You are kidding me. I did not know that. Really, she does. Well, what qualifications does she have. She doesn’t look like one. Oh! She must have really changed from how I use to know her. These are responses I have heard over the years when people find out I am a minister, you know, stand behind a pulpit and preach.
I am not sure what a preacher is suppose to look like. The “really are you kidding me responses” I choose to take as compliments. Qualifications–well I do have one certificate from International Seminary taught by the best Pastor Gerald Reliford. Qualifications–I do have a lot of life experiences. A life filled with wrong choices, hurt, disappointment, abuse, religion. But if I had no certificate, no degree hanging on my office wall, no life experiences, I would still be qualified. Because first and foremost I am daughter of God. Not because of anything I have done or not done. Qualified? -Yes, because of His amazing grace.
1 Corinthians 15:10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.”
Grace is what He has done and faith is what I do to receive what He has already done for me. Grace and faith go hand in hand. Ephesians 2:8 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”