Devotional Guide
For the week of March 12, 2006
THE PRESENT CONFUSION
Take grace for granted
To read the Bible in one year, today Read: Amos 1-3
To Know:
³Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has
passed away, behold, the new has come.² (2 Cor.5: 17)
Professional golfers demand the perfecting of their settings before they
consent to play their game. The 1988 United States Open was contested on the
links of the Brookline Country Club. The fact that the Brookline Country
Club calls itself ³The Country Club² attests to the fact that lack of
humility is not a hindrance in golfıs quest for the perfect venue. This
championship sets it sights high. The United States Golf Association seeks
absolute perfection in preparing a course to host its national title.
While playing the ninth hole at ³The Country Club,² Greg Norman swung at the
ball and hit a rock hiding barely beneath the turf. The reaction of the
U.S.G.A. was one of shock and shame. Who did not detect this ledge? Should
someone be vilified? Is this evidence that the universe is unjust after all?
To some of us watching grown men playing a lawn game to win a small fortune
and immortal fame, considering Normanıs sprained wrist a crisis seemed more
than a bit excessive.
Professional golfers take it for granted that everything ought to go their
way. Life, they have come to expect, should always work to their advantage.
Do we who are Christians now think the same thing? Christ shed his blood to
save us from the eternal destruction of sinful human beings. The cross and
not a divine cookbook is the salvation of sinners. The Bible is not a list
of ingredients that we are expected to cook up in order to find peace with
God. The cross is the altar on which God himself laid the perfect sacrifice
for sin. Christ, who allowed himself to be impaled on that altar, was no
less than God in our flesh and blood form. Do we take his grace for granted?
If we take grace for granted, why will we not become like golfers who
imagine they deserve the perfection so many pay to provide?
03146$-03146
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