I have heard the argument that new Christians often can’t tell the difference between conviction and condemnation and that when they are being dealt with by the Spirit, they can mistake it as the devil. If that be the case, the Holy Spirit and the devil are functioning on the same level, using guilt as a means of eliciting a response. This is confusion, of which Paul said that God never authors in our lives (1 Corinthians 14:33).
Paul White
Revelation to Transformation, 2011, WestBow Press, 49
All this is done by God, who through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also.
Our message is that God was making all human beings his friends through Christ. God did not keep an account of their sins, and he has given us the message which tells how he makes them his friends.
Here we are, then, speaking for Christ, as though God himself were making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: let God change you from enemies into his friends!
Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that in union with him we might share the righteousness of God.
Paul of Tarsus
2 Corinthians 5:18-21, Good News Bible
God has made the truth so basic and simple that even little children can know Him personally. God rejoices in the bare facts about us and the simplicity of who Christ is. Love rejoices in truth, unvarnished and ever so uncomplicated.…
The truth is not some deep well of knowledge that only the educated professors can unlock. It doesn’t take four years of Bible college and a knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. The truth is already in you. It’s in little children. When you hear it, it should be something that you already knew in your heart to be true. With Jesus Christ, what you see is what you get. Either you accept it or you reject it. Jesus is the mystery revealed. He is not a mystery that is still being revealed…
All truth must pass the “child test.” If a child intuitively understands it, it’s probably truth. But if it’s too complicated or doesn’t match what a child inherently knows, it’s probably a lie. If you want to know God’s heart, you must learn to think simply and with your heart as a little child does.
Darin Hufford
The Misunderstood God, Windblown, 2009, 149-50.
When law rules a Christian, his focus is on improving his behavior. Yet even if he does manage to improve his behavior, what has he accomplished spiritually? Even an unsaved person can often improve his performance… Joy doesn’t come by doing the right thing. In a lifestyle where grace rules, Jesus is the source of joy.
Steve McVey
Grace Rules, Harvest House 1998, 73
Imperfection is the prerequisite for grace. Light only gets in through the cracks.
Philip Yancey
What’s So Amazing About Grace? Zondervan, 1997
Jesus has already been critical of the following items taken from everybody’s list of Favorite Things To Be: Being First, Being Found, Being Big, Being Important, and Being Alive. Now however, he castigates the one item that holds all these futilities together and gives them power over us, namely, Being a Bookkeeper. The human race is positively addicted to keeping records and remembering scores. What we call our “life” is, for the most part, simply the juggling of accounts in our heads. And yet, if God has announced anything in Jesus, it is that He, for one, has pensioned off the bookkeeping department permanently…
It may be our sacred conviction that the only way to keep God happy, the stars in their courses, our children safe, our psyches adjusted, and our neighbors reasonable is to be ready, at every moment, to have the books we have kept on ourselves and others audited. But that is not God’s conviction because he has taken away the handwriting that was against us (Col. 2:14).
Robert Farrar Capon
The Parables of Grace, Eerdmans, 1988, 126.
Another big catch phrase today is “get hungry.” You have to get hungry for God. How can I do that, when I’ve been feasting on the Lamb? God doesn’t want you to be hungry. He wants you to be fully satisfied. The admission of hunger is an admission of lack. A hungry child is a sign of bad parenting. It is an assertion that Christ’s sacrifice was not a good enough meal for you.
John Crowder
Mystical Union, Sons of Thunder, Loc: 2173
