Category Archives: christianity

A Powerful Thing: Grace…

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I finally made it through all 102 minutes of Babette’s Feast. I have always wanted to watch it, but the distinct lack of fast cars and powerful weaponry made it difficult for me. However, working on a short sermon series on grace, and reading Yancey’s What’s so Amazing about Grace (for the second time) I was inspired to watch the DVD.

I won’t detail the film here except to say that it communicated to me a fresh picture of my own inability to appreciate the greatness of the grace God’s given me. I would guess that my failure to grasp the depth of God’s grace is partially due to what Frederick Buechner says about all of us.

People are prepared for everything except for the fact that beyond the darkness of their blindness there is a great light. They are prepared to go on breaking their backs plowing the same old field until the cows come home without seeing, until they stub their toes on it, that there is a treasure buried in that field rich enough to buy Texas. They are prepared for a God who strikes hard bargains but not for a God who gives as much for an hour’s work as for a day’s. They are prepared for a mustard-seed kingdom of God no bigger than the eye of a newt but not for the great banyan it becomes with birds in its branches, singing Mozart. They are prepared for the potluck supper at First Presbyterian, but not for the marriage supper of the lamb…. ~Frederick Buechner as quoted by Philip Yancey in What’s so Amazing about Grace?, pp. 62-63.

Yep. That’s me. God’s grace is so much bigger than anything I could hope to produce or contribute to my own walk with him.

That’s what hits you between the eyes when you watch Babette’s Feast — not the power of a fast car or a super-weapon, but the power of grace. As the feast is prepared, the mentality of those receiving it is such that they simply want to get through this to give honor to Babette. But as they begin to enjoy the luxury of her gift, they become new inside and release old grievances, spreading the grace they are receiving.

May we all invest our lives in celebrating the power of grace.

What does it mean to be a Christ-Follower?

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What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? Does it demand things of us?

The Bible clearly teaches that it costs nothing to have your sins forgiven. Jesus paid it all. He took all the punishment as he hung on the cross. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Forgiveness, regeneration, justification — these are free gifts from God through Christ. But the idea of following Jesus without there being a cost in doing so is completely alien to biblical teaching. The New Testament church would have considered such a concept as nonsense. So would Christ-followers in places like Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, or Iran.

This podcast speaks about the meaning of discipleship — the reality of being a Christ-follower.

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A Key to a Meaningless Life

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Some time ago, a couple came to the local churches asking for financial help. When the pastor asked, “Where do you attend church?” the answer was, “We don’t.” They are professing Christians, but they don’t go to church anywhere. This is common.

I was thinking about why folks who call themselves Christians don’t regularly fellowship with other Christians, and while I know there are a variety of reasons, I think one reason is because they have been injured in the past. Sometimes avoidance of church is symptomatic of aversion to social interaction in general.

However, God created us as social people. The phrase, “It is not good for man to be alone” does not only reveal the origin of marriage, but verbalizes our need to interact with others. This interaction is essential if our lives are to have real meaning.

Paul Borthwick stated this well just over two decades ago.

It is possible to evade a multitude of sorrows through the cultivation of an insignificant life. Indeed, if a man’s ambition is to avoid the troubles of life, the recipe is simple: shed your ambitions in every direction, cut the wings of every soaring purpose, and seek a life with the fewest contacts and relations. If you want to get through the world with the smallest trouble, you must reduce yourself to the smallest compass. Tiny souls can dodge through life; bigger souls are blocked on every side. As soon as a man begins to enlarge his life, his resistances are multiplied. Let a man remove his petty selfish purposes and enthrone Christ, and his sufferings will be increased on every side. (Paul Borthwick, Leading the Way, Navpress, 1989, p. 86)

Borthwick says a mouthful in those few words. He speaks of being significant. He encourages sanctified ambitions. He addresses the purpose-driven life.

To me, he’s saying: Brave the pain, risk the injuries, and dream big for the sake of being significant in the eyes of Christ.