Acts 1:3 NLT
During the forty days after he suffered and died,
he appeared to the apostles from
time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And
he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.
This past weekend we
celebrated the events of Easter week.
That included the last supper, the death of Jesus on the cross, His
burial and resurrection Sunday. That is
the most incredible story through the pages of Scripture as well as through the
stories of history itself.
Some have called the story
of salvation, Jesus and even Christianity a story of fiction, but the story of
Jesus is packed full of facts that have stood through time. Each fact seals for the followers of Jesus
that God chose to lavish His grace on us.
On Sunday I shared with
our church family how God’s grace can been seen through the many scenes of the
Easter week happenings. I am still
overcome by the pieces of this story. The
verse I began with this today is the capstone, the biggest star of them
all. That verse is the postscript to
Jesus proving that He is with us always.
He was alive then. He is alive
now. That is how we live abundant life
continually!
John 10:10 NASB
The thief
comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may
have life, and have it
abundantly.
Because of what Jesus did
for us that first Easter we can have abundant life. It was in God’s heart and
plan to give us life, salvation and His love.
He pursues us with His love.
Because Jesus lives we can
live. Are you with me? He died so we can live, have forgiveness of
sin and God’s love. He lives so we can
live, that is to live eternally.
Grace depicts for us the
pursuit God has always been on to redeem and to love His people. He wants to love us.
At the last supper God’s
grace was evident in the way that Jesus announced that He would be rejected and
even betrayed by one closest to Him.
That was God’s plan for the end of His earthly or human life which led
to the understanding of the elements of the last supper. The bread symbolized the broken body of
Jesus, and the wine symbolized the blood of Jesus poured out for us. That was also the place were Jesus washed the
disciples’ feet and reminded them to serve others with all that was in them!
Hebrews 12:15 NASB
See to it that no one comes short of
the grace of God; that no root
of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;
Grace serves others and
serving opens the door for people to come to know God. Take this a step further and see how Jesus
reacted to those who accused Him.
Because Jesus understood the reason for His death, and that made the
outcome worth the pain. He portrayed
grace, the deep and unchanging grace of God, to all He came in contact with.
Hebrews 4:16 NASB
Therefore let us draw near with
confidence to the throne of grace,
so that we may receive mercy and find grace
to help in time of need.
The story of Jesus’ life
shared in Philippians 2 might tell this best for us. Jesus gave up everything so we can have
life. That is the gift of God. His humility teaches us so much about God’s
grace.
James 4:6 NASB
But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the
proud, but gives grace to the
humble.”
Grace is the fact that we
can be forgiven. We are forgiven and
must forgive others. Often we find the
hardest person to forgive is us or maybe those closest to us. Practicing forgiveness makes us much like
Jesus was on the way to the cross and on the cross.
Ephesians 1:7 NASB
In Him we have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
Yet the resurrection is the
culmination of the grace of God that is on going today. We can experience God, but we can also lead
others to experience the freedom that resurrection brings. Our lives and our testimonies speak to the
facts of the week we know as easter.
Acts 4:33 NASB
And with great power the apostles were
giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all.
My prayer is that we will
experience God’s grace in huge portions.
Thank God for His unending grace!
Comments