After the Second World War, General Douglas MacArthur and his wife and their little son Arthur went to live in Japan, where MacArthur was administering the Island after the war. As things settled down, slowly the American occupying troops were being sent home. And the way they decided who would go home first, was on a point system: “so many points were awarded for each month overseas, so many for battles and decorations, and so on.” Little Arthur was tired of living in Japan and wanted to go home, so at one point he asked his dad: “Do I have enough points to go home?” (William Manchester, American Caesar, p. 515)
Unfortunately, that is the way that too many people think of going home to heaven: they think if we have enough “points,” based on our goodness or good works, then we get to go. But that is not true at all. The Bible tells us that we are not saved by our good works, but by the GRACE of God — which is what our verse for this morning says:
“Save me because of Your lovingkindness” (Psalm 6:4)
We are saved by God’s lovingkindness (or grace) which is what we are celebrating as we share in the Lord’s Supper this morning. Continue reading
Instead of closing with the perfunctory “I was sent this book in exchange for reading it and promising to write a review,” I am going to open with it. Because that is exactly how I encountered this book. But I am glad I did, because I can also honestly say that it is a very readable, very quotable Christian apologetics source which I would recommend to anyone.
shawnethomas 