THE WATERFALL OF GRACE

 ACTS 23:5  "I'm sorry, brothers. I didn't realize he was the high priest," Paul replied, "for the Scriptures say, 'You must not speak evil of any of your rulers.'" A major, yet often unrecognized, problem is members of the Body of Christ using their words to curse leaders. (It is not necessary to use profanity to curse. Any time anyone speaks badly of someone the Bible calls it a curse. Jesus cursed the fig tree by simply saying no one would ever eat fruit from it.)  Don't fall into the devil's trap. Christians have been delegated authority on Earth by Jesus Christ. When we speak bad things about people we are abusing that authority which was given to us to bless, and not to curse. ROMANS 12:14 Bless those who persecute you. Don't curse them; pray that God will bless them. The world tries to get us to focus on the shortcomings, weaknesses, and failures of our leaders. Admittedly, all leaders are human. Not one of them can be

MARK 11:25 "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. Forgiveness is a choice -- not a feeling. Your feelings may not change while you are praying, but you can choose to forgive at any time. It does not take long to make a choice. How long does it take to forgive? How long can you stand and pray? Jesus never said anything about the person deserving forgiveness. Nor did He say to forgive only after they asked for forgiveness. Anytime you talk to God, Jesus said to forgive if you had anything against anyone. That would include people who hurt you without even realizing they hurt you. Even people who were still trying to hurt you. "Anyone" in this verse includes everyone, no matter what their attitude may be. Why should you forgive them? Not because they deserve it. But because of the harm it will cause you if you don't forgive. Unforgiveness acts like

ROMANS 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Salvation is a word we use for being set free from the effects and the penalty of sin. It includes being delivered from the dominion of the devil. It was purchased for us by Jesus Christ through giving His own life at Calvary, as our substitute. Salvation is not something you earn, but a free gift from God totally by His grace. Humans have invented many religions with all kinds of rules, trying to make themselves acceptable to God. But being right with God is not something we can achieve by our own efforts. God loved us so much that He accomplished it for us, and provides it as a free gift available to all who receive Jesus. The Bible tells us we will be rewarded for the good we do. But it is not by doing good deeds, performing certain rituals, or by keeping a list of rules, that we are saved from sin and its effects. Salvation and having a home in Heaven are no

JOHN 17:23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. Jesus indicates there is something about the unity of believers that will cause the world to believe. This does not mean we will ever agree on every doctrine, or that we must all join the same church denomination. No! God is a God of diversity who makes every snowflake and every person unique. God does not expect us all to think and be alike. But God does expect us to obey His law of love. We should walk in love and respect one another. Really we should do that toward all people -- how much more those in God's own family, our brothers and sisters in Christ. We will never agree on every detail of everything simply because we are all learning and growing. None of us knows everything yet. We are like the Apostle Paul and only know in part. JOHN 17:21 "that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in

1 PETER 5:6-7  And God will exalt you in due time, if you humble yourselves under his mighty hand by casting all your cares on him because he cares for you. Worry is associated with pride, as these verses reveal, for being humble is the opposite of pride. And pride will, sooner or later, cause you to fail, instead of lifting you up. A person who worries is proud because their action shows they think they are better and more compassionate than God. When you analyze it, the thinking behind worry is really "God is not doing a good enough job taking care of me, so I better take over and figure something out on my own."  Pride makes us think we can handle things on our own -- apart from God. Jesus said that without Him we can do nothing -- at least nothing that amounts to anything. (We certainly can mess up all by ourselves.) One way to humble ourselves is to just put our lives in God's hands and trust Him. It's like getting in a car someone else is driving. Yo

2 CORINTHIANS 4:18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Many people are convinced they are too bad for God to help, or they have problems that are too big for God to handle. They seem to have more faith in their inability than they do in God's ability. They seem to have more faith in the problem than they do in God. This happens when we focus on the problem, instead of looking to God who is the solution. As long as we focus on the problem and let it consume our attention, we will have faith in it to defeat us.  1 JOHN 4:4  . . . the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. We have a choice in what we focus our attention on. The Old Testament contains an account illustrating how we must look to Jesus and His finished work on the cross, instead of looking at our problems. NUMBERS 21:4-9 Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor, taking the road to the Red

PHILIPPIANS 2:3  Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. When you start thinking you are better than other people, you are on dangerous ground. It leads to actions opposite to divine love. Be on guard! The Bible warns us, and we should take heed. Of course it's not just what we think of others that's important, but how we treat others. However, thoughts always precede and determine actions. So, we must guard our thoughts. PHILIPPIANS 2:3 . . . treat one another as more important than yourself. Yes, every one of us is better in some way(s) than some other person or persons. But not one of us is superior in every way to everyone else. Of even more importance is that we should not value a human being by their looks, abilities or accomplishments, but by their value to God. God is the true judge of human worth and He thinks that person you are tempted to look down upon is valuable enou