OUR DAILY BREAD DEVOTIONAL - PERFECT GRACE

Read: Matthew 5:43–48; John 8:9–11
Bible in a Year: Numbers 4–6; Mark 4:1–20

“Neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared.—John 8:11

Jesus’s teaching about absolute ideals and absolute grace seem contradictory.

Jesus never lowered God’s perfect ideal. In His response to the rich young ruler, He said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). He told an expert in the law who inquired as to the greatest commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (22:37). No one has completely fulfilled those commands.

Yet the same Jesus tenderly offered absolute grace. He forgave an adulteress, a thief on the cross, a disciple who had denied ever knowing Him, and a man named Saul, who had made his mark persecuting Christians. Grace is absolute and all-encompassing, extending even to those who nailed Jesus to the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” were among the last words He spoke on earth (Luke 23:34).

For years I felt so unworthy when considering Jesus’s absolute ideals that I missed any notion of His grace. Once I understood this dual message, however, I went back and found that the message of grace gusts through Jesus’s life and teachings.

Grace is for the desperate, the needy, the broken, those who cannot make it on their own. Grace is for all of us. —Philip Yancey

Father, Your all-encompassing grace washes over us and astonishes us. May we live today as people who enjoy Your complete forgiveness and a restored relationship with You.

Jesus fulfilled the perfect requirements of the law so that we may enjoy the perfect peace of His grace.

INSIGHT: The life of the apostle Paul is another example of God’s grace. Because of Paul’s past, he considered himself the most undeserving recipient of God’s mercy and grace (1 Tim. 1:13-14). Although he was chosen to be an apostle to the Gentiles, Paul also gave another reason he was chosen: “God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life” (v. 16 nlt ). God had you and me in mind when He saved Paul—an awesome thought. If Paul, the worst of sinners, could be saved, then there is hope for everyone else. No one is beyond the reach of God’s mercy and grace. Sim Kay Tee

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DAILY DISCIPLES DEVOTIONAL BY CHRISTIANITY.COM

February 21

Today’s Readings: Numbers 1; Mark 3:1-19

Today’s Thoughts: Just the Truth

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 1 John 1:8-10

Many of us equate truth with whatever is in print. I have heard people say, “I read it in the paper. The writers wouldn’t write it if it wasn’t true.” However, I am reminded of two different news articles by staff reporters who lied about their facts. The first one involved a long time employee of the New York Times, one of the most prestigious newspapers in the world. The reporter confessed that he lied frequently and deliberately as a means of generating a good story. The second instance that made a lasting impression on me is about a reporter from USA Today who committed the same types of deception. Both men covered stories involving the tragedies of 911 and the war in Iraq. Much of their information was falsified to the extreme, using photos of individuals supposedly killed; later, these people were discovered to be very much alive. Not only do these revelations speak volumes as to what goes on behind the scenes of the media world, but also it leaves the public gullible and ignorant, with no way of knowing what the truth is.

Where does “truth” really exist? Do we actually believe that anything written in print is somehow more believable? The Bible says that “if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” So, in essence, we are all sinners and we are all capable of lying or falsifying informatin is to evangelize the lost and awaken the saved to live empowered lives by the Work of God and His Holy Spirit. Daily Disciples Ministries makes a difference for the kingdom of God by teaching and training believers how to be in God's Word, how to pray and how to walk with Jesus every day, as His daily disciple.

Daily Disciples Ministries, Inc. on. I think we expect more integrity from those who make a living out of reporting the news. But the lesson for all of us is: don’t believe everything you read. There is only one source that is truth and it is the Holy Bible. Anything else written by man has the   opportunity for errancy and deception. Why? Because we as human beings are sinners, capable of lying and deceiving at every turn. We even justify our exaggerations by calling them “little white lies” or “just stretching the truth.” The truth does not “stretch!”

Our only hope is in confessing our sins to “He” who “is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” and to save us from perishing in them. He is Jesus Christ. He is Truth. Today, we must plant His Word in our hearts and minds so that His truth will guide us in our daily lives. Why do we waste so much time reading and listening to the world’s news of death and destruction when we have the Good News that brings hope eternal? Think about it and make the switch today.

Our missio

PEOPLE OF PURPOSE - DAILY DEVOTIONAL BY GREG LAURIE @ CHRISTIANITY TODAY

People of Purpose

When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. (Acts 11:23)

Psychologist William Moulton Marston surveyed 3,000 people and asked them, “What do you have to live for?”

He was shocked to find that of the people who responded, 94 percent were simply enduring the present while they were waiting for the future. They described this as waiting for something to happen. They were waiting for children to grow up and leave home, waiting for next year, waiting for another time to take a dreamed-about trip. They were waiting for tomorrow.

We can spend our whole lives waiting for something to happen, and meanwhile, our lives are passing by. We have no purpose. We have no direction. We’re throwing them away.

As someone has said, “Some men die by shrapnel, and some go down in flames, but most men perish inch by inch, playing at little games.”

Purpose is vital. It’s an anchor in storm. It’s a base in battle.

We read in the New Testament that when Barnabas visited the believers in Antioch, he “encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord” (Acts 11:23).

Ephesians 2 describes us before our commitment to Christ: “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (verses 1–2).

That’s how we lived. But then we found out there was a God. We discovered His Word. We found there were absolutes to live by in life--right and wrong, true and false, black and white. We became men and women of purpose.

Do other people know what you stand for? If you don’t stand for something, you are liable to fall for anything.

Copyright (c) 2017 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright (c) 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org
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THE "FALSE CHURCH SYSTEM" - VIDEO ON THE WORD OF GOOD AND TRUE CHURCH

This means every church from the RCC, Pentacostals, New and Improved False Churches to the Baptists and Little Brown Church in the Vale.  Where did our CHURCH go?

The Church is The Assembling Together of Believers

To teach the Gospel to the Sinners

William Tyndale correctly translated church as congregants.  We are the TRUE CHURCH!