God's Grace

God's Grace

It is a shame but this message is very true. Hope you are all as blessed as I was by this story. I wonder how many people will delete this without reading it because of the title.

There once was a man named George Thomas, pastor in a small New England town. One Easter Sunday morning he came to the Church carrying a rusty, bent, old bird cage, and set it by the pulpit.

Eyebrows were raised and, as if in response, Pastor Thomas began to speak...

"I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming toward
me swinging this bird cage... On the bottom of the cage were three little wild birds, shivering with cold and fright.

I stopped the lad and asked, "What do you have there, son?"

"Just some old birds," came the reply.

"What are you going to do with them?" I asked.

"Take 'em home and have fun with 'em," he answered. "I'm gonna tease 'em and pull out their feathers to make 'em fight. I'm gonna have a real good time."

"But you'll get tired of those birds sooner or later. What will you do then?"

"Oh, I got some cats," said the little boy. "They like birds. I'll take 'em to them."

The pastor was silent for a moment. "How much do you want for those birds, son?"

"Huh?? !!! Why, you don't want them birds, mister. They're just plain old field
birds... They don't sing. They ain't even pretty!"

"How much?" the pastor asked again. The boy sized up the pastor as if he were crazy and said, "$10?"

The pastor reached in his pocket and took out a ten dollar bill. He placed it in the boy's hand. In a flash, the boy was gone. The pastor picked up the cage and gently carried it to the end of the alley where there was a tree and a grassy spot. Setting the cage down, he opened the door, and by softly tapping the bars persuaded the birds out, setting them free. Well, that explained the empty bird cage on the pulpit, and then the pastor began to tell this story:

One day Satan and Jesus were having a conversation. Satan had just come from
the Garden of Eden, and he was gloating and boasting. "Yes, sir, I just caught a world full of people down there. Set me a trap, used bait I knew they couldn't
resist. Got 'em all!"

"What are you going to do with them?" Jesus asked.

Satan replied, "Oh, I'm gonna have fun! I'm gonna teach them how to marry and divorce each other, how to hate and abuse each other, how to drink and smoke and curse... I'm gonna teach them how to invent guns and bombs and kill each other.
I'm really gonna have fun!"

"And what will you do when you are done with them?" Jesus asked.

"Oh, I'll kill 'em," Satan glared proudly.

"How much do you want for them?" Jesus asked.

"Oh, you don't want those people. They ain't no good. Why, you'll take them and they'll just hate you.. They'll spit on you, curse you and kill you. You don't want those people!!"

"How much? He asked again.

Satan looked at Jesus and sneered, "All your blood, tears and your life."

Jesus said, "DONE!" Then He paid the price.

The pastor picked up the cage and walked from the pulpit.

Note: Isn't it funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell? Isn't it funny how someone can say "I believe in God"
but still follow Satan. Isn't it funny how you can send a thousand jokes through
e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages
regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing? Isn't it funny how when you go to forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it to them? Isn't it funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us?

I pray, for everyone who sends this to their entire address book, that God will
bless them in a special way.


Cast your cares upon the Lord, for he cares for you, 1 Peter. 5:7

We Are Blessed Forever

Because He will never die, but continue as our High Priest forever, we have an everlasting righteousness.

Blessings are perpetually on your head because the Bible says that blessings are on the head of the righteous (Proverbs 10:6), and you are righteous forever!

And because Jesus is Christ forever, the blessings do not come to us in intermittent drips, but stream into our lives in a never-ending flow. Because He is our High Priest forever, we can never stop His blessings. Jesus also touches the blessings that He gives us with a forever effect. The more we see His priesthood as having a forever effect, the more permanent our healing and prosperity will be.

The blessings we receive are sure and steadfast because Jesus is our High Priest today, tomorrow and forever.

So rejoice because Jesus your High Priest changes how you are blessed forever!

Look at what the devil is doing and see it in reverse

This is what God once told a friend: “Tell My people that if they want to understand what I am doing, just look at what the devil is doing and see it in reverse. That is what I am doing, multiplied many times over.”

Think about what happened when Jesus was born. The killing of the infants was the devil’s reaction to the gift of salvation that God had sent. The devil saw that God’s provision had already been released on His people in a big way and fought it.

With every bad thing that the devil throws at you, you must remember that the devil is trying to pervert and reverse what God is already doing. That means something good is going to come out of it.

Believe that He releases new levels of prosperity for His people too. So don’t just see the evil. See the good that God is already doing!

Do you really think that God doesn’t know you...???

God sees us like no one else sees us. He sees the perfection of Christ’s completed work in our life. By His death on the cross, Christ has perfected us forever! (Hebrews 10:14)

You have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

God wants us to see ourselves as righteous and we should be conscious of that and say “I am the righteousness of God in Christ. There is no spot in me whom He has perfected with His blood.” We honor Jesus and His finished work when we do that.

If we are conscious of our sins, we are not honoring the work of Jesus.. You may think that you are being humble or holy by being sin-conscious. But do you know that the Bible calls sin-consciousness an “evil conscience”?

Paul calls an “evil conscience “ a "conscience seared with a hot iron”. (1 Timothy 4:2)

Our lifetime of sins has already been fully punished when Jesus died on the cross. We should always be aware of our perfection and righteousness in Christ. Because of what He has done for you, you can boldly declare, “I am all fair. There is no spot in me!” So don’t go around with an evil or seared conscience.

The Word and Loss..

It is God’s desire to embrace you and reveal how much you are loved by Him. It brings Him pleasure to restore to you what you have lost. He does not see the loss the way you do. When you bring it to Him, He views it as an chance to restore to you what has been lost.

The instant you come to Him, He restores to you the cloak of honor to cover your nakedness, the seal of authority to declare your position of dominion and power to reinstate you as a son in His house.

He shows you that you have never lost the position of sonship and rejoices in your return to Him because he cherishes you as a beloved child

As a child of God, you come under His complete protection and can enjoy His unlimited rich provisions and unconditional love!

God has a better way.

Right now, God wants you to be aware that you are not of this world’s system. You belong to of the kingdom of God, which is the same kingdom that provides for the birds that do not toil, but simply trust their Creator for all their needs in life. Be assured that you are of more value to God than the birds, and let Him give you the good life without the toiling and laboring of the world.

Most believe that they cannot have the good life without hard work and tons of sweat. They believe that to achieve wealth and success, you must have some educational degree, or a certain professional quality, or a certain job with many years of hard work. But there is good news for you: God has a better way.

The world would have you believe that there is a certain method of sowing, reaping and gathering, followed by toiling, stress and waiting before the good life actually arrives. But God says his followers need not need to go through this natural process to have the good life because God's people are not of this world’s system. They can operate out of His economy and He gives them the good life straightaway!