But, I Want it Now!

John 7:1-9
After these things Jesus moved about in Galilee, for he did not wish to move about in Judaea, because the Jews were out to kill him. The festival of the Jews which is called the Festival of Tabernacles was near. So his brothers said to him: "Leave here and go down to Jerusalem so that your disciples will get the chance to see the works that you do. For no one goes on doing things in secret, when he wishes to draw public attention to himself. Since you can do these things, show yourself to the world." For even his brothers did not believe in him. So Jesus said to them: "The time of opportunity that I am looking for has not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I bear witness about it that its deeds are evil. Go up to the festival yourselves. I am not yet going up to the festival, because my time has not yet come." When he had said these things to them he remained in Galilee.

Dear Jesus,

You made me with an internal clock that insists "NOW!" Some folks procrastinate for tomorrow. Others gaze into a rearview mirror of yesterday. You made me to live in a moment, see what needs to be done, and do it. As such, I am terrified of procrastination. I avoid "last-minute" and lateness by working ahead. If I see a problem, I work to fix it immediately.

But some things cannot be handled "now." You were faced with an invitation to go to Jerusalem with Your disciples, and responded that the time was not yet right. When You showed up a couple of days late, You arrived right on time.

William Barclay: "Jesus does things, not in man's time, but in God's time. The impatience of man must learn to wait on the wisdom of God. The world goes to God's timetable, not to ours" (In The Gospel of John, vol. 1, 1955, p. 241).

You seem intent upon teaching me this reality. You have a timetable. I cannot know Your timing. Your timing often seems like delay to me, until I have the vantage of hindsight. Then I can often see the miraculous ways in which You were orchestrating people and events to accomplish Your purpose.

Teach me to pray in the midst of delay. Help me to learn the lesson of trusting as I wait upon You. Encourage me to endure in faith. Teach me to walk by faith, not by sight.

Work Your character into my life in the drama of delay. I want to be like You. Make me more Christlike. Then sear these lessons of truth upon my mind and heart so that I don't have to wrestle repeatedly through such seasons of impatient mistrust and doubt.

I love You and I need You.

Amen.

A Model of Christ or of Judas?

I remember hearing this story years ago.  I don't know the original source. 

John 6:66-71 
"After this many of his disciples turned back and would not walk with him any more. Jesus said to the Twelve: "Surely you too do not want to go away?" Simon Peter answered him: "Lord, to whom are we to go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed and we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God." Jesus answered them: "Did I not choose you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he was going to betray him--and he was one of the Twelve."

"There is a terrible story about an artist who was painting the Last Supper. It was a great picture and it took him many years. As model for the face of Christ he used a young man with a face of transcendent loveliness and purity. Bit by bit the picture was filled in and one after another the disciples were painted. The day came when he needed a model for Judas whose face he had left to the last. He went out and searched in the lowest haunts of the city and in the dens of vice. At last he found a man with a face so depraved and vicious as matched his requirement. When the sittings were at an end the man said to the artist: "You painted me before." "Surely not," said the artist. "O yes," said the man, "I sat for your Christ." The years had brought terrible deterioration. 

"The years can be cruel. They can take away our ideals and our enthusiasms and our dreams and our loyalties. They can leave us with a life that has grown smaller and not bigger. They can leave us with a heart that is shrivelled instead of one expanded in the love of Christ. There can be a lost loveliness in life--God saves us from that!"  (William Barclay in The Gospel of John, vol. 1, 1955, pp. 237-238).

Save the State or the Church?

Romans 13:1-3 "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same."

Romans 13:4 "For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. "

Romans 12:1-2 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

Dear Jesus,

Throughout my life, I have identified the United States of America as a Christian nation.  When election season has come, I have prayerfully and conscientiously voted for whomever I perceived as the best candidate.  Candidly, my choice has often been the lesser of two evils.

As an American, I believed that I had access to government.  I have been able to exert influence, not only through the ballot box, but also through relationships and connections with people possessing political and governmental authority.

Today, the State seems to have turned explicitly against me.  The State has turned against historical Christian values that have birthed my nation.  The State is opposed to Your Body--the Church. My world is post-Christian.

What's new?  First-century Christians knew the reality of a State that opposed them as a religious minority.  The Early Church faced opposition and persecution for its faith.  But it was status quo. It was business as normal.

I find myself tempted to exert my political will and influence to change things. Other Christians seem convinced that the only way to fight our current spiritual battle is with carnal weapons. But your Word tells me that "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds" (II Corinthians 10:4).

Your Church wants to chide the State.  Your Church wants to fix our world through national government.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "The starting-point of St. Paul's thinking is always the Church... He feels obliged to warn the Christians to refrain from any unjust or evil conduct themselves, but does not utter a single word of reproach to the State." (In The Cost of Discipleship, 1959, p. 262).  Your Church is trying to use carnal weapons.

Your Church seems obsessed with turning government into a weapon to advance holiness, while excusing itself for its sin.  Bonhoeffer observed the Biblical standard: "On no account must evil occur within the Church.  Once again, St. Paul is talking to the Christians, not to the State... St. Paul certainly does not speak to the Christians in this way because the governments of this world are so good, but because the Church must obey the will of God, whether the State be bad or good.  He has no intention to instruct the Christian community about the task and responsibility of government.  His entire concern is with the responsibility of the Christian community towards the State" (Ibid, pp. 262-263).

Oh God, I repent of our sinful strategies to advance holiness.  Your Church has condemned the sin of the State, while secreting her own perversion. Your Church has criticized and judged political leaders and establishments as sinful and self-serving, while all the while preaching "failure theology" from her pulpits, and boastfully practicing daily sin in the pew. Your Church has tried to advance holiness through legislation and protests, while excusing herself for living in habitual sin.  The gig is up.  Carnal strategies don't make governments or sinning Christians holy.

St. Paul wrote: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21). "It is immaterial whether the power be good or bad, what matters is that the Christian should overcome evil by good" (Ibid., p. 263).  Forgive us for being overcome by evil. Forgive us for trying to overcome evil with evil.  Forgive us for valuing and implementing carnal strategies to accomplish spiritual goals.  Our strategies have failed.

Help me to return to Biblical strategies for influence.  "Overcome evil with good." "Do what is good."   "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

In the Name of Jesus, whom the State rejected, and continues to reject,
Amen.

"Not my will, but Yours, be done."

Luke 22:42 "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."

Lord Jesus,

I want Your attitude in the Garden of Gethsemane to be my attitude.  You told Father, "Nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."

I remember three years ago, praying that prayer.  I was in Derwood and Regina's guest room.  It was apparent that I would be offered the position as president of Wesley Biblical Seminary.  The prospect before me was scary... challenging.  I knew it would be hard.  I prayed,  "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."

I have known my share of ease and comfort.  Learning has always come easily to me.  I knew how to do school.  I am quick.  You have given me the ability to handle multiple simultaneous tasks with reasonable efficiency.  Success has blessed my life.  But a tension stretched my soul three years ago.  On the one hand, I wanted ease and comfort. On the other, I desperately needed to be challenged.  Challenge meant risk.  Embracing Your will meant I must risk potential failure.

Thank You for seeing worth in me.  Thank You for birthing a desire for Your will.  Thank You for challenging me beyond my own will to Yours.  Thank You for calling me to die to my own success, and risk failure, if need be, for Your glory. 

William Barclay wrote: "When we appeal to Christ, is it for strength to go on with our own schemes and ideas or is it for humility and obedience to accept his plans and wishes? Is our prayer: 'Lord, give me strength to do what you want me to do' or is it in reality: 'Lord, give me strength to do what I want to do'?" (In The Gospel of John, vol. 1, 1955, pp. 209-210).

I pray that I will always seek Your will, no matter how difficult and challenging it may seem to me.  Strengthen me when my disposition would shrink from the challenge.  Temper me with a steel of character.  Grant me the resolve to endure hardship, accusation, and suffering for Your Namesake.  "Lord, give me strength to do what you want me to do."

I have friends who are facing tremendous assaults from the enemy today.  They find themselves in the crosshairs of suffering, temptation, and sickness.  Grant them grace and courage to endure.  While these adversities may not be your will for their lives, they are the reality my friends face in this fallen, sin-cursed world.  

Stiffen our resolve.  Strengthen our character.  Deepen our faith.  Empower us to endure.  Make heaven sweeter.  Stir within us the singular desire to finish well, and hear You say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." 

We love You.  We need You.  We long for Your will to be done in us and through us.

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost who draw us into Your perfect will,

Amen.

Hope for a Harvest

Jeremiah 31:17
"There is hope in your future, says the Lord, That your children shall come back to their own border."

Dear God,

You gave me this promise for Wesley Biblical Seminary on June 18, 2013.  Since then, You have been fulfilling this promise in thrilling and dramatic ways.  WBS enrolled 48 students in August, 2013 for the first semester of our recovery.  We have seen steady enrollment growth, and today we have over 100 students for three consecutive semesters. "Your children shall come back to their own border."

Thank You for fulfilling Your promise for Wesley Biblical Seminary.  I praise You for being true to Your Word to bring students to study at WBS.

You promised that the weak Hebrew nation, repatriated to Jerusalem after Babylonian captivity, would defy nature: "For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth—A woman shall encompass a man" (Jeremiah 31:22).  Make this once weak and struggling thing, Wesley Biblical Seminary, to triumph victoriously against all natural and supernatural forces.  Defy explanation, so that You alone may be praised!

You promised that Jerusalem would experience Your renewed blessing as a "home of justice, and mountain of holiness!" This is our distinctive! Wesley Biblical Seminary must be a mountain of holiness in a plain of mediocrity and nominal Christianity. Bless us, to that end, for Your glory!

"And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flocks" (Jeremiah 31:24).  Thank You for the shepherds who once again are studying at Wesley Biblical Seminary.  Thank You for the hard labor of our team who are plowing ground, planting seed, harvesting, and building for the future!

But Your answers to prayer have come at a price.  Our souls are weary.  Our bodies are tired. The lack of adequate finances is a constant pressure.  You told Jeremiah that in the midst of restoration and repatriation, that You would strengthen the exhausted and sad. "For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul" (Jeremiah 31:25).  Exhaustion and sorrow plague us.  The sorrow of our financial woes often overshadow the miraculous return of students to WBS. We desperately need strength and encouragement.  You promise to be the Source of both.  Be our resource!

Fulfill Your Promise! “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass, that as I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord" (Jeremiah 31:27-28).  Sow seeds of hope. Grow a harvest of a prosperous future.  Watch over Your field and flock, Wesley Biblical Seminary.

We love You. We need You. We seek to do Your work and Your will. Strengthen our hands to plow straight furrows, sow seeds of faith, and reap a harvest. "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not" (Galatians 6:9).

In the Name of the God who gives the increase (I Corinthians 3:6),

Amen.

Pleasing the Father

John 5:30  "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me."

Heavenly Father,

Your Son, Jesus Christ, expressed His passion to seek to do your will.  I share that passion.    I don't pretend to be as good as Jesus.  I don't imagine myself to be more than I am.  I don't suppose that I have any extraordinary access to You that transcends another seeking heart, but I do want to do Your will.  

If I know my heart, and the witness of Your Holy Spirit, I am walking in obedience to Your Holy Word, based upon the light of Your revelation to my own heart.  I sense Your presence near.  When I get out of line, I sense the check of the Holy Spirit leading me back to the center of Your holy highway.  

I love You.  I want to live for You, please You, and be consumed with knowing and doing Your will.  

Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me a new life in Your Son, Jesus Christ.  Thank You for the Holy Spirit coming to live in me.  Thank You for loving me enough to see potential in me to do Your will today.

Like Jesus, I can do nothing apart from You.  I earnestly seek to know and do Your will today.  Thank You for seeking my heart.  Thank You that You want to show me Your will more than I even want to know it.  Now, give me sense enough to understand You.

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Amen.

Don't Push Back?

I find myself reeling as I read the words of Jesus.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.  If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away" (Matthew 5:38-42  NKJV).

Really?  Requite evil through non-resistance?  Don't push back?  Let evil roll its tanks of destruction over you?  But I want to fight back!

The Apostle Paul echoed the command of Christ when he wrote:  "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled" (II Corinthians 10:3-6).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:  "The only way to overcome evil is to let it run itself to a standstill because it does not find the resistance it is looking for.  Resistance merely creates further evil and adds fuel to the flames.  But  when evil meets no opposition and encounters no obstacle but only patient endurance, its sting is drawn and at last it meets an opponent which is more than its match.  Of course this can only happen when the last ounce of resistance is abandoned, and the renunciation of revenge is complete.  Then evil cannot find its mark, it can breed no further evil, and is left barren" (In The Cost of Discipleship, 1959, pp. 141-142).

So I ask myself the question, "Was Bonhoeffer inconsistent when he participated in the German resistance against Naziism? Did he betray this truth he proclaimed in the 1930s in the midst of the crisis of World War II?  "

I really don't know the answer to that question.  Perhaps he weakened in his resolve.  I don't know.

However, I do remember how it ended for Bonhoeffer.  His prison guards loved him.  His fellow inmates held him in the highest regard.  He died a martyr's death.  Even in death... perhaps, especially in death, his influence lives.  

Naziism is powerless today.  Perhaps, you say, that's because the Allies massacred the Nazis and obliterated the Third Reich.  True.  

But what about Bonhoeffer?  What about his persistent call to the church to be disciples of Jesus Christ?  Does that call still echo?  What about his call to non-violence?  What about Bonhoeffer's insistence that true disciples demonstrate the attitude of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount?  Does any of that point the way forward for you and me in times of suffering?  Surely, it does.  

I see the storm clouds darkening the horizon.   The godless assaults of the sinful bigots cry, "Tolerance."  The light of truth dims as the relativists marshall their forces.  They cry for tolerance as they amass their intellectual militias with an assault of character assassination, destroying the lives of good people who dare to espouse a belief in Truth.  

How must Christ's Church push back?  What is Jesus' pattern for our resistance?  

The true Church of Jesus Christ pushes back without bombs, without guns, without hate.  The Church pushes back with love, evangelism, pointing to a better way--a narrow way, a way of Life.  The Church pushes back by demonstrating a life that has taken that better way, not by resorting to fleshly warfare.  We push back by suffering, and if need be, by dying.

But what about Isis?  They want to kill me.  They want to destroy my way of life.  

"The followers of Jesus for his sake renounce every personal right... The Church is different:  it has abandoned political and national status, and therefore it must patiently endure aggression... When a Christian meets with injustice he no longer clings to his rights and deeds them at all costs" (ibid, pp. 141-142).

What about the LGBTQ agenda? It seeks to force me to call evil good.  Friends all around me are capitulating to the pressure.  Professing Christians are betraying the very authority of God's Word to receive the praise of men and avoid persecution.  

"By willing endurance we cause suffering to pass.  Evil becomes a spent force when we put up no resistance.  By refusing to pay back the enemy in his own coin, and by preferring to suffer without resistance, the Christian exhibits the sinfulness of contumely and insult... The exclusiveness of this adherence is the only power which can overcome evil... Suffering willingly endured is stronger than evil, it spells death to evil. There is no deed on earth so outrageous as to justify a different attitude.  The worse the evil, the readier must the Christian be to suffer; he must let the evil person fall into Jesus' hands" (ibid, p. 142).

As I refuse to respond in kind to the hate, vitriol, and vileness of my would-be oppressors, the dignity of a true Christian witness with shine in the darkness.  That kind of vocal, deliberate, enduring, winsome response follows the example of our Lord Jesus.  That is a "push back" that confounds the world.  

Who has believed our report?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,

And as a root out of dry ground.

He has no form or comeliness;

And when we see Him,

There is no beauty that we should desire Him.

He is despised and rejected by men,

A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Surely He has borne our griefs

And carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted,

Yet He opened not His mouth;

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,

And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

So He opened not His mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment,

And who will declare His generation?

For He was cut off from the land of the living;

For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.

And they made His grave with the wicked—

But with the rich at His death,

Because He had done no violence,

Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;

He has put Him to grief.

When You make His soul an offering for sin,

He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,

And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.

He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.

By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,

For He shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,

And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,

Because He poured out His soul unto death,

And He was numbered with the transgressors,

And He bore the sin of many,

And made intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53

May I be found worthy of pushing back like Jesus.  

The Salt of the Earth

Matthew 5:13 

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men."

Dear Jesus,

I have heard people quote you.  They say, "Isn't he just the salt of the earth?"  Their remarks praise a family with "Those folks are the salt of the earth."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:  "Everything else needs to be seasoned with salt, but once the salt itself has lost its savor, it can never be salted again.  Everything else can be saved by salt, however bad it has gone--only salt which loses its savor has no hope of recovery.  That is the other side of the picture.  That is the judgment which always hangs over the disciple community, whose mission is to save the world, but which, if it ceases to live up to that mission, is itself irretrievably lost.  The call of Jesus Christ means either that we are the salt of the earth, or else we are annihilated; either we follow the call or we are crushed beneath it."

Salt seasons. Salt can lose its ability to season.  Once its savor is lost, it cannot be regained.  

What a powerful hope.  What an alarming warning!

Christ-followers are that savor to a broken, hurting, sin-cursed world.  We offer hope, zest, life, and purpose to an otherwise chaotic and meaningless existence.  We extend passion for living to lost, hopeless people.  

But the warning is against losing our zest, our savor, our flavor.  The warning is against becoming so exposed to our surroundings, so corrupted by other influences, so decayed and decrepit in our faith that we fit into our surroundings.  We hide.  We lose any sense of remark-ability.  We become ordinary, despairing, hopeless, complaining, critical people.  We gossip, lie, fornicate, steal, cheat, deceive, manipulate, coerce, and live in drunken inebriation.  No flavor.  Or we may simply dwindle in our passion, our zeal, our zest for life in Christ, until we are neutered into harmlessness, defanged and declawed, by a world system of tolerance which seeks to normatize us into its conventions. 

Oh, God. Keep me salty.  Help me to be an invigorating, savory, flavorful influence to draw others to Jesus, my Savior and Lord!

In the Name of Christ, my Lord,

Amen. 

The Law of Sowing and Reaping

John 4:35-38 NKJV
35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months andthen comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! 36 And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”

I Corinthians 3:5-9 KJV
5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

Dear Jesus,

Thank You for the simple reminder to sow and harvest.  So common.  So ordinary.  So in tune with the calendar's rhythm of life.  

Thank You for sowing the seed of Your life.  Your sacrificial life and death upon a cross provided atonement for my sins. Your dead body was buried in a tomb, like a seed in the ground.  Through death, You resurrected.  And with Your resurrection Your church was born.

Thank You for those who have sown the seed of the Gospel into my life.  My parents, Sunday school teachers, pastors, and spiritual mentors have invested seed of grace and truth.  Some planted one or two seeds.  Others scattered broadly, cultivating, and investing time and energy in order to ensure a harvest. 

Thank You for those who have sown the seed of truth and faithfulness into the place of ministry and service I enjoy today.  I stand upon their shoulders.  The sacrifice of those who came before me is a special treasure.  When I am weak, remind me of their strength and endurance.  When I am impatient, remind me of their patience.  When I am tempted to doubt, remind me of their faith.  When I am blinded by fear, remind me of their courage.  

Help me to always remember that any harvest You grant in my life is not self-made.  You have placed a reality in all of the physical, natural, and spiritual world--a law of sowing and reaping.  May I honor Your law.  

Thank You, Lord.  I love You.  My prayer today is that I might bear fruit for Your glory.

In the Name of Jesus, the Sower and Harvester,

Amen.

Cheap Grace--Bonhoeffer

The Cost of Discipleship
by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace... Cheap grace therefore amounts to  denial of the living Word of God, in fact a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God."

"That is what we mean by cheap grace, the grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs... Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.  Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."


"Costly grace is the Incarnation of God... Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says:  'My yoke is easy and my burden is light.'"

"The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ.  Such a man knows that the call to discipleship is a gift of grace, and that the call is inseparable from the grace.  But those who try to use this grace as a dispensation from following Christ are simply deceiving themselves."

"This cheap grace has been no less disastrous to our own spiritual lives.  Instead of opening up the way to Christ it has closed it.  Instead of calling us to follow Christ, it has hardened us in our disobedience... The word of cheap grace has been the ruin of more Christians than any commandment of works."