Exposure

GRACE - we need it, every day, yes?

Good Pleasure
Remembrance
Access
Christ's Body
Exposure of Darkness

Years ago, the Lord gave me these words.

Let’s break down what these mean and why they are grace:

Good Pleasure:

Ephesians 1:9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself

He gives us HIS GOOD PLEASURE according to HIS WILL, not according to our will.

This grace is seeing that He is our joy! We catch moments of this when we see and experience things that take our breath away in awe. These good pleasure moments awaken us and cause us to reach for the “more” that God has for us. The grace awakens us to God.

Remembrance:

Ephesians 2:11-13 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands ¹² that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

He reminds us of how we were once far away from Him and that He had brought us near saying: I will call them my people, when they were not my people. This grace expresses how He turned us. He called us. He made us to become His Beloved.

Access:

Ephesians 3:12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.

He made Himself accessible to us through the sacrifice of Christ. Christ is the door to the Father. No one comes to God except through Him. If we have come through that door, we have nothing to fear. Good, bad, or ugly His love never ends. We can daily come through Christ for cleansing, refreshing, renewing, restoring. This grace shows us how to come to God.

Christ’s Body:

Ephesians 4:11-13 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ

He placed us in His body, the Church, to grow us into His fullness. This aspect of grace is given in unity and fellowship with other believers. This grace provides for us a community that is uplifting, encouragement, and help on our journey of life.

Exposed Darkness:

Ephesians 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

He exposes our darkness and the darkness around us because it is the goodness of God to lead us to repentance. If we were never brought into the light, we would have never seen the dark around us. This is the hardest grace to receive. If we don’t receive it, our hearts remain unchanged. Being able to see our own sin is proof that God’s light has shone on us and that is grace. Embrace what is revealed, repent and return to God, and watch Him grow you through what you go through.

Ok, now to why I am telling you all this:

We tend to think of grace as always “feeling good” but as we have just seen with exposed darkness, it doesn’t. Grace is a gift of God. But it doesn’t always feel good because it isn’t about feeling. It is about what is best, right, and true.. and well, truth always makes a way for itself.

I believe we are in a time of exposure. God is and has been exposing our darkness to us and if we have been willing to accept it, repent, turn from it, and return to Him then love will cover a multitude of sins. But if not, or if we have been just going through the motions, surfing the top of the issue and not allowing the deep work of God. Well, then exposure may become public. I think this is where we are.

We have seen this with some big named people lately being exposed for the dark that they have been a part of. Some of the names have been shocking and some are easily understood. But I think that the ones we have seen so far are just the tip of the iceberg. And soon we may hear about people we never would have guessed. People who we trusted. People who are not necessarily in our “local body” though some may be but rather they are in our “online consumption” body that we have taken for trusted voices to lead and guide us even if we weren’t aware that they were. Guard your hearts, friends, when the ground shakes make sure that you will be found on the solid rock of Christ alone.

Thanks for listening,

Starla