grace

"No single word more accurately defines the essence of the Christian gospel than grace. The young church at Colossae had understood 'grace' in its true meaning and simplicity, without any of the false additions that so easily make grace no longer grace. This meant that, from the very beginning, they understood that man can make no claim on God, however sincere or faithful he may think himself to be; that the heart of the gospel concerns not our commitment to God but his free and merciful offer to commit himself to us in Christ; that our acceptance of the Saviour is meaningless unless God has already freely accepted us in him; that the very essence of the story is not that of men striving to make Christ their Lord, but of Christ in sheer goodness and pity, undertaking for his own sake to make us his servants, despite the fact that we never cease to be unprofitable and undeserving of such a privilege."

Dick Lucas, expounding Colossians 1:3-8 in
The Message of Colossians & Philemon
(Leicester, England : Inter-Varsity Press, 2000)

Will write more soon on my trip to PNG. Blurb : went to PNG from 15-30 Sep. '07 to see Mum, Dad and Caitlin. Fun. Good to see first hand what Mum and Dad do, and what I plan to be doing eventually, too.