Always Holding On

"...the more smitten I become by the fact that God's love for me, His approval and commitment to me, does not ride on my transformation but on Jesus' substitution. Jesus is infallibly devoted to us in spite of our inconsistent devotion to Him.  The Gospel is not a command to hang on to Jesus. It's a promise that no matter how weak your faith or how unsuccessful your efforts may be, God is always holding on to you. In this light, life is simply a chronicle of God's successes perfectly meeting our failures."

 -Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace For An Exhausted World, Page 211

Forever Fixed

Amen, amen, amen and amen!

"Many Christians have assumed (and have been taught) that Bible reading, prayer, etc., is the way to keep God happy with us - that the more we pray and read our Bibles, the more He will love us . Consciously or not, we often do these things to maintain God's favor. Such reasoning, whether explicitly taught or implicitly caught, could not be more mistaken or toxic. We read the Bible and pray and go to church and partake of the sacraments because it is in those places that God reminds us that things between Him and us are forever fixed. They are the rendezvous points where God declares to us concretely that the debt has bee paid, the ledger put away, and everything we need, in Christ, we already possess."

  -Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace For An Exhausted World, Page 201

Again Amen, amen, amen and amen!

His Goodness

"...Charles Spurgeon once wrote. 'When I thought that God was hard, I found it easy to sin. But when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion, I smote upon my breast to think that I could have rebelled against One who loved me so and sought my God.'"

    -Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace For An Exhausted World, Page 194

Turned Outward

"...the biggest difference between the practical effects of sin and the practical effect of the Gospel is that sin turns us inward while the Gospel turns us outward.....Any version of 'the Gospel' or 'grace,' therefore, that encourages you to think about yourself and your performance will inevitably be co-opted by what Martin Luther called our curved-in nature (incurvatus in se) - whether it's your failures or your successes; your good works or your bad works; your strengths or your weaknesses; your obedience or your disobedience."

    -Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace For An Exhausted World, Page 135

Not The Good Guy

 "One surefire way to know you're starting to grasp the message of grace is when you're finally able to admit that you're not the good guy - that yo never were and apart from grace never will be. In other words, when you finally find yourself being honest about who you are. The freedom of the gospel is the freedom to stop pretending you are anything but a fellow Zacchaeus, a sinner in need of a savior."

 -Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace For An Exhausted World, Page 133
   

No Strings Attached

"Thankfully, when it comes to God's Grace, there is not even a hint of exchange. No suggestion of payback or pay-it-forward. There are no strings attached  While only grace can change a heart and produce Law-fulfilling works of mercy, grace is not dependent on a changed heart or Law-fulfilling works of mercy. Grace alone produces the conditions that induce change, but grace is not conditional on change. It is a pure gift - independent of outcomes."

   -Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace For An Exhausted World, Page 123

What I'm Reading

Just Finished: One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace for an Exhausted World by Tullian Tchvidjian

As are all of Tullian's books, this is very good. His writing on grace is powerful, enlightening, and balanced. I've quoted it a lot on this blog so far, and will be posting more.Highly recommend it!

Reading Now: All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life by Mark Batterson

After reading The Circle Maker and following Batterson on Twitter, I've really come to appreciate him as a writer and leader. This book is as good as Circle Maker- maybe even better.

Also Reading Now: George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution by Brian Kilmeade

Yes, I'm the kind of guy that reads multiple books at the same time! Heard about this a lot on TV, since author is one of the hosts of Fox and Friends, and was interested in reading it since I am an American history buff and love reading about the Revolution in general and Washington in particular. . Received it as a Christmas gift, and was glad to get it.  Good read so far.

Up next: Risky Gospel: Abandon Fear and Build Something Awesome by Owen Strachan

Also a Christmas gift. Looking forward to it.

Nothing Cheap

"...The one-way love of God is restorative and reconciling because in the mystery of His cross, God has neutralized the effects of sin, forgiven its offense, blotted out its stain, expiated its guilt, and created a new beginning. 'As far as the eat is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.' (Ps. 103:12) Thanks to Jesus's sacrifice on my behalf, the sins I cannot forgive, God cannot remember....There is nothing cheap about the grace he offers repeat offenders. On the contrary - it cost him everything."

    -Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace For An Exhausted World, Page 116

Qualified By Failure

"The one-way love of God meets us in our failure. Our failures make His one-way love that much more glorious. What qualifies us for service is God's devotion to us-  not our devotion to Him. This is as plainly as I can say it: the value of our lives rests on God's intimate, incomprehensible,unconditional love for us-  not our love for Him. Such relief! We can finally exhale!"

   -Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace For An Exhausted World, Page 115

Unconditional

"Jesus met all of God's holy conditions so that our relationship with God could be wholly unconditional. The demand maker became a demand keeper and died for me - a demand breaker."

-Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace For An Exhausted World, Page 93

Makes me want to shout Hallelujah!

Freedom From the Weight of Self-Effort

"Jesus came to liberate us from the weight of having to make it on our own, from the demand to measure up. He came to emancipate us from the burden to get it al right, from the obligation to fix ourselves, find ourselves, and free ourselves. Jesus came to release us from the slavish need to be right, rewarded, regarded, and respected. Because Jesus came to set the captives free, life does not have to be a tireless effort to establish ourselves, justify ourselves, and validate ourselves.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ announces that because Jesus was strong for you, you're free to be weak. Because Jesus won for you, you're free to lose. Because Jesus was Someone, you're free to be no one. Because Jesus succeeded for you you're free to fall. One way to summarize God's message to the worn out and weary is like this- God's demand: be righteous': God's diagnostic: 'no one is righteous': God's deliverance: 'Jesus is our righteousness.'  Once this good news grips your heart , it changes everything. It frees you from having to be perfect. It frees you from having to hold it all together. In the place of exhaustion, you might even find energy."

-Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace For An Exhausted World, pages 36-37

The Blessed Bad

"..contrary to popular assumptions, the Bible is not a record of the blessed good, but rather the blessed bad. That's not a typo. The Bible is a record of the blessed bad. The Bible is not a witness to the best people making it up to God it's a witness to God making it down to the worst people.  Far from being a book full of moral heroes whom we are commanded to emulate, what we discover is that the so-called heroes are not heroes at all. They fall and fail; they make huge mistakes; they get afraid; they're selfish, deceptive, egotistical, and unreliable. The Bible is one long story of God meeting our rebellion with His rescue, our sin with His salvation, our guilt with His grace, our badness with His goodness. The overwhelming focus of the Bible is not the work  of the redeemed but the work of the Redeemer. Which means that the Bible is not first a recipe book for Christian living but a revelation book of Jesus who is the answer to our un-Christian living."

-Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace For An Exhausted World, page 31

The Heart of the Faith

"Sadly, too many churches have helped to perpetuate the impression that Christianity is primarily concerned with legislating morality. Believe it or not, Christianity is not about good people getting better. If anything it is good news for bad people coping with their failure to be good. The heart of the Christian faith is Good News, not good advice, good technique, or good behavior."

    -Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace For An Exhausted World, page 22

The Hub

"...The hub of Christianity is not 'do something for Jesus.' The hub of Christianity is 'Jesus has done everything for you.'.......Don't get me wrong - what we do is important. But is is infinitely less important than what Jesus has done for us."

-Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace For An Exhausted World, page 21

The Heart of Christianity

On November 21, 2013, Pastor Tullian Tchividjian appeared on The 700 Club to talk about his new book  One Way Love, inexhaustible grace, and the heart of Christianity. I'm looking forward to reading the book!