Grace

Grace

Whatever you're reading right now put it down. Get yourself a copy of TrueFaced and make it the very next book you read. Dallas Willard says, "TrueFaced is one of the best books on practical theology I have ever seen."

TrueFaced addresses basic motives faced by every follower of Jesus: the distinction between our determination to please God or to trust Him. The authors draw on the metaphor of two rooms in our pursuit of God—The Room of Good Intentions and The Room of Grace.


The First Room—Good Intentions (Effort)

Eph 2:1-3—Sin deadens us, sin controls us, do the devils will, pain, shame, brokenness.
Psalm 73—based on human instincts, slaves to flesh (not exactly body) more of a desire for self apart form God.

The first, at the end of a well-traveled road, is the Room of Good Intentions, entered by turning the knob of Effort. This room is filled to capacity with:
• Tired Christians
• Cynical Christians
• Well-intended Christians wearing various masks
• Christians determined to work on their sin to achieve an intimate relationship with God.

These folks are sincerely determined to be godly. No one in this room is interested in hearing about your struggles, trials or failures. To be welcome here, one must hold their cards pretty close to their chest and give the appearance of sufficiency and that everything is fine. I'm fine; you're fine, we're all fine, fine, fine all the time, time, time.


The Second Room—Grace (Humility)

Eph 2:4-6
-God loves us
-Rich in mercy
-By grace we are saved through faith

2 Cor 8:9—generous grace of our Lord

The second room lies at the end of life's path with the motive of Trusting God. In this room, inhabitants have embraced the concept of Living out of Who God Says I Am. To enter the Room of Grace, one only needs turn the doorknob of Humility. In this room, people have cried out:
• I'm not fine! I haven't been fine for a long time
• I feel guilty, lonely and depressed
• I'm sad most of the time and I can't make my life work.
• If any of you knew half of my daily thoughts, you'd want me out of your little club I'm not doing fine

Instead of working on one's own sin to achieve intimacy with God, in this room, people stand with God, with their sin in front of them, working on it together with Him. We must discover the freedom that lies in allowing ourselves to be real before God and others and we must trust the people around you




“We've all been part of a community, a church, or a small group where we've felt the pressure of presenting a strong, fine front. One where we don't have the freedom to share sin or failures; where we have to put on appearances and pretend we've got it all together. The effect is subtle, but grossly counterproductive to introducing people to the Kingdom of God. For reasons too numerous to count, Christians have fallen prey to the lie that we must appear fine, strong, good and often, productive. We don't want people to know we're flawed. My flaws and imperfections serve only to draw attention to the fact that I NEED a perfect father. Those that appear flawless, often draw perceptions that something's not entirely right, and make genuine, authentic connection near impossible.” -Pastor Williams

Do you have any of those books where you've worn a highlighter or underlined something on nearly every page? This is one for me.

This is the kind of book that I could read over and over again. I want to so thoroughly grasp the concept of a truly trusting, grace-filled relationship with the Father and this book can assist.


Here are a few thoughts from the book:
• “Many of us remain so wounded and preoccupied with our own stuff that we concoct our own tepid, cheap dreams and call them God’s.” (pg 15)
• “One of the really good gifts we could receive would be the ability to see where we are and how we got here. We need to see ourselves in our story, to see what causes and drives the responses that trip us up.” (pg 23)
• “Nothing in us can absorb sin. Nothing. Even when we are the one being sinned against, we still cannot handle sin, because sin done to us will always ignite the nature of the sin already in us.” (pg 25)
• “Worse yet, I never experience the love of others because when I wear a mask, only my mask receives love! I sense I’m still not loved and self-diagnose that maybe my mask wasn’t good or tight enough.” (pg 30)
• “So, if a relationship or community lacks grace, that relationship or community is low on trust. One simply cannot nurture a realm of grace without trust.” (pg 62)
• “The degree to which I let you love me is the degree to which you can love me, no matter how much love you have for me.” (pg 90)


Final Thoughts:

1. Grace is stronger than sin
2. We must be humble
3. Titus 3:4-7
4. In our most quite place—do we really know God is for us?
5. “The Great Disconnect—the gap between who we say we are and who we actually believe we are.”
6. “No matter how much we draw from it, the river of divine grace is always full of water.” Elwell
7. “If you ask me what is the first precept of Christian religion I will answer, first, second, an third, Humility” Augustine