Worship at 10:30 a.m.

The Importance of Grace 

Faith Family,

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I continue to give thanks to our gracious God for putting you all in our lives. Your faithfulness and your enthusiasm fill my heart with joy and helps complete my hope in Christ. Every day I look forward to serving our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ alongside each of you and growing in our discipleship journey together. I pray as God has continued blessing us, may we continue to be a blessing to others.

These past several months, I have been leading a class on Denominational Distinctions including Christian Cults. One purpose was to inform others the differences between the different denominations in our area, but more importantly the reason I am Methodist and why Methodism is right for me and others. The key element that separates Methodism from other denotations is our emphasis on Divine Grace.  God’s divine grace operates in multiple states. It begins by our Methodist understanding of Grace. We believe grace is God’s undeserved, unmerited, loving action through the work of the Holy Spirit.

John Wesley believed that there were three main actions but also included others. The main actions are, if you are familiar with Emmaus then you should have heard of these: Prevenient, Justifying and Sanctifying grace. This is a distinction from other denominations who practice “elections,” and God’s irritable grace (meaning there is not free will to reject God’s grace). We believe although God offers that grace, we can resist it and reject it.

But it is only by God’s grace that we are saved. This understanding of Grace also helps us to understand the sacraments of Holy Communion and Baptism. Both are means in which we can experience God’s grace. God can use these means to woo us into a relationship (Prevenient), or solidify that relationship through our profession of faith (Justifying) and use it as a means that helps us grow into our relationship, and seek to be more like Christ (Sanctification). 

John Wesley also saw the work of Grace being a convincing grace that helps an individual be convinced of their personal sinfulness that leads to conversion. Grace is essential to our conviction, our conversion and our growth. Without God’s grace, we could not be led to acknowledge our sin, repent of our sin and enter into a relationship with Christ. But the key element to this grace is that it is up to us making the choice to accept Christ or not.

I look forward every day to our connection and in joining together as co-workers with Christ as we do what we can to let the community know that God is alive, Jesus loves them, and the Holy Spirit wants to transform them. The grace we have received must be shared so others may experience that grace firsthand. 

Have a blessed Week!

Pastor Frank