"But if ye will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be against you, as it was against your fathers."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned more than 50 years ago that grace had become cheap. I wonder what he'd say about things now. I'm all for grace, but I can't believe how much it cost to get here. I can't, for the life of me, figure out how we can say we have it so often but have nothing in common with the person who gave it to us. Samuel brings a harsh message from God. Still, I think we should include it in our triumphant hymn of grace. You see, genuine grace transforms us. It will make us more like God, who gives grace, and more generous. If that's not the case, what we call grace is weak, helpless, and false. Paul called this a kind of religion that didn't believe that God's power was real in us (2 Timothy 3:5). Let's bring obedience out of the attic of our religious past and back into the pantheon of virtues.