A preacher finished his preaching and the audience was preparing to dissolve when he called out to them:
“Wait for a moment and take a look at the road!” They were two people passing by, having their hands chained behind their back, accompanied by two police officers! Everyone were surprised to see them.
The preacher said, “Well, there is no difference between me and them! I am here, and I preach in front of you whereas they are chained.
You can tell the difference in the Grace of God. I was willing to let the Grace come in my heart whereas they did not know anything about God or they ignored and despised the love of God, and now they are in this regrettable position.
Our nature is itself sinful. Without the Grace of God, a bad thought and a bad word were transformed into a bad act, which brought them to this sad situation.”
The Grace of God leads us to salvation, offered to each of you, without any charge, through Christ.”
Zeros
In a museum there is a nice painting, which shows a young child writing a number of zeros on a chalkboard. Next to the child stands an angel, which puts the number 1 in front of the zeros.
This painting is titled “Human Will and Divine Grace”.
What the painting implies is very simple. Whatever the human beings do is not a value in its own right. The human deeds are like the zeros.
The Grace of God is the number that comes in front of the zeros and gives them great value.
Therefore, the more zeros we have, that is, our good deeds, the more we prove ourselves.
*The article was originally published in Greek in ikivotos.gr