My mom's cousin called the other day. She actually wanted to talk to my mom but I happen to be the only one home. Lucky me :) I had just returned from Japan and we caught up on my time there and my time now here.
I had told her how I'd really met the Lord in Japan and in ways that I'd never really expected. In most of my life I'd been taught to; go to church Sunday, go to Bible study, etc. I am not saying what I was taught was wrong but I've also come to the conclusion that "church" and "Bible study" aren't always what the western world thinks they should be. I also came to know and understand, a little, what it means to be a lone with God. To really spend time with Him and to rest in Him.
She recommended a book I'd heard of but had never read. "What's so Amazing about Grace?" by Philip Yancey. I'd heard Philip Yancey speak while I was at college but had never read any of his work. Yesterday, I signed up at the public library and picked up this book(and a self teaching Japanese cd set).
Here are some quotes I liked from what I've read so far:
"'A prostitute came to me in wretched straits, homeless, sick, unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. Through sobs and tears, she told me she had been renting out her daughter- two years old!--to men interested in kinky sex. She made more renting out her daughter for an hour than she could earn on her own in a night. she had to do it, she said, to support her own drug habit. I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story. For one thing, it made me legally liable--I'm required o report cases of child abuse. I had no idea what to say to this woman.
At last I asked if she had ever thought of going to a church for help. I will never forget the look of pure, naive shock that crossed her face. "Church!" she cried. "why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They'd just make me feel worse.'
What struck me about my friends story is that women much like this prostitute fled toward Jesus, not away from him. The worse a person felt about herself, the more likely she saw Jesus as a refuge. Has the church lost that gift? evidently the down-and-out, who flocked to Jesus when he lived on earth, no longer feel welcome among his followers. What has happened?"
"Many Years ago I was driven to the conclusion that the two major causes of most emotional problems among evangelical Christians are these: the failure to understand, receive, and live out God's unconditional grace and forgiveness; and the failure to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace to other people. . . .We read, we hear, we believe a good theology of grace. But that's not the way we live. The good news of the Gospel of grace has not penetrated the level of our emotions." - pg 15 (David Seamands)
"{Grace} can be dissected, as a frog, but the thing dies in the process, and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind." -pg 16 (E.B. White)
"O God, make the bad people good, and the good people nice."- pg 32 (little English girl prayer)
"Grace comes free of charge to people who do not deserve it and I am one of those people. I think back to who I was resentful, wound tight with anger, a single hardened link in a long chain of ungrace learned from family and church. Now I am trying in my own small way to pipe the tune of grace. I do so because I know, more surely than I know anything, that any pang of healing or forgiveness or goodness I have ever felt comes solely from the grace of God. I yearn for the church to become a nourishing culture of that grace." -pg42
I recommend this book.
I had told her how I'd really met the Lord in Japan and in ways that I'd never really expected. In most of my life I'd been taught to; go to church Sunday, go to Bible study, etc. I am not saying what I was taught was wrong but I've also come to the conclusion that "church" and "Bible study" aren't always what the western world thinks they should be. I also came to know and understand, a little, what it means to be a lone with God. To really spend time with Him and to rest in Him.
She recommended a book I'd heard of but had never read. "What's so Amazing about Grace?" by Philip Yancey. I'd heard Philip Yancey speak while I was at college but had never read any of his work. Yesterday, I signed up at the public library and picked up this book(and a self teaching Japanese cd set).
Here are some quotes I liked from what I've read so far:
"'A prostitute came to me in wretched straits, homeless, sick, unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. Through sobs and tears, she told me she had been renting out her daughter- two years old!--to men interested in kinky sex. She made more renting out her daughter for an hour than she could earn on her own in a night. she had to do it, she said, to support her own drug habit. I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story. For one thing, it made me legally liable--I'm required o report cases of child abuse. I had no idea what to say to this woman.
At last I asked if she had ever thought of going to a church for help. I will never forget the look of pure, naive shock that crossed her face. "Church!" she cried. "why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They'd just make me feel worse.'
What struck me about my friends story is that women much like this prostitute fled toward Jesus, not away from him. The worse a person felt about herself, the more likely she saw Jesus as a refuge. Has the church lost that gift? evidently the down-and-out, who flocked to Jesus when he lived on earth, no longer feel welcome among his followers. What has happened?"
"Many Years ago I was driven to the conclusion that the two major causes of most emotional problems among evangelical Christians are these: the failure to understand, receive, and live out God's unconditional grace and forgiveness; and the failure to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace to other people. . . .We read, we hear, we believe a good theology of grace. But that's not the way we live. The good news of the Gospel of grace has not penetrated the level of our emotions." - pg 15 (David Seamands)
"{Grace} can be dissected, as a frog, but the thing dies in the process, and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind." -pg 16 (E.B. White)
"O God, make the bad people good, and the good people nice."- pg 32 (little English girl prayer)
"Grace comes free of charge to people who do not deserve it and I am one of those people. I think back to who I was resentful, wound tight with anger, a single hardened link in a long chain of ungrace learned from family and church. Now I am trying in my own small way to pipe the tune of grace. I do so because I know, more surely than I know anything, that any pang of healing or forgiveness or goodness I have ever felt comes solely from the grace of God. I yearn for the church to become a nourishing culture of that grace." -pg42
I recommend this book.
No comments:
Post a Comment