Thought For Today June 9th 2011

Thought For Today

God’s Gracing God


Define Grace; What is "God's Grace"?
Grace is much different than Justice and Mercy:
· Grace is getting what we do not deserve.
· Justice is getting what we deserve.
· Mercy is not getting what we deserve.

Simply put, Grace can be defined as God's unmerited favor. It is God's free action for the benefit of His people. God's grace can be compared to the pardon that a governor of a state can give to a guilty prisoner who is facing execution (the punishment of death) for something that he or she did. Without this pardon, without this grace, they will be given what they deserve.
We are deserving of death because all of us have sinned Romans 3:23, 6:23, yet God offers us a pardon (grace). Jesus died for us so that we could live, but His death can be our "salvation" only if we accept it. Just like the prisoner above, we can turn it down or we can accept this pardon that God offers John 3:16.
Grace is the power of God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves and the fact is that we cannot do anything for ourselves. Jesus says, "...without me ye can do nothing." John 15:5
The Bible gives us a beautiful example of what grace is and does. When Moses took the Children of Israel out of Egypt and into the desert the people soon became thirsty, but there wasn't any water to be found, especially not for 2,000,000 people, plus their herds of animals. God told Moses to strike a specific rock and He (God) would give the people water. The water that came out of that rock demonstrates the grace of God flowing out to all who would drink. It also caused the parched and barren land to blossom which in turn gave the animals something to eat. Without this water, without God's grace supplying the needs of the people, the people would have died. Christ is the Rock, He is also the Living Water.
Without the grace, without the pardon that God gives us, we will die. We are supplied daily with the light of the sun and air to breath, something to eat and drink. He supplies all we need, but we must choose to accept His gifts, or to reject them.
GOD BLESS AMERICA---IN GOD WE TRUST
Gracious God our heavenly Father thank you for your wonderful Amazing grace, I love John Newton’s helm that tells me what a wretch I was until God gave me his Amazing grace. John Davidson