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Key Bible Verse: "I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins" (Jeremiah 31:34). Bonus Reading: Hebrews 10:11-18

It was going to be a short job—swapping out one light fixture for another. While installing the new light, I needed a slightly different angle to get at a screw. Standing on a chair, the thought occurred to me that our oak dining room table would make a perfect support for me to reach the screw, or so I thought.

Stepping lightly on the table, there was a sudden, sickening sound of splintering wood. The table came crashing down. I could do nothing to stop it. It was broken.

For the rest of the evening I was angry—angry at my wife, at the light, at the table, but mostly with myself. I couldn't forgive myself. But that is what God's grace is about—forgiveness.

Jesus extended His grace and forgiveness to everyone he came into contact with. It didn't matter if they were an unclean leper, a convicted thief, a crazed demoniac, or a prostitute. Jesus loved them all, forgave them all and held out his grace to them all. It was up to them to grasp God's grace.

God's grace is an astonishing gift. Sometimes we need it when we sin greatly. Sometimes we need it when we break the dining room table and can't forgive ourselves.

—Joe Williams in Ohio

My Response: Am I underrating God's grace by continuing to blame myself for what he has stopped remembering?

Thought to Apply: Wonderful Grace of Jesus,/Greater than all my sin;/How shall my tongue describe it?/Where shall its praise begin? —Haldor Lillenas (hymn writer)

Adapted from The Barbarian Way (Nelson, 2005) by permission.

Copyright © 2009 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Prayer for the Week

I'm blown away, Lord, by your gift of salvation, which I could neither earn nor repay. I'll be forever grateful.

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