April's Discussion: Grace Walk

Posted on April 9, 2009 12:00 AM MST by Tiffany Kinerson

Grace Walk, I believe, is a gem for people in search of an unbridled and powerful walk with Christ. Let me start with something that I highlighted from the text:
“I [used to think] that to be a successful Christian, I must read the Bible enough, pray enough, do enough evangelistic outreach—more production and performance. My whole life was wrapped up in rules and routine.... But I discovered that the key to enjoying success is not strenuous work, but spiritual rest. This is a paradox in Scripture—we must rest while we work!”

Concepts such as this one have been revolutionary in my personal walk with Christ. McVey emphasizes this idea that God is not interested in our dedicating our abilities to Him, but rather for us to admit we have nothing except that which we surrender to Him.

Total surrender. What a difficult concept to grasp and fully live out in this world of ours. But, for me personally, if I know that the Creator of the Universe can only use me to my fullest potential if I’ve come to the end of my confidence in my abilities, then I think surrender is worth figuring out.

My favorite part in this book is where McVey points to the Bible story of Mary and Martha. Martha’s running around like a nut trying to get things together for Jesus, while Mary sits at His feet, soaking Him in. Martha finally gets mad that she has to do all the work, but Jesus stills her. He says, “...One thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” McVey says that if Jesus wanted to be a peace maker, He could have said, “What you are doing is good, but what Mary is doing is important, too.... Martha, you need to learn balance.” But instead, what Jesus emphasizes is that “one thing” that is needed: sitting at His feet. Not that serving is minimized. Like McVey says, if Jesus had wanted some water, Mary certainly would’ve jumped up to get some for Him, but Martha wouldn’t have even heard the request because she was making Him up a bed when He wasn’t even tired. Service as an overflow of relationship.

Wow. It’s difficult for me to find negatives in this book, since that part in me that always yearned for a burden that is light finally found the answers through Grace Walk’s illumination of the Bible. When I looked up other people’s thoughts on the web, though, there was a guy who had some negatives. I’d love to know what y’all think about some of the issues. One of them is the idea that when we put our faith in Jesus as our Savior, our life is exchanged. McVey compares it with a caterpillar who becomes a butterfly. Do we refer to the butterfly as a “converted worm”? The counter-viewpoint says that we still have to struggle against the sin nature, while McVey stresses that with our eyes on the Savior, everything else will fall into place.

Another point McVey discusses is the idea of God’s intentions from the beginning. In the Garden, before man fell, Adam and Eve were so attuned to the face and relationship of God that they never even looked around enough to see themselves—thus they were naked and did not know it. Their relationship with God was perfectly un-egocentric and therefore did not need laws to keep them obedient. But once they chose other than God and averted their eyes, then those same eyes were open to the possibilities around them. They then needed law to keep them on the straight and narrow. Is this relativism—the idea that there are no moral absolutes? Read Grace Walk with me and tell me what you think about all of this and more.

Send us a comment or question