Commit to Grace

“Belief that you are accepted by God by sheer grace is profoundly humbling. The people who are fanatics, then, are so not because they are too committed to the gospel but because they’re not committed to it enough.”        – Timothy Keller

The above quote is taken from The Reason For God by Timothy Keller. I’m reading it right now. It’s terrific. I really like the way he outlines things so clearly. I especially like that he takes an intellectual view of Christianity.  I could share a lot more quotes from what I’ve read so far but I think that could quickly drift from the realm of “blogging” to the realm “breaking copy write laws”. Besides, you should read it.

This quote seemed to match nicely with what Peter and I read together this morning in John 7. The Pharisees are so caught up in the fact that Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath that they missed out on what was right in front of them. I wonder about Nicodemus in this passage. He’s recently had a pretty intense conversation with Jesus but we don’t really know where his heart is here. He makes something of an attempt to stand up to the others but rather then say, “Hey, I think this guy could be the Messiah. Let’s listen to Him,” he takes the stand of, “Hey, everyone deserves a fair trail.” To me, that sounds like a guy who wants to stop them but is scared of drawing attention to himself or of identifying himself with Jesus. Nicodemus doesn’t seem to want to commit.

I want to be totally taken up with the “sheer grace” of God. I want to learn just how mind-blowing that really is.

Today I hung out with a super awesome, long time friend who (fortunately for me) happened to move to this place first. How we both ended up here seems rather random at times but I’m thankful for it and how God uses her in my life. Friends rock. It’s hard being away from the friends we had so I’m extra thankful when I get to hang out with her.

One of the best things about being married is that your best friend comes with you when you make big moves. I’m thankful for that too.