AMAZING GRACE

I hope that your Easter was great and that you included some corporate celebrations of the greatness of resurrection. To celebrate our Savior and His sacrifice for us is so central for worship.

At Wyoming, we used the morning to celebrate the changes that the grace of God have accomplished in the lives of two couples. I was again impressed with the variety of the paths that God has led people along in. Each path has a shockingly similar crisis point. And then the paths diverge again. But each story has a common cord woven throughout -- the grace of God!

Then, as if to highlight these things, I finished the day reading "What's So Amazing About Grace?" by Philip Yancey. He discusses a great section of Paul's letter to the Romans (6-7). As Paul talks about grace, he knows that there are some people who are going to try and exploit grace-- to keep on sinning so that more grace can be given to them. Paul responds with some very pointed expressions -- "GOD FORBID!" Yancey summarizes/paraphrases this expressive thought in this way:

"No Christian resurrected to new life should be pining for the grave. Sin has the stench of death about it. Why would anyone choose it?"

-Yancey, p.186

and then

"Similarly, if we approach God with a 'What can I get away with' attitude, it proves that we do not grasp what God has in mind for us. God wants something far beyond the relationship I might have with a slave master, who will enforce my obedience with a whip. ... God wants something more intimate than the closest relationship on earth, the lifetime bond between a man and a woman."

- Yancey, p.190

Yancey then makes a quote from another writer, Clifford Williams,

"Discipleship simply means the life which springs from grace."

Wow. Amazing.


O Father,
Your grace still amazes me. Help me to allow my discipleship to spring from the seedbed of your grace and not my ability.
Amen

Springing up,

Mike