SavedByGrace | Kristi's Morning Devotional

April 14, 2024April 14, 2024

What to Share?

That’s the question I was asking this morning. The answer was loud and clear:

Share the Gospel – the good news of Jesus Christ!

“My friends, I want you to remember the message I preached and that you believed and trusted. ²You will be saved by this message, if you hold firmly to it. But if you don’t, your faith was all for nothing.

³ I told you the most important part of the message exactly as it was told to me. This part is:

Christ died for our sins,
    as the Scriptures say.
⁴He was buried,
    and three days later
he was raised to life,
    as the Scriptures say.
⁵Christ appeared to Peter,
    then to the twelve.
⁶After this, he appeared
to more than five hundred
    other followers.
Most of them are still alive,
    but some have died.
⁷He also appeared to James,
    then to all of the apostles.

⁸ Finally, he appeared to me, even though I am like someone who was born at the wrong time.

⁹ I am the least important of all the apostles. In fact, I caused so much trouble for God’s church that I don’t even deserve to be called an apostle. ¹⁰But God treated me with undeserved grace! He made me what I am, and his grace wasn’t wasted. I worked much harder than any of the other apostles, although it was really God’s grace at work and not me. ¹¹But it doesn’t matter if I preached or if they preached. All of you believed the message just the same.” I Corinthians 15:1-11 CEV

The good news? Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose from the dead so that we could have new life in Him!

Salvation is nothing we earn but something we receive. It’s a gift from God, the expression of His grace.

“God did this so that his kindness to us who belong to Christ Jesus would clearly show for all time to come the amazing richness of his grace. ⁸I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God. ⁹You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about.” Ephesians 2:7-9 ERV

We can’t boast or brag about our good works, intelligence, financial status or any other thing. It’s all about God and His unconditional love and forgiveness.

“I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus,
Since I found in Him a friend so strong and true;
I would tell you how He changed my life completely,
He did something that no other friend could do.

No one ever cared for me like Jesus,
There’s no other friend so kind as He;
No one else could take the sin and darkness from me,
O how much He cared for me.”

I am so thankful for my life with Christ. He is my all-in-all; my Lord, my Savior, my Friend!

January 21, 2024January 21, 2024

Love in Action = Grace

Dave and I sat out by the fire last night talking of the friends and acquaintances we have made over the last 50 years. Some of these people are on my Christmas card list and we still keep in touch. It’s amazing how our lives have been blessed by so many.

It wasn’t long until we found ourselves talking of one friend who has been going through a very rough time. He has run headlong into some tough circumstances, some of his own making, and he’s angry, and unyielding. I’m not sure if he’s angry with God or just mad at the world, maybe a little of both. We are praying for him to have a true encounter with the grace of God.

You see, grace is really God’s love in action.

Grace is God’s kindness and blessings showered on our lives when we deserve judgement and condemnation. As a young girl I was taught this acrostic – Grace is God’s Righteousness At Christ’s Expense.

“Christ Jesus our Lord treated me with undeserved grace and has greatly blessed my life with faith and love just like his own.” I Timothy 1:14 CEV

When we don’t realize that we are recipients of God’s grace we demand perfection from ourselves to earn God’s love and in turn, we struggle with being gracious to others. Both scenarios leave us angry and unkind.

Grace is not a one-time thing; it’s a virtue that grows in our lives as we learn more about Christ and His character.

“Let the gift of undeserved grace and the understanding that come from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ help you keep on growing. Praise Jesus now and forever! Amen.” II Peter 3:18 CEV

Grace was love in action when Jesus said to the criminal on the cross “Today you’ll be with me in Paradise”. Grace was love in action when Jesus lifted Peter from the sea when he began to sink. Grace was love in action when Christ cried out from the cross “Father, forgive them”.

“Honor and thanks be to the Lord, Who carries our heavy loads day by day. He is the God Who saves us. ²⁰Our God is a God Who sets us free. The way out of death belongs to God the Lord.” Psalm 68:19 NLV

“My soul, praise the Lord and never forget how kind he is!³He forgives all our sins and heals all our sicknesses. ⁴He saves us from the grave, and he gives us love and compassion. ⁵He gives us plenty of good things.” Psalm 103:2-5 ERV

Why am I writing this to all of you this morning? The friend I’m talking about will probably never read this blog, but you may have someone in your life that is a lot like him. Someone who needs you to be gracious; someone who needs you to be loving and forgiving.

Someone you know, perhaps it’s you, needs to receive grace which is love in action!

April 9, 2022April 9, 2022

Imperfect & Usable

After reading yesterday morning’s blog were you consciously aware of the many opportunities you had to be humble?

I was.

One of the things I find most humbling is God’s desire and ability to use us in our imperfection.

He used Adam in spite of his disobedience. Abraham was a man used mightily by God but he had times that he lied to protect his own life instead of trusting God to defend him. David served the Lord faithfully for many years and then committed adultery and murder. Samson was used by God to destroy the Philistines but had anger issues.

Peter denied the Lord and Paul persecuted the Christian believers. Each of these men had issues with humility, however, they repented and were forgiven.

How many times have thoughts from our past side-lined us from doing what we felt God wanted us to do?

Thoughts of failure, fear, unworthiness and shame.

“Some of the teachers of the Law of Moses were Pharisees, and they saw Jesus eating with sinners and tax collectors. So they asked his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’

¹⁷Jesus heard them and answered, ‘Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. I didn’t come to invite good people to be my followers. I came to invite sinners.'” Mark 2:16-17 CEV

Jesus didn’t come to the religious elite; He came to those who knew they needed a Savior. He came to people like you and me.

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. It’s a day that commemorates Jesus riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. The people who had heard Jesus teach, been healed by his touch and seen the miracles that he performed were lining the streets, awaiting His arrival.

“The disciples led the donkey to Jesus. They put some of their clothes on its back, and Jesus got on. ⁸Many people spread clothes on the road, while others spread branches they had cut from the fields. ⁹ In front of Jesus and behind him, people went along shouting,

“Hooray!
God bless the one who comes
    in the name of the Lord!
¹⁰God bless the coming kingdom
    of our ancestor David.
Hooray for God
    in heaven above!” Mark 11:7-10 CEV

Now it’s our turn to praise Him!

We have been made new, by His grace. Our imperfections don’t disqualify us. In fact, it is those very things that make us recipients of His grace.

“I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God. ⁹You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about. ¹⁰God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.” Ephesians 2:8-10 ERV

Fully aware of our imperfections, Father, we say thank you for your grace. Thank you for making us new and giving us a life filled with good things. Amen!