oh how amazing it is!

my last post was quite unkind and for that i ask your forgiveness.
during my stay overseas and i have the priveldge to catch up on some much needed reading. the Word has been SO refreshing! also, i have finished voyage of the dawn treader and am alsmost finished with what's so amazing about grace? to latter i wish to address my atttention in this blog.
grace is something i can't seem to wrap my head around. how could this incredibly holy God show grace to such a lowly sinner like me? while i still struggle with God's mercy and glory in this regard, i've learned quite about grace. while the Word is the ultimate authority, i'd like to share some excerpts (sp?) from the book to help relate (the chapter is dealing with legalism in the church...):
-"by its very nature legalism encourages hypocrisy because it defines a set of behavior that may cloak what is going on inside."
-"the more i relfect on the elder son (from the prodigal son) in me, the more i realize how deeply rooted this form of lostness really is and how hard it is to return home from there. returning home from a lustful escapade seems so much easier than returning home from a cold anger that has rooted itself in the deepest corners of my being."
-"repentance, no proper behavior or even holiness, is the doorway to grace. and the opposite of sin is grace, not virtue."
-"law merely indicated the sickness; grace brought back the cure."
-the solution to sin is not to impose an ever-stricture code of behavior. It is to know God."

i could go on and on. but the last few are my favorite. i must know God. during training, someone did a talk on "grace and peace to you." he said, "to those rickshaw drivers who cheat you, give them grace and peace. i think i am slowly understanding what that means in a practical way as God leads me to a deeper repentance and to a deeper sense of grace.

love you guys and am excited to see you and make you real chai :)