GRACE This Week

Last week, we started a new series, The Room Where It Happens. All throughout the Bible, we see God working in places and in people. He is personal and powerful. Over the next weeks, we will be heading into some of those “rooms” and thinking about the ways God wants to do a work in us. Last week, we started in a room where a boy LISTENED…and heard from God.

This week, we head back to the book of Genesis to go into a room where something remarkable happened. Joseph forgave. He didn’t have to… He had the power to take revenge… but instead Joseph, who had been hated and sold into slavery by his own brothers, forgave his brothers.

I can imagine Joseph’s words falling on the ears of his brothers,

“Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones.” Genesis 50:19-21

Forgiveness is powerful.

Joseph rightly and remarkably, understood God’s sovereignty and His grace on him. And he knew that as a steward of the grace in his own life, he could only extend that grace to his brothers.

C.S. Lewis says it this way…

To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in us.

In a divided, vengeful, “cancel culture” world, it is revolutionary to forgive. Only God can give us what we need to do it.

One of the ways God wants to be at work in your life…is to invite you to forgive… as you have forgiven.

Kyra Thomas, our Pastoral Fellow, and Young Adult Director, will preach this week in all of our services.

One more remarkable thing – YOU! It is so good to see so many of you back in “in-person” church. It was so energizing to see all the generations visible in worship this past Sunday, and then scattered out across the Lehigh Valley praying for our schools. And it is such a gift to have a generous congregation –giving so faithfully to God’s work at GRACE. Thank you for your commitment to God’s vision and work in and through our dear church.

Your pastor and friend,