Want more grace?

How much time do you have?

• Lots of time? 
  Read one of the 26 books recommended below.
• Not much time? 
  Read a few paragraphs from each book. Click on the post titles to get there.
• Only a little time?
  Read one sentence below from each book.
• No time? 
  to read later.

Whatever your situation, may you overflow with grace today.

Book Giveaway

It’s my 8-Year Blog Anniversary! I started here 8 years ago today.

Update: The Book Giveaway has a winner! Congratulations to Sharon at SharonSharingGod for winning Sheila Walsh’s, The Shelter of God’s Promises.

31 Quotes of Grace

1. If you want grace 
“If you want God’s grace, all you need is need, all you need is nothing.”
– Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods

2. Explain it or show it?
“I would far rather convey grace than explain it.”
– Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing about Grace?

3. The trouble with grace
“I love to give charity, but I don’t want to be charity. This is why I have so much trouble with grace.”
– Donald Miller, Blue like Jazz

4. Grace > circumstances
“The abundant grace of God far exceeds any circumstance we encounter.”
– Stephen Altrogge, The Greener Grass Conspiracy

5. Don’t assume the worst
“Refuse to assume the worst when your spouse does something out of the ordinary. Instead, start with the assumption of good intentions.”
– H. Norman Wright, What’s Next?

6. Stay where you are
“In the Incarnation, God said, ‘Stay where you are. I’ll come to you.’”
– Mike Glenn, The Gospel of Yes

7. Is your soul thirsty? 
“God’s response to the thirsty soul is grace.”
– Andy Stanley, The Grace of God

8. Heaven into you
“God’s dream isn’t just to get you into heaven but to get heaven into you.”
– Max Lucado, Grace

9. Grace is like a roller coaster
“Grace is like a roller coaster; it makes us scream in terror and laugh uncontrollably at the same time.”
– Tullian Tchividjian, One Way Love

10. Who needs grace?
“So who needs grace? All of us, the saint as well as the sinner.”
– Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace

11. Grace always stoops
“Grace always stoops, to the point of being extravagant.”
– Leroy Garrett, What Must the Church of Christ Do to Be Saved

12. Even when I’m wrong
“Truth matters, but so does our attitude.”
– Joshua Harris, Humble Orthodoxy

13. The purpose of prayer is . . .
“The primary purpose of prayer is not to change circumstances; the primary purpose of prayer is to change us.”
– Mark Batterson, Draw the Circle

14. Jean Valjean, the Bishop, and grace in Les Misérables
“Is it true that I am to be released?”
“My friend,” resumed the Bishop, “before you go, here are your candlesticks. Take them.”
– Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

15. Own weakness to find strength 
“Grace calls us to own weakness to find true strength.”
– Paul David Tripp, Lost in the Middle

16. He gives to us, not us to him
“Grace revolves around what He has given us, not what we give to Him.”
– Steve McVey, 52 Lies Heard in Church Every Sunday

17. Save me from myself
“Jesus came to save me from myself. He came to save me from self-effort.”
– Emily Freeman, Grace for the Good Girl

18. Not in our strength
“God’s grace is made perfect in our weakness, not in what we perceive as our strength.”
– Sheila Walsh, The Shelter of God’s Promises

19. You can’t exhaust God’s grace
“‘Stop asking so much! My grace reservoir is running dry.’ Heaven knows no such words.”
– Max Lucado, Grace

20. Grace pays it all
“Grace is not a matter of God’s making up the difference, but of God’s providing all the ‘cost’ of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.” 
– Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace

21. You’re not a pendulum, Christian
“The Christian is not one who swings like a spiritual pendulum, as if forgiven one moment and condemned the next. A Christian is one who is not now nor ever shall be condemned: no condemnation!”
– Sam Storms, One Thing

22. How to know if you’re self-righteous
“You’ll never know if self-righteousness is in your heart until something tragic happens to a fellow Christian that you know.”
– Frank Viola, From Eternity to Here

23. The gospel is good news about a person
“The gospel is good news about a person and what that person has done for us in our hopeless, helpless and hapless condition.”
– Carl Ketcherside, The Twisted Scriptures

24. If God sees no undesirables, me either
“Because God sees no undesirables, neither should we.”
– Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew

25. If you can buy it, it’s not grace
“Grace can neither be bought, earned, nor won by the creature. If it could be, it would cease to be grace.”
– Arthur Pink, The Attributes of God

26. Know God more, love God more
“As you come to know Him more, you will love Him more.”
– Steve McVey, Grace Walk

27. Do you dispense guilt or grace?
“Often, it seems, we’re perceived more as guilt dispensers than as grace dispensers.”
– Philip Yancey, Vanishing Grace

28. You can’t contain it
“He dispenses his goodness not with an eyedropper but with a fire hydrant.”
– Max Lucado, Grace

29. Words we long to hear
“Words we long to hear: I love you. I forgive you. Supper’s ready. Isn’t this the gospel?”
– Philip Yancey, Vanishing Grace

30. Jesus is the kingdom
“Jesus didn’t come to build a kingdom. He brought one with him. He is the kingdom.” 
– Carl Medearis, Speaking of Jesus

31. Take grace too far? 
“We can never go too far with grace because we can never go too far with Jesus.”
– Steve McVey, 52 Lies Heard in Church Every Sunday

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PDF Download

How have you seen grace this week?

These excerpts are gathered from a previous 31 Days series.

Please share in the comments.

Excerpt from 52 Lies Heard in Church Every Sunday:

“We need to remember that grace involves God expressing His unconditional love and favor toward us, independent of anything we ever do or don’t do. Grace is personified in Jesus.

So to say that you can go too far with grace is like saying that you can go too far with Jesus. It simply isn’t possible.

Consider this: God is infinite in His goodness, holiness, and love.

Can He ‘go too far’ with those? . . .

The reason we don’t grow weary with grace when we really understand it is because we come to see that grace isn’t simply a doctrine. Grace is personified in Jesus Christ, and we can never get over Him!

He is grace.”

– Steve McVey

Book review of 52 Lies Heard in Church Every Sunday

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Thanks for reading through 31 Quotes of Grace this October.

I’m more convinced than ever that we can never go too far with grace because we can never go too far with Jesus!

Excerpt from Speaking of Jesus:

“We’re aware of Jesus, but we are obsessed with Christianity.

We’re stuck on its requirements and we’re defined by its doctrines, caught in an endless struggle to find out where we fit, if we’ve ‘arrived’ yet, and if we’re doing it right. We struggle with sin, and yet, because of the boundaries, we’re forced to decide between being honest about our feelings and hiding for fear we’ll be judged.

In this state, we’re not living in the grace of Jesus. We’re trying to maintain our membership.

With Christianity, there’s always the question ‘Am I good enough?’ Whereas Jesus announced that He was present for those who needed Him, as a physician for the ill and wounded, within the church, we often feel the need to conform–to fit all of life’s questions and struggles into a system of answers. . . .

Jesus didn’t come to build a kingdom. He brought one with Him.

He is the kingdom.

He is the entry point to it. Look at the tense of Jesus’ message: By saying ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ (Matt. 3:2 NKJV), He was saying that the kingdom of heaven is available now.

Because He spoke in the outlying regions, not from the pulpit of the temple, He spread this good news to people who were never likely to get within touching distance of an altar. ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand,’ He would say. No doubt heads turned, whispers abounded. ‘Where? Do you see it?’

Wherever He went, the pained and lost people He met followed Him. Jesus’ gospel was that He was the kingdom of heaven, with an easy and light yoke. He was available, and He was compassionate.”

– Carl Medearis

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Every day in October I’m sharing a short quote on grace from a favorite book.

Excerpt from Vanishing Grace:

“Mark Rutland whimsically recalls a survey in which Americans were asked what words they would most like to hear.

He predicted the first choice: ‘I love you.’

Number two was ‘I forgive you.’

The third choice took him by surprise: ‘Supper’s ready.’

It dawned on Rutland that these three statements provide a neat summary of the gospel story. We are loved by God, forgiven by God, and invited to the banquet table.

In the midst of a planet marked by brokenness–violence, natural disasters, ruptured relationships–the gospel is truly good news. Like an iPod listener dancing in a subway station full of glum commuters, a Christian hears a different sound, of joy and laughter on the other side of pain and death.”

– Philip Yancey

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“He dispenses his goodness not with an eyedropper but with a fire hydrant.

Your heart is a Dixie cup, and his grace is the Mediterranean Sea. You simply can’t contain it all.

So let it bubble over. Spill out. Pour forth. ‘Freely have you received, freely give’ (Matt. 10:8 NIV).”

– Max Lucado
Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine

My book review here

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Excerpt from Vanishing Grace:

“I have tried to listen to the uncommitted, not as opponents but as seekers who are still looking.

Why did they leave and church and perhaps the faith? What can we learn from them, and how can we invite them back? Can the good news, once spoiled, ever sound good again?

Jesus ‘came from the Father, full of grace and truth,’ wrote John in the preface to his gospel. The church has worked tirelessly on the truth part of that formula: witness the church councils, creeds, volumes of theology, and denominational splits over minor points of doctrine.

I yearn for the church to compete just as hard in conveying what Paul calls the ‘incomparable riches’ of God’s grace. Often, it seems, we’re perceived more as guilt dispensers than as grace dispensers.”

– Philip Yancey

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Every day in October I’m sharing a short quote on grace from a favorite book.

Excerpt from Grace Walk:

“As you come to know Him more, you will love Him more.

My concept of God has changed since I have come to better understand His grace.

Whereas before, I saw Him as a God who demanded my love, now I see Him as Someone I can’t help but love as I come to know Him better. He really is lovable!”

– Steve McVey

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Every day in October I’m sharing a short quote on grace from a favorite book.

Excerpt from The Attributes of God:

“Divine grace is the sovereign and saving favor of God exercised in the bestowment of blessings upon those who have no merit in them and for which no compensation is demanded from them.

Nay, more; it is the favor of God shown to those who not only have no positive deserts of their own, but who are thoroughly ill-deserving and hell-deserving.

It is completely unmerited and unsought, and is altogether unattracted by anything in or from or by the objects upon which it is bestowed.

Grace can neither be bought, earned, nor won by the creature. If it could be, it would cease to be grace.

When a thing is said to be of ‘grace’ we mean that the recipient has no claim upon it, that it was in nowise due him. It comes to him as pure charity.”

– Arthur W. Pink

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Every day in October I’m sharing a short quote on grace from a favorite book.

Excerpt from The Jesus I Never Knew:

“In his own social interactions, Jesus was putting into practice ‘the great reversal’ heralded in the Beatitudes.

Normally in this world we look up to the rich, the beautiful, the successful. Grace, however, introduces a world of new logic.

Because God loves the poor, the suffering, the persecuted, so should we. Because God sees no undesirables, neither should we.

By his own example, Jesus challenged us to look at the world through what Irenaeus would call “grace-healed eyes.'”

– Philip Yancey

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Every day in October I’m sharing a short quote on grace from a favorite book.

Excerpt from The Twisted Scriptures:

“The gospel, by etymology, is good news.

It is not a system of doctrine, a philosophy of life, a compilation of laws, or a code of ethics.

It is good news about a person and what that person has done for us in our hopeless, helpless and hapless condition.”

– W. Carl Ketcherside

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Every day in October I’m sharing a short quote on grace from a favorite book.