Grace Church San Diego

We are SENT into the world with the Gospel.  No Christian exists for themselves and no church may close their doors and seal off the entrances.  The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world and Jesus sends us as the Father sent him.

At the heart of this sending is the generous love of God for transgressors.  When God showed up, he did the unthinkable -- he received sinners, ate with them, allowed them into his life.  No one saw that coming.  They were certain that when the God of glopry showed up, he would banish all those "sinners" and reward all the righteous.  Note: the "righteous" are strangely like me and "sinners" are unlike me. 

But he came and welcomed sinners, was a friend of sinners, received them.  He revealed the generous grace of God.  He revealed the seeking love of God.  He revealed the value God places on his image bearers.  He came to seek and to save them -- save them from everlasting, self-caused, ruin.

Our call as a church is to believe this love -- to be swallowed up and constrained by this love -- to act upon believing this love.  The boundaries of our lives and schedules and hearts are to be permeable -- no, easily permeable.  We are to be shaped by God's love for strangers so that we love strangers -- and receive them into our lives.

Jesus is still seeking the lost and saving them -- he is doing so by the Holy Spirit -- through his people and local churches.  We are SENT in the dynamic of the same love and grace that sent the Son to the cross. 

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