It's The GRACE For Me!
Download MP3Welcome to a place of peace, hope, and divine encouragement. This is Joy in Every Step with your host, beloved preacher, retired teacher, and faithful faithful servant of the Lord, Sarita Bernadette. Each week, Sarita shares heartfelt messages rooted in the word of God, filled with wisdom, joy, and the gentle reminder that God cares deeply for you. Whether you're walking through the valleys or dancing on the mountaintops, Sarita's voice will guide you back to his promises step by step. So open your heart, settle your spirit, and take the next step in faith with Joy in Every Step.
Sarita Bernadette:Hi. I'm Sarita Bernadette, and welcome back to another episode of Joy in Every Step. I'm glad you're here. In the last episode, we got into point of view. We talked about how God sees our situations and how our circumstances are seen by him from the point of view of victory.
Sarita Bernadette:Yes, victory. Remember the story of Joshua and Caleb. They were able to adopt God's point of view by tapping into their faith. They saw themselves defeating their enemies and taking possession of the land of Canaan. The way God sees it, we are victorious.
Sarita Bernadette:The other gift I see at work in that story is grace. Why grace? Well, you'll recall the children of Israel were warned repeatedly about idolatry. They were warned about stubbornness and disobedience to God's commands as well. Yet, they were given a chance Time after time, time after time, they were given a chance to self correct.
Sarita Bernadette:After all they had done to offend God, their descendants were still permitted to enter the Promised Land. Joshua and Caleb were also graced to enter in. Grace is God's unmerited favor. His grace is undeserved and cannot be earned and sometimes it can't even be explained. It's God's unconditional, freely given gift to us all.
Sarita Bernadette:The Greek word is karis favor, kindness, and blessing. Favor, kindness, and blessing. In acrostic fashion we can see grace as God's riches at Christ's expense. Grace. God's riches at Christ's expense.
Sarita Bernadette:When God looks at us, He sees the unfinished work of the cross. God looks on us through the lens of grace, and that comes from the sacrifice that Jesus, his beloved Son, made on the cross. Grace happened there on that cross and it continues to happen to us every single day. Acknowledging the sacrifice and accepting God's grace, his unmerited favor, helps us unburden ourselves of guilt. Guilt for any sins, guilt for unbelief, and sometimes guilt for having survived what has taken other people out.
Sarita Bernadette:Yes, guilt for making it out, guilt for coming out of impossibly tough situations. The Word of God reminds us repeatedly that He looks on us with grace. Ephesians two:eight-nine reads, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast. Hebrews four sixteen reads, Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And there's John one and sixteen, From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.
Sarita Bernadette:It's the grace for me. I'd like to share a story that may be new to some of you and familiar to others. This happened about fifteen years ago, and it's been well documented across various news outlets. In July 2010, a family from Colorado was vacationing at their cabin in the mountains. It was during the July 4 weekend.
Sarita Bernadette:The mom, dad, and three children, their ages at the time were three, five, and six. They had plans for some, fun over that weekend. They were going to do some exciting things together. And on July 6, as the mother was getting the youngest child who was just under, 21 old at the time ready for bed, she turned her back to pick up his pajama bottoms. Just two seconds.
Sarita Bernadette:Two seconds, and he disappeared. Just two seconds, and he was gone. She looked around the bedroom first and then went through the house, asking the rest of the family if they had seen him. Finally, she made her way to the door and noticed that the screen door had been unlocked. The little fellow, whose name was Gore, had left the safety of the cabin.
Sarita Bernadette:He'd figured out how to flip the latch on the door and he had vanished. For the next hour or so, the family called out to him and they searched for him along with neighbors and friends. Then suddenly he was spotted by his grandfather, stuck under a rock at the bottom of an irrigation ditch. They have surmised that he was there for at least twenty five minutes, maybe more. You can imagine their horror as they pulled this precious little fella out of that ditch, pale, lifeless.
Sarita Bernadette:They were scared. His grandfather, a retired orthopedic surgeon, began CPR and continued that until the paramedics arrived. His heart had stopped beating and he was clinically dead. Minutes passed and became an hour. Finally, finally, Gore's heart began to beat.
Sarita Bernadette:Gore's dad was away from the cabin when this incident occurred and after receiving a phone call from his wife he prayed and he called a couple of the people from the church and he asked them to pray for two things: one, a miracle and two, peace for his wife. Little Gore was flown to a nearby children's hospital and given only a one percent chance of living. Doctors said that if he lived, he would likely have significant brain damage. Oh, but grace. This particular irrigation ditch uses water from the Colorado River.
Sarita Bernadette:And one of the interesting things about the Colorado River is that it is cold. The average temperature is about 54 degrees during that time of year. When they checked Gore's temperature at the hospital, it was a mere 82 degrees. Remember, normal body temperature is 98.6. The fact that the river was so cold may have worked in this little fella's favor.
Sarita Bernadette:The doctors decided to keep his body temperature low for a period of time in an attempt to prevent further brain damage. After that time, they slowly brought his body temperature back up and then came the miracle. Gore woke up. He resumed living his active life as though he had never ever been in that ditch. To this day, he doesn't remember much of anything about the whole incident.
Sarita Bernadette:In the days and the weeks and the months following his dip, little Gore endured every kind of test the doctors could think of and they all came back saying the same thing. Gore had no brain damage whatsoever, none. Now I noticed the entire time that the family was conducting the interview on the Today Show set as I was watching, Gore was in the background exploring all the furniture. He was pointing to himself on the television monitors and at times he was even rolling on the studio floor. I celebrated every bit of it, every disruption, because it was behavior typical of a child his age.
Sarita Bernadette:He was acting like a normal kid. The interviewer asked Gore's parents what they thought took place in that hospital. Their reply was a miracle. She pressed them and asked who should get credit for this miracle and they responded, God. They said a lot of people worked on him but in the end it was God who brought gore back to us.
Sarita Bernadette:Grace. You see, this is why the enemy of our souls hates God's grace. God's grace covers us when we don't even know it's there. God's grace protects us from dangers seen and unseen. Grace is indeed a shield.
Sarita Bernadette:So, the grace of God is the theme of the New Testament, and it is key to understanding its message. As its writers speak of salvation, they always connect it to grace. Our salvation from sin was God's gracious idea before the beginning of time. To help us understand the full extent of God's grace, let's just take a look at the Apostle Paul. Isn't it amazing that God would take one of the greatest legalists of all time and make him the most prolific promoter of his grace?
Sarita Bernadette:So in the book of Acts we're introduced to Saul that was his Hebrew name. He was a well educated Pharisee, devout Jew, and Roman citizen from the city of Tarsus. He had gained a reputation for being a vengeful and violent man. He had called for and approved of the persecution of many Christians. In the ninth chapter of Acts, Saul was on the road headed to Damascus to gather up some believers and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial and possible execution.
Sarita Bernadette:As he was traveling, a bright light from heaven suddenly flashed around him. He was blinded and he fell to the ground. Then a voice starts calling out to him about his behavior. When Saul asked, Who are you, Lord? The reply came, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
Sarita Bernadette:Verse six says, But get up and enter the city and you will be told what you are to do. Grace. The men who were with him on that road that day heard the voice, but they didn't see the bright light that Saul had seen. They led him into the city, where he met a man who ushered him into the presence of the Lord. His sight was restored, he was baptized, and immediately went about proclaiming that Jesus was the Son of God.
Sarita Bernadette:Sometime thereafter, he began using his Roman name, Paul. The encounter on the road to Damascus changed the trajectory of his life. He was no longer the same person and he recognized it was grace that saved him. Yes, accepting the grace of God will move you to take off the old and put on the new. This is what Paul wrote to his dear friend and protege in first Timothy, chapter one verses 12 to 16 and this is the message translation.
Sarita Bernadette:Listen, I'm so grateful to Christ Jesus for making me adequate to do this work. He went out on a limb, you know, entrusting me with this ministry. The only credentials I brought to it were violence and witch hunts and arrogance. But I was treated mercifully because I didn't know what I was doing, didn't know who I was doing it against. Grace mixed with faith and love poured over me and into me and all because of Jesus.
Sarita Bernadette:It goes on. Here's a word you can take to heart and depend on. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I'm proof, public sinner number one, of someone who could never have made it apart from sheer mercy. And now he shows me off evidence of his endless patience to those who are right on the edge of trusting him forever.
Sarita Bernadette:That's grace. After Paul repented for the crimes he had committed in his former life, the Lord used him in a truly dynamic way. Paul understood that God could and would forgive what seemed unforgivable. That's why he could write in Romans eight:one, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Paul is credited with writing 13 books of the New Testament.
Sarita Bernadette:His letters have gone down in history as some of the most potent and influential parts of the Word of God. That too, my friends, is grace. You see, the grace of God enables us to do the things God created us to do. I hope you'll come back for the next episode. We'll continue with this topic because there is more to share about how God graces us to fulfill our assignments here on earth.
Sarita Bernadette:On that note, I know that many of us are battling to get through our assignments and as we're battling, we're fighting against various issues that come along with just living this life. I'm here to say that no matter what you may be facing, I want to remind you that God's grace is sufficient. I'll end with this promise from the Word of God. This is first Peter five and ten and after you have suffered for a little while the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore support, strengthen and establish you. Friends, there is joy in knowing God's grace is enough to sustain us.
Sarita Bernadette:You've been listening to Joy in Every Step. I'm Sarita Bernadette and I'm grateful you chose to spend some time here with me. You can find Joy in Every Step wherever you listen to your podcasts and give us a follow there. Do check out the website at joyineverystep.org.
Creators and Guests
