Under Grace, Darlene Zschech

Beautiful mercy, with arms opened wide, reached to rescue our soul. Are you forever grateful? How are we showing our gratefulness to God for what He’s done for us?

John 17:15-18 “Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth...” Sanctify means, set apart for sacred use, cleansed (by the blood of Jesus), and made Holy.

What was it that really turned you? When did you want to know, and love, Jesus Christ with all your heart? Was it knowing how undeserving we are, and the grace, and truth of God’s word that pierced your heart? That is between you and God, but... your life should be evidence of change. All you are, and who you live for, will show by how you live in this world. Jesus says we are to be set apart in this world for God’s use, though he is, "not of the world..." (John 17:14).

If the love of God, and the truth of His word pierced your heart, than others will see that unchangeable, unconditional love, compassion for the lost, a life that is forever changed by the Master.

I know all I am, and all I’ll ever be, is because He loved me, and gave Himself up for me. It’s knowing what this grace means to me, that drives me forward to share all that He is to me. The 17th chapter of John, is Jesus praying for His Disciples, knowing how hard it will be for those of us who choose to follow Him. His grace covers all our failings, and His love drives out the fear of the storms that will come our way.

We should be like the wise man, "who built his house on the rock."  (Matt. 7:24-27).  There are many people who say they know Christ, but they do not put His word into practice. Jesus calls them “foolish [men] who built his house on sand.” His grace should move you, motivate you to put His word into practice, not just being a spectator. When the storms come, the spectators will know who the real players are on God’s team by those who will stand firm... and those who will sink.

In John 17:17, Jesus said, “Your word is truth.”  Some people read the word but do not receive it in their heart. That is the only place change can begin to happen. When you become a child of God, He will teach you how to sing in suffering.  "Consider it pure joy... whenever you face trials..." (James 1:2-4).  You will learn, life is all about Jesus, sending us out into this lost world, showing what grace is.

What an honor it is to be set apart for sacred use. Our tears that we will cry aren’t tears of sadness and pain, but tears of one who knows the price it cost to have this grace that covers all our sins.

Grace and peace to you

Kim

Held... Natalie Grant

What does it mean to be held?  To me, it means to hold God’s hand in a world that could be so painful and full of questions, as He carries me from here to eternity, teaching me to see things that I don’t understand through His eyes.

Meaning of Providence- God’s intervention in the world and our lives.

Angry at God? - who hasn’t been.  Angry at another person? - who hasn’t been. Angry at ourselves?- of course we have! Angry because what’s happening just seems so unfair? - I think we’ve all been here.

We need to address and confess anger. You didn’t ask for it - you didn’t want it to happen - but you have it, and it will only grow into bitterness.  “When my  heart was grieved and my Spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant... Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and portion forever.” (Psalm 73:21-26).  

 Don’t miss feeling the grace of God by allowing bitterness to grow and, "cause trouble and defile many..." (Hebrews 12: 15).  Don’t be angry with a closed fist, shaking it up at God saying, “Why!” The wise hand opens, and the heart follows. I am only saying this because I have been here many times myself, and it only pulled me further away from feeling held by my Savior.

I guess we could see by now that when Jesus said: , “In this world you will have trouble...” (John 16: 33).  He wasn't kidding. He goes on to say, “But I have overcome the world.” It sure doesn't seem like it when we look at this world through our eyes.  All the things that we go through.  Instead we need to look at it with His eyes, and that we are just passing through here.

When the opposite happens of what we’re praying for it can make us angry at God. Who can understand why someone who seems so deserving, who wants a child so bad, can’t seem to have one? And why is it that someone who we think didn’t deserve it, got to one? Why did that wonderful Godly person have to die so young, or suffer with a horrible illness? We ask these things when Jesus tells us that we must die, to live, (Matt. 16:24-25).  It seems so unfair.  But whatever our cross is, He is with us, "always, to the very end of age.” (Matthew 28:20).  

God didn’t wrap this world as a gift to us with a pretty bow on top. Our only hope is Jesus. He is the perfect gift to us.  When it feels like something sacred is torn from our lives, He is the only One that will be there to hold us, and we will survive. Like the old saying, “time heals all wounds.”

I have to keep reminding myself that Jesus died for me while I was still a sinner. To rejoice in our suffering, in order to share in His, is a willing growing process that doesn’t come easy. We are not promised a perfect life here, but we are promised to be held by Jesus, always...

I pray whatever your going through, you feel “Held”

Kim

I hope you see Jesus... Bebo Norman

In our sin we need to realize, Jesus looks right at us. Luke 22:61 “The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter.”

Can you imagine how Peter must have felt when Jesus looked right at him after he denied ever knowing Him, saying, "Man, I don't know what your talking about!" (Luke 22: 60-62). It says that “he went outside and wept bitterly.” I would imagine, as long as he lived he probably never forgot the look on His Savior's face. I’m sure it effected him in a way that we all can all relate to at one time or another.

Peter, like ourselves, makes promises to our Lord that we break too. In one way or another we are all guilty of not serving the Lord with all our hearts because our human weaknesses get in the way. That’s the beauty of God’s precious grace and mercy. The conviction, but the unconditional love that is felt, is unlike ANY other.  Do we feel ashamed?  Enough to make us repent and stop doing whatever it is we shouldn’t be doing? God hears the cries of our hearts, and the prayers we pray in our weaknesses.

Jesus stands in our place bearing all our shame, waiting to hear words of repentance from broken people who turn from love, to love.  I am so VERY thankful He saw in me all I could be, and wanted to be. He looked beyond my sin and shame and died to forgive me.

Peter was so sorry for denying Christ, that it led him to repentance and drove him forward to be one of the great disciples. A hard lesson for him, but all was used for God’s glory.

Growing up I never knew how my mom seemed to either know, or see right through my lies. I couldn’t hide a thing from her, and when I would get grounded, I would get so mad, but I was really more mad at myself for disappointing, and knowing I must have hurt her by her look at me. When I think of my parents, I think of all they’ve given and done for me. Now I know why those eyes that would look right at me in my shame, would just break me. I knew they were eyes of so much love and understanding, but also of disappointment. 

Like Jesus, my parents wanted the best for me. Sometimes the lessons were hard to learn, but I am so thankful they saw all that was in me, because it made me the person I am today. THANK YOU Mom and Dad for your unconditional love for me. Because of you, I got a glimpse of Jesus growing up, and still do today by how you love me with all my faults. Thank you for looking beyond all my faults and seeing the best in me.

I am just like anyone else, a work in progress. Just because I’m a Christian, doesn’t mean you’ll always see me walking a perfect line. I get angry, afraid, anxious, and all the human weaknesses a human can have. But in them all... “I Hope You See Jesus.”

May you have the grace and peace of the Lord.

Kim

More popular than Christ... Kathleen Carnali

Matthew 23:1-12  -- Jesus warns against the religious Leaders for they "do not practice what they preach..."

 

Matthew 23:5-12, “Everything was done for men to see... For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

“Christian, Pagan, Jewish, American, Idols all with their own name.”  Underneath we are all the same. No one should put attention on themselves. That would be trying to be, “more popular than Christ.”

We can’t create our own God to suit our own purpose and plans. We need to choose who we will serve, “not just with lips or vain praising words.” We need to "[speak] the truth in love..." (Eph. 4:15) pointing them to JESUS, not just laws to follow. Once the change begins to take place in a person, the rest will follow.

The lyrics of this song are so powerful. Could this be why so many who don’t know Christ, aren’t even wanting to come to Him?  What are we looking like to them?  Do we come across to them like Jesus would? Or do we act like the religious leaders who didn’t even know Jesus rode in to town, because they were too busy with their religious acts.  “They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor...” (Matthew 23:5).  How can we point them to Jesus, while we’re on the throne?

Phylacteries were little leather boxes containing scripture verses. Very religious people wore these boxes on their forehead and arms. Eventually, the phylacteries had become more important for the status they gave, then for the truth they contained.

The religious leaders, just like people today, are always trying to trick Jesus (in you) with questions. But throughout scripture, Jesus always answered wisely exposing their self- interest and wrong motives.  What are our motives as Christians? What is our deepest interest when we speak to those who are lost?  Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is LIVING AND ACTIVE... it penetrates... it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Let the Word of God do its work.

You read in Mark 11:1-11, that Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem, not on a horse or a chariot, not dressed as a king. Would people recognize Jesus in you? It’s not how you dress, or what you drive, or religious traditions, or even how much of the bible you know. It’s knowing and experiencing the AUTHOR of the bible…GOD!  

I pray the way we point people to Jesus is pleasing to God. Not by how we look on the outside, or how much of the word of God that we share with them, but how we LOVE like Jesus.

Grace and the peace of God to you

Kim

Finnally Home... Kerrie Roberts

Don’t say why, say when...

2 Timothy 3:1-5, “There will be terrible times in the last.” But as we can see from scripture it all started in the very beginning. When it will end, only God knows. Until then enjoy life, and find the joy in living in Him, and for Him. You won’t be disappointed!

God leads us through a world that’s not our home. If you are not being lead by Him, than you are being lead by the, "father of lies." (John 8:44).  I didn’t say it, Jesus did, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your fathers desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding the truth, for there is no truth in him.” That scripture alone tells me why all this evil keeps going on. Some are serving the wrong father.

It’s been a choice from God’s first creation, Adam and Eve. We all know the story where Eve was lead by the father of lies in Genesis 3. She had a choice, and she chose wrong, and that’s where sin began. God still blessed them and gave them children.  We see even here where their son Cain was spoken to right from God, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door..." (Gen. 4:6-8).  Still he made the wrong choice and wound up killing his brother, Abel.  

We are all God’s creation, but we all have to make a personal choice to recognize him through Jesus Christ, then we'll become, "children of God..." (John 1:10-13).  Cain and Abel were both like us, born from sin, into what became a sinful world. Both given a choice of obedience, and serving God, and what kind of heart they had while doing it. If God “found favor in Able and his offering,” than his heart must have been right in serving God. Proverbs 21:27 says, “The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable.” That had to be what Cain’s offering was to God. Did he have a joyful heart? Was it a self centered offering? Was he worried about how much he was giving up?

From the beginning of time, our loving God has given us free will, free to choose right from wrong. It breaks my heart that God seems to be the victim of His own creation. But for how long?  Only He knows. So when people ask why all the bad still goes on, why won’t God stop it? I tell them if sin started with Adam and Eve, then sin is going to continue until every ear has heard about Jesus.  You can be sure that one day “every knee [will] bow, in heaven and on earth and under earth.” (Phil. 2:10).  The treasure is for those who choose Him now! We all have a choice to regard Jesus as Lord now, or be forced to acknowledge Him as Lord when He returns.

I pray that all the trials you go through, and all the ugly you see, leads you to Jesus, closer to the beauty in this life. We are in a world that’s not our home.

Like the lyrics of this song says,

“I’m reminded again and again, I live in this world as a stranger. 

As good as it’s been, or as bad as it gets, it all will end. 

I want to stand where hope and faith and love, all meet in One Face. 

I wanna be where I can see what I now believe! Ultimate healing, 

where hurt can’t reach me. I won’t need to find every answer. 

All I need will be found in Your presence."

Life is good with Jesus in your presence... right here…

Kim

Would You Take the Place of this Man? Jeremy Camp

“The depth of His grace, flowed with every sin erased. He knew that this is why He came.”

If you have questions on what grace really is, in just minutes, this video shows what love did for us all. “For God so loved (insert your name here), that  He gave His one  and only Son..." (John 3:16).

The veil was torn so we can have this open door. No more religion, but a relationship with Jesus, and the only way to the Father is through him.

This wonderful gift of grace, rest and peace in our lives, is believing in the, “ONE” God sent, and trusting in Him at all times. Our lack of belief and trust prevents God’s best for us. God knows what we are going to do with this precious gift. Are we using it for our own gain, or spending the rest of our lives bringing Him all the glory of a life through Him? You may think you’re waiting a long time on God, but really He’s waiting on you. Without this love, we are always searching and coming up empty. Isaiah 30:15-18, 

 “In repentance and rest is your salvation, 

in quietness and trust is your strength... 

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; 

He rises to show you compassion... 

Blessed are all who wait for Him.”

Some come easily to the truth, and some take a long time. Desperation will take you to the end of yourself, until all you can do is reach out and, “touch the edge of His cloak.” Matthew 9: 20-22. What a glorious day for you to hear Jesus say, “your faith has healed you.”

Stop all your painful efforts and allow God to work in you, and through you. Reach out to Him in faith and believe in His Son and why He came. Repent of your sins and realize you are in need of a Savior…His name is JESUS. There is POWER in His name!  "[His] grace is sufficient... [His] power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12: 9).

Is living just an o.k. life good enough for you? Do you just go through the motions? How are you doing as a parent, leading the children God gave you?

It cost God everything for us. So if our life is comfortable, than something’s wrong.

“Would you take the nails from His hands?” Get out of your comfort zone. It’s the life He gave us, it’s not our own.

If you have to, watch the video again, open your eyes, and your heart. This willing sacrifice was all for us.

Grace and the peace of God to you

Kim

My Jesus - Todd Agnew

Why do we look so much like the world, if Ephesians says to “Be imitators of God... Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us...” (Ver. 5:1-2).  

I’m not sure how, but, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” (Phil. 4-13).

The bible tells us in 1 Peter 4:1, “Since Christ suffered in His body... arm yourselves also with the same attitude...”  Jesus lived for the will and glory of His Father, and died for the will and glory of His Father. How do you see Him as He died for our sins?

The word says He was battered and scared beyond recognition, “disfigured beyond that of any human being.” (Isaiah 52:14).  All because He loved us more than anyone else can.  I hope we didn't miss that part.

There will be suffering for the followers of Christ. Can I be like my Jesus when I am put in “The furnace of affliction...” (Isaiah 48:10)?  Will people recognize Jesus in me then?  All I can do, is pray that they do by how I handle affliction. I’m not sure how to handle things at times to be like Jesus, but I know He won’t give up showing me how. I’m just so thankful He looks into my heart, when I do so much complaining. It’s a love that I feel so wrapped around me, even when I’m so undeserving.

 God's word has prepared me to know that it will be hard.  "But even if you should suffer for what is right... it is better... to suffer for doing good than for doing evil." (1 Peter 3:13-17).   I love what His word says after,  “[I have] suffered a little while,” in 1 Peter 5:10, “will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”

The bible also tells us we need to  “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you...” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Just reading the bible,  or going to church, isn’t what makes you like Jesus. It’s getting it from your head to your heart. It’s life’s circumstances, the valleys, that makes us grow in grace and become spiritually mature. If we want to be like Jesus, we can’t escape that 'furnace of affliction.' When we take it on with love in our hearts and compassion for those who are missing out, it will become a blessing to us.

Always remember His unfailing promise in Genesis 26:24 “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.”

He gave Himself up for us, "made himself nothing..." (Phil. 2:6-8).  Are we giving up ourselves so others can see Jesus?

From a devotional:

“The burden of suffering seems to be like a tombstone around our necks. 

Yet in reality, it is simply the weight necessary to hold the diver down 

while he is searching for pearls.”

Grace and the peace of God to you

Forgivness... Matthew West

Don’t let the darkness keep rising in you and hold you captive...

Lord give us the strength to live for You and glorify Your Name, especially in the hard times when it seems impossible...

What does forgiveness look like to you? To me it looks like arms open wide.  No grudges or kept records of wrongs. How can you explain those who find the strength to live with someone who is impossible to deal with?  Or forgive someone who killed your loved one?  

The only example I have to give, is that I helped put the nails in my Saviors hands and feet, and He still forgave me with a sacrifice that is unlike any other. Until we can accept this in our hearts, we are still in the dark too, still a prisoner.  God is asking you to let go through the death and blood of His Son. He keeps telling you, “I’m here.”  Don’t waist grace, extend grace, with arms open wide. (Selah)

There are so many people on the face of this earth that are so dark. Without light, your without God, because, “God is light.” 1 John 1:5.  Some don’t look towards the light, for whatever reason.  The horrible massacre that happened in Colorado, “The Dark Knight Rises.”  After that night of horror, you'll still find people who find it in their hearts to pray for this boy, who is a lost soul. That is what Jesus wants: all His followers to show who we are, and shine that light.  

In this devotional, I felt two videos were needed.   When I heard the testimony of this mother, and how this song came about, I got goose bumps and conviction all at the same time.

When I think of the small things God ask of me to let go of and forgive, I feel so ashamed, and I know that while I’m here on earth, He will never stop growing me and drawing me closer to this love that you can only begin to understand when you continue to look to Jesus and keep receiving this love that none of us deserve. Romans 5: 6-11, "While we were still sinners Christ died for us."

Forgiveness: 

“It’s the hardest thing to give away... 

It always goes to those who don’t deserve... 

It’s the opposite of how you feel, 

when the pain they caused is just so real. 

Show me how to love the unlovable, 

to reach the unreachable, help me to do the impossible. 

It’ll clear the bitterness away. It can even set a prisoner free.”

Forgiveness: Luke 6:37.

Ask God to help give to others what He gave you.  That’s what mercy sees!

Grace and the peace of our Lord to you

Kim