-Extending God's Grace
-By: Max Lucado
-Study Guide: Titus 3:3-8 bible

---EXTENDING GOD'S GRACE ~~

God's judgment has never been a problem for me. In fact, it always seemed right.
Lightning bolts on Sodom. Fire on Gomorrah. Good job, God. Egyptians swallowed in the Red Sea. They had it coming. Forty years of wandering to loosen the stiff necks of the Israelites? Would've done it myself. Ananias and Sapphira? You bet.

Discipline is easy for me to swallow. Logical to assimilate. Manageable and appropriate.

But God's grace? Anything but.
Examples? How much time do you have?

~~David the Psalmist becomes David the voyeur, but by God's grace becomes David the Psalmist again.

Peter denied Christ before he preached Christ.
Zacchaeus, the crook. The cleanest part of his life was the money he'd laundered. But Jesus still had time for him.
The thief on the cross: hellbent and hung-out-to-die one minute, heaven-bound and smiling the next.

Story after story. Prayer after prayer. Surprise after surprise.
If God can tolerate my mistakes, can't I tolerate the mistakaes of others? If God can overlook my errors, can't I overlook the errors of others? If God allows me with my foibles and failures to call him Father, shouldn't I extend the same grace to others?
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-Study Guide=
--Titus 3:3-8 cross

* Describe a person in your life who has shown you the grace of God in a practical way.

* In what ways is our salvation an act of generosity on God's part?

* Having received God's love and mercy, why is it still difficult at times to show love and mercy to the people around us?

* To whom do you need to show God's grace this week? A friend, family member, co-worker? Sometimes it isn't easy to admit when we are wrong, or even just to 'be kind' to someone who 'grates on our nerves'.

By the grace of our Lord Jesus, we can overlook the errors of others, maybe not agree, but we are commanded in Scripture to 'FORGIVE'.

Let's take these matters to the Lord in prayer, and He will direct our steps.
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." (Proverbs 3:5-6)
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Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." [John 14:6]