See to it, Brothers....

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many." - Hebrews 12:15

TGIF Devotional Message:
In business and life the opportunity to harbor bitterness for a wrong suffered is great. We are given plenty of opportunities to grow bitter from relationships that bring hurt and pain. The writer of the Hebrews passage above admonishes us not to miss the grace of God so that we won't take up bitterness as a response to life's pain. He cautions us against this because he knows that a bitter root grows and grows until it eventually defiles many others through a wake of bitterness. If bitterness is allowed to take root, we become imprisoned to it. God's grace will no longer have as great an effect in our lives. We become ineffective, insensitive, and spiritually dead. We can even become physically ill from it. God does not live in bitterness. He lives in grace. He has provided grace for every person to walk in.

One day I was challenged to deal with an individual who hurt me terribly. I was faced with a decision. Would I choose bitterness, or would I choose grace? Oh, how my natural tendency was to choose bitterness. But God provided the courage to choose grace. With that grace came freedom - a freedom to love and even accept the person who was the source of such pain.

This is the real place where Christ's power is most revealed. We cannot live without His supernatural grace. Are you in need of grace today? It is there for the receiving. It will take courage to accept it and walk in it. This will be your step to freedom.


Today God Is First (TGIF) devotional message, Copyright by Os Hillman, Marketplace Leaders

Oh, that we will rise up and allow God's grace to infill us so that we will extend it to others.

WEBPAGE OF THE DAY: http://www.types-of-poetry.org.uk/english-poetry/17-merciles-beaute-by-geoffrey-chaucer.htm

Apples for Apples (Eye for an Eye) and a Tooth for a Tooth

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbor; as he hath done, so shall it bedone to him again; Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth...." (Exodus 21: 23, 24a, and Leviticus 24: 20, King James Version Bible).

There is such a temptation when there is unforgiveness shrouded in bitterness and rage to repay with one's own wrath. The Bible says of God that vengeance is His alone. When I have tried to position myself to turn my personal wrath on others, it turns on me and it bites me in the patookus. Yes, I said patookus--arse, butt, behind, hind quarters, bum, dupa--you know the drill.







WEBPAGE FOR THE DAY:
(REALLY CHECK THIS OUT--IT IS THE BEST RENDITION OF UNFORGIVENESS I HAVE EVER SEEN.)

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