Quotes About Grace

Holiness is not a bid to be noticed or loved or accepted by God. Holiness, rather, is acting out and acting upon the truth that God has noticed, loved and accepted us long before we did anything to warrant that.

There is something about dolphins. It is difficult to put into words...

Mom was a flower of the south

Many people assume that being a Christian means you follow all the rules and have your life together. They assume that "Christian" equals "good person"—when the opposite is true. The gospel is not about what we can do for God (good advice), but what God has done for us (good news). Jesus lived a perfect life precisely because we can't.

Now that Jesus has come and completed his work, he has made all things clean. The rules have changed. Evolved.

Lest anyone think that any action, however required or useful, could be a source of pride, Sibbes preached that "it is a sottish conceit to think that we can fit ourselves for grace, as if a child in the womb could forward its natural birth. If God hath made us men, let us not make ourselves gods."107

We are humble because we know we are not the power in salvation. We are obedient because we know we possess the light.

The truly changed, truly converted, truly Christian heart can say with John Newton, "I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be. Yet I can truly say, I am not what I once was. By the grace of God, I am what I am.

As he said, "we should have a double eye: one eye to see that which is amiss in us, our own imperfections, thereby to carry ourselves in a perpetual humility; but another eye of faith, to see what we have in Christ, our perfection in him.

May John Newton's prayer for himself be our prayer to God for our churches: "I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be. Yet I can truly say, I am not what I once was. By the grace of God I am what I am.

Our identity is not in our joy, and our identity is not in our suffering. Our identity is in Christ, whether we have joy or are suffering.

On the Sabbath day, we are remembering that my relationship with God did not begin with what I've done, it is not sustained by what I do, and it is not guaranteed to the end by my effort or work. I'm saved from beginning to end by Jesus' work.

Repentance keeps sin from condemning us because Jesus died and scorned the shame.

You aren't what's been done to you but what Jesus has done for you. You aren't what you do but what Jesus has done. What you do doesn't determine who you are. Rather, who you are in Christ determines what you do.

The Key is to be like a Duck, Smooth and unruffled on the surface but paddling furiously underneath!

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." —MAHATMA GANDHI

Humility is the surest sign of strength. —THOMAS MERTON, AUTHOR AND TRAPPIST MONK

God can handle your scars. So can any genuine, loving Christian.

The living water passages tell us we become vessels for God to pour himself into so we can pour him into others.

dead. We sinned. We blew it over and over. What was God's part? He did it all. He chose us, made us alive, lavished his grace on us, started us, and will complete what he started.

There is a reason God used the east and west to describe how far he cast your sin from you,' he said. 'If you go north, you can only go north so far until you're finally going south. And you can only go south so far until you're going north. But if you start traveling east, it keeps going east forever, and west just keeps going west. If you think about it, you're never going to go so far west that you're going east. That's how far he cast our sin from us.

Jesus is not life enhancement. Jesus is life.

He moved like a dancer, which is not surprising; a horse is a beautiful animal, but it is perhaps most remarkable because it moves as if it always hears music.

Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God