4-27-2014

Good Morning All,

         Ephesians 2:8; “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God”

    I want you to imagine for a moment that you have just received a gift card to your favorite restaurant for $1000.  You get excited and you and your spouse and your family go out for supper.  You order expensive food and enjoy the meal thoroughly.  You laugh and talk freely because the meal is free.  After you use the card there is some leftover so you decide to come back again next week.  When you return, you find out that no money has been taken off the card account.  So you have another large meal with your family.  The next week you come back and the same thing happens; the card never runs out of money.

   Now you are excited.  Maybe you could invite a friend or two to come along but who would you invite?  Would you invite your neighbors or would you invite someone that used to be very important in your life at one time but you both moved on, perhaps a former co-worker or someone you used to go to school with.  Would you invite the new person at work that you just met?  Wouldn’t it be exciting?  You wouldn’t have to pay for supper, they wouldn’t have to pay for supper; the entire evening meal would be already paid for, a gift from some kind benefactor.  The really fun thing is that next time, you can either bring a whole new set of people or you can bring the same ones you brought this time.

   Would you spend time trying to match up people you know so they could now have some new friends?  Maybe, just maybe, you could call a few of those people with whom you have had a falling out and try to fix it so that you are friends again.  That would be nice.  Think of all the things you could do with a great gift like that.

    You have a great gift like that.  God has given you the gift of salvation, an everlasting gift that never runs out.  God pours his grace on you, over you and in you.  He pours so much grace upon you that there is more than enough to share; so do you?  Do you share God’s grace with those around you or do you try and hide it away?

    We share God’s grace by telling others about the love and peace we have through Jesus.  We also share that grace by treating people as God treats us and that is with more care and understanding than we deserve.  We share God’s grace by giving a smile and a kind word rather than a growl.  We share God’s grace by speaking softly to deflect anger and being calm instead of agitated.  We show God’s grace by being patient with the store clerk who is doing the best that he can.  God showers you with more grace than you can ever envision; share a little with those around you.  

Father of all grace, you pour your love out upon us like a river.  Give us the wisdom to share that same grace with those around us. Help us to seek out those who are most in need of your grace.  Guide us to the hurt, the lonely and those of broken-spirit.  Deliver your grace to them.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret