Grace

As you have noticed, I have been internet-deprived for a while. But I’m back! Yay! Amazing how life revolves around this modern marvel.

Anyway, I have had time to read, and I’ve dived deeper into the Dr. Jeremiah book, Captured by Grace, that I mentioned before. There’s so much I would love to share, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good read. Chapter three retells the prodigal son story like I’ve never heard before.

So, since I can’t just type the seven chapters I’ve read thus far, I’ll share some of my favorite quotes that have inspired me. I hope they spark something in you too.

p.12 Grace suggests that human beings may be something more than honor graduates of the animal kingdom.

p. 30 Grace can only shine in its ultimate brilliance because it emerges from ultimate darkness.

p. 37 Christ removes not only the penalty for our sin; He cleanses us completely from its slightest tint. You and I stand before God as if we lived a life of utter purity and perfection.

p. 57 If the sincerity of the son is ambiguous, there can be no mistake about the heart of the father… The power comes from the father’s grace, not the son’s guilt.

p. 62 There are two sides of the same coin: law and licentiousness. Either one makes slaves, and only in grace is liberation possible.

p. 108 Men and women who do the pursuing can only capture empty air. Nothing satisfies. This indeed is the definition of religion. What sets apart our Christian faith is the story told in reverse – one of a loving Father who pursues us because we are too foolish and too sin-stained to go to Him.

p. 109 I never had the experience of looking for God. It was the other way around: He was the hunter (or so it seemed to me) and I was the deer. He stalked me… took unerring aim and fired. And I am very thankful that this is how the first (conscious) meeting occurred. It forearms one against subsequent fears that the whole thing was only wish fulfillment. Something one didn’t wish for can hardly be that. –C.S. Lewis

p. 136 The weakness of humanity is the proper container to glorify God.

My birthday was yesterday. My 39^th year has completed and I am now on the road to the big 4-0. As I reflected on those years, GRACE is the defining factor – without a doubt. On SO MANY levels in EVEY facet of my life. God’s grace overwhelms me when I think of His speaking to me at such a young age, giving me amazingly loving and supportive parents, showering me with a wealth of relationships both family and friends, gifting me a best friend and lover to be my companion for more than half my life now, His protection and provision and patience with me… and much MUCH more. Sure, sometimes, life has been heart breaking and worse than tough. But His grace has been and will continue to be sufficient for me… and for you, no matter what you’re facing today.

Hope the last week of February 2013 is treating you all well, Dry Ground friends!

(photo by yours truly)