Thursday, September 29, 2011
If a person doesn’t have to be a Christian to build homes for the homeless, feed the poor, or donate to charity, to try to effect political change or pass social legislation or offer wise moral instruction as other traditions and teachers do, what’s the one thing that the church has to offer that the world cannot get anywhere else? Grace.
Where else can the world go to find grace?
We do not live in a grace-filled world. In this world, you get what you pay for. You reap what you sow. No free lunch. Eye for an eye. Quid pro quo.
When is the last time you drove on a busy expressway and saw grace? How often do people roll the windows down and say, “Grace to you. I forgive you for cutting me off. I turn the other bumper. You ask for my lane, I’ll give you the shoulder as well”? When is the last time an umpire blew a close call against the home team and a stadium full of people said, “Now is no time to be judgmental. Now more than ever we need to extend grace to this official. Forgive the umpire!” Not likely! The level of un-grace is so high that even to say “Maim the umpire” would be a step in the direction of mercy.
Living in grace, remembering grace, keeps love alive. But losing touch with grace, forgetting that I am loved because God is a gracious God, is a love-killer.
How many people are radically and permanently repelled from the way by Christians who are unfeeling, stiff, unapproachable, boring, lifeless, obsessive, and dissatisfied? Yet such Christians are everywhere; and what they are missing is the wholesome liveliness springing up from a balanced vitality within God’s loving rule. Spirituality wrongly understood is a major source of human misery and rebellion against God.
Spirituality rightly understood is life. It is the humble reception of grace and the confident embrace of love.
~ by Pastor John Ortberg
Where else can the world go to find grace?
We do not live in a grace-filled world. In this world, you get what you pay for. You reap what you sow. No free lunch. Eye for an eye. Quid pro quo.
When is the last time you drove on a busy expressway and saw grace? How often do people roll the windows down and say, “Grace to you. I forgive you for cutting me off. I turn the other bumper. You ask for my lane, I’ll give you the shoulder as well”? When is the last time an umpire blew a close call against the home team and a stadium full of people said, “Now is no time to be judgmental. Now more than ever we need to extend grace to this official. Forgive the umpire!” Not likely! The level of un-grace is so high that even to say “Maim the umpire” would be a step in the direction of mercy.
Living in grace, remembering grace, keeps love alive. But losing touch with grace, forgetting that I am loved because God is a gracious God, is a love-killer.
How many people are radically and permanently repelled from the way by Christians who are unfeeling, stiff, unapproachable, boring, lifeless, obsessive, and dissatisfied? Yet such Christians are everywhere; and what they are missing is the wholesome liveliness springing up from a balanced vitality within God’s loving rule. Spirituality wrongly understood is a major source of human misery and rebellion against God.
Spirituality rightly understood is life. It is the humble reception of grace and the confident embrace of love.
~ by Pastor John Ortberg
Posted in: biblical truth,concept of inspiration,self-proclaimed book slave
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