Grace

“It is hard to get reconditioned to the conditioning of grace. A flower doesn’t bloom in one hour of sunlight, and a believer’s soul needs constant exposure to the rays of grace day after day, year after year, before it moves from an intellectual assent to a truth that our lives bask in and live by.”

(Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2, Steve Stockman)


"Dr. John Witherspoon was a great American and a man of God. He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and president of the College of New Jersey which later became Princeton. He lived about two miles from the college and drove over in his buggy each day.

"One morning a neighbor came excitedly into his study and said, 'Dr. Witherspoon, you must join me in giving thanks to God for His providence in saving my life. As I was driving this morning the horse ran away and the buggy was smashed to pieces on the rocks, but I escaped unharmed.'

"'Why,' answered Dr. Witherspoon, 'I can tell you a far more remarkable providence than that. I have driven over that road hundreds of times. My horse never ran away, my buggy was never smashed, I was never hurt. God's providence has been for me even more remarkable than it has been for you.'"

(God's Psychiatry, Charles Allen)


"Theologians of the Reformed school use the New Testament word grace (free favor) to cover every act of divine generosity, of whatever kind, and hence distinguish between the common grace of 'creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life,' and the special grace manifested in the economy of salvation - the point of contrast between common and special being that all benefit from the former, but not all are touched by the latter. The biblical way of putting this distinction would be to say that God is good to all in some ways and to some in all ways."

(Knowing God, J.I Packer)