explained to me how He wanted to be my Savior and that He had been crucified to death, buried and resurrected to save sinners just like me. Up until that point, I’d never even realized that I was a sinner. It’s bad to be in trouble you guys, but it’s even worst to be in trouble and not know it! And that I was. I’d always loved God, but it wasn’t until I was sitting in that bible study, that I truly came to know how much God loved me. He loved me enough to die for me knowing every wrong thing I would ever do. He loved me enough to make sure that the sin I was born into wouldn’t keep me separated from relationship with God forever.

Although I'm no longer that 12-year-old girl, the grace I needed back then but was so ignorant of, is the same grace that covers and sustains me still. I learned from my Pastor that grace is not only God’s unmerited favor, a definition common to those of us who have spent any amount of time in or around church; but that it is the space that it takes to get to a place. Think of it this way. I have a monthly due date for every bill that I owe just like you do. However, in most cases creditors will allot you that wonderful space of time known as the “grace period”. Now, the grace period doesn't change the fact that you owe the debt, it only gives you a little more time in which to make the payment and not be penalized with a late fee. So, for me what makes this Grace SOOOO amazing is that we most definitely owe a debt to Jesus that we could never repay, but unlike your typical creditor, He neither removes His Grace nor places a deadline on it, no matter how many times we cross the line or disappoint Him by not even paying towards the debt we owe with a life of total surrender and sacrifice of our will for His. On the contrary He lavishly  extends grace over and over and over again no matter how often we need it and only asked that we show gratitude for it. Yeah! Now that's amazing!

Just think about it. Being the omniscient God He is, knowing ahead of time how unruly we can and will be, how we sometimes willfully disobey Him and push His unconditional love to the limits repeatedly, His grace continually says, “Come to me…I’ll give you rest”, “Confess your faults…I’ll forgive you and cleanse you”. My, my , my, this makes me so much more grateful for Jesus, because it is his experience as one of US that changed God's take on how He handles us when we break His laws. We have this AMAZING High Priest, Jesus Christ the Righteous there as our Advocate extending that space, time and opportunity for us to get our act together. Just like in the text He pleads our case, making sure we are not “cut down” in our ignorance and obstinence. That AMAZING Grace doesn't take into consideration that Katrina just messed up last week and that was her 5,227th time doing so. Hallelujah!!! That makes me feel like singing Amazing Grace right now. When you look at it like that, it most certainly is a sweet, sweet sound to the ears of my thankful heart.

Closing Prayer:  Lord Jesus, thank you for your faithful and enduring love for us. Thank you for loving us to Gethsemane, then to Calvary, all the way into our destiny. Thank you for your Amazing Grace that accompanies us day by day. Teach us to embrace it, to live in awe of it, to never intentionally frustrate it and to always teach others the wonder of it. We are forever indebted to you and ask these things because of our undying love for you. It is in your name that we pray. Amen!

Scripture: Luke 13:7-8 (NIV)

So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’Sir, the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it.'