E-Flash From Dan, 2/12/10 -- Be Very Glad For God's Grace

Dear E-Flash Friends;

I was looking through a book that I read several years ago—yep, that’s how exciting my life is—and I came across a wonderful thought.  I got so excited that I just had to share it with someone.  So, I’m sharing it with you, my E-Flash friends.  Here’s the thought:

“If grace makes sense to you, I doubt you’re close enough to really see it.  The real thing defies comprehension…but not experience….Grace is the most unreasonable thing in the world.  It’s also the most powerful.  Nothing is more effective for transforming lives, risky though it is.”

From the book, Revolution Within, by Dwight Edwards

Isn’t that good?

The grace that God extends to us is sort of hard to believe because we’ve all learned through teaching and experience that if something is “too good to be true”, then don’t believe it.  Someone’s thrown that line at you somewhere along the way, right?  And, frankly, God’s grace is definitely…too good to be true.  

As a pastor, I’ve even discovered that God’s grace can be considered offensive by some people—sometimes even Christian people.  I’m serious.  People get bothered by God’s grace because they’re afraid that it lets people off the hook, too easily.  I guess they seem to forget that this is the same grace that better “let them off the hook” too.  (Please believe this: NO ONE will hold up well standing before a Holy and Righteous God, if they get what they deserve.  Be very, very, very happy—I mean, in a personal way—be extremely happy…I’m talking “jumping-up-and-down” happy…that God’s grace is extravagant and that it’s too good to be true.  This truth is to our eternal benefit.)

The fact that God’s grace is so irrationally generous is part of why it’s so powerful.  Part of the “TRANSFORMATION of our minds” that the Bible talks about, happens as we grasp more and more fully the truth and the reality of God’s unbelievable graciousness to us, while at the same time realizing more and more fully, that we don’t deserve it. 

            1 He’s unbelievably gracious to us

            2 We honestly DO NOT deserve it  (humility)

As those two understandings increase for us, they transform our minds and CHANGE us, through the power of God’s Holy Spirit.  I urge you to take this seriously.  These two understandings, through a work of God, have transforming power.

I hope and pray that the truth of God’s grace has gripped you.  I pray that it’s changing and transforming you.  I pray that the truth of God’s grace has captured your heart in a way that’s growing and increasing your love for God.  I hope God’s grace in you and me, is resulting in our extending generous grace—Christ-like grace—to others.

Grace and Blessings to you,

Dan

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