Grace

I know it has been awhile since I have posted anything but I've gone through a bit of a dry spell for writing  I have also been working on my spring newsletter which has kind of stolen a lot of my inspiration for doing extra writing.

What I want to share today is actually my bible study for the girls this week. I was struggling very much thi morning trying to figure out what I should focus on teaching this morning, then mid-afternoon in the middle of my shopping trip with my flat mates this idea was laid on my heart. I recently read {two times actually} the book "Grace" by Max Lucado and it is {besides the bible} my favorite book explaining and talking about grace. It talks about the story from John chapter 8 which I am focusing my bible study with the girls on this week.

Thanks for reading.

Where are your accusers?

There are so many people in our lives that are able to speak into our lives and make an impact. They can speak kind or hurtful words; they can speak truth or lies.

What they say can change us, it can make us believe the lies and it can damage us for a long time.

What type of things do people say or think about you?

How does it this effect or hurt you?

Do you ever feel like people don’t except you for who you are, like they want to change who you are to be more like what they want you to be?

They say that for every bad or negative comment or word we receive that it takes three good positive comments or words to cancel out the one negative.

Words are powerful!

In John chapter 8 we read about women. We do not know her name, we know very little about her the only thing we know is that she was caught in adultery.

Do you know what adultery is?

Adultery is the act of cheating on one’s rightful spouse.

So this woman was caught in the very act of adultery and according to the rules of that time anyone who did this shameful thing was to be stoned to death. Let’s read about it.

John 8:1-11

8 1but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.5 now din the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

In this story the woman was being accused of something that she had done. She was guilty; everything they said about her was true. There was no denying it; it wasn’t like someone was just calling her names like whore, slut or adulterer, she was in fact these things and I think we can assume that this made her feel terrible!

But even though what the people were accusing her of was true what does Jesus do?

He bends down, he bends down and he writes something in the dirt with his finger.

What do you think he wrote?

Maybe it was something like a list of all of their sins, or maybe it was the names of the people accusing her, or maybe he just wrote “I forgive sins”. We don’t know what He wrote but His writing did something and it did something very powerful.

Jesus rose, and spoke instruction to them; the person without sin was allowed to throw the first stone. He then again bent and again wrote in the dirt.

And then what happens?

They start to leave, starting with the oldest person till they are all gone and Jesus raises His head and says to the woman, “where are your accusers? Where are those who condemn you?”

Where are they, they say these things but where are they now?

So many times in our lives people accuse us of things, they misunderstand us, call us mean names, tell lies about us and sometimes even they even tell the horrible truth. The things they say can hurt us, they can make us feel guilty and weak, whether they are true or false. But when Jesus stands with us, when He covers our sin s with His grace He also asks us, where are your accusers? The people who said you are wrong, that you suck, that you never do anything right, that you’re a mess up, where are they?

He knows they are not there because the things they accused you of are no longer there, they’re not there! Jesus takes away our sin, he does not accuse us, and He forgives us!

This woman was guilt, pure guilt and yet Jesus stood before her and said I do not condemn you. And then He instructs her, “Go and sin no more.”

When God extends his grace to us, when He forgives us for the sins that we do, He also then instructs us in the same way. He says “Go and sin no more”.

How do you respond to this? What do you say, if you were that woman in this story, having been caught in sin,  seeing Jesus write in the dirt, seeing the people walk away as they dropped their stones that were meant to kill you, seeing Jesus rise and say “where are they? Your accusers, where did they go? Oh right they don’t matter because I have forgiven you! Now go and sin no more”. What would you say if you were that woman?

What do you say, what do you says when Jesus says “hey, where are your accusers?” Your forgiven, don’t worry about them, they are long gone, now go and sin no more!

How will you respond?