Grace in a nutshell...

One of my friends on Facebook posted this as her status today and I thought it pretty much sums up our discussions on grace. I love it and will carry it with me...

"There is nothing I can do to make God love me more AND there is nothing I can do that will make Him love me less."

Simple and elegant.

October Prayer Requests

See Core thoughts below

Grace. Manning reminds us continually that this is not cheap grace. This is grace offered to us through the great price of Jesus' suffering and dying on a cross -- perhaps the ultimate irony?

Julie's challenge is apt -- what is it myself that might prevent me from letting God's grace shine through me to others, to a world that is broken and hurting? Sometimes even the faintest whiff of pride or self-righteousness can inhibit the grace of God from being witnessed.

Sometimes it's impatience with the way things are, and my reaction to that -- others are not kind enough, others are not patient enough, others are not just enough -- but that very reaction can create a a spirit of judgment.

If we are to be transparent enough to let the grace of God shine through me, then we must begin to truly die to self, to get out of the way, to "not care" what others think. That is much easier said than done. But it is not an option.

Tough thoughts, challenging images.

Grace to each one of you --

Kathy

Hi all,

Just wanted to thank Jen for the music on our blog. I love listening to it as I read the different comments.

Thanks a bunch and everyone have a good week.

Please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers around the 30th of September. My father in law's birthday is that day and he passed away four months ago. Will be a hard day for my husband and mother in law who is staying with us recovering from knee replacement surgery. Thanks to all.

Kathy B.

September Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

I thought I'd post a new sections for prayer requests or praise reports. We can just keep this going month to month. I'll post a new one for each month. Please keep us updated so we know how to pray!

Love,
Julie

Chew and chew and chew on this...9/22

Oh, how we were NOT paste jewelry and sawdust hot dogs last Tuesday! I left feeling invigorated, amazed and completely awestruck by the Power of our discussion. It was as though each and every one of us were beaming rays of intersecting light as the conversation and "reckless love" emerged from our mouths.

Humility, transparency, authenticity and the Light of Christ are the words to chew on for this week!

Some questions that we established as a group:
1) Kathy suggested that transparency means there is nothing in me that prevents the Light of Christ to shine through me and out to be seen by others. What an image! It begs the question, then...What is in me that prevents that Light from shining completely through?

2) So, we agreed there is power in naming that which prevents the Light from shining through. Can I name it?

3)As the evening came to a passionate ending, we agreed to discuss more about the conflict between the internal self and external self, referring to this passage from the book: At some unremembered moment I have lost the connection between internal purity of heart and external works of piety. In the most humiliating sense of the word, I have become a legalist. I have fallen victim to what T.S. Eliot calls the greatest sins: to do the right thing for the wrong reason. So, the question to continue discussing next week is this: Where is the disconnect between my internal and external self?

And as one whole we closed with this prayer:

Lord Jesus,
We are silly sheep who have dared to stand before You and try to bribe You with our preposterous portfolios. Suddenly we have come to our senses. We are sorry and ask You to forgive us. Give us the grace to admit we are ragamuffins, to embrace our brokenness, to celebrate Your mercy when we are at our weakest, to rely on Your mercy no matter what we may do. Dear Jesus, gift us to stop grandstanding and trying to get attention, to do the truth quietly without display, to let the dishonesties in our lives fade away, to accept our limitations, to cling to the gospel of grace, and to delight in Your love. Amen.

Much love,
Julie

Chew on this...9/15

I can already see some of you are chewing!!! Yay! I won't post anything for this week as it looks like the blogging and questions have already seeded! Thank you, God, for stretching us.

I cut and paste the email Kathy N. sent out just in case you missed it:

It's grace when we can have a discussion like we did last evening in spite of my mumblings and bumblings.

Thanks to Mary for such delicious treats!

Sometimes my heart is heavy with the stories I hear, and the tears flow. But it is a "holy heaviness," a heaviness tinged with hope -- and with grace. And I can say, like Paul, "I thank my God every time I think of you."

For next week let's focus on Chp. 7. And I would like each of us to bring a question to next week's meeting. It can be from Chp. 7, or any of the previous chapters.

See you soon!
Grace and peace to you,
Kathy

Excerpt from the Book

This is one of the stories from Chapter 6 that I LOVE:
(Pg 115-in my book)
Four years ago in a large city in the far West, rumors spread that a certain Catholic woman was having visions of Jesus. The reports reached the archbishop. He decided to check her out. There is always a fine line between the authentic mystic and the lunatic fringe.
"Is it true, m'am, that you have visions of Jesus?" asked the cleric.
"yes," the woman replied simply.
"Well, the next time you have a vision, I want you to ask Jesus to tell you the sins that I confessed in my last confession."
The woman was stunned. 'Did I hear you right, bishop? You actually want me to ask Jesus to tell me the sins if your past?"
"Exactly. Please call me if anything happens."
Ten days later the woman notified her spiritual leader of a recent apparition. "Please come," she said.
Within the hour the archbishop arrived. He trusted eye-to-eye contact. 'you just told me on the telephone that you actually had a vision of Jesus. Did you do what I asked?"
"Yes, bishop, I asked Jesus to tell me the sins you confessed in your last confession."
The bishop leaned forward with anticipation. His eyes narrowed.
"What did Jesus say?"
She took his hand and gazed deep into his eyes. 'Bishop," she said, "these are his exact words:'I can't remember.'"

To Help You While You Blog

When you comment on a posting under the box you write in is a clickable phrase "subscribe by email". If you click on that any other comments that are made after yours you will get them in an email. It is a great feature.

I am so happy to see so many of you on here! It is like continuing our Tuesday night discussions all week long!

Blessings,
Jennifer

Chew on this...9/8

What a lively, fun-loving discussion this week! So real and yet so full of love!
We had much discussion about fear and trust. We talked a lot about how fear is debilitating and makes it hard to understand God's grace. It also completely saps our joy.

These are the questions Kathy suggested we contemplate over the week:

Am I fearing or am I trusting at this moment?
What role is fearing playing in _______ ? (you fill in the blank)
Where is fear underlying _________? (you fill in the blank)


And, as I'm writing this I am compelled to site this passage from chapter 4 (Tilted Halos) again:

The question the gospel of grace puts to us is simply this: Who shall separate you from the love of Christ? What are you afraid of?
Are you afraid that your weakness could separate you from the love of Christ? It can't.
Are you afraid that your inadequacies could separate you from the love of Christ? They can't.
Are you afraid that your inner poverty could separate you from the love of Christ? It can't.
Difficult marriage, loneliness, anxiety over the children's future? They can't.
Negative self-image? It can't.
Economic hardship, racial hatred, street crime? They can't.
Rejection by loved ones or the suffering of loved ones? They can't.
Persecution by authorities, going to jail? They can't.
Nuclear war? It can't.
Mistakes, fears, uncertainties? They can't.
The gospel of grace calls out, Nothing can ever separate you from the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Chew on this...9/1

My friends,

I am filled with appreciation for how present and connected our discussion was this week! And, if you're anything like me, you think about our discussions all week. Sometimes my most profound thoughts come mid-week when I have no one to talk to about it! So, here's something I thought might be helpful. I am going to post some food for thought on the blog every week after our Tuesday night discussions. Ya know, something to "chew on", so to speak. I will be as diligent as I can to post every week. If you feel inclined, please share an experience, write a question, or leave prayer request/praise report. There are also a few women connected to us through the blog but not able to attend the meetings. Hopefully, this will help them stay connected as well. (Monique, Gina, and Melissa S., we miss you!). Love, Julie


Chew on this...(from Kathy N.)


A couple of things from last night's discussion to think about:
We challenged ourselves to think about how we receive grace, and how we are channels of grace to others. We also talked about anger, which points us to the fact that something is wrong (like Manning said – “radically wrong”). Anger is not something to be afraid of, but rather something to learn from. To go with our discussion, though, we can also think about how grace interfaces with anger when we feel it. Paul tells us to not let the sun go down on our wrath – an admission that we do get angry. But we need grace to ensure we don't go to bed angry. The point, though, is that they are not mutually exclusive.


1.) What is the thing that pulls YOU down? (Is it a person, relationship, idiosyncrasy, temperament, issue, expectations etc...?)


2.) Where and how does grace interface with that?

Some thoughts on Grace

Ladies, I am blessed by this great group we have! Thank you all for sharing last night and being truly present!

Those of you who have read my contributions on CafeMom know I like to research topics and share, so here are some things I found on Grace:

I read somewhere that Grace is mentioned 170 times in the bible.

Acts 15:11
We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.”

Romans 5:20
God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.

Romans 6:15
Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!

2 Corinthians 12:9
Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.

I looked up GRACE in Websters Dictionary:
1 a : unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification b : a virtue coming from God c : a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace

Because of God's mercy, I do not receive the judgment of God against my sins; because of God's grace, I receive eternal life and a promise of heaven though I do not deserve them. -David Reagan