{"id":2291,"date":"2015-04-02T22:56:55","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T02:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/?p=2291"},"modified":"2015-04-02T23:03:59","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T03:03:59","slug":"amazing-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/amazing-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazing Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been reading through Matthew the last while and loved that my reading serendipitously correlated with Easter. \u00a0Sometimes the stories we love best are so familiar it’s easy to just read over them, the familiar words a gentle cadence.<\/p>\n

But this time when I got to verse 3 of Matthew 27 I was stopped short\u00a0by how horrified<\/em> Judas was when he realized Jesus was about to be condemned. \u00a0I can’t even imagine how stricken he must have felt.<\/p>\n

It’s easy to think of Judas as the bad guy. \u00a0We don’t read a lot about him. \u00a0He’s not outspoken like Peter. \u00a0Not a super close friend like John.<\/p>\n

But hardly was he some evil monster or he wouldn’t have been called to be one of the twelve.<\/p>\n

Judas heard the the quiet call of an itinerant preacher and followed.<\/p>\n

He was sent out with the other eleven to preach and heal and cast out devils.<\/p>\n

Judas wasn’t evil, but he had a sin nature. \u00a0Just like you and I do.<\/p>\n

He sinned. Once in particular. \u00a0His love for money grew bigger than his love for Jesus.<\/p>\n

In a moment, he sold Jesus for thirty measly pieces of silver. The Jesus he loved (just not as much as money). \u00a0The Jesus he has followed and learned from. \u00a0He’s watched Jesus feed the five thousand and escape from angry mobs.<\/p>\n

Maybe he thought he could have Jesus and money, too. \u00a0Maybe he thought he could be Jesus’ friend and simultaneously betray him behind his back without repercussions. \u00a0Could he really\u00a0have watched Jesus talk to the woman at the well about her husbands and thought that Jesus would assume the chief priests plotted again on their own?<\/p>\n

What went through his mind we don’t know. \u00a0But it’s so clear he didn’t think he was committing Jesus to die.<\/p>\n

One sin.<\/p>\n

One night of selling your soul.<\/p>\n

Lord Jesus, have mercy on us all.<\/p>\n

Because haven’t we all been Judas? Haven’t we all loved something more than we loved Jesus at some point?<\/p>\n

How can we fathom this God of redemption who works through evil to bring forth good?<\/p>\n

How can we fathom this God of mercy who still reaches down to people, takes their hand and lifts them up to make them whole?<\/p>\n

How can we fathom a God who hears the dying words of a hardened criminal on the cross and whispers gentle words of complete forgiveness?<\/p>\n

\"May<\/a><\/p>\n

We are completely undone,\u00a0yet completely immersed in His glory.<\/em><\/p>\n

We are broken beings\u00a0turned into\u00a0shimmering mosaics of His beauty.<\/em><\/p>\n

We are wretchedly unworthy,\u00a0made messengers of His grace.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"May<\/a><\/p>\n

We are His.<\/p>\n

Chosen.<\/p>\n

Loved.<\/p>\n

Redeemed.<\/p>\n

All because of His amazing grace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been reading through Matthew the last while and loved that my reading serendipitously correlated with Easter. \u00a0Sometimes the stories we love best are so familiar it’s easy to just… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thinking-thoughts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39ynQ-AX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2291"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2299,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2291\/revisions\/2299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}