Momentum: How To Ignite Your FaithSample

SCANDALOUS GRACE Most eighty-two-year-old women are looking to retire. But Helen and Ellen Ashe are not like most elderly women. Every week they joyfully cook and serve two thousand needy people in Knoxville in a place called Love Kitchen. Every day they also dish out a lot of hugs, all in the name of Jesus’ love. These two African-American ladies have an infectious love that ministers to anybody and everybody. One day king David remembers a conversation he had twenty years earlier with his good friend Jonathan. In that conversation they promised they would always show kindness to each other and each other’s families. But Jonathan had been tragically killed in battle years earlier; and in those days, any remaining family members of a deposed king were quickly executed to put down any chance of an uprising. After Jonathan’s death, everyone in the palace had begun to flee, fearing for their lives. A nurse picked up Jonathan’s five-year-old son Mephibosheth and tried to run out of the palace. However, in the rush, she fell— and young Mephibosheth was crippled for life (2 Samuel 4:4). On that fateful day of his father’s death, this little boy’s entire destiny changed. One day he was running around the palace like any other five-year-old. The next day he was an orphan and a fugitive who was now crippled for life. Twenty years later David finds Mephibosheth and has him brought to the palace. Mephibosheth is terrified. Before David could say anything, Mephibosheth fell to the floor and said, “I am your servant.” But David’s first words to him were filled with grace, “Don’t be afraid.” Then David surprises him with lavish grace. David told him he would always be provided for and that Mephibosheth would always eat at the king’s table. Mephibosheth, a crippled fugitive, was now being included in the royal family. Do you think Mephibosheth understood grace? At the heart of authentic community is grace. We have to create a safe place where people can show up with their brokenness. And, just like David, we desire to lavish people with grace. Because after all, we are broken too and have been the undeserving recipients of God’s scandalous grace.” WHAT ABOUT YOU? Are you embracing God’s lavish grace toward you… and are you dishing it out to others? Today’s Takeaway At the heart of authentic community are lavish, over-the-top expressions of grace.