THE GRACE HUB

“…for we all have sinned and are in need of the Glory of GOD. Yet through HIS powerful declaration of acquittal, GOD freely gives away HIS Righteousness.
HIS gift of Love and Favor now cascades over us, all because JESUS, The Anointed One, has liberated us from the guilt, punishment, and power of sin!
Where, then, is there room for boasting? Do our works bring GOD’s acceptance? Not at all! It was not our works of keeping the law but our faith in HIS Finished Work that makes us right with GOD. 
Romans 3:23‭-‬24‭, ‬27‭ TPT

“Now, who of us would dare to die for the sake of a wicked person? We can all understand if someone was willing to die for a truly noble person. But CHRIST proved GOD’s Passionate Love for us by dying in our place while we were still lost and ungodly!”
Romans 5:7‭-‬8 TPT

As I was getting ready for this Blog, I felt drawn to these Verses and I have never felt them so fresh and alive in me like I did this time.
They are Verses that we have grown up memorising, but this time around, it was different.
I read through Romans 3 from Verse 21 to 28 and the realness of CHRIST’s Work on the Cross was so real to me.
I looked at it beyond me and I looked at the other Children of GOD and I couldn’t help but be moved by the fact that the Verses apply to them as well.
Yes, they do apply to you, even when in doubt.
CHRIST came and suffered for all of us and not just a few of us.
Then the Romans 5 Verses.
I could read myself through the “for the sake of a wicked person” phrase.
If we were all righteous and free from sin, then CHRIST died in vain. But we were all in need of the Redeeming Sacrifice that JESUS made.
Isn’t this where Grace is? Isn’t this The Grace Hub?

Over a period of time, I have been mesmerized by how we have handled people especially them that have fallen off the straight and narrow.
I too may have had the mouthful of words, and I caught myself midway and constantly asked myself, “What if that was you? How would you have wanted the World to perceive and treat you?”
It was a reality that pained me to the core and drew me to these Verses. 
GOD humbled me in my pride of seeing myself better than they are because my sin is not laid bare.
Truth is, we all sin, just differently and all sin is sin. None bigger or smaller than the other… Sin…
And the Good News is, when we repent, GOD is faithful and just to forgive us and wipe each and every of our slates clean. Not some more than others depending on the magnitude and intensity of the sin, but all are wiped clean!
I’m I saying that we don’t call out the evil amongst us, especially in the Body of CHRIST? No!
I am saying, “Show them Grace in their realizations.” Let them realise their err with a safe landing.
They are prone to sin as well. We have all sinned.
And forgetting that information is what makes us feel the need to be monitors over other people’s lives.

I have seen times when we have placed people on pedestals.
Pedestals they perhaps didn’t ask for, for sure.
And even though they asked for them, it doesn’t change the Word of GOD on what it says about how to live with each other.
We blame people for our disappointments when they have not been who we had envisioned them to be while we are comfortable in our hideouts, typing and gossiping hideous things their way.
We put them so high up in places that they have no clue they are at and when they crush, we come down crushing with them as though this is who GOD wanted us to follow.
We expect so much from the people we love, our colleagues and acquaintances, to strangers on the internet, and place such unrealistic goals on them as though they are running out of our time.
We may have totally forgotten the Law of Grace that comes with bearing each other’s burdens; being patient with our fellow Christians as they grow into what GOD wants them to be.
We are more focused for them to become what we want them to be, have imagined them to be and what we have expected from them, other than encouraging them to be who GOD wants them to be.
Woe unto them if they slip and fail to meet our expectations.
We inflict on them wounds that would take years to heal as we go on with our lives as though we did nothing wrong to put them down. We don’t even take the time to ask GOD for forgiveness for grieving HIS SPIRIT through the hate and spite we pour out on HIS Children, privately or publicly; under own and pseudo accounts.
We move on forgetting the pain and sorrow we have caused.

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the Law of CHRIST. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.”
Galatians 6:2‭-‬5 NIV

The number of times I have gone against every word spoken in this Scripture. It makes me sad and I repent.
Bearing one another’s burdens I believe should also mean making it lighter for them.
Covering their shame when they are stripped naked.
Being that one person that will clothe them and cover them in Prayer.
Being that one person that will stand with them if you can and sincerely do so without stabbing their back after collecting information.
Remember, we are as Human as they are. They bleed, they hurt, they weep and they feel, just like we do.
The things they are going through could come to us in different trials. Ask yourself how you’d want to be treated if that ever happens to you, then act in the same way for them.
I am in the training to always be quick in remembering that they too are Children of GOD.
And if I say that I love GOD, then how much should I be taking care of HIS Own? How much should I be seeing them through HIS Eyes? They too are the Apple of HIS Eye.
HE loves them with an unending Deep Love.

Realising they are HIS Children helps me understand that if I bring them down, I bring down my own Family, the Body of CHRIST.
Bearing each other’s burdens is a part of building the Church of CHRIST, and we have been called to build the Church of CHRIST, yes, you and I.
Let us not let the words of our mouth and the meditations of our hearts, and the things we type to them undo the work.
Imagine again if it were you and you passing such judgement to yourself? Literally take what you have thought and said about them and place it on your shoulders.
Light? I doubt.

That is exactly what we do every time we think to bring someone down. Literally going up to CHRIST and telling HIM how bad HIS Bride looks.
I pray that the day we fall out of The Grace Hub, we shall listen to CHRIST remind us that we are HIS Bride as well and we are no better than the Bride we bash.
And that HE died for us all, and not for just some of us who had “overly” messed up, but for us all.
All of this applies to them that we do not know personally; strangers. If they are the Body of CHRIST, there is a familiarity created by the Person of CHRIST being the Centre.

“Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.
Galatians 6:4-5 NIV

The Bible hasn’t asked us to compare ourselves against other people.
A value we can move forward with when we feel inadequate and away from our pace.
A value we can also carry on and apply when we think to start comparing them to ourselves in order to gain mileage against them in our heads for comfort.
Look at yourself, where you are and where you are going. Focus on that and let everyone else do that for themselves as well.
No one’s speed and growth depends on our “Speedometer.” So stop looking at them against a standard that you have set.
I like what Verse 5 of that Chapter says in The Passion Translation…
“Every Believer is ultimately responsible for his or her own conscience.”
None of us will stand in line on Judgement Day and answer on behalf of another.
You will not go like, “YOU see LORD, I was monitoring their tracks and on the 31st of December 1922, they fell.”
However, our responsibility to GOD’s Word over their lives will be placed on our heads.
Did we show them love? Did we correct them right? Did we make them stumble some more? Did we invite them to our homes when they needed Mercy? What did we do on the 31st of December 1922 when they fell?

If you are out there looking up to someone, by default, you might end up placing expectations on them.
Sometimes we want them to be what we want to be eventually.
But remember, they are also Human, they will fail.
They will go against the Word of GOD at one time and another, and the same GOD that will show you Mercy when you fall is the same GOD that will do it for them.
Let us destroy the pedestals we have placed them on.
Let us destroy the expectations we have built on them, whether they are in the limelight or not.
The limelight has never made anyone perfect or immune to being Human. It also does not mean that their Salvation is in order.
Not being in the limelight and not posting about ones’ Salvation with GOD has never been a proof of how much one loves GOD or not.
Character of the heart is what will show our position with Salvation and will reveal where we are at with GOD.
So before you follow them and look at them as your role models and mentors because they call on the Name of JESUS, remember to find JESUS for yourself first so that you can easily identify if The JESUS they claim is the same True ONE you follow.
That way, you will never blame anyone for making your faith shake or for making you doubt GOD because of the evil works of them that pretend to associate themselves with CHRIST.
Observe to see they are surely walking in the will of GOD, then make a decision from there.
Remember…
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘LORD, LORD,’ will enter into the realm of Heaven’s Kingdom. It is only those who persist in doing the will of MY Heavenly FATHER.
Matthew 7:21 TPT

Where, then, is there room for boasting? Do our works bring GOD’s acceptance? Not at all! It was not our works of keeping the law but our faith in HIS Finished Work that makes us right with GOD. 
Romans 3:27‭ TPT

This Verse…
I am called to do the Work of GOD true, but would I be right with HIM if JESUS had not bridged the gap?
Definitely not!!
Then why boast in who I am and can do? Why boast because I have not been caught yet? Why boast when raising my voice against them that have sinned? Why boast and say… “Let them keep in sin, at least us we are in the work for GOD. At least us we are doing right!?”
Instead, boast about The LORD. Boast about how much HE loves you because it’s true, and not about how much you love HIM because the truth breaks in this. Boast in HIS Finished Work on the Cross.
But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the LORD.”  For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the LORD commends.”
2 Corinthians 10:17‭-‬18 NIV
The people we have brushed off and trolled could be the very same ones that GOD will commend over us.
Be humble.

So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life. Avoid dishonest speech and pretentious words. Be free from using perverse words no matter what!
Proverbs 4:23‭-‬24 TPT

Everything we do flows from our heart. Everything we have to say flows from our heart.
What happens if we don’t guard it? We spew hate, anger and every ugly things that can come out of it.
Whenever we feel the need to throw harsh and mean words at someone, perhaps we are the problem.
Perhaps we failed to guard our hearts from negativity at one point and now we are bleeding on the people that had nothing to do with our cuts in the first place.
Whatever we expose ourselves to will eventually come out. What we have been exposed to will determine what we think of, speak and do. The thoughts that we allow to simmer in our hearts will eventually be seen.
Let them be of noble character.
I usually say it’s possible to keep the deepest things from getting to us, from contaminating our hearts.
But it’s a choice no one will ever make on our behalf.
Guard your heart, not only for you, but also for the Body of CHRIST, HIS Bride.

Finally…

“You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Matthew 7:5 NIV

As if that didn’t hit me hard, I see this Translation…

“You’re being hypercritical and a hypocrite! First acknowledge your own ‘blind spots’ and deal with them, and then you’ll be capable of dealing with the ‘blind spot’ of your friend.”
Matthew 7:5 TPT

Don’t we all love it when it’s us pointing the fingers? Aren’t we all too quick to bash than we are quick to praise?
I look back and compare all the “wrong-counting” and compare it to the number of times I have wished people well and congratulated them for a job well done, and I feel ashamed of myself.
May GOD quicken our hearts to always recognise that in as much as we have been asked to correct one another, we do it from a place of weakness, whereby our Human Self is prone to fail as well, even as we correct them.
We need to remember that we do not correct because we are righteous, perfect and doing everything right.
We correct because we need to cement the principles of CHRIST in the World, in obedience to the Word Of GOD.
So correct with love as JESUS would for you.
No one likes being constantly reminded of their weaknesses in cruel ways or in any way altogether.
Even as you call out the ills in the society, do it from a place of life and love, so that you may draw yourself and them more to JESUS. Don’t do it from a pedestal that you have placed yourself on.
Humble yourself and allow GOD to use you. Be a place where Grace will radiate from. Be kind to them when they mess up. You might be the one used to save someone from fear and anxiety, from death.
Have it in your head that at one point or another, even the most famous of Christians will fall, publicly or privately.

“If I speak in the tongues of Men or of Angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of Prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a Faith that can move Mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
1st Corinthians 13:1‭-‬3 NIV

I’d like to take a minute and speak to someone who has been in a place devoid of Grace.
Whose mistakes have been used against them and have received hate for the mistakes they have made.
Them that are walking in the fear of messing up lest they get a backlash.
Who have left the Church because they were bashed for messing up.
Who are afraid to take in Salvation because they have seen how we Christians can be devoid of Grace.
Those at a corner hiding from the words, wounds, and side eyes.
I feel you. I weep with you.
I am deeply sorry for the loud noise around you.
I am deeply sorry that you have to wake up every day to the same pain.
I am deeply sorry you feel broken.
I am deeply sorry that the place you went for healing was the same place you were broken from.
My Prayer is that GOD will restore you. That GOD will surround you and embrace you.
That you will live in the comfort that GOD is a Forgiving Loving FATHER.
May HE wipe away your tears and may you put your head back up.
JESUS has liberated you from the guilt, punishment, and power of sin!
If you need someone to walk with you, find me on any of my Socials or approach someone that can listen. May GOD lead you to the right person.
Don’t hide anymore, you need to heal.

If you are out here wondering how to receive or re-accept JESUS CHRIST into your heart, reach out to me as well.
Or visit a Church that The HOLY SPIRIT will lead you to.
Today is your day of Salvation.

May GOD help each one of us to be The Grace Hub.
More of GOD’s Grace, Love and Light.
Lydia Ndwiga.