One Real Thing Is Closer To God

The World Is By No Means Averse To Religion. In Fact, It Is Devoted To It With A Passion. It Will Buy Any Recipe For Salvation As Long As That Formula Leaves The Responsibility For Cooking Up Salvation Firmly In Human Hands. The World Is Drowning In Religion. But It Is Scared Out Of Its Wits By Any Mention Of The Grace That Takes The World Home Gratis.

The World Looks As If It Has Been Left In The Custody Of Trolls.

The Life Of Grace Is Not An Effort On Our Part To Achieve A Goal We Set Ourselves. It Is A Continually Renewed Attempt Simply To Believe That Someone Else Has Done All The Achieving That Is Needed And To Live In Relationship With That Person, Whether We Achieve Or Not. If That Doesn't Seem Like Much To You, You're Right: It Isn't. And, As A Matter Of Fact, The Life Of Grace Is Even Less Than That. It's Not Even Our Life At All, But The Life Of That Someone Else Rising Like A Tide In The Ruins Of Our Death.

Do You Seriously Envision St. Paul Or Calvin Or Luther Opening Bottles Of Welch's Grape Juice In The Sacristy Before The Service? Luther At Least Would Turn Over In His Grave.

A Lost Sheep Is, For All Practical Purposes A Dead Sheep. It Is The Admission That We Are Dead In Our Sins---that We Have No Power Of Ourselves Either To Save Ourselves Or To Convince Anyone Else That We Are Worth Saving. It Is The Recognition That Our Whole Life Is Out Of Our Hands And That If We Ever Live Again, Our Life Will Be Entirely The Gift Of Some Gracious Shepherd. God Finds Us The Desert Of Death (not In The Garden Of Improvement) And In The Power Of Jesus' Resurrection, He Puts Us On His Shoulders Rejoicing And Brings Us Home.