Cheap Grace vs. Costly Grace

"Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock."

The passage above is from Dietrich Bonhoeffer (pp. 35-47)

Its from his book called "The Cost of Discipleship". i literally just started it, 2 weeks ago and i have only gone through 1 chapter. i have just been dumb-founded by it. its so much to take in.

i have been thinking a lot about this idea of grace. i have read that, and this last Wednesday we had at Shift Students Mike Foster from People of the Second Chance (check them out here) speak about grace. so lets just say its been around me a lot.

this whole cheap grace thing is something....something that i feel i take advantage of. cheap grace is believing in the idea of God's grace when you know you are about to do something wrong and you do it anyways because you have the idea that God is going to forgive you anyways for doing it. it is a preemptive sin, you know its a sin and you do it cause God is going to forgive you and give you grace. ill admit, i have done this before.

Eph. 2:8 "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God"

how dare we take advantage of this gift? and how often do we do this? daily? weekly? God is offering this amazing, amazing gift and we constantly take advantage of it. just because we know we are going to be forgiven because that's what God does, doesn't mean we go out and sin.

Grace is at a cost. costly grace is what we need to seek after. Bonhoeffer says this grace is "It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him."

Costly grace is the idea that we will give up everything we have to follow who God is because that's how much we love him, and when we mess up, and we will mess up, because we have given up everything for God, is when he presents us with the best present anyone could ever receive, Grace. Grace is costly because it demands everything of us, all of us. and its out of that love we receive Grace in which we would gladly give everything up for Christ.

i just don't like the fact that i have taken advantage of this. its like what Jeff Vines (senior pastor of Christ's Church of the Valley) says, grace is this huge safety net. the purpose of the safety net is to catch us when we are fully devoted to Christ and we are all gun-hoe for Christ and the net is there for when we sin and fall to catch us in God's grace. we would be miss using the safety net if we didn't even try to follow and just jump straight into the net.

cheap grace vs. costly grace.

which one are you receiving?

Students Teaching Teachers

this last week i got the opportunity to share and teach on a Wednesday night at SHIFT Students. i love it. it has been a while since the last time i got to speak on a Wednesday night and i was super pumped to be able to too. i truly feel that teaching is something that i am supposed to be doing, something that i feel that God has called me to do. i also feel that God calls all of us to learn. i always hear, "the moment you stop learning is the moment you stop teaching" and it really is a true statement. even though i got to teach this last Wednesday, i felt that i was taught a huge lesson...none other than by the students i was teaching too. let me explain...

since it was the day before thanksgiving, i taught on how we NEED to be thankful for everything, the good and the bad in our lives and that it is super easy to be thankful to God for all of the great things He has provided us. but true thanksgiving comes when we are thankful to God for the difficult areas in our lives because its during those times in which we are more like Jesus and closer to Him then ever, and we should be truly thankful for those situations because of our closeness with Him in those times.

after i was done, there were different stationed set up around the room, all having to do with giving true thanksgiving to God. i was blown away be the students responses. one of the stations was a prayer wall, and some of the prayers brought me to tears.

i wanted to be more like these students. i prayed then and there that i can learn from these students and be truly thankful to God for the things in my life i see no good because these students were giving up everything to Him. they were going through difficult times, more difficult times than i have gone through and i am twice as old as them. i was humbled by the way God worked through these students to teach me, who was the teacher for that night.

i was humbled. i want to learn from them. here are some of these prayers:

• Thank you for my depression because without it I wouldn’t have gotten as close to you as I am now.
• God, I pray for the trials you are putting me through. I am dealing with depression but I am happy because I know that it will only make me stronger. Thank you for your love and thank you for giving your son to die on the cross for me.
• Thank you for guiding me by testing my faith in you and showing me that I need to be more in you. I love you with all of my heart, soul, and mind.
• Dear God I know all this pain and suffering with family will make me a better person and I am thankful for that person I will become and the people you put in my life.
• Lord, I can’t even express the thankfulness my heart wants to express to you. You are bigger then any worry I will ever face. You are the resolution to any problem I will face. Thank you for all the difficult times in them my faith will be strengthened.
  -Amen

• Dear Jesus, I know that I have struggles and although they hurt and I don’t always know the best way to handle them, I thank you because these struggles make me a stronger person, a stronger believer, and a stronger follower of Christ. I promise to always follow you in the good times and the bad.

STUDENTS TAUGHT ME LAST WEEK....I DIDN'T TEACH THEM. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR WILLINGNESS TO BE THANKFUL FOR THE TOUGH TIMES! YOU ALL ARE A TRUE INSPIRATION.

Stop

i know its been a while since i last posted. i want to apologize.

let me just say something that i have been learning lately. i feel like i have been going crazy. i feel that i have been tempted with sin more than ever before in my life. i don't know why. i feel that Wednesday nights at SHIFT Students has been going nuts! (in a great way). i never have seen so many students passionate about worshiping their God. Just the other day, i noticed something. that I'm so freaking busy running around on Wednesdays that i am not stopping to really pay attention to whats going on around me. i think that is the enemy working there. he is making me so busy running around and worrying that everything is perfect, that i am missing the true meaning why i am there in the first place...and that is to worship God.

last week i made sure i slowed down and not worry about the small details. me worrying about the small stuff shows how small my faith in God was to provide the night with His spirit. it was almost like God told me, "Dude, do you think i am not going to show up in my own house on rock this place?...ill take care of it." it was humbling.

God is Bigger than any worry.....

Psalm 91 states:

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.

If you make the Most High your dwelling-- even the Lord, who is my refuge-- then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. 'Because he loves me,' says the Lord, 'I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.'"

Is Christianity Hard or Easy?... Yes

I worked at Islands for 7 years. it was the easiest job at times. I worked a couple hours and would make great money. it was easy. other days, it was the hardest job cause you had to deal with difficult people. I remember going up to tables and taking there order and I would ask "would you like a white or a wheat bun?" and they would answer, "Yes." not paying attention. I would just laugh. this is how Jesus answers the question of "is Christianity hard or easy?" the answer is yes.

a lot of people think that being good is all that matters. if I'm more of a good person than a bad person, I'll be fine. you can be good, but you can only do so much good by yourself that you will start to notice that other people are not noticing your goodness and you will be bitter by the end.

Christianity is different. it's hard yet easy. Christ says give me all. I dont want a majority of your money, work, or time... I just want you. I dont want a few branches trimmed here and there, I want the whole tree down. I don't want your natural self... in fact, I'll give you a new self, I'll give you Myself.

Jesus is confusing sometimes. he says following Him is hard and is easy.

Matthew 16:24-25
"24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it."

Jesus is saying that following Him is following Him to the cross. to physically be there next to him carrying the cross and physically hanging next to Him on the cross. that's hard. I don't know if my faith is strong enough to do so, and that's what Jesus calls all people to do.

but then Jesus says it's easy.

in Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

He says just hand everything to Him. give Him everything, the sin, the struggle... to Him. and He will take care of it.

it's that easy.

what a balance. is Christianity hard or easy?

yes.

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Pretend...Pretend Hard

Eph. 5:1-2
¹Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children ²and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

i was leading my high school life group last night and we read this verse above. i don't know why i cant get it out of my head. "Be imitators of God". what does that truly mean? when i think of this, i just get discouraged, in all honestly. be imitators of Christ? how can i, sinful me, be a true imitator of the Christ? do i think its possible for us to be imitators? yes. is it easy? heck no.

i love how C.S. Lewis describes this. if we were to be imitators of Christ, we are to basically be pretending to be like Him. i know what you are thinking, "Justin...really? Pretend? like we are pretending to play house or cops and robbers?" well yes actually. Lewis explains that there are two types of pretending. there is the pretending in a bad way, as in a man pretends that he is going to help but but then really doesn't. and there is a good pretending like how children pretend to play house because it is pretending that is leading up to the real thing.

i know this about me, when i am not in a good mood and i am in a public setting where i don't really want to talk to anyone but i know I'm going to have to, i put on a smile and pretend like I'm in a great mood. eventually, i will then be in a genuinely good mode because i first pretended to be. it rubbed off. this is the same with Christ and how we imitate Him.

when we are praying like how Christ prayed, we are "pretending" (in a way) to be like Him. when we treat others like how Christ treated others and we "pretend" to be like Him, we eventually become like Him. Lewis describes it as a "good infection", where if we are infected with Christ, and we are out being imitators of who Christ is and represents, then the infection WILL spread.

so my question is...am i doing this? i know i have this "good infection" but am i spreading it? am i honestly trying to be an imitator of who Jesus is? or am i just living my life and maybe Jesus will come in and out with my doings.

1 John 2:7-8
⁷ Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before. ⁸ Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining.

Jesus lived the truth of this commandment and we are supposed to be imitators of Him. it says that if we do live like this, pretend in a way to be like Christ, we will end up acting like Him more naturally without even thinking about it, and the darkness will be disappearing and the true light of the "good infection" of Christ will shine. once that light shines, people will be attracted to it like moths on a dark night on a porch light. it will be something irresistible for being not wanting to have this "good infection".

i want to "pretend" to act like Jesus so i can end up acting like Him more genuinely.

Random Fact: A group of jellyfish is called a smack.

Focus on the Blank Not the Blot

prayer has been something that i have been thinking and studying a lot lately. you would think cause i have been thinking about it and studying it that i would be getting better at it. i am not. and its frustrating. but i am getting a little better. you have to have discipline in order to have a spiritual life, and I'm working on being discipline.

sometimes when it comes to prayer, we can think that is boring. i think we get in this mind set when prayer becomes a routine. when it becomes too formal. when it becomes the same prayer for the same thing every time. ill agree with you then, when prayer becomes routine and mundane, yes it is boring. but prayer cannot be so formless either. it needs to have some structure, because no structure will let to no prayer at all. i think i have fallen into this "formless" prayer, where there is no real thought in what i am praying. i feel sometimes that i pray because that is what Christians are "supposed to do". and this bothers me that i do that.

when you look at the ink blot above, what do you see? what do you focus on? the blot? the space around it? what?

in prayer i think we sometimes focus on all of our problems and not the widespread mercy of God. for example, if there was a blank white page and there was an ink blot right in the middle of it, because the page was blank, the ink blot will stand out to us and that will be the thing that we focus on. but the ink blot doesn't take over the whole page, its just a small section compared to the rest of the page. there is still a lot of white on the page. the ink blot is our sin, and the rest of the page is God's mercy. in prayer we only focus on the ink blot, our sin, and that's the one thing we focus on. the rest of paper, which is far bigger than the ink blot, is God's mercy, and that is what we should be focusing on. we always pray for and focus on our sins, which is only tiny compared to the rest of the page of God's mercy. THAT'S WHAT OUR PRAYER SHOULD BE FOCUSED ON, THE VAST MERCY THAT SURROUNDS OUR SIN.

Also, praying for your enemies...holy crap. its so hard.

Luke 6:27-36

27"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. 30Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. 33And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. 34And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. 35But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

this is so so hard. when i read this, i just laugh because i think of all the times that i failed to do this. its not a laugh of because its funny, its more of an embarrassing, ashamed, laugh. the kind of laugh where you don't look the person in the eyes laugh because you were called out and don't want to make eye contact laugh. i feel that all of my prayers are selfish, i focus on the ink blot. i barely think of others when i pray, let alone my enemies and those i have a hard time dealing with. i am praying that i start to genuinely start to pray for these people. because that's what Jesus told me to do.

then i started to think about who was praying for me as an enemy. that scares me, concerns me. i need to try to live my life to where no one is praying for me as an enemy. this is my goal.

Random Fact: In order to make a billion dollars in one year, you would have to make an average of $31.69 every second.

It Wont Cost?...Awesome

today we had a staff meeting. Jeff Vines shared with us 2 Samuel 24:24.

2 Samuel 24:24
²⁴ But the king replied to Araunah, "No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing."

So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels ^a]">[a] of silver for them.

We talked about how David did not want to give up an offering to God if he did not have to pay for it, if he didn't not have to sacrifice something to give it to God. As of most of us, we would get something great for free and we would think that giving that to God would be ideal because 1) it is a great thing and God would love it, it is worthy of God and 2) we didn't have to pay anything for it. FREAKIN' BOMB right? that's not the case for David.

the reason we do not do this is because the things that we do have distract us from fully worshipping God for who He really is. we might do a great job in many things for the Lord, but there always is something that is distracting us from wanting to truly give God our full attention that He deserves. We were asked to write down what we think our own big distraction is and i wanted to share what i wrote down.

God
what is my distraction? what is the biggest thing in my life that is holding me back from doing all the things in life for You? what is holding me back? there are so many things that one doesn't even stand out to me. is it watching too much TV? is it money? is it my job? do i think that because my job is ministry and because hundreds of students come on Wednesday nights that those who do not attend, out in the city, don't matter? is it my attitude or motivation? does my personality and comfort zone need to be stretched more so that I actually go out and talk to people i don't know who i feel You have prompted me to talk to?
God, make me this way.

i think we don't ask these questions all the time because we are afraid God is going to answer them and then tell us we need to actually do these things and then we have to change things that bring us comfort in the life we know now. but i think questions like these will help mold us into the man or woman of Christ God wants us to be.

Random Fact: Farmville is a real place.

Farmville, Virginia had a population of 6,845 as of the 2000 Census and is located between Richmond and Lynchburg. It has no known relation to the popular Facebook application, however!