Liberating you from bad ideas about God
I read about 70 blogs a day. It takes me about 20 minutes. I do read pretty fast, but the real key is to use a Blog Reader.
I used to use Google Reader, but now I use Feedly.
If you still read the blogs you like by individually going to each one, save yourself some time and use Feedly. It’s simple, easy, and free. To sign up now, just click on the “Bloglines” button in the left column. You can thank me later.
Previously I suggested that we stop talking about grace and start living grace.
I am by no means an expert on how to live a life of grace. Up until a few months ago, the entire focus of my life was to read, write, study, teach, and talk about grace. But despite all this study and reading, I did a very poor job living grace.
Yesterday, I suggested that the more a person talks and writes and proclaims grace, the less they seem to live it. That’s just my experience.
(So, with that being said, let me talk and write some more about grace! Ha!)
Here is how I am trying to learn to live a life of grace.
First, I started trying to figure out which sort of people were most often criticized, judged, and condemned by the churches, Christians, radio shows, books, and articles I interact with. These people made my mental “grace list.”
Second, I started praying to see these people as Jesus sees them, and to give me opportunities to get to know them. I suspected that it is much easier to judge a person’s bad theology or bad behavior if I don’t actually know them.
Finally, I began to actively seek out these people to get to know them and befriend them. I set up appointments. I scheduled lunch meetings. I applied for jobs with them so I could work with them and help them. I read their blogs, and interact with them by e-mail (all in a kind, gracious manner!).
Let me give you some examples of people you could try to develop relationships with: atheists, abortion doctors, homosexuals, pornographers, strippers, prostitutes, drug addicts, alcoholics, people who have different theological views than you do, people with different political views, etc.
There are dozens more. 
And by the way, if you are going to try to develop friendships with people who are different than you, don’t focus on the things that separate you. Your friendship will last about two seconds if you do that. Just try to get to know them as a person.
Focus on the things you have in common. Try to find out everything you can about them, and who they are. Learn about their dreams, desires, and goals in life. Ask if there is any way you can help them or be of service to them.
The only way to truly teach grace is to engage in living grace among other people.
How are you doing this in your own life?
I had a discussion today with a guy that most Christians love to hate. This man used to be a Christian, but rejected it all about twenty years ago, and now lives as a pot-smoking, cursing, swinging spiritist.
Yet as I talked to him, I found myself thoroughly enjoying the conversation… more than any theological or biblical conversation I have had in the last several years. It was one of the most refreshing and eye-opening discussions I have ever had.
It wasn’t refreshing and eye-opening because of anything I learned from him, but because it gave me a new appreciation into how many Christians treat non-Christians, compared to how many non-Christians treat Christians in return.
He told me about some of the criticism he gets from Christians, and how he just tries to respond with kindness and love. Isn’t it strange that many Christians, who are supposed to be known for our love, really only have love for each other, whereas everyone outside our “group” gets condemned and criticized for their beliefs and behavior?
I have noticed this sort of behavior on many fronts.
I have noticed this not just in my interactions with people at work and with my neighbors, but also online and in movies. As an example, did you see the movie God’s Not Dead? In it, a Christian university student is challenged by an atheist professor to defend his evangelical beliefs.
I found it strange that in the movie, the meanest and rudest people were the atheists. Also, the “token” Muslim family had a father who beat his daughter.
This is the sort of way Christians often portray non-Christians to one-another, which only goes to show that many Christians have absolutely no idea what most atheists and Muslims are like.
The people that Christians most loudly denounce are often some of the most gracious people to be around.
Doesn’t that seem strange?
Those of us who are saved by grace, teach grace, write about grace, proclaim grace, and have “grace” in the names of our churches and ministries, are some of the least gracious people that exist.
Which got me thinking… just like the preacher pounds the pulpit during his weakest points, maybe those who talk loudest about grace are trying to compensate for a lifestyle that lacks grace.
Maybe those of us who talk and write a lot about grace should follow the example of non-believers (and Jesus) and start living grace before we ever start to talk about grace with others.
Besides, living out grace is a better way to teach grace any day.
Did you see the article in USA Today about the unchurched? The basic findings are that the average person who doesn’t go to church wants to learn more about Jesus and is even open to talking about Him with Christian friends, but doesn’t think the church is doing a very good job representing Jesus (either in our words or actions). Here are a few quotes:
Most of the unchurched (86%) say they believe they can have a “good relationship with God without belonging to a church.” And 79% say “Christianity today is more about organized religion than loving God and loving people.”
“These outsiders are making a clear comment that churches are not getting through on the two greatest commandments,” to love God and love your neighbor, says Scott McConnell, associate director of LifeWay Research. “When they look at churches … they don’t see people living out the faith.”
But despite respondents’ critical views of organized religion, Stetzer is optimistic. He cites the finding that 78% would “be willing to listen” to someone tell “what he or she believed about Christianity.”
They already know believers — 89% of the unchurched have at least one close friend who is Christian, Stetzer noted.
And 71% agreed that “believing in Jesus makes a positive difference in a person’s life.”
“What surprised me is the openness of the hard-core unchurched to the message of God and Christianity — just not as expressed in church,” Stetzer says.
So who do you know that you can start a conversation with about Jesus?
Of course, the goal is not get unchurched into church…. that’s just more religion. The goal is show Jesus to others, love others, and invite people into friendship with Jesus, whether or not they ever “attend church.”
We often hear that while works are not required for justification, they are the necessary result of justification and true saving faith. I argue that this makes works a condition of eternal life.
Here is the article so you can read it:
Are Works the Necessary Result of Justification?
See this follow-up article here:
The Relationship Between Faith and Works according to Three Systems of Theology
