God’s scandalous grace invaded Portage, Wisconsin, with unwelcomed splendor in April of 1994. It targeted a criminal serving multiple life-sentences in the Columbia Correctional Institution. It’s not uncommon for thieves and murderers in prison to receive God’s grace, but this day was different. The person who attracted God’s love was a man who killed 17 young men.
Christian subcultures are an entertaining phenomenon. Multiple brands of Christianity claim the same Lord and read the same Bible, and yet they promote a set of values sometimes as different as apples and orangutans.
We live in a country that’s obsessed with performance. From the time we are kids, we are trying to out-perform our classmates in school or fellow athletes on the field.
The following is an excerpt from my book Charis: God’s Scandalous Grace for Us. The relationship between grace and obedience is a gnarly issue, and too often you have to hack your way through a theological jungle to sort out the problem. In general, there are three different explanations Christians give to how grace relates to obedience.
In yesterday’s post, I gave a brief response to Dr. David Gushee’s recent shift regarding homosexuality. My blog was passed around fairly broadly and elicited various Facebook discussions, which I did not anticipate.
Parents are often infatuated with law and less so with grace. As a father of four kids, I feel the tension daily. "Clean up your room!" "Wash the dishes!" "Share with your sister!" Stop taking things from your sister!" Parenting is a mosaic of rules that put Moses’ Law to shame. Where does grace fit in?
