Central Assembly

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.

Costly grace ... is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

KEEPING EVERYTHING . . .

* Who or what owns our hearts?

* Where do we start when it comes to our money?

“There is one act, par excellence, which profanes [dethrones] money by going directly against the law of money, an act for which money is not made. That act is giving.” - Jacque Ellul, Money and Power

Hebrews 7:1, 2b-3
1This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, 2…First, the name Melchizedek means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” 3Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.

“Surely what Christ means is that He Himself makes up for every sacrifice. If you give up a mother’s nearby affection and concern, you get back 100 times the affection and concern from the ever-present Christ. If you give up the warm comradeship of a brother, you get back 100 times the warmth and comradeship of Christ.

“If you give up the sense of a homeness that you had in your house, you get back 100 times the comfort and security of knowing that your Lord owns every house and land and stream and tree on earth....Jesus says, ‘I promise to work for, and be for you so much that you will not be able to have spoken of sacrifice at all in the end.’”
- Dr. John Piper