The Grace of God by Andy Stanley

The Grace of God by Andy Stanley

Grace. It's what we crave most when our guilt is exposed. It's the very thing we are hesitant to extend when we are confronted with the guilt of others--especially when their guilt has robbed us of something we consider valuable.

Therein is the struggle, the struggle for grace. It's this struggle that makes grace more story than doctrine. It's the struggle that reminds us that grace is bigger than compassion or forgiveness. That struggle is the context for both. When we are on the receiving end, grace is refreshing. When it is required of us, it is often disturbing. But when correctly applied, it seems to solve just about everything. This struggle is not new; it has been going on since the beginning.
--Andy Stanley

We find in the pages of Scripture that the stories found there often mirror our own stories, and that we too need the very thing we do not deserve: the grace of God.

From the beginning, the church has had an uneasy relationship with grace. The gravitational pull is always toward graceless religion. The odd thing is that when you read the New Testament, the only thing Jesus stood against consistently was graceless religion. The only group he attacked relentlessly was graceless religious leaders.

Even now as you think about grace, there might be a little voice in your head whispering, It can't be that easy

What about obedience?

What about disobedience?

What about repeated misbehavior?

What about bad habits?

What about justice?

What about repentance?

It's this tension that makes grace so slippery. But that's the beauty and the truth of grace. We don't deserve it. We can't earn it. It can't be qualified. But God gives it to us anyway because he loves us unconditionally.

The story of grace is your story. And as you are about to discover grace plays a larger role than you imagine.

Andy Stanley fundo North Point Ministries, Inc. (NPM) en 1995 con la vision de crear iglesias a las cuales les agradara asistir tambien a las personas que no se identifican con ninguna otra iglesia. Cada domingo, mas de 33.000 personas asisten a una de las siete iglesias que tiene North Point en la zona de Atlanta, Georgia. NPM tambien ha fundado tambien mas de 25 iglesias fuera de la zona metropolitana de Atlanta, con una asistencia semanal combinada de mas de 15.000 personas. Cada mes, mas de un millon de personas escuchan sus mensajes en los distintos portales de NPM en la web. Andy y su esposa Sandra viven en Alpharetta, Georgia, y tienen tres hijos: Andrew, Garrett y Allie. Puedes encontrar mas informacion y utilizar los recursos gratuitos que se ofrecen, entrando a su portal: www.northpointministries.org.