In other belief traditions, man must pull himself up by his own bootstraps and get right with God. In Christianity, it is God who reaches downward to make men right. Men are not expected to earn God's favor by demonstrating their worth; instead God seeks to wins mans favor by demonstrating the unfathomable dimensions of His love. Regis Nicoll What a relief.  At least with God I don't have to earn my way into his favor, his good graces, into his "circle".  I do with others.  With anyone in my life, with anyone who has allowed me into their life there was this "earning" I had to do and they had to do with me.  Oh we don't see it that way, we don't even think of it consciously that way but it is what we do.  We require others to earn their way into our "circle", and we are required to do the same.  There has to be a trust and a respect established and proven.   Not so with God.  What a relief.   What a relief that he reaches down to me in...