Oregongrown
Sep 12th 2008, 04:12 PM
John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Most of what I write is what I need to hear. I was reminded of this this morning and thought maybe it was a good time to post it again. Randy Alcorn is a fellow I attended church with for a time here in Oregon. Never knew him personally but I knew his story. You can read about him on his website if you like. He wrote several books, 3 of which I've read and found them to be God-sents in my walk with Christ. Prayer of Jabez, The Treasure Principle and The Truth and Grace Paradox. Hope I have the titles right. Anyway, the one I want to share with you is the Truth and Grace one because of where I am in my walk with Christ. And that is learning to witness in God's Way instead of denises. I've been a christian since 93 but, well, lets just say I understand too well it's a journey and not something I will "arrive" at in my lifetime on Earth.
I welcome your thoughts, input, opinion, experiences:) God bless, your sister in Christ, denise
Just an excerpt from Randy's book "The Truth and Grace Paradox"
What should the world see when it looks at us? Christ. But we've come up with hundreds of principles and thousands of rules attempting to be Christlike. It's too complicated to wrap our minds around. And Christ gets buried under lists, rules and formulas.
John 1:14 boils down for us what it means to be Christlike. It means to be full of only two things: Grace and Truth. Instead of a dozen, this gives us just two balls to juggle. It's succinct, a two point checklist of Christlikeness. Everything we do can and should be measured by the test of grace and truth. Christlikeness means living by grace and truth, extending both to others. Instead of the world's apathy and tolerance, we offer grace. Instead of the world's relativism and deception, we offer truth. If we minimize grace the world sees no hope for salvation. If we minimize truth, the world sees no need for salvation. To show the world Jesus, we must offer full-orbed, unabridged truth and grace, magnifying both, never downsizing or apologizing for either.
The grace question:
Why did sinners want to be around Jesus, but don't want to be around us?
The truth question:
Why did sinners crucify Jesus, but have no problem with us?
Truth without grace breeds a self-righteousness legalism that poisons the church and pushes the world away from Christ. Grace without truth breeds moral indifference and keeps people from seeing their need for Christ.
Truth is quick to post warning signs and guardrails. Yet it fails to empower people to drive safely, to avoid plunging off the cliff, and fails to help them when they crash. Grace is quick to post ambulances and paramedics at the bottom of the cliff. But without truth, it fails to post warning signs and build guardrails, and therefore encourages the very self-destruction it attempts to heal.
Grace without truth deceives people, and ceases to be grace. Truth without grace crushes people, and ceases to be truth.
Any attempt to "soften" the gospel by minimizing truth ultimately keeps the world from grace. Any attempt to "toughen" the gospel by minimizing grace keeps the world from the greatest truth—His redemptive work on man's behalf. Christ went to the cross, in the ultimate act of grace, because He would not ignore the truth of His holiness and our sin. Grace never ignores or violates truth—rather, it offers restitution and joy by satisfying Truth's demands. ("Go and sin no more.")
Like a binary star consisting of two suns that revolve around each other, truth and grace are equal and inseparable. Luther said the devil doesn't care which side of the horse we fall off of—as long as we don't stay in the saddle. A saddle has two stirrups. To stay in the saddle, the church needs to mount the horse with one foot solidly in the stirrup of truth, and the other solidly in the stirrup of grace.
Grace and truth make us live in such a way that there is no human explanation for our lives—in the absence of human explanation, people turn to God as the reason behind what they see. Our children, our neighbors, and we ourselves long for Jesus—we can offer Him only by offering His grace and truth.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Most of what I write is what I need to hear. I was reminded of this this morning and thought maybe it was a good time to post it again. Randy Alcorn is a fellow I attended church with for a time here in Oregon. Never knew him personally but I knew his story. You can read about him on his website if you like. He wrote several books, 3 of which I've read and found them to be God-sents in my walk with Christ. Prayer of Jabez, The Treasure Principle and The Truth and Grace Paradox. Hope I have the titles right. Anyway, the one I want to share with you is the Truth and Grace one because of where I am in my walk with Christ. And that is learning to witness in God's Way instead of denises. I've been a christian since 93 but, well, lets just say I understand too well it's a journey and not something I will "arrive" at in my lifetime on Earth.
I welcome your thoughts, input, opinion, experiences:) God bless, your sister in Christ, denise
Just an excerpt from Randy's book "The Truth and Grace Paradox"
What should the world see when it looks at us? Christ. But we've come up with hundreds of principles and thousands of rules attempting to be Christlike. It's too complicated to wrap our minds around. And Christ gets buried under lists, rules and formulas.
John 1:14 boils down for us what it means to be Christlike. It means to be full of only two things: Grace and Truth. Instead of a dozen, this gives us just two balls to juggle. It's succinct, a two point checklist of Christlikeness. Everything we do can and should be measured by the test of grace and truth. Christlikeness means living by grace and truth, extending both to others. Instead of the world's apathy and tolerance, we offer grace. Instead of the world's relativism and deception, we offer truth. If we minimize grace the world sees no hope for salvation. If we minimize truth, the world sees no need for salvation. To show the world Jesus, we must offer full-orbed, unabridged truth and grace, magnifying both, never downsizing or apologizing for either.
The grace question:
Why did sinners want to be around Jesus, but don't want to be around us?
The truth question:
Why did sinners crucify Jesus, but have no problem with us?
Truth without grace breeds a self-righteousness legalism that poisons the church and pushes the world away from Christ. Grace without truth breeds moral indifference and keeps people from seeing their need for Christ.
Truth is quick to post warning signs and guardrails. Yet it fails to empower people to drive safely, to avoid plunging off the cliff, and fails to help them when they crash. Grace is quick to post ambulances and paramedics at the bottom of the cliff. But without truth, it fails to post warning signs and build guardrails, and therefore encourages the very self-destruction it attempts to heal.
Grace without truth deceives people, and ceases to be grace. Truth without grace crushes people, and ceases to be truth.
Any attempt to "soften" the gospel by minimizing truth ultimately keeps the world from grace. Any attempt to "toughen" the gospel by minimizing grace keeps the world from the greatest truth—His redemptive work on man's behalf. Christ went to the cross, in the ultimate act of grace, because He would not ignore the truth of His holiness and our sin. Grace never ignores or violates truth—rather, it offers restitution and joy by satisfying Truth's demands. ("Go and sin no more.")
Like a binary star consisting of two suns that revolve around each other, truth and grace are equal and inseparable. Luther said the devil doesn't care which side of the horse we fall off of—as long as we don't stay in the saddle. A saddle has two stirrups. To stay in the saddle, the church needs to mount the horse with one foot solidly in the stirrup of truth, and the other solidly in the stirrup of grace.
Grace and truth make us live in such a way that there is no human explanation for our lives—in the absence of human explanation, people turn to God as the reason behind what they see. Our children, our neighbors, and we ourselves long for Jesus—we can offer Him only by offering His grace and truth.