Grace  = Gettin' what you're not deservin'!

Mercy = Aint gettin' what you're deservin'!
 

Technically speaking, GRACE is God's favor on us, even though we didn't DO anything to deserve it! It contrasts to MERCY, which is God's not punishing us for things we DID do!

Its God's awesome, fantastic GRACE that makes all the difference. Many times we're taught about grace with stern warnings. For some reason, grace just seems too good to be true, so they add some man-thought-of rules to go with it so we all don't go hog-wild! Religious folk like to add caveats like: grace is good, but it doesn't give us a license to sin, or better yet, that we must act and talk a certain way to gain God's grace. WRONG!!

God's grace IS exactly what it seems, too good to be true. So enjoy it, its a free gift! In fact, bask in it! Because its not until we really get a grasp on how wonderful God's grace is, that we can really see what type of relationship He has in mind for us.

What does this mean to me?

We, today, are living in the best covenant that God has ever offered -- GRACE.

God has had several covenants with his people (most know of the old testament and the new testament).  However, many try to combine these covenants to create a non-existent covenant that they can live with--UGHH!! 

A covenant is an agreement between God and his people.  We may not always be able to live up to our side of the bargain, but God never falters.

Because of the grace covenant we no longer have to live a "sin centered" life (trying not to sin in my own strength) but a "God centered" life. 

This immediately changes our "have to's" to "want to's" with God.  Now we want to love Him, praise Him, and worship Him, instead of having to do these things to avoid hell.

This is what has set me "free indeed"!