true

grace, community - these two words keep coming up in things I’m reading...

“There is in true grace an infinite circle: a man by thirsting receives, and receiving, thirsts for more.” Thomas Shepard

“In true community we are windows constantly offering each other new views on the mystery of God’s presence in our lives.” Henri Nouwen

true grace

"True grace is not an inactive thing; there is nothing in heaven or earth of a more active nature; for it is life itself, and the most active kind of life, even spiritual and divine life. It is no barren thing; there is nothing in the universe that in its nature has a greater tendency to fruit. Godliness in the heart has as direct a relation to practice as a fountain has to a stream, or as the luminous nature of the sun has to beams sent forth, or as life has to breathing or the beating of the pulse or any other vital act; or as a habit or principle of action has to action; for it is the very nature and notion of grace, that it is a principle of action or practice."

Jonathan Edwards
Religious Affections p320

mystery of grace

"grace...the force that infuses our lives and keeps letting us off the hook. It is unearned love - the love that goes before, that greets us on the way. It's the help you receive when you have no bright ideas left, when you are empty and desperate and have discovered that your best thinking and most charming charm have failed you. Grace is the light or electricity or juice or breeze that takes you from that isolated place and puts you with others who are as startled and embarrassed and eventually grateful as you are to be there." p139

"I do not at all understand the mystery of grace--only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us." p143

Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies

grace to abide

Another random quote that just struck a cord with me...

"The idea [many Christians] have of grace is this: that their conversion and pardon are God's work, but that now, in gratitude to God, it is their work to live as Christians and follow Jesus... No wandering one, as it was Jesus who drew thee when He spake 'Come' so it is Jesus who keeps thee when he says 'Abide'. The grace to come and the grace to abide are alike from Him alone."
-Andrew Murray

Do I only see grace as this: 'O to grace, how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be...'