 Grace does not depend on what we have done for God but rather what God has done for us. Ask people what they must do to get to heaven and most reply, "Be good." Jesus' stories contradict that answer. All we must do is cry, "Help!" Topics: Grace
Source: What's So Amazing About Grace? |
| Imperfection is the prerequisite for grace. Light only gets in through the cracks. Topics: Grace, Light
Source: What's So Amazing About Grace? |
| If we comprehend what Christ has done for us, then surely out of gratitude we will strive to live 'worthy' of such great love. We will strive for holiness not to make God love us but because He already does. Topics: Gratitude, Holiness
Source: What's So Amazing About Grace? |
| History shows that when the church uses the tools of the world's kingdom, it becomes as ineffectual, or as tyrannical, as any other power structure. And whenever the church has intermingled with the state, the appeal of the faith suffers as well. Ironically, our respect in the world declines in proportion to how vigorously we attempt to force others to adopt our point of view. Topics: History
Source: The Jesus I Never Knew |
| When Jesus came to earth, demons recognized him, the sick flocked to him, and sinners doused his feet and head with perfume. Meanwhile he offended pious Jews with their strict preconceptions of what God should be like. Their rejection makes me wonder, could religious types be doing just the reverse now? Could we be perpetuating an image of Jesus that fits our pious expectations but does not match the person portrayed so vividly in the Gospels? Topics: Jesus
Source: The Jesus I Never Knew |
| We admit that we will never reach our ideal in this life, a distinctive the church claims that most other human institutions try to deny. Topics: Life |
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| Love deems this world worth rescuing. Topics: Love |
| Critics of Christianity correctly point out that the church has proved an unreliable carrier of moral values. The church has indeed made mistakes, launching Crusades, censuring scientists, burning witches, trading in slaves, supporting tyrannical regimes. Yet the church also has an inbuilt potential for self-correction because it rests on a platform of transcendent moral authority. When human beings take upon themselves the Luciferian chore of redefining morality, untethered to any transcendent source, all hell breaks loose. Topics: Morality |
| God wants us to choose to love him freely, even when that choice involves pain, because we are committed to him, not to our own good feelings and rewards. He wants us to cleave to him, as Job did, even when we have every reason to deny him hotly. Topics: Pain |
| Sometimes I feel like the most liberal person among conservatives, and sometimes like the most conservative among liberals. Topics: Philosophy |
| I see the confusion of politics and religion as one of the greatest barriers to grace. C. S. Lewis observed that almost all crimes of Christian history have come about when religion is confused with politics. Politics, which always runs by the rules of ungrace, allures us to trade away grace for power, a temptation the church has often been unable to resist. Topics: Politics
Source: What's So Amazing About Grace? |
| Politics draws lines between people; in contrast, Jesus' love cuts across those lines and dispenses grace. That does not mean, of course, that Christians should not involve themselves in politics. It simply means that as we do so we must not let the rules of power displace the command to love. Topics: Politics
Source: What's So Amazing About Grace? |
