Graceology

Lake Hills Church is where my aunt & uncle who live in Austin worship.  Steve & I went there a few times when we would visit them and always enjoyed hearing the Lord speak through their pastor - Mac.  There's even been quite a few times when we're on vacation or sick that we've been thankful that his sermons are uploaded to LHC's website...check it out here.
While we are throughly enjoying worshiping among the Malagasy people here in Antsirabe, we were both eager to be a part of (aka listen in on) an English speaking worship service - so this past Sunday we started Mac's "Graceology" series.
What a reminder of His grace - I loved the way the sermon started off, reminding us that grace is relevant to anyone and everyone.  No matter if you've known Christ since you were 5 years old or if the 1st time you've heard of Him was today.
Grace is relevant.
Grace is amazing. 
Grace is powerful.
I remember as a child thinking how amazing of a person you must be in order to be a foreign missionary.  I now know the truth.  Foreign missionaries are not amazing people - they simply serve an amazing God.  The same incredible God whom all Christians follow.  Steve & I love being here - it's how He is bringing glory to His name through our lives.  But don't think for a moment that we don't struggle, that we don't fail, or that we don't mess up...we do.  But thankfully, God doesn't.  He provides everything we need in abundance.  We believe the majority of that is because you are faithful in lifting us up. 
This post is just to share a little of our hearts - and hopefully remind you of His grace.  We're all messed up - messed up by sin - we can never make ourselves worthy of His salvation...but He saves us anyway. 
My prayer is that I stop trying - that I stop trying to earn His grace and stop trying to prove myself to Him or anyone else.  I desire to just "embrace the grace" - to dive into it and learn more about it.  I want to try and understand what it means and how He wants it to flow through me to those around me.
There is nothing any of us can do to deserve grace.  If we "earned" grace then it wouldn't be grace - now would it?