grace.mercy.

If there were a common theme to the blogs that I write, I would have to say that theme is the concepts of grace and mercy. Perhaps these are themes in my writing because they have been so incredibly vital in my life, but regardless of what I go to the Word of God for, I never read a passage without an incredible, daunting reflection and consideration of the grace and mercy of God.

Tonight I was preparing for my small group class I teach on Sunday Nights and came upon one of the most familiar passages of scripture, the story of the woman with the alabaster box. Everyone knows the story in Luke chapter 7, how a "sinful" woman enters the home of a Pharisee where Christ is, pours on him perfume that was worth a year's wages, and proceeds to thank Christ for the forgiveness she so desperately needs before he has spoken the words of forgiveness.

So often we go to the Lord asking Him to "speak" to us, or to forgive us...then we proceed on with our laundry list of "I wants," "I needs." We never give God the opportunity to speak back, much less ourselves the chance to thank Him for the incredible gift of mercy we take for granted we will receive from Him just upon asking. We are literally asking the God of the universe to speak to us. How would you really react if that happened? If we gave God the time, created the space in our self-consumed lives to let Him actually show up? What if we really meant what we prayed??

Chances are we wouldn't keep living our self-consumed lives filled with sin and selfish ambition. We'd quit telling white lies and always preferring ourselves. We'd give up our secret-sins, we'd change the way we talk. We might even give loving our enemies a shot...all because we had had one single encounter with the divine Word of God...(I'll quit talking about that now to not ruin my message for my Sunday night students, but stay tuned for a Sunday night submission on this subject...life-changing)

Back to Luke, the Pharisees don't react well. They think it is an abomination and a waste of money so Christ turns to Peter and asks him a question in a parable. In 2011 terms it goes like this, "If there was a moneylender who had two debtors, one owed him the equivalent of 20 months wages and the other owed him 2 months wages and the moneylender forgave their debts, which would love him more?" The answer seemed so obvious...the one who had been forgiven more.

Mercy is the overarching theme of my life. I mean, I really want the nerve to get the word tattooed on my wrist it is so important. Daily I am reminded that like that woman, I have been forgiven infinitely more than I deserve...but what is the usual response? We feel puffed up. We feel superior to our friends who are "sinning worse". We make allowances for our lives in secret. These things ought not be... God extends His grace for one reason, so we would love Christ more. When I read this woman's story I am humbled and challenged afresh by the power of grace to change my life. A life not bent on satisfying the sinful nature, but on loving Christ more. On showing and extending the grace of God in such a tangible way to the people I encounter that they say, "I want your God."

Philip Yancey always challenges me with his statement, "There is nothing I can do to make God love me more, there is nothing I can do to make God love me less." The ball is in our court. In exchange for this great gift of unmerited mercy and extravagant grace...I must love Him more.