Jesus’ life is full of grace people didn’t want, for example, We have the story where Jesus was in a house teaching, and there was a huge crowd gathered. Some guys had a friend who was paralyzed, and they wanted to bring him to Jesus to see if He might heal him. They couldn’t get […]
this is a fabulous poem, because: it’s not a poem. in His mercy it’s something God showed me i can’t do one thing right without praying because God must do it not i everything sits fine in balance, and too much juggling put its all at risk i’m only good enough at juggling to drop […]
If your understanding of grace doesn’t raise the Romans 6 question, “What?! Can we just sin? Does grace mean we can just do anything we want??” then you are not really catching Paul’s brand of grace. Someone on a forum posted this in response to a wonderful grace quote: I am a strong contender for […]
Gal 1:4 Who gave Himself for our sins. He does not say, “Who received our works,” but, “who gave.” Gave what? Not gold, or silver, or paschal lambs, or an angel, but Himself. What for? Not for a crown, or a kingdom, or out goodness, but for our sins. These words are like so many […]
So, in typical fashion with grace, and with the notion that “God gives to His beloved even in their sleep,” ( Ps 127:2 ) I woke up with another insight about the question from the last post. First, you should know that in our house, fruit-checking is a bit of a derogatory term. “You’re being […]
Let’s imagine we have a man with a paintbrush, a palette of colors, and a blank canvas. Suppose he says to himself, “I am determined to be a great painter, and this will be my first masterpiece!” How do you think his painting is going to progress? I think he will be staring at that […]
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if […]
I always start nodding off when people drift into talk about covenants. First, I’m sure that no one knows anything about ancient legal agreements, and I’m sure most of us know barely anything about modern day legal agreements. This only changed for me as a consequence of spending time with friends going through the book […]
Often we have a very much easier time forgiving and loving others than we do forgiving and loving ourselves. One of the most crucial insights of the gospel is that the man under law does not want mercy extended even to himself; he wants the chance to remain to prove his worth. We reserve the […]
The teacher in me wants to review everything, and it is the season for looking back and looking forward. I am always looking for spiritual insights and breakthroughs in understanding grace and living in the light of God’s love for us, so this is how I look at the past year. Here are my favorite […]