{"id":3503,"date":"2014-05-21T21:48:06","date_gmt":"2014-05-22T01:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/?p=3503"},"modified":"2014-05-21T21:48:06","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T01:48:06","slug":"explaining-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2014\/05\/explaining-grace.html","title":{"rendered":"Explaining grace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the past weeks, I&#8217;ve been going over some of the key words in our covenant relationship with God. \u00a0Perhaps one of the most important words we use is grace.<\/p>\n<p>Most of us have learned and maybe we even remember<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>G<\/strong>od&#8217;s<\/li>\n<li><strong>R<\/strong>iches<\/li>\n<li><strong>A<\/strong>t<\/li>\n<li><strong>C<\/strong>hrist&#8217;s<\/li>\n<li><strong>E<\/strong>xpense<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is great explanation of grace and the first one I could readily remember. \u00a0However, it is a bit churchy sounding for many people.<\/p>\n<p>Then there is the wonderful explanation: \u00a0Unmerited favor. \u00a0I love this simple explanation that encapsulates this amazing concept in two words.<\/p>\n<p>However, trying to explain grace seemed harder than I had imagined. \u00a0They didn&#8217;t grasp the whole acrostic idea. \u00a0And while unmerited favor seems simple enough, even the members who remember the two-word definition could not explain what it meant.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, we worked our way into another definition that they understood and fully appreciated. \u00a0Grace is receiving a gift we don&#8217;t deserve.<\/p>\n<p>Receiving a gift we don&#8217;t deserve is not as catchy at the acrostic or as short as &#8220;unmerited favor&#8221; but our members understand it and have grasped its meaning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the past weeks, I&#8217;ve been going over some of the key words in our covenant relationship with God. \u00a0Perhaps one of the most important words we use is grace. Most of us have learned and maybe we even remember God&#8217;s Riches At Christ&#8217;s Expense This is great explanation of grace and the first one&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20,3,40,49,16,8,41],"tags":[690,21,688,7,388,699,758,715,701,13,694,6],"class_list":["post-3503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-church","category-developmental-disabilities","category-faith","category-inspiration","category-intellectual-disability","category-mentally-challenged-community","category-spirituality","tag-autism-spectrum","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-developmental-disabilities-2","tag-disability-ministry","tag-faith","tag-grace","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-intellectual-disabilities","tag-intellectual-disability","tag-simple-scriptural-truths"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Explaining grace - 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\/2014\/05\/explaining-grace.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Explaining grace - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the past weeks, I&#8217;ve been going over some of the key words in our covenant relationship with God. \u00a0Perhaps one of the most important words we use is grace. Most of us have learned and maybe we even remember God&#8217;s Riches At Christ&#8217;s Expense This is great explanation of grace and the first one&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2014\/05\/explaining-grace.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-22T01:48:06+00:00\" \/>\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":"Explaining grace - 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\/2014\/05\/explaining-grace.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Explaining grace - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","og_description":"In the past weeks, I&#8217;ve been going over some of the key words in our covenant relationship with God. \u00a0Perhaps one of the most important words we use is grace. 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