A friend of mine and I got into a discussion about my previous post. I find it hard to have such deep conversations in such a short period of time (I know she agrees and is similar). I often must begin a conversation- take in the basic idea, then focus on how I feel about the topic.

To clarify- this is not a me vs. her. Neither one of us are totally saying: you are wrong. It's a discussion- a discussion I want to add some more thought to here.

Her points were:
- How can you appreciate God's love and grace if you don't recognize your sin?
- She mentioned Bonhoeffer and his idea of cheap grace- I grabbed a quote online that I think demonstrates what she was saying:
Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession...Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” 
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I mentioned: 

-  At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

- I know I mentioned more- but I think I'll stick with this for a minute.... 

So there's this idea of condemnation- we are not to condemn one other. 

con·dem·na·tion

ˌkändemˈnāSHən,-dəm-/

noun

1. 1.

   the expression of very strong disapproval; censure.

   "there was strong international condemnation of the attack"

   synonyms:

   censure, criticism, strictures, denunciation, vilification; More

2. 2.

   the action of condemning someone to a punishment; sentencing.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   It seems that Jesus did recognize her sin- and declared to her to leave her life of sin. However, he did not condemn her. 

   
   

   
   

   
   

   So before I began looking up words and even fully reading the scripture I summarized during our time, but have since read... I began to think about how I decided to become a Christian. My decision to believe was because I needed a God who loved me. At the particular time in my life I was very alone and very sad. And I knew there had to more to life. And the speaker at a thing my dear HS friend made me attend :) talked about a God who loved- a God who doesn't desert you- even when you fail, or when others fail. And it was this God of love that made me decide to explore more. 

   
   

   There was also a time when I was in Cuba and I saw communism and poverty and pain. I've seen poverty and suffering in one of the poorest and most dangerous countries in Africa... And so I decided this God of love didn't exist. How can a God of love allow such pain and suffering? 

   
   

   And it has taken me years of searching and reading and asking and praying- and I don't have answers... I have ideas and thoughts- and sometimes I think I have answers, but I am not sure that I do. But yet even with my questions and my doubts, i still come back to believing. 

   It's how we are as a church and we look at and treat others that I struggle with. 

   
   

   
   

   more to come, I'm sure....