A co-worker of mine had this impressive list on her office door entitled “10 Requirements To Be An Effective Believer”. I was so captivated by it, because until I stumbled on to grace I would never have been able to get past even Number 1.
I googled the list it but I haven’t been able to find its author. It sounds like Tim Keller, but I couldn’t authenticate it.
As I look over the list it hits me that there are a lot of Christians that have trouble getting past even Number 1 on the list. I know it took me awhile because the more life is about you, the less you recognize what’s right in front of your face.
The other thing I figured out is that each requirement builds on the next – you won’t get Number 2 until you first get to a place where you’ve completely embraced or understand Number 1, and so on. The list isn’t for everyone, but it’s my hope it will be for you.
Personally, I struggle the most with Number 3 and Number 4…and sometimes Number 9 (when it applies to Salsa Guy).
Number 10 is the reason I blog. Enjoy, and let me know what you think:
10 Requirements For Being an Effective Believer
1. A personal understanding of my own sinfulness
2. An overwhelming sense of God’s grace for me, and for everyone
3. A heart that forgives and forgets
4. An absence of agenda
5. An expectation that God is already in the world…I’m joining Him there – not taking Him there
6. A sense of the church as the body of Christ Universal
7. An insatiable curiosity for all that is not yet known to me
8. A belief in the intrinsic value of every of every human life
9. An assumption that I have something to learn from everybody
10. A deep and abiding desire for everyone to know what God has done for them through Christ
The Grace That Shapes My Life 