My wife and I rescue and foster a lot of animals.  It’s taught me a lot about God’s love.

Prevenient grace is the Holy Spirit at work in every single person, beckoning us all to God.  Since all my students take Spanish and not Latin or French, I told them to call it “Pre-Vamanos” grace: “Everybody, Let’s GO!” It’s like the porch of a house, inviting you to come in. Justifying grace is the turning point, where we recognize our profound need for God, repent and trust in Christ.  It’s “Just-if-I’d” never sinned, and the faithfulness of Christ fills up and covers over our faithlessness.  It’s like the door into the house where the party is going on. Sanctifying grace is a life in Christ, growing to be more and more like God as we grow closer to God.  It’s the whole party house.  But we can make some pretty terrible mistakes, and turn our backs on God.  Fortunately, God’s grace is always first, always going before us, always calling us back.  We love because God first loved us.