"Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary, use words." Saint Francis of Assisi

Sunday, August 31, 2008

The Grace Awakening

If you've followed this blog at all you know that we really get encouragement by the way the Spirit moves through pastor Chuck Swindoll. His teaching ministry has grown our faith immensely. Benay is currently reading his book entitled The Grace Awakening. She wanted to share these quotes:

"The most dangerous heresy on earth is the emphasis on what we do for God, instead of what God does for us."

"Love that goes upward is worship; love that goes outward is affection; love that stoops is grace."

"Grace received but unexpressed is dead grace. To spend one's time debating how grace is received or how much commitment is necessary for salvation, without getting into what it means to live by grace and enjoy the magnificent freedom it provides, quickly leads to a counterproductive argument. It becomes little more than another tedious, trivial pursuit where the majority of God's people spend days looking back and asking, "How did we receive it?" instead of looking ahead and announcing, "Grace is ours...Let's live it!" Deny or debate it, and we kill it. My plea is that we claim it and allow it to set us free. When we do, grace will become what it was meant to be-really amazing! When that happens our whole countenance changes."

1 comment:

Mark and Ali said...

no baby yet????
we come in on Friday evening and will be around for your home church on sunday... that is, if you are not in the hospital...?
much love
ali