{"id":1523,"date":"2011-08-30T05:36:07","date_gmt":"2011-08-30T09:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=1523"},"modified":"2011-08-30T09:09:17","modified_gmt":"2011-08-30T13:09:17","slug":"cheap-grace-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/cheap-grace-part-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Cheap Grace–part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hate cheap grace.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A wealthy farmer in a small town in South Carolina bought his son a new red BMW for his sixteenth birthday.\u00a0 The boy took the car out one night, got drunk and totalled it.<\/p>\n

The next day, this father took the errant son to the car dealer and purchased another BMW; but this time made him settle for a black one as punishment.\u00a0 That’s cheap grace.<\/p>\n

A young mother who knew that her daughter became hyper and obnoxious when she ate sugar and sugar products allowed herself to be coerced\u00a0into buying the five-year old a candy bar because she started to scream in the store.\u00a0 “I can’t stand to have her cry.\u00a0 I just love her too much,” the mother told the cashier.\u00a0 That’s cheap grace.<\/p>\n

The Baptist Sunday school teacher proclaimed, “Now that we’ve been saved, we can do anything we want to do.”\u00a0 That’s cheap grace.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Randy Stonehill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Randy Stonehill, a contemporary songwriter penned,<\/p>\n

You’ll<\/strong> be tempted, tried and tested.<\/p>\n

There’ll be wars the devil wins,<\/p>\n

But God’s love is not a license<\/p>\n

To lie down in your sins.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0understands<\/strong> the human heart.<\/p>\n

His mercy is complete.<\/p>\n

But his grace is not intended<\/p>\n

As a place to wipe your feet.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Too often the Church has said by our actions that God’s grace is no longer a valuable commodity but that is a lie.<\/p>\n

Several years ago I hurt a close friend by saying some thoughtless remarks in front of others.\u00a0 While I realized at the time she was wounded, I didn’t comprehend the extent of damage my words had done until several weeks later.\u00a0 She was deeply hurt by the inappropriate words.\u00a0 When the extent of the damage was drawn to my attention, I apologized and I tried to go back to make restitution but months had passed. I knew that the opinions of\u00a0other people\u00a0had been formed based on my faulty information.\u00a0 A relationship which had taken 10 years to build was severely damaged by my careless tongue.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>While we both resolved to begin again, things\u00a0were different.\u00a0 Friendship must be built on mutual trust. When that trust is broken, the two parties have to determine to repair the breach.\u00a0 Is there an invisible guard up when I was\u00a0around?\u00a0 I had to admit that I would have a shield up, if I were she.\u00a0 I had not valued her friendship enough to watch my tongue.<\/p>\n

Knowing that I’ve injured her made me leery of making the same mistake again.\u00a0 I was not the injured party; yet, I became\u00a0acutely aware that I was\u00a0the one who is hindering the openness of our past relationship. I was\u00a0too careful out of concern for making the same mistake.\u00a0 At times, I became\u00a0defensive when it wasn’t necessary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She f0rgave me.\u00a0 But it took me years to walk through the process of accepting her forgiveness and forgiving myself.<\/p>\n

Our relationship with God is much the same.\u00a0 While the foundation and building stones were mined solely from God’s unmerited favor, His grace, we aren’t given free reign to do as we choose.<\/p>\n

There are consequences to each word and deed.\u00a0 Seeds are sown.\u00a0 Habits are formed. Cheap grace may exist in the worldly system where we dwell;\u00a0but God’s grace is never cheap.\u00a0 \u00a0His only Son paid a great price for the grace so\u00a0generously offered to us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hate cheap grace. A wealthy farmer in a small town in South Carolina bought his son a new red BMW for his sixteenth birthday.\u00a0 The boy took the car out one night, got drunk and totalled it. The next day, this father took the errant son to the car dealer and purchased another BMW;…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20,40,186,49,12,212,4],"tags":[261,21,688,696,7,699,262,715,701,19,689,57,692,6],"class_list":["post-1523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-church","category-faith","category-hope","category-inspiration","category-religion","category-repentance","category-simple-truths","tag-cheap-grace","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-church","tag-developmental-disabilities-2","tag-faith","tag-gods-grace","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-mental-retardation","tag-mentally-challenged-community","tag-prayer","tag-religion","tag-simple-scriptural-truths"],"yoast_head":"\nCheap Grace-part 1 - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/cheap-grace-part-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cheap Grace-part 1 - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I hate cheap grace. A wealthy farmer in a small town in South Carolina bought his son a new red BMW for his sixteenth birthday.\u00a0 The boy took the car out one night, got drunk and totalled it. The next day, this father took the errant son to the car dealer and purchased another BMW;…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/cheap-grace-part-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-30T09:36:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-30T13:09:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/08\/red-BMW-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. Howard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cheap Grace-part 1 - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/cheap-grace-part-1.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cheap Grace-part 1 - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","og_description":"I hate cheap grace. A wealthy farmer in a small town in South Carolina bought his son a new red BMW for his sixteenth birthday.\u00a0 The boy took the car out one night, got drunk and totalled it. 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