Χάρις ἐξερχομένη — Grace Turned Outward
Grace Was Never Meant to Be Contained
Grace is Missing.
Talk about what’s most absent from the world today, and grace has to be near the top of the list. Not just any grace — God’s grace. The unearned, undeserved, countercultural kind. The kind that declares us right with God through no merit of our own and spills over into small acts of graciousness no one asked for. The kind that gets noticed because it’s so rare.
Once you get it, you have to give it; and if you can’t give it, you never got it. What is it?
God’s grace.
The grace of God is radical — so radical that it doesn’t just change the rules; it overrules the rules. It makes the rules no longer necessary. God’s grace creates a fundamental change in the way we relate to God. It rewrites the book on religion and the whole idea of pleasing God. The idea behind religion is to find out what God wants us to do and not do, and try to follow it to the best of our ability. Whether it’s crawling on our hands and knees, or confessing, or obeying, or memorizing, or chanting, or meditating, or sacrificing, or flagellating oneself, none of it means anything in light of God’s grace, because God’s grace does not depend on anything from us. That’s what makes it so hard on one hand and so easy on another. Hard, because we can’t do anything to get to Him, and easy, because He has already done everything to get to us.
Any relationship is going to require a Grace Card. That’s because we are destined to fail each other over and over again. We will fail each other because we are fallible, and we will fail without even trying, because our expectations are always too high for the other to meet.
by Marti Fischer
Grace is more than a word. It’s a force. A quiet revolution. A hand extended when we least deserve it. Grace is that unearned kindness that catches you just before you hit the ground. And when Grace shows up? Everything can change.
Let me tell you a story.
Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint; but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction. Proverbs 29:18 (NIV)
The Jesus Movement came out of a time when social restraint was at an all time low. One of the most popular bumper stickers in the early 1970s was “QUESTION AUTHORITY.” It was the end of the turbulent ‘60s. The Vietnam war, the assassination of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., the struggle for civil rights, the widespread use of drugs and free sex, and student unrest had fired up a generation of baby boomers reaching maturity and resisting authority, expressing their newfound freedom with wild abandon. It was a generation without a prophecy — without revelation — without any awareness of the word of God and the result, as this proverb proclaims was a casting off of all restraint. When there’s no vision, there is chaos.
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” – Proverbs 4:23
by Marti Fischer We live in a noisy world. Turn on the news, and it’s one crisis after another. Open your phone, and there’s a flood of distractions, arguments, and empty comparisons. It’s constant, it’s loud — and if you’re not careful, it starts to shape how you see the world, how you see yourself, and even how you relate to God.
There are seasons in life when you don’t realize how long you’ve been stuck until something in you starts to suffocate. One day bleeds into the next, and though you’re showing up — to work, to family, to responsibilities — inside, you’re not moving forward. You’re just waiting. Wishing. Spinning in place.
We spend much of our lives trying to control things—our schedules, our health, our careers, even our emotions. But relationships? That’s where control meets its match.
You can’t control someone else’s heart. You can’t script their responses or guarantee their commitment. And as terrifying as that can be, it’s also where the most profound growth happens.
by Marti Fischer
There was a time — not too long ago — when a generation on the edge of despair was set ablaze by the Spirit of God. It wasn’t polished. It wasn’t programmed.
But it was powerful.
Don’t sin by letting anger control you.
Think about it overnight and remain silent. Psalm 4:4
This verse is from a Psalm I chose as my message last night in Church at the Catch. It was a message I titled “A Psalm for a Ruinous Time.” In it David talks about those who were out to ruin his reputation, speaking lies about him and making groundless accusations against him. The important thing is what David tells himself to do about all this falsehood being thrown at him. First, he says don’t let anger control you.
