by John & Marti Fischer
Grace is the most outrageous act of God in human history. When God sent His only Son to redeem humanity, He overturned the cycle of cause and effect — sowing and reaping — as we know it. He broke His own rules. No longer was it, “Do right and be blessed; do wrong and be cursed.” Suddenly, it became, “Believe in the One I sent, and you will be forgiven.”
In an opinion column in the Los Angeles Times today, Cori Tucker-Price, assistant professor of religion at UC Santa Barbara, builds a case for the fact that the Azusa Street revival of 1906 in Los Angeles set off not only a spiritual renewal and the “cradle of the worldwide Pentecostal movement,” but it set a precedent for democracy as well.
It began with William J. Seymour, a one-eyed black preacher preaching to a multiracial crowd of Black, white, Asian and Latino worshipers that “defied the logic of segregation.” Seymour, newly freed son of slaves in the South had moved west to escape the backlash segregation of the Jim Crow era, and for the first time was able to experience the freedom of a real democracy.
🏆 GAME SHOW INTRO
John:
“Welcome to Day 5 on GRACE 2U: Grace vs. Gravity! Today, we face the invisible force that tries to pull us down… shame, guilt, judgment… and a little thing called real life.”
Marti:
“Today’s Scripture Spark is a reminder that when life pulls you down, grace can lift you higher.”
📖 Romans 8:1
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
John:
“Gravity says: ‘You fell. Stay down.’
Grace says: ‘I see you on the floor. Let’s get up and try again… together.’”
🎭 Theme: Mercy over condemnation
🎬 Opening Scene:
[Lights up on the game show set.]
John walks on stage dressed as Judge Judy, complete with robe and gavel.
“Welcome to Leave the Judging! I’m Judge Judy here where we drop the gavel and pick up… grace!”
Marti walks in with a bag of popcorn: “Oh, please. You’ve been in costume three days straight. What is this, Method Acting for Ministries?”
John, slamming the gavel: “Order in the court! I sentence you to… 6 months of uncontrollable kindness.”
Cue laugh track
Χάρις ἐξερχομένη — Grace Turned Outward
“We believe grace is a force. Wild. Free. Alive.”
🎭 Cold Open Sketch: The Tarzan Debacle
Cue jungle drums. John bounds on stage in a Tarzan costume, chest out, hair wild (wig), belting:
🎵 “Born free, as free as the wind blows…” 🎵
He swings a rope. Or tries to. It snaps. The crowd gasps. A potted fern dies.
Marti enters from stage left, stone-faced in black boots and a Manhattan trench coat.
“My name is Marti. And I am not swinging on any rope with a man wearing a loincloth and a theology degree.”
John: “But Jane!”
Marti: “TARZAN need coffee and a job.”
[Audience laughter. Jungle sound fades. Theme music in.]
GRACE 2U – Episode 2: Grace in Motion
🎵 [CUE THEME MUSIC – “All Day Song” instrumental intro begins] 🎥 [CAMERA 1 sweeps across the cheering live studio audience. Lights swirl. Confetti flutters down.]
🎙️ ANNOUNCER (V.O.):
“Live from the spiritual fast lane where Grace doesn’t park — it moves! It’s time for the game show where you get what you don’t deserve… so you can give what can’t be earned… Welcome to GRACE 2U!”
🎶 [“Love Him in the morning when you see the sun arising…”] 🎥 [CAMERA 2 swings to JOHN strolling out in his Angels T-shirt and jeans] 🎥 [CAMERA 3 cuts to MARTI strutting confidently in her black stilettos, NYC-sleek with a touch of sparkle.]
JOHN (smiling):
“Welcome, everyone, to Day 2 of GRACE 2U!
MARTI (chuckling):
“Today’s theme is Grace in Motion.”
🎬 GRACE 2U – Episode One: “Grace as Invitation”
Live studio audience, lights up, energetic All Day Song” music plays.
📸 [CAMERA 1 pans across a clapping, smiling audience. Confetti bursts, jazzed-up game show jingle fades into announcer voice-over.]
ANNOUNCER (V.O.):
🎙️ “Live from the intersection of grace and unexpected invitations… it’s time for… GRACE 2U! The only game show where the less you deserve, the more you win!”
Χάρις ἐξερχομένη — Grace Turned Outward
Grace Was Never Meant to Be Contained
Grace is Missing.
Talk about what’s most absent from the world today, and grace has to be near the top of the list. Not just any grace — God’s grace. The unearned, undeserved, countercultural kind. The kind that declares us right with God through no merit of our own and spills over into small acts of graciousness no one asked for. The kind that gets noticed because it’s so rare.
Once you get it, you have to give it; and if you can’t give it, you never got it. What is it?
God’s grace.
The grace of God is radical — so radical that it doesn’t just change the rules; it overrules the rules. It makes the rules no longer necessary. God’s grace creates a fundamental change in the way we relate to God. It rewrites the book on religion and the whole idea of pleasing God. The idea behind religion is to find out what God wants us to do and not do, and try to follow it to the best of our ability. Whether it’s crawling on our hands and knees, or confessing, or obeying, or memorizing, or chanting, or meditating, or sacrificing, or flagellating oneself, none of it means anything in light of God’s grace, because God’s grace does not depend on anything from us. That’s what makes it so hard on one hand and so easy on another. Hard, because we can’t do anything to get to Him, and easy, because He has already done everything to get to us.
Any relationship is going to require a Grace Card. That’s because we are destined to fail each other over and over again. We will fail each other because we are fallible, and we will fail without even trying, because our expectations are always too high for the other to meet.
John Fischer The Catch 