p11 Church!... why would I ever go there? They just make me feel worst! The down and out who flocked to Christ during NT times, no longer feel welcome among His followers in today churches.
p16 I rejected church for a time because I found so little grace there. Church uphold standards of perfection and have no place for imperfect people like me. I returned to church, because I found grace no where else.
I have barely tasted of grace myself, have rendered less than I have received, and in no wise, am an expert on grace. Grace can be dissected like a frog, but in the process the poor thing dies, and the innards are to say the lest, discouraging. I rather convey grace then explain it.
p26 Grace demands nothing...more than...awaiting with confidence, and acknowledge it with gratitude. In Babette's Feast...they heard sermons on grace every Sunday, and the rest of the week tried to earn God's favour with their pieties and renunciations. Grace came to them in the form of a feast of a lifetime (costing Babette her savings of her lifetime) lavished on those who had in no way earned it, who barely had the faculties to receive it.
p29/30 Like fine wine poured into a jug of water is Christ's Grace diluted in the vessel of the church. Grace is Christianity's best gift to the world...yet in most places, you gain the church's approval by following the prescribed pattern, laid down by man.
p60/61 the New Maths of Grace...in Jesus parable, workers were paid the same wages for different hours of work! This is unfair compensation. Grace is not about fairness. Why blessed Jacob the conniver? Samson the delinquent? Solomon the womanizer?
p63/64 Peter counted 153 fishes, and seek to forgive 7x70 times. Grace is not counting. Grace is not countable...the New Maths of Grace is an accountant nightmare...atrocious and unacceptable. This world says...nothing is for free, demand your rights, get what you deserve/pay...Grace says I did not get what I deserve...I deserve punishment...yet God gave me His love and acceptance.
p70/72 Grace means there is nothing I can do to make God love me more and there is nothing I can do to make God love me less. The world runs by ungrace...everything depends on what I do...Christ calls us to another way that depends not on our performance but on His.
p79 Like a spiritual defect encoded in the family DNA, ungrace gets passed on in an unbroken chain from father to sons, to grandchildren...
p86/92 it's a dog eat dog world...not dog forgive dog...I flee from the risk of grace to the security of ungrace...forgiveness is unwise, impractical, unappreciated. My wounded part sets conditions...I never finds forgiveness easy.
p85/93 Behind every act of forgiveness, lies the wounds of betrayal; and the pain does not easily fades away. Forgiveness is an act of faith...by forgiving, I release my right to get even and leave fairness to God to work these out.
p96-98 Forgiveness (Greek : to release) alone can break the cycle of pain and blame. Resentment (Greek : to relive the sentiment again and again) prolong the hurt. Over the 900yrs they lived on earth, Eve probably said...you ate the fruit! Adam probably retorted...you gave it to me. If only one would apologise...if only one would forgive. Forgiveness does not settle the questions of fairness...but it allows us to begin anew...
p179/180 Loopholes of grace...grace abuse stems from the confusion of condoning and forgiving...I am planning divorce/adultery...do you think God can forgive me later?
p184/187 I want to do it. I know it is wrong but I can always get forgiveness later. Grace becomes a license for immorality. Freedom to do what I like (anger, lusts, smoking etc) will inevitably leads to enslavement to these.
p190/191 God/grace is not about to boss us around; neither is He our magic genie to serve at our command/will. Focus not on what can I get away. Appreciate Grace not exploiting Grace.
p195 Rigid institutional rules prevent us from getting to Christ, because the pettiness of church block the way. Legalism pursuit of false purity is an elaborate scheme of grace avoidance, quietly encouraged by satan, and unthinkingly enforced by men.
Knowing the Law by heart...without knowing the heart of the Law.
Cake cutting with Simon
