When I reflect on everything I have learnt on Grace, I can't help but simply admire the beauty of it all. It's like a breathtaking colorful sunset over a lush natural landscape. It just makes me go 'WOW'. I hope to keep being wowed by Grace till the day I die. Krystal Meyers sings of this beauty. Add Comment During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods' appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What's the rumpus about?" he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity's unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, "Oh, that's easy. It's grace." After some discussion, the conferees had to agree. The notion of God's love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant, and the Muslim code of law -- each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional. Aware of our inbuilt resistance to grace, Jesus talked about it often. He described a world suffused with God's grace: where the sun shines on people good and bad; where birds gather seeds gratis, neither plowing nor harvesting to earn them; where untended wildflowers burst into bloom on the rocky hillsides. Like a visitor from a foreign country who notices what the natives overlook, Jesus saw grace everywhere. Yet he never analyzed or defined grace, and almost never used the word. Instead, he communicated grace through stories we know as parables. [Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace?, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), 45.] The story of the Prodigal Son in the Gospel of Luke is a brilliantly told tale of two sons who needed Grace. One because he squandered shamelessly away his heritage, and the other because he was shamelessly hypocritical towards his Father. And yet the Father showed abundant Grace. Actually he is the epitome how to dispense Grace to the worst of us... But there is so much more. John MacArthur does a great job peeling the many layers this amazing story - the cultural honor-shame context, the gravity of the youngest's mistakes, the hardness of the oldest's heart and, above all, the scandal of the Father's Grace. One quote from the video which spoke to me: 'Legalists hate Grace'. No matter which son you are, there is scandalous, shameful, abundant, irrational Grace. Andrew Tallman wrote a fantastic blog post about Morality, Grace and the difficulty of it all. Indeed the hardest thing about following Christ is NOT to follow the rules, but to emulate God's Grace towards us. Here is the post in it's entirety. Grace. It's hard. ---- One of the most common criticisms of Christianity is that it is an “easy way out” of the frustrating reality that life is painful and difficult. Christians, so the argument goes, buy into a fairy tale because they’re too strong to handle the truth. It’s a criticism that goes back at least as far as Nietzsche. In response, Christians have often said that Christianity is anything but easy. “Restrain your lust, restrain your anger, restrain your greed, restrain your pride? These are easy things? Wouldn’t it be easier to deny God and yield to our impulses?” Though this reply is on target toward the objection, I worry that it misidentifies what is truly challenging about Christianity, especially since these requirements are common to all major religions. See, although moral purity is difficult, moral purity isn’t the hardest thing about obeying Jesus. The hardest thing is emulating God’s ridiculous, foolish, impractical grace: forgiving enemies, giving to people who have behaved stupidly, and putting your own welfare at risk for those who won’t appreciate it. These commands aren’t just hard, they’re downright irrational, which is why we don’t do them. In truth, we all secretly believe that these most distinctive characteristics of God are actually ridiculous and embarrassing, a judgment we share with Jonah, the Pharisees, and the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal sons. Hence, the real mark of Christian obedience isn’t personal moral purity, but a life which imitates the absurd grace of God. That’s why real Christian repentance must begin here, not with those other sins. One of my favorite movies is 'The Matrix'. In one milestone scene, Morpheus (the mentor) offers a clear choice to Neo (the disciple). The choice is offered in the form of a blue or red pill. What's the relationship with Grace ? Well, I clearly had a choice. To do it on my own (the blue pill) or to give in to Grace. I've often thought of discovering Grace as me finally taking the red pill... and now I am experimenting just how deep the rabbit hole goes. Grace. It's the red pill. When Paul wrote to the church of Corinth, a church ridden with problems, he started out by 'giving thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus'. (1 Cor 1:4) It was important to him, before going into the moral and theological issues of the church, to establish an important foundation: Grace is the source of my thanksgiving. When I have nothing to give thanks for, there will always be Grace. When there is no reason for me to look up, there will always be Grace. When all I can see are my problems, my failures, my needs, my wants, there will always be Grace. And so I am reminded of Mary Fairchild's Thanksgiving poem. May it make me more appreciative of Grace. -- Heavenly Father, on Thanksgiving Day We bow our hearts to You and pray. We give You thanks for all You've done Especially for the gift of Jesus, Your Son. For beauty in nature, Your glory we see For joy and health, friends and family, For daily provision, Your mercy and care These are the blessings You graciously share. So today we offer this response of praise With a promise to follow You all of our days. -- Mary Fairchild Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com, made a commencement speech adress where he stated that we are what we choose. He then went on to ask the students about the future choices they will make. These were his questions, and notice how the theme of graceful choices keeps coming up. --- How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?
Grace, it's a choice. Wow. This song says everything that needs to be known about Grace. The words are profound, inspiring and continuously bring tears to my eyes. Every line requires serious meditation. At our worst, we lose everything... except for Grace. Todd Agnew took the classic words from the omnipresent Amazing Grace and created a modern take where the chorus emphasizes the pouring action of Grace. Today, I promise to love To give you my mind and to love yours To give you my heart and to love yours To give you my words and to love yours To give you my eyes and to love yours To give you my body and to love yours Forever, I give you my love and to you only Today, I promise to live To give you my gratefulness and to live yours To give you my feelings and to live yours To give you my dreams and to live yours To give you my laughter and to live yours To give you my joy and to live yours To give you my tears and and to live yours To give you my hurts and to live yours To give you my fears and to live yours To give you my humility and to live yours To give you my support and to live yours Forever, I promise to give you my life and to you only Today, I promise to grace To give you my past and to grace yours To give you my present and to grace yours To give you my future and to grace yours Forever, I promise to give you my grace and to you only To give my 'Thank yous' when sharing these promises To give you my 'I love yous' when living these promises To give you my 'I'm sorrys' when I break these promises Today, I promise all these things through Him To give Him all of me and to offer Him all of you From His first breath in my morning to the last one at night From this breath He gives me to my final one To love you through Him To live you through Him To grace you through Him. - Grace Guy | AuthorI am on a journey to learn and experience biblical Grace. This page holds my 'oh wow, I didn't know that about Grace' moments based on the research discoveries you read on this website. This is my personal journal to my 2Pt 3:18 growth and understanding of this infinitely deep concept. ArchivesMay 2012 CategoriesAll |
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