Feel the need to share

When I am reading something that really resonates with me, I feel an immediate need to share. 

I have memories from college of sitting in my room doing my bible study, coming across something that really "spoke" to me, and immediately calling Scott or my friend, Amy, to share whatever I just read, despite the fact that I was in the middle of my quiet time.  I am a vocal processor.  I like to discuss; it helps me to figure things out and come to a conclusion about things. 

This is true for everything, not just spiritual things.  If I am reading a fashion magazine, and I read a really great tip on "dressing for your body type," or something of that nature, I also feel the immediate need to share that.  Unfortunately, Scott is not usually very interested in knowing how to "dress for his body type" ;).

Well, blog readers, I am not in college anymore; I don't have 13 friends living right down the hall, so...when I need to process something I have read, I turn to you.  This is my way of warning you that I am about to type a few things from the book I am currently reading, and I completely understand if you just skip this post altogether.

I am reading The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges, and I am loving it!!!!  It's subtitle reads, God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness."  If I were to share everything that I love about this book, I would probably end up copying the whole book onto my blog, so I just recommend that you find a copy and read it.  Really.

But...this morning, I read a great passage on how the gospel reveals the glory of God, and I had to share.  I couldn't help myself.  Bare (Bear?) with me, please.

"The law reveals the glory of God in his righteousness; the gospel reveals the glory of God in both his righteousness and grace.  Christ's death reveals the righteousness of God in that it satisfied the justice of God, but it also reveals the grace of God in that it was the means of salvation to those who deserve only eternal wrath [amen!!!]. 

Furthermore, the gospel reveals the wisdom of God in devising such an infinitely magnificent way of meeting our desperate need without sacrificing his holiness and justice.  And it reveals the power of God, both in His raising Jesus from the dead and in raising us from spiritual death to a new life in Christ.  So the gospel pulls together and harmonizes all these glorious attributes of the Lord:  his righteousness with His grace, His justice with His mercy, His power with His love, His wisdom with his patience and compassion.

It seems, though, that God desires to magnify His grace in a special way to us, for Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:6-7 'And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realm in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.' The key phrase is that God might show the incomparable riches of his grace.  This is God's goal in salvation of fallen human beings: the exaltation of His grace shown to us in Christ," (106-107).

Okay, I am done.  I had to share.  Scott is out getting the oil changed in my car, so I couldn't read it to him, so I chose you.