Grace- The Book

Late last year, I had a sudden revelation of the power of God's Grace. It was as if I sudddenly saw the full importance of God's self-giving for the first time.

I decided at the time that I would preach on grace all throught his current year, which is what I am doing.

I also said that if I ever wrote a book about any topic it would be about grace.

Last night I sat down and wrote the introduction. Here is the first draft. I'd be interested in any comments people would like to make. ...

Introduction

It was Sunday afternoon, a few weeks before Christmas. It had been a beautiful spring afternoon, and I was in my office pondering a message for the small group that makes up our evening service.

Mostly I am well organised and inspiration for sermons comes easily, but this particular afternoon I was stumped. I flipped though my bible looking for something to jump out at me. I prayed, “Lord, what do you want me to preach tonight?” Still no inspiration.

Suddenly, out of the blue, this question flashed through my mind:

“Is it possible that God's grace is greater than we can ever imagine?”

Instantly, like the finale to a fireworks display, hundreds of other thoughts started exploding in my head- the implications/for christians in understanding ourselves, understanding God, relating to each other- every aspect of our life, in fact.

how does a person get right with God?
how do we forgive the people who hurt us?
what is church all about?
why do I feel so reluctant to tell my friends about God?

Literally, dozens of thoughts- some in question form, others as statements, yet others just glimpses of something seen in the fog- flashed through my head in the space of ten minutes.

As my head began to spin from all of this revelation, one thought bothered me. This revelation of grace is so far from what we see taught and practised in the church. In fact I realised with a start, almost everything that happens in churches is about religion and not about grace-filled christianity. It's as if we have a blanket over our heads preventing us from really seeing what Jesus was on about.

It's not hard to guess what the evening's service was about!

A few days later, this revelation was put to the test.

A young unmarried woman in our congregation came to see me with a confession that she was pregnant. This particular lady was teaching scripture in school and had already been told by another member of the church that I would tell her that she would have to quit that ministry.

As this lady is telling me her story, another storm is happening in my head. The legalist in me is saying “Of course she can't continue to teach Scripture. How can she minister the gospel when she is so clearly walking in sin?” The new-found grace-ist in me is saying, “Here is a chance to put into practice the ministry of grace.”

While we talked, I realised that God had planned all of this as a disruption to my way of thinking, an opportunity to take seriously the revelation He had given me just five days before.

Over the last few weeks, we have come across some DVDs by American teacher Louie Giglio. Louie travels the world with messages which combine the insights of science with the perspectives of Christian faith. In a message called “Indescribable” he takes his audiences to the limits of the known universe to show that at the heart of one of the most intriguing galaxies there is a structure in the shape of a cross. In another message, he talks about the human body and the protein lamanin which is what holds our bodies together- it too is shaped like a cross,

At the limits of the known universe, and in the cells of every person there is a cross.

On a hill in Jerusalem 2000 years ago was a cross that brought about the most incredible outpouring of the love of God that the world could ever experience.

In the stars, in our bodies, in history- grace is all around us.

Join me in this journey as we explore the unimaginable grace of God.