His Grace is enough

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9

we talked about GRACE last night. such a churchy word. but oh so important as a Christian. it really is what we believe in a nutshell. there is no way we can "earn" our way into heaven right? only by God's GRACE do can we get there. and what is GRACE? dictionary.com says GRACE is - the freely given, unjustified favor and love of God. so GRACE is the opposite of getting what you deserve. cause say you hit your brother. what you deserve is to be hit back, right? well with God, he doesn't. and that my friends is GRACE.

because God is holy, he can not be around sin. he just can't. and because as human's we all sin, God can not be around us. but He loves us so, so much, that he wanted to make a way for us to be with him forever. that's why he sent us His son, Jesus. Jesus is the GRACE that covers our sins so that we can be in the presence of God forever.

Jared asked if anyone had a friend who needed God's GRACE but feels like they don't. your friend thinks they can get there without Jesus. (or GRACE) wonder why that is? even though i know people who are truly good, i bet there are times when they get mad at their parents. or think bad thought about someone. or tell a small lie. those are sins people. even the itty-bitty ones will keep us from God. so if your friend that thinks they can get to heaven on their own, by doing good things, they can't. remember salvation does not come from doing good works. you can't do ANYTHING that is so good God would say - oh you were so good, you can come to heaven. pray for your friends and encourage them to come to church. sometimes it's hard to talk to friends about God and Jesus. but if you tell them what a great time you have at church and maybe give them some candy, they might come and then Jared can tell them about Jesus and you can just enjoying having a friend you can spend the rest of eternity with!

prayer requests

holly - her grandpa has cancer. pray for healing and peace

monica - her grandma debbie fell down the stairs in the ice. pray for a full, speedy recovery. and her cousin lee is not happy in the military.

jordan - her dad's job situation. pray he can be happy and profitable

bob - school! pray he can stick to it! and pray for Keefer that he met at starbucks this week. pray that he calls bob and God gives bob the words to say to get him to come to church and hear about Jesus.

bayley - his friend calvin is at a new school and he is getting beat up.

kay - pray for the school situation for caleb and mikey. that she will have peace about her decision

jared - summer camp issues!!


don't forget to pray for each other this week. comment on the blog and you may get a surprise!

love you all!