The two biggest problems

A Christian counselor, the late David Seamands, said these wise words:

"Many years ago I was driven to the conclusion that the two major causes of most emotional problems among evangelical Christians are these: the failure to understand, receive and live out God's unconditional grace and forgiveness; and the failure to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace to other people...We read, we hear, we believe a good theology of grace. But that's not the way we live. The good news of the Gospel of grace has not penetrated the level of our emotions."


(quoted from the wonderful Philip Yancey book "What's So Amazing About Grace")

I believe he's absolutely right. Four years in Christian ministry has showed me that countless Christians (including many missionaries and leaders!!) talk about grace and believe grace in theory, but have very little understanding that they're loved, and they have very little love and grace to give to anybody else. Because unless the truths of God's free grace and love penetrate your life, it'll remain nice theories that don't have the power to change anything or anybody. The power of grace (see other entries about this topic on this blog!) is incredible, but unless you truly believe that you are loved just the way you are grace hasn't won you over, and you have no, or very little, love and grace to offer to other people.
"We love, because God loved us first" the apostle John (who refers to himself as "the disciple Jesus loved"!) tells us, but if you don't know that you're loved by God, how can you love other people? In my flesh I only really have love for one person: Torben! Not even for Jeannette or anybody else....according to my flesh, it's ALL about me! But praise to God that he lives in me and loves people through me. As Fyodor Dostoevsky put it: "To love a person means to see him the way God intended him to be" - without God's grace flowing freely through me, I simply can't do that!


God bless!
Torben