Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear,
the hour I first believed.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Preaching . . . . in New England
I've been thinking....
Hell or grace....
Which is harder to preach, honestly?
Which will get a good bible-preaching pastor in more trouble, from all sides?
Which one is more likely to be misunderstood, misapplied, and abused?
Which is more offensive to the self-righteous prig?
Which is harder to understand, or to accept?
Which one is more often refused?
Which one offers hope?
Which one sucks the hope right out of you?
Which one cannot exist without the other?
Hell is logical - we deserve it.
You can have hell without grace....
... but you can't have grace without hell.
I think we need to preach grace to the lost in this God-forsaken place called New England where fewer than 2 or 3 in 100 even know what I'm talking about. These New Englanders may not believe in hell, but they do already know about it - they live it, and they know it well, even if they don't know what it's called.
Grace on the other hand is something they haven't got a clue about. These are the work-hard, pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps folk. Traditionally they earn their keep. Sure they help their neighbor. But if their neighbor is a lazy good-for-nothing, well, they don't keep digging him out of the same pit over and over again.
Grace is getting what you don't deserve, and we New Englanders don't like that. We like to keep our accounts even. You know, tit for tat. I might help my neighbor, and I know someone (not necessarily my neighbor) will help me too. What goes around comes around - a complicated tit for tat if you follow my meaning.
Grace isn't like that. It's truly free. And we don't deserve it.
And we New Englanders think, usually rightly so, that if it looks to good to be true, it probably is. Better work harder. Try harder. Preach "better". Live "righter" Don't take chances. You know, reduce, reuse, recycle, be idealistic, change the world, strive, work, do more....
But grace isn't like that. It's really free.
Romans 6:1-2a What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!
If our grace-abounding lives and our grace-filled preaching don't lead us to ask that question, then we probably haven't done a good job living or sharing grace. Of course the answer is "no" - grace is not license to sin.
But it is really that free - that it makes us ask that question. And it should.
Hell's obvious.
Grace is mind-boggling.
And it's just as real.
And it's free.
And it changes everything.
It gives hope.
It gives life.
It restores broken relationships, starting with the most important one - our relationship with God.
It explains everything.
It underestimates nothing - not even the reality of hell.
And it is worth everything.
And it costs nothing.
Because God gives it. 100%. Gratis.
Try preaching that in New England.
Hell or grace....
Which is harder to preach, honestly?
Which will get a good bible-preaching pastor in more trouble, from all sides?
Which one is more likely to be misunderstood, misapplied, and abused?
Which is more offensive to the self-righteous prig?
Which is harder to understand, or to accept?
Which one is more often refused?
Which one offers hope?
Which one sucks the hope right out of you?
Which one cannot exist without the other?
Hell is logical - we deserve it.
You can have hell without grace....
... but you can't have grace without hell.
GRACE is scandalous
I think we need to preach grace to the lost in this God-forsaken place called New England where fewer than 2 or 3 in 100 even know what I'm talking about. These New Englanders may not believe in hell, but they do already know about it - they live it, and they know it well, even if they don't know what it's called.
Grace on the other hand is something they haven't got a clue about. These are the work-hard, pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps folk. Traditionally they earn their keep. Sure they help their neighbor. But if their neighbor is a lazy good-for-nothing, well, they don't keep digging him out of the same pit over and over again.
Grace is getting what you don't deserve, and we New Englanders don't like that. We like to keep our accounts even. You know, tit for tat. I might help my neighbor, and I know someone (not necessarily my neighbor) will help me too. What goes around comes around - a complicated tit for tat if you follow my meaning.
Grace isn't like that. It's truly free. And we don't deserve it.
And we New Englanders think, usually rightly so, that if it looks to good to be true, it probably is. Better work harder. Try harder. Preach "better". Live "righter" Don't take chances. You know, reduce, reuse, recycle, be idealistic, change the world, strive, work, do more....
But grace isn't like that. It's really free.
Romans 6:1-2a What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!
If our grace-abounding lives and our grace-filled preaching don't lead us to ask that question, then we probably haven't done a good job living or sharing grace. Of course the answer is "no" - grace is not license to sin.
But it is really that free - that it makes us ask that question. And it should.
Hell's obvious.
Grace is mind-boggling.
And it's just as real.
And it's free.
And it changes everything.
It gives hope.
It gives life.
It restores broken relationships, starting with the most important one - our relationship with God.
It explains everything.
It underestimates nothing - not even the reality of hell.
And it is worth everything.
And it costs nothing.
Because God gives it. 100%. Gratis.
Try preaching that in New England.
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