"A pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself,
but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself."
~ A.W. Tozer
Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things... You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you," as it is written.
~ Romans 2:1,23-24 (NKJV)
"The scribes and the Pharisees ... bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers."
~ Matthew 23:2,4 (NKJV)
Is it more important to be proven right (and/or righteous), or to make truth (and therefore grace) manifest?
"Amazing grace" is this: to realize how utterly undeserving of God's love and mercy and favor one is, and to therefore see anyone who is without these as being in need of compassion, not condemnation.
Grace sees the sin others carry, and rather than make sure they're aware of it, is more inclined to weep with empathy for their burden because one has not forgotten what the burden felt like.
Grace is less concerned with making a determination of whether or not a person might be marked as "saved" than to make a determination from God's Holy Spirit of how He'd direct His love to be shared with that person.
Grace is less inclined to judge whether or not a person's theology matches that of oneself than to be sensitive to how the person might be drawn ever nearer to God.
Grace recognizes that God manifested truth to us not so that we would display it with pride, but so that we would have it to share with others.
Grace has nothing to boast in, save the God Who gives grace.
Dear God, the weight of sin is too great to walk in freedom from its burden and not still feel the bruises left behind by carrying the load. Thank You for sending Your precious Son to shed His blood that we might be free. Please let us never see someone struggling anywhere we are free and not say, "There—but for the grace of God—go I."
Feedback appreciated! Post to BuildingHisBody.com "Comments" or e-mail to BuildingHisBody@gmail.com. Copyright 2009, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Well put. It takes more than the norm to upset me concerning someone else's behavior.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully said my friend.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Anne. In this day when it seems God is blasphemed in so many places, it's vital to remember that the person doing the deningrating has no idea the wonder of His love.
ReplyDeleteMore than ever, I need to turn from the sin but ever ever love the sinner. Thank you for this beautiful post.
T. Anne, I agree that if we're going to be upset, it should be over something of more than temporal consequence.
ReplyDeleteDenise, thank you for being here my friend. Thank you for words of hope on your blog.
Gwen, I'm way too often more ready to share one part of truth than I am ready to share the whole truth, which puts love first and everything else after that. I'm working on that daily.
Oh to grace how great a debtor
ReplyDeleteDaily I'm constrained to be.
Let Thy goodness like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander—Lord I feel it!—
Prone to leave the God I love.
Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
Mrs. Bundy! Hello, my friend!
ReplyDeleteI did not know you had a blog - wow!
I will become a "follower" of you posts on here!
~ Heather
http://redemptionjournal.wordpress.com/
http://wheresinabounded.blogspot.com/
Grace is one of my favorite words and I'm constantly trying to understand it's hugeness. Thanks for this post, Anne! It's so beautiful!
ReplyDeleteHi Anne,
ReplyDeleteI'm finally home from what feels like an entire summer of travels.
LOVE the Tozer quote. And as I heard over and over at a conference I just attended, we must extend (and all need) grace*grace*grace!
Hope you are well, my friend!
Hi Anne,
ReplyDeleteYour words about grace not being so much about making sure one is "saved" hit home.
Beautifully written.
~ Wendy
Grace has always been about what God is doing, and rarely about what what He do. The law never really had anything to do with salvation.
ReplyDeleteGreat post and glad to find you.
Heather! Delighted to see you, dear. I'll look forward to your presence here too.
ReplyDeleteEileen, who can understand the hugeness of grace this side of heaven?
Julie, welcome "back." So nice to see you while you were in MI. I plan to include more quotes with future posts. They seem to be popular.
Wendy, since we can't judge it with certainty anyway, doesn't it make more sense to simply listen to God?
Rick & Niek, so nice to have you visit, and for me to be found. I'm praying for wisdom as I tackle devotionals on the book of Romans, and the law & salvation. What a challenge, and an opportunity!
Wow. This post is like one of those really dense, rich chocolate desserts that you take one bite and need to savor it for awhile before enjoying the next.
ReplyDeleteThis post comes across as so "simple and straightforward" but is SO deep.
Thank you, Lord, for giving Anne the words to mentor us!
Sweet blessings,
Amy