I celebrated my 62nd birthday a few days ago. Maybe celebrated is the wrong word for it, but you know what I mean. Frankly, I'm feeling a bit surprised that I made it this far. Looking back, the path of my life is littered with lots of presumption, ignorance, and self-interest, along with many glaring instances of failing to put even the most obvious of two's with another two. I have fallen very short on God's scale. Sometimes I haven't even been very high on the human scale. And that's just the little bit I'm aware of. There should be no doubt that He's protected, forgiven, blessed, and carried me -- and you -- many more times and at much greater depth than any of us are aware. We just don't get it, at least not by much, and we see only a very small portion of how good He is to us.
And that makes me think of grace, the Saving Grace that results in our eternal salvation. What does it cost?
Without getting too high-falutin with the words and logic, here it is, as plain and simple as I can make it. By the way, High-Falutin = fancy, highbrow, self-important, and deliberately showy. You know, putting on airs. It comes from the Dutch word verlooten, for stilted. I do come from a long line of Dutchmen, so it's okay for me to use words like that, especially about myself.
Discussions about the cost of grace often end up in arguments about Faith and Works. Avoiding that for now, my conclusion is that Saving Grace costs me absolutely nothing and yet it costs me absolutely everything.
Can't have it both ways, you say? Follow along, I think you'll change your mind.
And that makes me think of grace, the Saving Grace that results in our eternal salvation. What does it cost?
Without getting too high-falutin with the words and logic, here it is, as plain and simple as I can make it. By the way, High-Falutin = fancy, highbrow, self-important, and deliberately showy. You know, putting on airs. It comes from the Dutch word verlooten, for stilted. I do come from a long line of Dutchmen, so it's okay for me to use words like that, especially about myself.
Discussions about the cost of grace often end up in arguments about Faith and Works. Avoiding that for now, my conclusion is that Saving Grace costs me absolutely nothing and yet it costs me absolutely everything.
Can't have it both ways, you say? Follow along, I think you'll change your mind.
