it's the kind of phone call that you dread you know three o'clock in the morning and your phone
rings and you know that nobody calls you at three o'clock in the morning to give you good news
and it was my sister calling all the way from scotland to say that my darling mom had passed
into the presence of the lord and even though she was getting close to 86 i just still wasn't quite
ready to say goodbye to my mom but i booked the first flight from dallas texas over to scotland
my sister picked me up at the airport and and we wept together and and after my mom's memorial
service which i got the privilege of bringing the eulogy and what a joy to bring a eulogy to a woman
who has walked through suffering and yet daily received the grace of god and my sister asked me
well what do you want to take back to the states with you obviously i could take furniture or
anything and i said i just want the three things i want this little picture that my mom had hung over
her bed all my life a friend had embroidered it for her and it simply said yes lord that's what my
mom woke up to every day yes lord that's why she laid her head on the pillow under every night yes
lord i said i would love the pearls that my mom wore on her wedding day and i said and i want this
this is my mom's bible that she was given in 1942 but what i didn't know was inscribed in her
young handwriting at the back has said this grace is undeserved favor it is love stooping and that
so impacted me because not so long ago i was in phnom penh cambodia working with our rescue
life program with helping girls getting out of sex trafficking and right beneath beside
this absolutely devastating area of poverty was a beautiful buddhist temple and covered in gold
i mean it was it was glorious but i asked if i could talk to one of the priests and what i wanted
to know was do you ever consider taking any of the beauty and the wealth you have and sharing it with
those who are literally dying on your doorstep and the priest was very kind very straightforward he
said no we we don't help the poor because if they will give their money whatever they do have to us
then they will be reincarnated next time into a better life it's called karma but girls what i got
so clearly was grace is the opposite of karma we get what we do not deserve which is the unmerited
favor of god grace is unique to christianity so sheila i have a question for you what would you
say to a woman today that's watching this right now that feels like i feel like i can't do enough
in order to earn god's grace i live in shame i've done too much i've i've hurt too many people
i don't i think that i am too far to receive god's grace that's a great question hosanna and honestly
it actually speaks to a letter i received yesterday yesterday i got a letter from a
mom and she said um i'm writing to you and i'm in so much agony i don't know what to do with myself
my son and she said she he was about 17 i think um had recently become a christian and then was
involved in a terrible accident and what she was saying to me was my son didn't have any time to
live out his christian faith he didn't have time to do any good things he didn't have time to tithe
to the church is my son in heaven and to be able to i mean i i sat down as fast as humanly possible
um to write back to this woman because i'm think my thing to hers the moment your son said yes
to jesus his name was written in the lamb's book of life he is home free and i was studying
what christ's last words on the cross and you know when he says that teta let's die it is
finished i did a little research and on ancient tax documents they found the word tetelestai
written on the document and what it means is bill paid in full and that's the glory of the grace of
god that the many you say yes to jesus your bill is paid in full and every morning his grace is
new and his grace and mercies are fresh what would we say to encourage someone and and i just want to
say that the grace of god there's more than enough grace to handle whatever you've done
i think the the lie of the enemy tries to make us think even if we've messed up so many times in
our past there's still more than enough we serve a god of abundance so whatever the situation there's
more than enough grace more than enough grace to cover and to strengthen and to complete the work
that god has started amen amen that is beautiful cece when my son was about 15 and i was putting
clean sheets on his bed one night and i happened to look up at the ceiling and he'd pasted on the
ceiling the scripture my grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in weakness
and i went into his bathroom and on the mirror there was the same scripture so later that night
i said babe why did you paste that particular scripture on your ceiling and he said well mom you
know that i'm struggling at the moment with the stutter and it makes me feel like i can't speak
in class i can't do anything i can't tell anybody about jesus but i would studying and i realized
that god's grace is what's going to help me that i can speak through my stutter that i could share
jesus through my stutter because his strength will be made perfect and it's what i believe
it's a beautiful thing that god will do with our brokenness when we give him all the pieces
so if you are struggling right now if you feel like you've failed like you've fallen
like you'll never change see that's the truth the enemy says you're never going to make it god says
my promise is never fail he has promised you strength so i would love the privilege of praying
for you right now wherever you are father god how can we find words how can we find words to thank
you for the fact that you've sent christ to pay the price for our sin and not only that you sent
the holy spirit to indulge and your grace soaks us to the skin from the top of our head to the bottom
of our feet i pray for any who are struggling right now that they would open their arms their
hearts to your grace that would fall upon them and i ask it in the powerful name of jesus christ
amen amen i hope you enjoyed this video subscribe today and you'll never miss a new upload
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