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Grace

Thursday, June 5, 2008

When David (and the kids) and I talked about names for our new little sweetie, I had the sense that her name should be Grace. David liked the name, but thought that she should have a two syllable name since everyone else in the family has a two syllable name (David, Sarah, Adam, Yana, Lily and Jadon). As I thought and prayed about it, however, I was just sure that "Grace" was her name. When I shared this with David, he agree that if it was really her name, then she ought to be named Grace regardless of the number of syllables.

Recently, our pastor handed out a booklet with verses about the Lavish Love of God. He includes a few comments. This is what he had to say about grace.

"Aspects of God's love for us is reflected in the word "grace." The Greek meanings behind this word express many thoughts. The word has abundant use in secular Greek in the sense of unmerited favor, and Paul seized on this meaning of the word to express a fundamental characteristic of Christianity...[it] has almost exactly the same sense as "mercy." Indeed, "grace" here differs from "mercy" chiefly in connoting eager love as the source of the act...So charis, "grace," becomes almost an equivalent for "Christianity," viewed as the religion of dependence on God through Christ....

"Charis denoted both the favor and the favors, it was the natural word for the power that connected them. This use is very clear in I Corinthians 15:10, where Paul says, "not I, but the grace of God which was with me" labored more abundantly than they all: grace is something that labors. So in 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness"; compare 2 Timothy 2:1, "strengthened in the grace," and I Peter 4:10, "stewards of the manifold grace." Evidently in this sense "grace" is almost a synonym for the Spirit...and there is little real difference between "full of the Holy Spirit" and "full of grace and power" in Acts 6:5,8, while there is a very striking parallel between Ephesians 4:7-13 and I Corinthians 12:4-11, with "gifts of grace" in the one passage, and "gifts of the Spirit" in the other. And this connection between grace and the Spirit is found definitely in the formula "Spirit of grace" in Hebrews 10:29."

This was a great encouragement to me. God has surely given our daughter a beautiful name. May her life be a reflection of the abundant grace of God!

3 comments:

Linda said...

You have a lovely family, and Grace is blessed to be your next child. I so appreciated what you wrote about death not being a part of God's will. I had so romanticized it as just a rest or a sweet separation until I lost two of my children. At that point, I knew it was an enemy.

Grace is a beautiful name, and bless you for adopting an older child.

www.lindaschildren.blogspot.com

Linda said...

We really ARE neighbors! I was not very discrete about my location when I mentioned the tornado, was I? Please feel free to e-mail me any time. I do transcription out of my home and work around my kids' activities, so we have quite a bit of freedom to play at the parks this summer if you are interested in joining us. rlshoemate@msn.com

Melissa E. said...

You could just move to the Deep South and then "Grace" would be a two-syllable name! ;-)

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