Distributing Grace

I often feel like one my main responsibilities as a Christian and as a preacher is to distribute grace.  It's amazing how many times Jesus told people "your sins are forgiven."  Rather than Christianity being a place of perfection and judgement, Christ showed us that it is a place of healing, hope and restoration by liberally distributing grace.  Most of us know John 3:16, but verse 17 is just as good, listen - "for God did not come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him (Jesus) might be saved."  It's easy to condemn and judge when we are striving for holiness ourselves, but God set the example as the ultimate model of Perfection - he chose to send his Son, to bring grace into a world of condemnation.  I love talking with friends and encouraging them in the middle of their despair over struggles, just to let them know God is with them not against them and to help them see that because they are sorry, God's grace is extended in Christ.  Below is a "funny Jesus" video that show who we sometime depict Jesus to have been in the Church these days.  We must constantly remind ourselves that is was the very graciousness and humility of Christ (not his condemnation) that made him and his message so magnetic.

If you needed to hear it for yourself, and your heart longs to be right with God - your sins are forgiven.