A wonderful piece by my friend

Oshokey Williams

Put bluntly, the Nigerian church today accepts grace in theory but denies it in practice .we say we believe that fundamental structure of reality is grace not works --but our lives refute our faith. By and large the gospel of grace is neither proclaimed,understood ,nor lived .too many Christians are living in a house of fear and not in the house of love
Our culture has made the word grace impossible to understand .we resonate with slogans such as
There is no free lunch
You get what you deserve
You want love ?earn it
Do unto others before ther do unto you
You want mercy?show that you deserve it

Though the scriptures insist on Gods initiative in the work of salvation- that by grace we are saved ,that the tremendous lover has taken to the chase.....our spirituality often starts with self,not God....... We sweat through various spiritual excercises as if thy were designed to produce a christian Charles atlas though lip service is paid to the gospel of grace ,
Many Christians live as if only personal decipline and self denial will mold the perfect me.the emphasis is on what Ido rather than what God is doing

Our huffing and puffing to impress God ,our trashing about trying to fix ourselves ,while hiding our pettiness and wallowing in guilt are nauseating toGod and are flat out denial of the gospel of grace
It is time for us to abandon once and for all our play it safe religion and get drunk on grace,
The radicality of grace is shocking and scary ,unnatural ,but it is also the only thing that can set us free and light the church and the world on fire