Missive — JANUARY 2010

As this new year begins, I am drawn to a passage in a work written by Helmut Thielicke. Painting a vivid word picture, he writes: 

“The sulfurous stench of hell is as nothing compared with the evil odor emitted by divine grace gone putrid. The grace of God actually can be corrupted by spiritual vanity.”

I have often observed this phenomenon as people, in the name of holiness, actually disgrace the greatest gift God has for His children.  They go around sanctimoniously, living out their own laws and requiring others to do the same. A judgmental spirit creeps in, compelling us to correct our brothers and sisters or at least judge them in our hearts regarding their walk with God.

While each of us has a responsibility to guide and direct our fellow travelers in some of the issues of life, it isn’t our responsibility to judge them. In doing so we forget the grace that God gives all of us.

I pray that spiritual vanity will not diminish the purity and peace that comes only through Him. All of us must come under the umbrella of His grace. When we move out from that canopy and travel in the judgmental spirit of our own understanding of righteousness, we are in dangerous territory. May we never experience, as Thielicke describes, “the evil odor of divine grace gone putrid.”

AGWM Executive Director L. John Bueno

• Missive — JANUARY 2010
• MISSIVE — NOVEMBER 2009
• MISSIVE — SEPTEMBER 2009
• MISSIVE — AUGUST 2009
• MISSIVE — JULY 2009
• MISSIVE — MAY 2009
• MISSIVE — APRIL 2009
• MISSIVE — March 2009
• MISSIVE - February 2009
• MISSIVE - January 2009
• Missive — December 2008