{"id":129,"date":"2004-05-09T17:15:00","date_gmt":"2004-05-09T15:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/?p=129"},"modified":"2020-08-04T21:37:49","modified_gmt":"2020-08-04T19:37:49","slug":"christianity-is-unfair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2004\/05\/09\/christianity-is-unfair\/","title":{"rendered":"Christianity is unfair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today Dan Sneed <\/a>spoke in our church on forgiveness and reconciliation. An excellent speaker with an excellent message. He shared some stories of a Christian leadership conference in Iraq last August (the first since 325 A.D.!), where he also spoke about forgiveness. A heavy topic in a country that is torn apart by dictatorship and tribal wars, where revenge and strike-back is the usual language of communication. Incredible stories of how God broke through and set people free. The core of Dan’s message is that when you forgive, you set a captive free – only to find out that you are that captive! The trouble with forgiveness is that it seems unfair – which in fact is true. A dad who’s kid has been murdered, has every right to hold the murderer accountable, to have justice done to him; that is fair! He does not deserve to be forgiven. A recent example is the Marc Dutroux case in Belgium, who raped and murdered several young girls. The surviving victims did not want to forgive him or his ex-wife. I think we all completely understand, and I will be the last to throw stones at them. But at the same time: this unforgiveness can keep them emprisoned for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n

I recently read Philip Yancey’s book ‘What’s so amazing about grace?’, which deals with the same subject. Yancey also tells a lot of stories. Maybe because grace cannot be captured in a ‘doctrine’? Maybe because it is so counter-intuitive that only a story can expose the meaning?
\n
I have been thinking about ‘grace’ for a while, and I share Yancey’s view that grace (impersonated in Jesus Christ) is the key factor that differentiates christianity from other religions: the forgiving love of God for men made Him come down and save us, even while we did not deserve it; and that many christians, including me, miss the point…<\/p>\n

GRACE (U2)<\/p>\n

Grace
\n
She takes the blame
\n
She covers the shame
\n
Removes the stain
\n
It could be her name<\/p>\n

Grace
\n
It’s a name for a girl
\n
It’s also a thought that
\n
Changed the world<\/p>\n

And when she walks on the street
\n
You can hear the strings
\n
Grace finds goodness
\n
In everything<\/p>\n

Grace
\n
She’s got the walk
\n
Not on a wrapper on chalk
\n
She’s got the time to talk<\/p>\n

She travels outside
\n
Of karma, karma
\n
She travels outside
\n
Of karma<\/p>\n

When she goes to work
\n
You can hear the strings
\n
Grace finds beauty
\n
In everything<\/p>\n

Grace
\n
She carries a world on her hips
\n
No champagne flute for her lips
\n
No twirls or skips
\n
Between her fingertips<\/p>\n

She carries a pearl
\n
In perfect condition
\n
What once was hers
\n
What once was friction
\n
What left a mark
\n
No longer stains<\/p>\n

Because grace makes beauty
\n
Out of ugly things<\/p>\n

Grace finds beauty
\n
In everything<\/p>\n

Grace finds goodness
\n
In everything
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today Dan Sneed spoke in our church on forgiveness and reconciliation. An excellent speaker with an excellent message. He shared some stories of a Christian …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t