THE GRACE-DEFINED PERSON

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”  (Ephesians 4:31-32 NIV)

Build a prison of hate if you want, each brick a hurt. Design it with one cell and a single bunk. (You won’t attract roommates.) Hang large video screens on each of the four walls so recorded images of the offense can play over and over, twenty-four hours a day. Headphones available on request. Appealing? No, appalling. Harbored grudges suck the joy out of life. Revenge won’t paint the blue back in your sky or restore the spring in your step. No. It will leave you bitter, bent, and angry. Give the grace you’ve been given.

You don’t endorse the deeds of your offender when you do. Jesus didn’t endorse your sins by forgiving you… Grace doesn’t tell the oppressed to wink at injustice. The grace-defined person still sends thieves to jail and expects an ex to pay child support.

Grace is not blind. It sees the hurt full well. But grace chooses to see God’s forgiveness even more. It refuses to let hurts poison the heart. “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” (Hebrews 12:15 NIV) Where grace is lacking, bitterness abounds. Where grace abounds, forgiveness grows. 

-- Max Lucado in “Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine”   

#6458

THE SOCIAL WITNESS OF CHARLES WESLEY’S HYMNS – Part 3 of 3

“Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”  (Isaiah 1:17 NIV)

If Wesley’s hymns seem to say little about social action as such, they offer a continual sense of strength for those engaged in the fight. One can hardly sing “Soldiers of Christ Arise,” for instance, without wanting to march for the causes that challenge our souls.

          From strength to strength go on,
                     Wrestle and fight and pray;
          Tread all the powers of darkness down,
                     And win the well-fought day.

We cannot say what Wesley had in mind by “all the powers of darkness.” He may have been thinking in the broadest sense of the total principle of evil, or perhaps he was reflecting upon the inner struggles that had characterized much of his life. But I think he would have agreed that anything which frustrated and limited the lives of his people – poverty, sickness, injustice, miserable prisons and mental institutions – was part of the darkness that must be trod down. Succeeding generations have gained strength from his vigorous vision.

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas (1923-2015) in “Our First Song: Evangelism in the Hymns of Charles Wesley” 

#6356

OUTRAGED BY EVIL

"They lie awake at night, hatching sinful plots. Their actions are never good. They make no attempt to turn from evil."  (Psalm 36:4 NLT)


Genuine outrage is not just a permissible reaction to the hard-pressed Christian; God Himself feels it, and so should the Christian in the presence of pain, cruelty, violence, and injustice.  God, who is the Father of Jesus Christ, is neither impersonal nor beyond good and evil.  By the absolute immutability of His character, He is implacably opposed to evil and outraged by it.


-- Os Guinness in The Dust of Death




#3768

PASSION IN OUR HEARTS

What puts the passion in our hearts for a particular cause or concern? Many people of faith believe that God is the One who places the desire within us, and that He then proceeds to enable us to fulfill the desire as He works with us in the situation. One person is stirred up by a need; another is deeply troubled by a crime or an injustice. In all our various calls to action, God is available -- helping us right the wrong, meet the need, fight the crime, overcome evil with good.

-- Stephen Arterburn in The Power Book


#3514

ONLY FORGIVENESS FREES

As long as you are tangled in wrong and revenge, blow and counterblow, aggression and defense, you will be constantly drawn into fresh wrong... Only forgiveness frees us from the injustice of others.

-- Theologian Romano Guardini in The Lord


#3113