Look Up & LIVE!

I saw him in the distance — a bird pecking at a possible meal in the median of a main highway. He had swooped down to find a worm or bug that had snuggled in a mound of dirt.

As I and another car approached in opposite lanes, the bird swiftly flew toward the oncoming car, but realizing he did not have the time or space for maneuverability, he chose to fly in my direction to escape a collision. In a split second, he realized the futility, so instinctively he flapped his wings, raised his head, and flew upward, away from all possible collisions.

Yes, up, up, and away he flew . . . to LIVE!

Ever keep butting your head against the same barriers that won’t budge!? And you know that pursuing those courses only lead to failure or even defeat? But you still keep doing it?! “Look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh,” Yeshua says  in Luke 21:28. Even though He speaks in this passage about the end times, the idea is true and fitting! Look up and live! No more heads hanging low! Look up! When you look up, you see the endless possibilities; all limitations are broken off. Your possibilities become as open as the expansive sky.

  • In the Bible, the crowd in the desert besieged by snakes were told to “look up” at the brazen serpent and they would LIVE! (Numbers 21)
  • Yeshua, speaking of his death, says, “If I be LIFTED up, I will draw all men unto me!” (John 12:32). So we are called to look up to Him and  LIVE.
  • The psalmist said that the God of Israel was the LIFTER of our heads. (Psalm 3:3)
  • African fathers would LIFT their babies to the sky and say, “Behold the only one greater than yourself!”

We must look beyond our perifery — the right or the left! We must look up, gaze at all our possibilities, and LIVE!

Like the bird of the median, let’s follow: up, up and away . . . and LIVE!

THE GRACE TO GIVE OUT GRACE

by ABAZGRL at Weiss Ministries

There is this song (can’t remember the name of the artist is or the name of the song), but there is a line in the song that goes like this:

“The thing I find most amazing than amazing grace is the chance to give it out!”

I absolutely loved it! Grace is unmerited favor, kindness that we do not deserve and never could earn, even in all our good works combined in a lifetime! We get this amazing grace because we are children of God.
Then God gives us even more amazing grace. He gives us the opportunity to give that grace to others. He gives us an opportunity to act like Him! AMAZING!
That’s what Yeshua wanted his disciples to know when he commissioned the 70 and then the 12 and gave them power over every demonic spirit. He wanted them to share the freedom that comes with that amazing grace to those who would receive. In essence he says to them, “You all have been blessed with amazing grace; now give it out! Be like Me! I give you the grace to give grace!”
Sometimes we get so frustrated with life’s journey:

  • the lady at the cash register who asked for your ID but not the man in front of you . . . don’t take offense. GIVE OUT AMAZING GRACE.
  • That person who takes the parking spot that you have been waiting for — GIVE OUT AMAZING GRACE.
  • That person who narrowly cuts you off in traffic–GIVE OUT AMAZING GRACE.
  • That boss who keeps slighting you . . . GIVE IT OUT!

The scenarios can go on and on . . . but the important part of this message is that you have THE GRACE TO GIVE OUT GRACE. I challenge you today to give out grace today. PS — the line that follows the above line in the song is : “maybe that’s what love is all about.”

Father, thank you for your amazing grace. I sit here and write this blog because of your grace. It is grace that I want to extend to others. We don’t even have to ask you for the grace to give out grace because we already have the grace to do it. Help us to appropriate that gift of grace today. We don’t have to muster it up! We don’t have to conjure it up! We don’t have to force it to happen. Help us to just walk in it, Father. And thank you for the ones that you will bring in our paths that we can extend grace to. In Yeshua’s Name. Amen.

CHALLENGE: Write back and share with us who you extended grace to this week and how.

MY SISTER HELPED ME TO FIND THE SONG AND THE VIDEO–Yay! HERE IT IS — “I’M NOT WHO I WAS” by Brandon Heath

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