When I wrote my first book, I was consumed with all the things I was learning. I went to scripture, initially, to hear the final word from the final Voice because I knew, and everyone else who knew me knew, that I was done for. I couldn’t shake whatever it was inside me that wouldn’t let me give up and I needed something to make me let go. I was not looking for something to make me okay, I was looking for the death blow of judgment.
“Tell me you don’t love me so I can be free from this pain.”
But He didn’t. Instead, He showed me something. This panoramic view that doesn’t stop when I turn right or turn left to reach its end. It has no end.
…and I’ve been writing about it ever since.
I am still completely entrenched in scripture because it’s alive to me. I can see it clearly. I write constantly. I am consumed with thinking about all these things, …the depths of Truth, …and I can’t get enough. He, like wild, silent wind, is speaking to me…showing me things…and the only way to relieve the pressure is to open myself up and pour it out.
When I wrote ‘Grace Is For Sinners’ I literally shook at the keyboard. I could not get my fingers to type fast enough. A violent picture of eternity being poured into the fragility of flesh and blood until that flesh and blood was ready to burst at the seams. What spills out is my worship. It creates the feeling that if I held it in, I would die. It’s almost too much.
Another tsunami of information and clarity is pouring into me and I am back to that place of being so consumed, I’m squirming in my skin. It’s too much for isolated blog posts. I have to write until it stops and then I’ll have to give it a name and put it in another cover-bound piece of worship.
When I tried to get my first book published, I was told that the work I had written was too big for me. I already knew that. I published it myself and, though I don’t know how, it has made it’s way across the world. It has found a home in the hands of strangers. It is fulfilling its purpose with no help from me or a money-backed entity.
I don’t know what path this next book will take. Whether it is published by me or a bigger corporation is not my concern. I have to write, regardless. It’s screaming inside me and writing alleviates the a bit of the pressure, though it doesn’t lift the burden. It’s a weird kind of painful. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but I can identify with this…
“…necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”-Paul, 1 Corinthians 9:16 ESV
I will be blogging less frequently while I write this other book. If you want to keep up on little tidbits, I share them on my facebook page.
I’m answering the summons. I’m telling you this so that you know what’s going on and you can keep me in your prayers.
Today I will be appearing on ‘Insight Live on The Miracle Channel.’ We’ll be discussing my book, ‘Grace Is For Sinners‘, especially pertaining to how to handle moral failure within the walls of the church community. It should be interesting because it’s LIVE, and viewers can call in to ask questions or share their thoughts.
This is how the show is billing it:
Monday
[ IS11-107 ] Grace
How is moral failure handled within the walls of the church today? Should people be offered grace and forgiveness or is discipline necessary? Tune in as Serena Woods joins us to share her story and how she came to learn that “Grace is for Sinners.” Call in with your comments and questions, LIVE at 11am MT. – quoted from Insight Live Episodes.
If you are in Canada or have access to Canadian broadcasts (Sky Angel Network, etc), then you can see the channels here. You can also watch a live stream on your computer by clicking here and then clicking the link on the page that says ‘Watch us online.’
If you would like to call in to share your thoughts during the live broadcast (11am-12pm MT), you can do so by calling toll free 1-888-816-2545.
I’ll be joining them via skype from my home and if skype is acting up, I’ll be on the phone.
If you miss it this afternoon, they rebroadcast it at 11pm MT and you can use the same information from above to see how it went.
It should be fun! Let me know if you’re going to watch and what your thoughts are.
Recently, I was interviewed by Wrecked.org. They’ve been good to me over there. You can read the review of Grace Is For Sinnershere. They even let me write for them once in a while.
You can check out the interview here and find out how to win a free book.
Leave some feedback. I’d like to know what you think of it.
Now, enjoy this random cat vs. human dance off picture.
Posted: July 2nd, 2009 |
Filed under:book, God, life | Tags:book, grace |
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The intended audience for ‘Grace Is For Sinners’ lies within the sub-culture of the Christian community. These people are not questioning the validity of the Bible. The Bible is the only thing that they will trust. They do not feel a connection to a world that doesn’t acknowledge Jesus and they have lost their welcome in the world that does. Their Christian community has failed them. They’ve failed to uphold what they teach and claim to believe. Too many Christians have turned life saving/changing truths in the Bible into a lie. They’ve put restrictions on God and roadblocks to the cross.
The intended audience for this book is at a very primary level of themselves. They are at risk of losing hope completely. They aren’t discussing theology, mythology or psychology. They are DYING (spiritually speaking). Leave the debates to those who enjoy them and have time for them. There is a time and place for that, but the context of ‘Grace Is For Sinners,’ is not the time or place. ‘Grace Is For Sinners’ is a finger pointing them to scriptures in the only source of information that they believe. They are scriptures that will give them hope, show them grace and love them. All of these things end up giving them the strength to not let their faith fail.
There will be many who won’t agree with the message because it’s bold and gritty. It kicks religion where it hurts. There are some who won’t read it/finish it because of what they think it might say. However, the lives that have been changed by the message in this book are worth so much more than the controversy it could potentially create.
As the dedication states: ‘This book is dedicated to those who have fallen. If you’ve been there, you know. If you’re still there…hang on.’
Posted: June 13th, 2009 |
Filed under:book | Tags:book |
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‘Grace Is For Sinners’ is about two weeks away from hitting the mainstream!
Serena Woods’ autobiographical account of her experience with grace minces no words. ‘Grace Is For Sinners’ is a gritty reflection of what moral failure looks like within the glass doors of Christianity. Serena’s transparency regarding her sin and the aftermath would have been enough to challenge most, but she doesn’t stop there. She goes on to challenge the church’s response to Christians who sin with an in depth study of the Bible. Out of context scripture is used to condemn the sinner, but Serena found the in-context grace that saturates the Gospel. Her defense of the salvation power of Jesus is found in ‘Grace Is For Sinners’!
“When we talk about grace on Sunday morning, we often couch it in sacrosanct sentiment. We gloss over our (or others’) bevy of shortcomings with a wand of detachment, daring only to acquaint ourselves with some vague and perhaps grandiose notion of grace. When we depart into Sunday afternoon traffic, however, the thin vapor of grace as something lofty and intangible tends to evaporate.
Does grace really show up in the crevices of our lives? Grace looks pretty on paper, but is it just like the inflated legal tender of our collapsing economy-a currency that promises much but is backed with little value? Grace seems like something we should talk about only once we don’t need it. Do our inadequacies punch holes in the righteousness that Christ champions?
Grace seems like something we talk about in the sanctuary, not the bars. We speak of it as though it is lightweight, floating around in the clouds as some ephemeral nicety. But grace is meant to go hand-in-hand with experience. It’s meant to be the flower pushing up through mud and grit. Grace is the cupful of water running over the dusty lips of those who are facedown in the desert. Grace is for sinners.
Serena Woods’ autobiographical account of her experience with grace minces no words. The opening chapter of Grace is for Sinners picks up her story with her on the bathroom floor, shutting her kids out from her so they won’t see her crying about the affair she was having with her friend’s husband.
She writes, “I was a Christian for nine years and never did anything like this before. I didn’t think I ever would. I had strong feelings and biting words for people who do what I did and there I sat, being who I hate and still being me, whom I loved. Two separate identities in one small body…I wondered that night, if hell was just separation from God.”
We have a difficult time extending grace to fellow believers. All manner of tangled questions arise as to how much God really forgives and what that means to those who sin and their community around them. Of course, we know in our heads that we are all sinners saved by grace-we can quote the verse-but sadly that often does little to prevent us from stratifying our degrees of righteousness for a handy reference point. This was very much Serena’s encounter with the church, and catching a glimpse of her heartbreaking experience of rejection shines a glaring Mag light on the high price of judgmental predispositions. Certainly, our failures bring enough devastation on themselves. But self-righteous judgment and moral stratification within the church can extenuate the damage beyond recovery.
Grace is for Sinners is the story of a woman who found grace where it was most needed and from the purest source-God Himself. But it came through the most painful of voyages across the wilderness of guilt, misguidance, and isolation. Christians who didn’t know how to handle grace on an industrial level burned the bridge that Christ meant to bring Serena back into restoration. Serena freely admits her guilt, but so convictingly reminds us, “Jesus didn’t hang on the cross in case you need him, he hung on the cross because you desperately need him.”
This is, and has always been, the essence of the Gospel. Death to life. Brokenness to restoration. The very experience of the Resurrection represents the transformation that each of us who claim Christ has undergone. We don’t get to hang on to just a little bit of our own moral status. He asks us to completely swap our attempts at holiness with his own. If we are still sitting in judgment of one remorseful believer’s failures over and against our own with no posture of restoration, it can only be because we ourselves have not found the profusion of healing that God aches for us to take from His scarred-over hands. Perhaps we are still cowering from our own guilt, covering it up by pointing at the decoy of others’ guilt. Grace levels the playing field. Redemption is meant for all.
Grace, in short, is for sinners.”
Mariah has currently landed herself in Tucson, Arizona, where she just finished a philosophy degree from the University of Arizona. She thought life was supposed to get easier after college, but she’s keeping way too busy working as a musician, editor for this magazine, and occupying other sundry roles. She enjoys writing almost as much as she enjoys making music. Almost. You can hear her music on Myspace.
Posted: December 16th, 2008 |
Filed under:book, life | Tags:book |
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The interest in this book is a little overwhelming. In a very good way. I am so excited and (for lack of a better word) humbled. There is only one copy of ‘Grace Is For Sinners’ left before the pre-Christmas order sells out….for the second time.
Plans to market this book are in the works. Reviews, magazines, book clubs, dance-off parties (aka cool people book signings)….
There are so many people who have invested themselves in me and my excitement about ‘Grace Is For Sinners,’ so watching them respond to the release means so much to me.
I’m about to get sappy, so I’m going to log off and do something crass to balance this out.
Does grace really show up in the crevices of our lives? Grace looks pretty on paper, but is it just like the inflated legal tender of our collapsing economy-a currency that promises much but is backed with little value? Grace seems like something we should talk about only once we don’t need it. Do our inadequacies punch holes in the righteousness that Christ champions?
