GRACE, or lack thereof
Monday, October 27th, 2008 | Uncategorized
After being spoiled by a church that always preaches the gospel of Grace, I have found myself lacking grace in my own life, particularly here in Ethiopia. The two major religions in Ethiopia do not seem to contain much grace at all, if any. They are very rule based, as if salvation came from following rules. It feels the same way sometimes at my job—very Pharisaical. I have heard missionaries say that after asking a group of pastors how people are saved their answer was “by following the law”. Perhaps this is why recently recovered prostitutes who have walked away from that lifestyle have a difficult time being accepted in churches here. These churches seem to not preach or promote grace very often.
I think GRACE is hard for us to grasp. Everything in our world disconfirms its existence. Very few people just get handed things for free in this life. They always have to work towards something to get what they want, and grace is the polar opposite. Grace says that I don’t have to earn what I need desperately. In fact, I don’t even have to do a thing to deserve it. I just have it for FREE! Amazing!
Fortunately, there are still ways that I can hold onto God’s Grace here…like reading Redeeming Love (a novel based on the book of Hosea) for the second time, reading Hosea 2 and being amazed at God’s amazing, compassionate love on his beloved Israel who has prostituted herself so many times, listening to sermons from home. For myself, sometimes I find the grace of God is too good to be true, and then I realize that the reason that it brings me to tears so often is because it is true and I need it desperately.
No comments yet.