Excerpts from a post I just found on Jonathan Acuff’s great blog “Stuff Christians Like“. It’s a great message on shame, discouragement, disappointment, and not measuring up.
It’s worth the read. Here’s the opener, and a few lines from the end. You should click here to read the whole post and see how he ties it all together.
“Easter is about grace. And when I think about grace, one of the things that stops me short of believing in it is shame. This post, written last year, is about shame and grace and the reason we’re not naked.
Ouch. Lots of lessons in here. Even if you haven’t experienced any of the exact situations in these examples, who can’t relate to the shame and judgment they felt? And it was dished out by churches and Christians. That’s just great. Want a guideline for being the church? Just do the opposite of this video.
Accepting people doesn’t mean condoning sin. The world accepts andcondones. If they’re coming to your church, they already know you don’t approve of their behavior! But will you accept them as readily as the world does?
Grace doesn’t mean ignorance of sin. It means acceptance of people in spite of sin. But if you have no grace, you have no love. You might as well put “Sinners need not apply” on your church sign.
This is a great retelling of the story of the “Good Samaritan” in today’s culture. Is your church too good for sinners? Are you too good to help the wounded?
