NowTHINK!AboutIt

The Grace of Giving

August 26, 2009 by EnnisP 1 Comment

The Most Appropriate Response
To Grace
Is Sacrifice

“Grace” is a popular topic. Christians and non-Christians alike love it. The hymn, Amazing Grace, is still one of the best-known songs around and is sung regularly in all kinds of settings, in and out of church, even in bars. Once the tune is struck, everyone sings along, some with tears but all with joy. Very few need to be reminded of the words and we all identify with the hope this song and the word it features brings.

But, like all words in the English language, it is subject to shifts in meaning. The word gets used in many different contexts and with each new setting comes a new connotation. It has now become the catchword for all Christian ideas. A “shibboleth” of sorts, identifying the user with a certain class, region, attitude, or era, and the real meaning is lost.

There are endless applications and nuances: grace period, amazing grace, effectual grace, social grace, falling from or into grace, resistible and irresistible grace, the grace of God, grace note, law and grace, grace spurned, and, of course, grace-giving.

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Most of these phrases are not found in the Bible. Some have no immediate connection to the Bible. Some suggest ideas that are mostly imagined and some misuse the word completely.

“Grace” has also become the response to every question not easily answered. When an issue gets confusing, grace it. It won’t clear the confusion but it will settle the argument. Grace is now the accepted curtain behind which all rational questions are chucked.

Take, for example, the phrase “grace giving.” [Read more…] about The Grace of Giving

When Children Leave Home

August 20, 2009 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

If Children Never Leave
They Cease To Grow

A while back we put our second son, Timothy, on the plane to the USA from South Africa. We had done this before but this time it was different. Previously there had always been a date he would return “home” and the time away wouldn’t be that long, six weeks at the most. This time, however, he was returning to the States for at least six months and if all went well he would settle there for good. At the time, these were not easy thoughts to entertain. [Read more…] about When Children Leave Home

7 Facts About Personal Change

August 14, 2009 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Everyone changes: they get better or they get worse.

There’s Nothing Subtle
About A Change of Mind

Change is one of the most remarkable qualities of human nature. From the time we are conceived until the time we die, “change” is our constant companion. As infants, we grow physically, pick up knowledge rapidly and our senses are exercised every waking moment.

In the preteen years we begin to manifest abilities which, if developed, give definition to the changes we make in the future. People change into all kinds of things: doctors, lawyers, managers, technicians, entrepreneurs, etc. and develop all kinds of skills and qualities in the process of getting there.

The interesting thing about change is we never arrive. We continue to change throughout life in response to our experiences. That is, people become better, more experienced doctors or lawyers or technicians because they continue to gain new insights and learn from mistakes made in the past. Engineers today build better damns and bridges because they have learned from the experiences of previous generations.

Our ability to change gives us what I call “become-ability.” A dog will never be anything other than a dog and the same can be said for every other life form except humans. Animals become nothing other than what their inborn nature and instincts allow. Their most dominant quality is their predictability. Real change is the domain of humans only.

Not even God can change.

Sadly, however, some people never intentionally become anything. [Read more…] about 7 Facts About Personal Change

What is Grace Giving?

August 11, 2009 by EnnisP 12 Comments

“Grace” Is Not
The Synonym
For Mindless Enthusiasm

I began a series of posts on Tithing in July 2009 that immediately attracted a lot of negative attention.

Every comment came from people who reject tithing, believe it was eliminated at the cross and feel quite free to abuse anyone who thinks otherwise.

They refer to those who teach tithing variously as false prophets, liars and thieves.
Those who practice tithing, they say, are duped.
Anyone who doesn’t see their point immediately or questions them with rational arguments are accused of being gripped with a cultic mindset.

In other words, anyone who disagrees is either a false prophet, a dupe or psychologically damaged. That makes it easy for them. Tithers need help not answers.

Well, ever the curious antagonist, I engaged the discussion looking for two specific bits of information.

Firstly, I wanted to know if these detractors could actually prove that tithing can be understood differently to the historical traditional sense. Was it really never what we thought it was? Did Abraham and Jacob really not tithe in the traditionally understood manner? Was their tithing not the same as that incorporated in the law? Did Jesus’ sparsity of comments on tithing mean it was mysteriously and without notice eliminated?

I dedicated several posts to these very questions. The responses could be described as misdirecting, smoke screening and/or dismissive. You can peruse the comments on the various posts to see what I mean.