Power and Ungrace (day97/365)

Philip Yancey in “What’s so amazing about grace?” asks “How is it that Christians called to dispense the aroma of grace, instead emit the noxious fumes of ungrace?”

His answer is that the church has let itself get swept away in political issues, playing with rules of power, which are rules of ungrace. C.S. Lewis also observed Christian crimes came about when religion was confused with politics.

We could take a lesson from Jesus and from Paul who both concentrated on the kingdom of God, rather than the pagan kingdom around them.

Do we use our time fulfilling the great commission, bringing grace to our fallen world, or do we still today insist on fighting bravely on moral fronts?

Yancy lists three conclusions about church/state relations.
1/ Dispensing God’s grace is the Christian’s main contribution to the world.
2/ Commitment to this grace does not mean Christians will live in perfect harmony with the government.
3/ A coziness between church and state is good for the state and bad for the church.

So lets get back to how Christians can dispense grace. Where the world despises and destroys a sinner, cuts aid to the poor and suffering, shames the social outcasts, seeks profit and self-fulfillment, demands retribution, splinters into factions; the church loves them, offers food and healing, proclaims God’s reconciling love, seeks sacrifice and service, dispenses grace and joins together in unity, love being the one thing that cuts across the political lines.

We can receive the love and grace from our holy God who loves each of us despite our defects. We can then see others as God sees them – through grace filled eyes.

Who Am I To Judge? (day96/365)

Philip Yancey challenges us in “Whats so Amazing About Grace” to consider our judgment of others when determining or categorizing sin.

He tells a story of his friend who admited to being gay, and the scandal it caused.

While in these days abortion and homosexuality rank high on the list of judged sin, you might realise that over the years, the list has changed. Not so long ago divorce and being alcoholic topped the list. Prior to that sexual sins (Victorian era); gluttony, envy, slothfulness before that. In the middle ages, charging interest was perceived to be the worst possible sin.

So why is it that we look at some sin and think it is acceptable and other sin and think it is not. What is the difference between hatred, materialism, murder, lust, divorce, stealing, adultery, dishonouring parents etc.

It is all wrong and the only answer for any of it is to repent. We can be a sinner who admits our sins or a sinner who denies our sins. Denial however blocks grace. We need to admit our need for grace. It is freely given. Christ accepts us as we are.

We cannot remain as we are however. Accepting grace changes our hearts forever. When we die to sin, how can we live in it any longer? Sin has the stench of death about it. Why would we want to continue living in it?

Grace Begets Grace (day95/365)

In “What’s So Amazing About Grace” by Philip Yancey, he quotes a statement made by Will Campbell when he was asked “In ten words or less, what’s the Christian message?”

The answer, “We’re all bastards but God loves us anyway.” Spiritually we are all illegitimate children, invited despite our paternity, to join God’s family.

For many of us, it was at our worst that we came face to face with God’s love. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. All of us! No matter what we have done, no matter where we have been. Jesus knows that we are oddballs, but he loves us anyway.

Jesus knows we are sinners, defective, unclean, sick, maimed, but he extends mercy to each of us. We are called then to extend that same grace to others.

When we understand that Jesus came for the sick, not the well, for the sinner, not the righteous, that he hated evil, but stood ready to forgive, that he was a lover of sinners; can we be convicted to do the same?

Is it true that we really only love God as much as we love the person we love the least?

Ungrace – What to do about it. (day94/365)

Philip Yancey explains in “What’s so Amazing About Grace?” how ungrace is what we have when there is a shortage of grace.

Ungrace is what causes cracks to fissure open in relationships between you and I, them and us. Left alone, cracks widen making ever increasing chasms of ungrace. The only remedy – the frail rope-bridge of forgiveness.

Yes, forgiveness is the unnatural act of blatant unfairness. It is undeserved and unmerited, but it is the only way to break the cycle of ungrace.

We need to learn to take the initiate to forgive others, to act in faith, to trust God to be a better justice-maker than we are. It is only then we can receive the forgiveness we desire, to live in the stream of grace we desire.

If we fail to forgive, we remain bound to the people we cannot forgive, held in their vise grip. Not to forgive, imprisons us in the past and locks out potential for change.

When we forgive, we are healed. We are released from the stranglehold of guilt. The blame cycle is broken. We start to see that person who hurt and alienated us, as a person who needs us, who belongs to us, a person weak in his needs.

Can we do as God himself does? and ….
Rediscover the humanity of the person who wronged us?
Surrender our right to get even?
Revise our feelings towards others?

Do we not destroy our enemies when we make them our friends?

The Sweet Sound of Grace (day93/365)

The world thirsts for grace. Philip Yancey takes us on a journey to discover this grace in “Whats So Amazing About Grace?”

Could it be that many of our emotional problems are caused by the fact that we fail to understand, receive and live in God’s unconditional grace and forgiveness, and then fail to give out the unconditional that unconditional love, forgiveness and grace to other people.

Grace is a gift that costs everything for the giver and nothing for the recipient. Grace is free of charge, no strings attached, on the house.

The world can build houses, feed the hungry and heal the sick, but one thing it does not do is offer grace.

Grace is Christianity’s best gift to the world. It is here alone (in no other religion) that the beautiful love and forgiveness of our God comes free of charge, with no conditions, no loopholes, no catch, totally on the house.Those pangs of healing, forgiveness and goodness we feel come solely from the grace of God.

Just as Jesus showed grace to many he interacted with, he still today shows us grace. It does not depend on what we have done for God, but rather what God has done for us.

Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more.

And Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.