Portraits of Grace – Melissa Moore

My name is Melissa Moore. I am an Evangelist wife, Mom of two, a singer, want to be a songwriter, but most importantly a child of God. My family travels in Mission Evangelism to help churches with revival, mission conferences, or special meetings. Our heart, however, is to minister to Missionaries. We like to refer to our ministry as a “Missionary to the Missionary”. My heart’s desire is to serve the Lord in any capacity I can so that He can get glory and honor from my life.

John 1:16 “And of his fulness have all we
received, and grace for grace.” 

Getting ready for bed, I looked at my phone. There were the post, “ I lost 20 lbs” ; “ Please pray for my family.” ; You know , the stuff social media is made of. As I continued to scroll, I saw a quote. At first, I just passed it but the words caught my attention and I scrolled back up to take it in again.

“Grace changes everything.”

It made my mind go back through the years of my life and recount all the times I have seen the sufficiency of God’s grace. His love manifested through His grace. I first received this grace as salvation. Where were you? I was but a six-year-old girl. I lived in a pastor’s home, didn’t know anything but church, prayer, hymns, God’s love, but even then I had to experience that the love of God came down to me through the marvelous grace of Jesus Christ. I didn’t know what all that grace did for me, or would do for me, but on that day in my home by the family coffee table, I received the first experience of grace. Salvation Amazingly, God’s grace didn’t stop there.

My life has seen grace through the trials, grace through the travels, grace in suffering. We often ask ourselves what was it about us that the Lord looked on us in such love and covered us with His grace? Just one reason: Jesus. We receive grace because His Son paid our debt. We can all look back through the circumstances of our life and there are defining moments when the grace of our Saviour changed us. There we were, lost, without hope. Only one thing could pull us out of our wretchedness. Grace.

I fail the Lord constantly. It may be with a thought, a word, a deed. One day while pining over the things I just could not seem to accomplish for the Lord, struggling and not seemingly being able to attain what I thought was a more spiritual level, I started reading in my Bible. Galatians 2. As I looked up from verse 20 quoting it from memory, The Lord drew me back. “Just read.” I returned to the page and couldn’t believe my eyes. “I do not frustrate the grace of God.” I was taken aback. I had never seen that there before. “HOW? How do I not frustrate His grace? I frustrate myself! I am frustrated at my sin. God pulled me back that day. I found out that He gives grace for grace. Grace stacked upon grace.

I am drawn back to the story of the Prophet Hosea. Years of unfaithfulness, his wife now stood on the auction block to be sold to the highest bidder. The onlookers awaited for what they thought would be the end of her life as her husband paid the price once again for her freedom. As Hosea reached for his bride, she may have tensed waiting for the blow that would come. Her mind replayed all those times she had wronged him. He had shown her love, yet she only repaid him with rebellion, selfishness, unfaithfulness. Yet that day as he pulled her into his arms, he whispered sweetness and love into her ears. Those loving arms reminded her he remained the same. What the crowd saw that day was more than just love. They saw a portrait of grace. Gomer was aware of one thing that day, “Grace changes everything.”