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Isaiah 50:4- “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary…”
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    • Grace That Grows!

      Posted at 10:00 am by wonderfuljesus8, on November 7, 2020

      2 Peter 3:18 – “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.” NKJV

      grace-that-grows_.mp3 (Note: I changed the title after I recorded it!)

      I’ve shared several blogs on the grace of God. If you have kept up with them, you know that I have repeatedly spoken of grace as God’s unmerited favor that cannot be earned and is not deserved. This is all true! Today I want to bring up a very important point about grace, it grows!

      In 2 Peter 3, Peter addresses several tough issues: the delay of the end times, mockers, false teachers, and the return of the Lord. He concludes this chapter by telling the believers that to be forewarned about these issues is to forearmed. Sounds like great advice! The last thing he says is that we are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus! This verse captured my interest. So I asked myself, like an student of the word would, “If grace is given freely, because we can’t earn it, nor do we deserve it, how can we grow in it?

      It really goes back to what I have been trying to explain. Grace is powerful! The word of God talks about exceeding riches of grace and yet many believers only understand saving grace, the grace given to us to obtain salvation, and that reservations. Peter writes that we can grow in the grace of God. I believe that what he means is that we are to grow in understanding what grace is, how it operates in our lives, and experiencing it to its fullness. As we grow in grace we can’t help but grow in the knowledge of our God.

      I found an article, written by Bob Hoekstra, Grace for Knowing God. In the article he wrote:

      The more we know about the grace of God, the more we know about one of the great, great truths of our Lord God. He is a God of grace.

      Another word for grow is increase! God is a God of increase! Paul wrote a similar verse about growing in grace:

      2 Corinthians 8:7 -But as you abound in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us— see that you abound in this grace also. NKJV

      In other words, we grow in everything, we should grow in grace! And in case abound needs explaining, the Merriam-Webster dictionary describes it in this manner:

      1 : to be present in large numbers or in great quantity…2 : to be copiously supplied —used with in or with…

      In our verse, abound is used with the word “in”, taking on the meaning that we are to be copiously supplied with grace. And copiously simply means “yielding something abundantly. This is such an important concept about grace. God wants us to get that His grace, His favor towards us is abundant grace! As we understand it and it expect it, we can experience it in greater abundance!

      Ephesians 1:7-8- In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, NKJV

      Even saving grace comes with abundance. Paul wrote that we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin according to the riches of His grace. Grace abundantly forgives, and our redemption came with abundance of grace. He continues in the next verse by saying that He made this grace to abound toward us! It was given in great quantity, copiously supplied! However, if we don’t understand the extent of God’s grace, endeavor to know more about it, we cannot grow in it.

      God’s grace is a sufficient grace for all that we need and all that we experience. But God’s grace is also clearly abundant. It takes care of whatever it is released in our lives to do, and to do so lavishly. We spend far too much of our lives and our times, living on pauper grace. Just enough to get by! We think of ourselves as “dirty ole dogs”, “wretched individuals” and “unworthy sinners” when He has poured out abundant grace to us! Grace that loving embrace us into His family!

      Think of it like this, if I may try to naturalize something so supernatural. You were homeless, living on the streets, eating out of trash cans, and didn’t know if you would see tomorrow. Suddenly Bill Gates passes by and is drawn to you, for no particular reason that you know of. He walks over to you, converses with you, and invites you to dinner with him. You’re hungry as all get out, but you won’t eat with him, so you just tell him if he’ll give you a few coins, you’ll find something to eat. He says, no way! I want to take you across the street to the Hilton where I am staying tonight. I will get you a room, so you can sleep, take a warm bath, and put on some new clothes that I will have sent to your room. Then we’ll go to eat and I’ll tell you the great plans I have to help you get reestablished in life. But you refuse his assistance, because you don’t want to cause others to look at him badly, or be seen as taking advantage of his kindness, or you don’t believe that he is doing it out of the joy of giving. Whatever! But you’ll take a few dollars, and tonight eat a little better, but nothing in your life has changed. Pauper grace!

      Saints! Too often that is exactly how we treat God. I say, if God wants to do great things for us, then we should get with the program and let Him! Let Him buy me dinner, put me up in the hotel, give me a job, a car, and a house, too! Anything wants to do, and everything He wants to do, I am onboard! I am free from the drudgery of sin that I once lived in and I am more than ready to experience all that He wants to bestow upon me!! Maybe that’s why grace is on my mind!

      As I have been sheltering in place, I have had a lot of time to connect with God. I read the Bible of a loving, giving, abundant God, and I haven’t always expected abundance of grace in my life. Maybe you can say the same thing, and now you want to live differently! Well, it will start as we learn to grow in grace. As we open our eyes, our hearts, and our minds to His exceedingly abundant grace, I believe that we will begin to see it happen in our lives. I’m ready to grow in grace! How about you? Wonderful Jesus!

      Posted in favor, God, Grace | 0 Comments | Tagged abound, abundance, favor, Forgiveness, God, Grace, grace of God, Paul, Peter, Salvation, Sin
    • The Promise of Grace Fulfilled!

      Posted at 10:00 am by wonderfuljesus8, on November 2, 2020

      John 1:14 – And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. NKJV

      the-promise-of-grace-fulfilled_.mp3

      I’ve been sharing about grace! It’s really been in my spirit and on my mind! In the Old Testament, God showed favor to Abraham and his descendants, His chosen people, through special attention and miraculous interventions. He elevated them, He did ridiculous and mouth opening feats before their very eyes, and caused many to have a fear and respect for His people, all because of His grace. In the New Testament, God demonstrates His Grace towards mankind, all of mankind, in the Person of Jesus Christ! Let’s get into our topic for today!

      The Logos Bible commentary defines grace in this manner:

      The unmerited favour of God, made known through Jesus Christ, and expressed supremely in the redemption and full forgiveness of sinners through faith in Jesus Christ. (Logos)

      This unmerited favor of God, through Jesus Christ, is God’s promise of grace fulfilled. If we take a look at our key verse, we see that Jesus Christ, the Word, made manifest in the flesh, came with grace and truth. He is the embodiment of God’s grace extended to all of mankind. The favor that God extended in the Old Testament, pales to the favor He extended in the person of Jesus! Many find themselves wishing they could “know” the God of the Old Testament in the same way that Abraham, Isaac, Moses, and Elisha did. However, the grace demonstrated to them in the Old Testament was only a glimpse of the grace to be poured out in the New Testament!

      Grace and mercy can be confusing to some believers. Therefore, let me share the difference of the two, in case you need clarity. Mercy is what God extends to mankind, instead of what he deserves for what he did. We are as guilty as can be in regards to sin and its punishment, but instead of giving us what we deserve, He grants us mercy. Grace, however, is what God gives us, even though we did nothing to deserve it, and can do nothing to deserve it.

      I like the way William Barclay, a theologian during the 1900s, wrote about grace in his commentary on the book of John:

      It always has the idea of something completely undeserved. It always has the idea of something that we could never have earned or achieved for ourselves. The fact that God came to earth to live and to die for men and women is not something which humanity deserved; it is an act of pure love on the part of God. The word grace emphasizes at one and the same time our own helpless poverty and God’s limitless kindness.

      Paul, in Ephesians chapter 2, expresses a similar mindset when He writes about the great love that God has for us, even when we were still in our sins. A love that caused Him to extend grace to us, to give us what we did not deserve, because He loves us so much! A love that didn’t wait for us, but a love that drew us to Him. We love Him because He first loved us! 1 John 4:19

      The Greek word for grace is “charis” and it simply means favor. I like the way the Strong’s Dictionary defines grace:

      of manner or act (abstract or concrete; literal, figurative or spiritual; especially the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude):—acceptable, benefit, favour, gift

      John wrote that when Jesus came, He came full of grace and truth. He came full of divine influence, full of benefits, full of the reflection of God’s purpose and will in the lives of humanity. No other person was an acceptable means of delivering God’s grace to mankind, so He came Himself, in the embodiment of Jesus, to give us access to His riches: salvation, peace, love, joy, hope, prosperity, strength, deliverance, and wisdom to name a few.

      John uses an interesting phrase in verse 16 of the first chapter:

      And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1:16-17 -NKJV

      Grace for grace. I looked the phrase up and it is said to be a poetic phrase reflective of the Greek language and culture. Simply put it means grace that is never ending. I always thought it meant, grace to receive grace, but I like this rendering just as much: never ending grace, full of wonder, full of amazement, mind boggling grace. A poetic sense of sheer loveliness. That’s what God gave us in Jesus!

      It is also said, that this phrase is more accurately rendered: grace instead of grace. How is it possible to receive grace instead of grace? The implication here is that grace varies to meet our needs. The grace I need as a young mother, I don’t need as a mother of teens, I need a new grace! The grace I need when things are well is a different grace than the grace I need when there are challenges in my life. God’s grace is not fixed in place, but it rises triumphantly to deal with every situation! Either way you understand this or interpret this, it’s all good!

      This reminds me of the situation with Paul, when he asked the Lord to take away the thorn in the flesh. It was not sickness, for Paul said it was a messenger of Satan, buffeting him. In other words, he was under extreme attack, yet again, and he asked God to remove it. But God replied:

      “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

      This is a perfect example of grace for grace, or grace instead of grace, as it reads in this commentary. I’ll have to do some more study, but I like the idea rendered, nevertheless!

      Can I just add what I thought it meant? I think I will! Grace for grace to me meant that God gives us the grace to understand His grace, and to receive His grace! We can easily understand that grace is His undeserved and unearned gift for salvation, and somehow find it difficult to believe that He wants to favor us in this life. If we are honest, we can easily justify why God would grant favor to Jesse DuPlantiss, Andrew Wommack, Bill Winston, or even our pastor, thinking that they have earned the right for His favor. If this is how we are thinking, we have already forgotten what favor is: it is unearned or undeserved!

      I have already cut this blog down, so I will stop here! I am so excited about His grace! I’ll just have to continue with some of this next time! Wonderful Jesus!

      Posted in favor, God, Grace, Jesus | 0 Comments | Tagged blessings, favor, favor of God, Forgiveness, God’s riches, Grace, grace of God, Jesus, Paul, Salvation
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