All Of Grace

I have just read Brennan Manning’s book “All is Grace.”  I found myself captivated by his honesty and integrity.  On one particular page he wrote these words:  “My message, unchanged for more than fifty years, is this….”  Stop!   He has my attention—does he have yours?  Fifty years is a pretty long time to stay focused on one message.  One of the difficulties in preaching for more than 35 years is this—what if there is some recorded sermon of mine from 32 years ago?  What if someone actually thought I knew what I was talking about?  Anyway, back to the point.  I’m very interested now—Brennan is preaching the same message for fifty years!   Here it is:
“God loves you unconditionally, as you are and not as you should be, because nobody is as they should be.”

This is good theology and flies in the face of a performance driven religion.
It’s hard, for those who have been followers of Jesus for a long time (like me)—for those who have worked hard at being spiritual (like me)—for those who think they are actually doing a fairly good job at religious duty (like me)—to find out that God loves me despite all that.  To find out that God loves me because—even with all that effort,  I’m ‘not as I should really be.’ 

God loves me unconditionally.
I need to bathe in that love.  I need to relish and enjoy that huge demonstration of God’s love.  
As I do, instead of doing my own thing I am drawn even closer to the LORD.  Here is a God who unconditionally loves me!  My response?  Wow!   What can I do to love Him back?  How can I serve Him more?  How can I prioritize His glory, His program, His purposes in my life and in my world?

God’s unconditional love for me causes me to shake my head—make sure I got it—laugh, and run into His arms.  It makes me passionate about loving Him back.  It does the total opposite of what you would expect.
If you let a thief off the hook, because you believe he was having a bad day—you think to yourself the following.  ‘Oh, big mistake—the guy will go rob someone else now.’  However, it is just the opposite with the unconditional love of God.  Because He has put His seed of immortality in me—His unconditional love shatters my performance driven spirituality—but also causes me to love God more—not less.

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