Thankful for God’s Marvelous, Matchless, Infinite Grace – Purity 1596
Purity 1596 03/03/2025 Purity 1596 Audio Podcast
Purity 1596 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of my canine pal, Harley, walking up Waite Road as the morning sun comes shining through roadside forest trees comes to us from yours truly as I capture this scene yesterday morning.
Well, it’s the first Monday of March, and even through the temperatures this morning in upstate New York are more like February, I am rejoicing because the light of God’s grace comes shining through regardless of the weather outside and shows up to bless us, sometimes when we least expect it.
Yesterday, I was privileged to lead on of my Freedom in Christ Course participants through the Steps to Freedom in Christ. For those who don’t know, The Steps to Freedom in Christ, written by Dr. Neil Anderson, is a “truth encounter” with God, where the faithful humbly come before the Lord in prayer to confess their sins, forgive those who have harmed them, and ask the Lord to set them free of all their spiritual and personal conflicts, and I am delighted to say that the Lord was, again, faithful to show up to bring freedom and healing.
As I struggle with conquering my food addiction and fail to perform to the level of my expectations in various areas of my life and in my desire to serve the Lord more fully or effectively, I often wonder why God saved me and doubt whether or not I am on the right path or if my efforts at ministry are just a waste of time. But yesterday at a critical moment in the Steps to Freedom in Christ, the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit showed up to let me and the participant know that God was indeed with us and had, indeed, set this brother free! I’m talking about the participant, of course, but that applies to me too.
Recently, the Lord showed up in my life in another way that I can’t mention that blessed me – a blessing that is almost beyond belief – but awesome as it was, after I received it and put it to use, I almost took God’s favor for granted. When you get help you apply it to your problems, and if we aren’t careful we can be like one of the ten lepers that Jesus healed, who were miraculously healed in an instant and just hurriedly went on their way, not even pausing for a moment to thank Him!
So yesterday at church, I was moved to recognize how the Lord came through for me and gave Him thanks in prayer and later in the afternoon during the Freedom Appointment I facilitated, The Holy Spirit moved again and showed me that the blessing I received was no fluke, or pleasant happenstance, it and God’s presence in that prayerful repentance process was further evidence of God’s grace in my life.
Speaking of God’s grace, the Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah devotion for today talks about God’s grace, and I am sharing it on the blog today to encourage us to know, to appreciate and to continually seek it in our lives. David Jeremiah writes:
“Marvelous, Infinite, Matchless
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. – Ephesians 1:7
The word grace occurs more than 150 times in the Bible, and most of them come from the pen of the apostle Paul. He’s the apostle of grace, and grace is the keynote of his teachings. In Ephesians 2:7, he talked about “the exceeding riches of His grace.” In 1 Timothy 1:14, he said, “The grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant.” In Romans 5:20, he said, “Grace abounded.”
It’s this exceedingly rich, exceedingly abundant, abounding grace that meets every need in your life, that sends every blessing, that hears every prayer, that heals every hurt, that calms every fear, that forgives every sin, and that makes goodness and mercy follow you every day of your life. John 1:16 says, “Out of the fullness of his grace he has blessed us all, giving us one blessing after another” (GNT).
The hymnist called it “marvelous, infinite, matchless grace.” Grace is God’s gift to us. And Jesus is the embodiment of grace. He is God’s gift to us—our Savior. If you want to draw a picture of grace, simply draw Jesus. Give thanks today for God’s abundant grace.” – David Jeremiah
The meaning of life. The wasted years of life. The poor choices of life. God answers the mess of life with one word: grace. – Max Lucado
Amen. Jeremiah’s statement on grace (which I highlighted in bold) has to be one of the best sentences that I have read about grace.
To recap, Grace:
- Meets every need in your life.
- Sends every blessing.
- Hears every prayer.
- Heals every hurt.
- Calms every fear.
- Forgives every sin.
- Makes goodness and mercy follow you every day of your life!
The typical definition for grace, unmerited favor, sums these points up, I guess, but at the same time seems to be inadequate to fully express what grace is.
Grace is like art. It’s hard to express verbally, but you know it when you see it and it moves your heart to be moved and filled with a variety of emotions which can range from sadness to joy.
Grace is one of the hardest things to articulate to others but is the easiest thing to experience because it is wholly Gods work in your life.
Grace is like the wind. It’s invisible but you can see its effects when it moves. In the human heart it can move us to gratitude, grief, or joy. What is the world can do something like that?
God can. And we know when He gives us His grace because it is like nothing else this world has to offer because it’s His presence in our lives.
Many people don’t know His grace and even Christian’s might not know how to describe it, and many others haven’t fully experienced the depths of His grace. Honestly, I don’t know if any of us have.
But I do know that not enough people know about God’s grace and so I have been moved to try to help them to understand it (and prayerfully to connect with God to experience it) by doing the Grace Course online in April.
Two weeks before Easter, the Grace course is scheduled to begin, and the only question is: will anyone sign up for the journey to seek it?
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/.
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.
(While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling By John G. Kruis on Amazon )
This morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on Loving and Serving Others.
John 13:2–17
John 13:14–15 (NKJV) If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
Today’s verses fall under the seventh point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Loving and Serving Others.
7. By washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus modeled for us, showing us how we must love one another.
Today’s Bible verses remind us that our love is expressed in service to others. I’m short on time today, so “Enough said”.
But seriously, I’m not that short on time. I believe that God gives us grace through our faith in Jesus Christ for a reason: to be used by God to love and serve others – to give Him glory and to potentially bring more people into His kingdom.
So let me encourage you to DO SOMETHING to represent God’s kingdom and to show and share God’s love, mercy, and grace to others.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “Day by Day Along the Way” By Jay E. Adams.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Adams’ books for your own private study and to support the late author’s work. This resource is available online for less than $20 at many sites.
Day 95
She doesn’t consider the path of life … – Proverbs 5:6a
The “alien woman” (v. 3) is the one who has no part in the life of a believer because her sinful lifestyle is totally alien to all that God commands. The Christian must not keep company with her. She is the adulteress and the prostitute; one who was to be alien to the commonwealth of Israel. She has no place in the land. Nor should she have any place in your life. Her “path” is a prime example of the undisciplined life we discussed yesterday. She observes no boundaries, but lives as she pleases. She considers only that which will please her at the moment. By not considering her path, she ignores the future, the consequences of her wanton life, and the end of such a path. She stumbles onward drawing ever closer to death until, suddenly, she is cut off without remedy! Christians, undisciplined by God’s rightly-structuring Word, wander in sin as well. Are you one of them? Do you chafe under discipline? You may not be a prostitute—but do you live like one? Think again![1]
—————————more tomorrow————————
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[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 103.
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