August 19, 2010
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Short, but not insignificant
Last week, I posted on some ideas I’ve been developing for some time. It started with the idea that we are all helpless and in need of a Saviour. If that is accepted to be true, then we must also conclude that no one person is better than anyone else. I am not better than you just because I am a Christian. We have all done wrong, and no amount of right we ever do will make up for it.
This past Sunday, I had the privilege of visiting with New Life Fellowship again. It’s a wonderful church and I love going there. I grow a little (and sometimes a lot) each time I visit. This time, the sermon was the 4th in the series on Jonah. Coincidentally, it dealt with some very similar themes of which I had been blogging about. The speaker spoke about grace amnesia, and the importance of receiving and giving grace. One of the principal quotes of the sermon was this:
“If we are to be grace extenders, we have to be grace receivers. If we are to be grace receivers, we have to realize that we are no better than anyone else.”
The entirety of the sermon can be found here. Please, please, please take some time to sit down and listen to it. It’s worth it. Facebook will live without you for an hour. If you can embrace what he’s saying, this will change your life.
More to come tomorrow.
Comments (2)
Joke: But if we don’t keep feeding Facebook, it will starve and shrivel!
Sobriety: Thank you for pointing me to this. I think most Christians completely forget that we really *are not* somehow inherently more worthy than others, and I know I hear from many nonChristians about how Christians lord their Christianity over them, and it completely turns them off from seeking a Savior.
@sonnetjoy - Very true. Not only are we not inherently more worthy than others, we also aren’t sinless saints once we follow Jesus. We are not without desires, temptations, and falls. When we proclaim to be sinless (or just plain better than others), we don’t just crush the hearts of other believers who know their own struggles, we turn off seekers who know us, and see past our deception.