My philosophies - they are a changin

I don't even know where to begin with this post.  Growing up I had an idea of what Christianity should look like.  I had that idea and I kept it and I guarded it and I lived it and then I just started realizing - is this really what it should look it?

I started reading this book that a friend recommended - Give Them Grace by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson.

There were so many things in the book that just went straight to my heart.  I knew I was in trouble with the forward - and that was just the beginning!

It was written by Tullian Tchividjian.  Here is an excerpt from his blog:

In preparation for my sermon this past Sunday, I re-read the opening lines of Michael Horton’s book Christless Christianity. He writes:

What would things look like if Satan really took control of a city? Over half a century ago, Presbyterian minister Donald Grey Barnhouse offered his own scenario in his weekly sermon that was also broadcast nationwide on CBS radio. Barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over Philadelphia (the city where Barnhouse pastored), all of the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The children would say, “Yes, sir” and “No ma’am,” and the churches would be full every Sunday…where Christ is not preached.

There is a great difference between moralism and the gospel. Moralism, in fact, inoculates us from the gospel by giving us something of “the real thing” ensuring that we miss out on the true gospel all together. We must remember that Christ came first not to make bad people good but to make dead people live. If we forget that, our Christianity will turn out to be Christless.

I haven't read Christless Christianity yet but I plan to.  Because this whole thing is quite the paradigm shift for me.  I am reading more and trying to learn more but it is also exciting - and oh so freeing.  I really can't recommend Give Them Grace highly enough.

I read it but I plan to do a study of  it starting in the fall and hope to do it here on my blog.

Have you read this book?  What is your take???