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Summary:
Mention the word "grace" and what immediately comes to mind for most of us is a bagpipe wailing the solemn notes of "Amazing Grace."
The grace of which Philip Yancey writes is the freely given and unmerited favor and love of God. This grace seems a remote, almost sentimental concept, without a place in our lives or our society. It is a vague, slippery thing to us, probably because we seem to experience grace so rarely and have managed to leech the word of meaning. But Philip Yancey has set about to rescue grace in his book What's So Amazing About Grace?
This grace is the true message of Jesus. All faiths have virtues and creeds and justice and truth, but Jesus speaks merely of receiving the love that God has for us. Accepting it, not earning it or making ourselves worthy of it. And frankly, accepting something we have not earned or are not worthy of is not an easy thing for most of us.
In truth, grace is both utterly simple and utterly confounding. Little by little, Yancey guides us into a clearer understanding of grace by using stories, in much the same way Jesus did. We read stories of both grace and ungrace at work in people's lives. Sadly, it is stories of ungrace that are more prevalent today, the current culture wars painful acknowledgments of ungrace in our lives as Christians in this country. Yancey helps us understand that ungrace is that state of being in which self-righteousness and pride are a result of thinking that we have somehow earned God's approval and may now stand in judgment in his behalf.
Philip Yancey was awarded the Gold Medallion Christian Book of the Year award for this book in 1998 by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. Readers concurred with this decision, making this book an immediate bestseller. Believers and nonbelievers alike should accept Yancey's challenge to become agents of grace rather than agents of vengeance or judgment or anger. In truth, we are each starving for grace, ready to grasp it tightly. And it is through grace that all other hungers--for justice, for righteousness, for love--are satisfied. Yancey opens his book by telling us that "grace" is the last best word, and in What's So Amazing About Grace?, he proves that he's right. --Patricia Klein
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
Not What I Expected...
Customer Rating:
I had been looking for a book that really explained (as much as one could) grace. This book is more of a history book on Grace. Talking about Germany, the Nazis and different other countries and the past and how grace made things better. No offense, I think it's a great book if you're looking for that kind of thing but I was looking for something to read that I can apply right now. Not something analyzing the past as much as this book did. It was... ok. I don't see how others felt it was a "must read" of a lifetime. Either way, it was uplifting. Just not the way I expected it to be.
What's So Amazing About Grace
Customer Rating:
Two different groups in a church are using this as a study and have found that the author's teaching method of using stories is particularly helpful for members to challenge their ideas and lifestyle in the difficult areas connected with grace such as forgiveness.
Grace for us all
Customer Rating:
Phillip Yancey's book "What's So Amazing About Grace?" is filled with both deep spirituality and practical steps we can each take to better express God's grace.[[ASIN:0310273625 What's So Amazing About Grace?] An excellent guide for today's thinkers and doers.
secret to happyness
Customer Rating:
I just read the first chapters but this book has really touched me inside. The gospel is not a story about how to go to heaven or how to avoid hell. The gospel is the most beautiful love story ever told, about how God, being God, denied himself everything for our sake. And now, being totally acepted in Him, we are not left with the rest of our time on Earth to only daydream about heaven, but to enjoy the privilege and happyness of sharing God's love and grace with one another in this world. God does not want us to pay Him something back, He has everything He needs, He want us living close to Him, enjoying His company, His love, His grace, happy to be with Him and being a channel of His love and grace to the people around us.
What's So Amazing About Grace?
Customer Rating:
Aside from the Bible, this is the best book I have ever read. This is a life-changing book about a life-changing subject. I find Philip Yancey to be a tremendous communicator. Since reading this book, I have bought and given away as gifts at least 7 copies of this book.
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