One winter night the mayor decided to visit a Manhattan night court, and ended up presiding over the proceedings. It was bitter cold that night, and an under-clothed man was brought before La Guardia, accused of stealing a loaf of bread. His family was starving, the man claimed. “I have to punish you,” the mayor pronounced. “The law makes no exceptions. I hereby fine you ten dollars.”<\/p>\n
But then La Guardia added as he reached into his own pocket, “Here\u2019s the ten dollars to pay your fine,” tossing a ten-dollar bill into his hat.<\/p>\n
“Furthermore,” he went on, “I\u2019m fining everybody in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a man has to steal bread in order to feed his family. Mr. Bailiff, collect the fines and give them to this defendant!”<\/p>\n
The hat was passed around, and the man left La Guardia\u2019s courtroom, shaking his head and holding a stake of $47.50.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What did the man deserve? Judgement.<\/p>\n
What did the man get? Grace.<\/p>\n
Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God without the law<\/span> is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;<\/p><\/blockquote>\nBut now!<\/p>\n
I used another story of grace I found in the latest Frontline magazine, the Nov\/Dec 2006 issue. It is the story of a former pastor who had quit on God, quit on the church, quit on everything. He lived instead for himself and rebellion. Six years ago, he heard a message ont he love of God that broke his spirit. He repented and is accepted in the beloved today. His testimony is written up in the magazine under the title “One Lost Sheep”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What did he deserve? Judgement.<\/p>\n
What did he get? Grace.<\/p>\n
Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God without the law<\/span> is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;<\/p><\/blockquote>\nBut now!<\/p>\n
****<\/p>\n
Listen, it was a great day!<\/p>\n
We had one lady visiting for the first time today. She stayed for all three services and came to my wife after the last one with tears streaming down her face, asking for a visit from us this week. The Lord is working in her life, so pray for her this week if you think of it.<\/p>\n
Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today we come to Romans. After the fight was settled between Paul and the Corinthians, Paul visited Corinth for three months. We know the fight was settled because we have 2 Corinthians. After the things Paul said to the Corinthians, would you have saved the letter if you had not repented? We also know the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2fYWj-6E","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}