It's The GRACE For Me!

In this conversation, Sarita explores the themes of communication, grace, and the transformative power of faith. She discusses the importance of clear communication in education, shares a miraculous story of a child named Gore, and delves into the biblical concept of grace as exemplified in the life of Paul. The conversation emphasizes how grace serves as a source of strength and support in overcoming life's challenges.

• Effective communication is crucial in education and mentorship.
• Misunderstandings can arise from preconceived notions and expectations.
• Grace is defined as God's unmerited favor and kindness.
• The story of Gore illustrates the miraculous power of grace.
• Paul's transformation highlights the redemptive nature of grace.
• Grace enables us to fulfill our God-given assignments.
• God's grace is a shield against life's challenges.
• Acknowledging grace helps alleviate feelings of guilt and unworthiness.
• The New Testament emphasizes grace as central to salvation.
• God's grace is sufficient to support us through difficulties.

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Episode Transcript

Introduction (00:03):
Welcome to a place of peace, hope, and divine
encouragement. This is Joy inEvery Step with your host,
beloved preacher, retiredteacher, and faithful faithful
servant of the Lord, SaritaBernadette. Each week, Sarita
shares heartfelt messages rootedin the word of God, filled with

(00:24):
wisdom, joy, and the gentlereminder that God cares deeply
for you. Whether you're walkingthrough the valleys or dancing
on the mountaintops, Sarita'svoice will guide you back to his
promises step by step. So openyour heart, settle your spirit,
and take the next step in faithwith Joy in Every Step.

Sarita Bernadette (00:54):
Hi. I'm Sarita Bernadette, and welcome
back to another episode of Joyin Every Step. I'm glad you're
here. In the last episode, wegot into point of view. We
talked about how God sees oursituations and how our

(01:15):
circumstances are seen by himfrom the point of view of
victory.
Yes, victory. Remember the storyof Joshua and Caleb. They were
able to adopt God's point ofview by tapping into their
faith. They saw themselvesdefeating their enemies and

(01:36):
taking possession of the land ofCanaan. The way God sees it, we
are victorious.
The other gift I see at work inthat story is grace. Why grace?
Well, you'll recall the childrenof Israel were warned repeatedly

(02:00):
about idolatry. They were warnedabout stubbornness and
disobedience to God's commandsas well. Yet, they were given a
chance Time after time, timeafter time, they were given a
chance to self correct.

(02:21):
After all they had done tooffend God, their descendants
were still permitted to enterthe Promised Land. Joshua and
Caleb were also graced to enterin. Grace is God's unmerited
favor. His grace is undeservedand cannot be earned and

(02:45):
sometimes it can't even beexplained. It's God's
unconditional, freely given giftto us all.
The Greek word is karis favor,kindness, and blessing. Favor,

(03:06):
kindness, and blessing. Inacrostic fashion we can see
grace as God's riches atChrist's expense. Grace. God's
riches at Christ's expense.
When God looks at us, He seesthe unfinished work of the

(03:29):
cross. God looks on us throughthe lens of grace, and that
comes from the sacrifice thatJesus, his beloved Son, made on
the cross. Grace happened thereon that cross and it continues
to happen to us every singleday. Acknowledging the sacrifice

(03:54):
and accepting God's grace, hisunmerited favor, helps us
unburden ourselves of guilt.Guilt for any sins, guilt for
unbelief, and sometimes guiltfor having survived what has
taken other people out.
Yes, guilt for making it out,guilt for coming out of

(04:19):
impossibly tough situations. TheWord of God reminds us
repeatedly that He looks on uswith grace. Ephesians
two:eight-nine reads, For bygrace you have been saved
through faith, and this is notyour own doing it is the gift of

(04:43):
God, not the result of works, sothat no one may boast. Hebrews
four sixteen reads, Let ustherefore approach the throne of
grace with boldness so that wemay receive mercy and find grace

(05:03):
to help in time of need. Andthere's John one and sixteen,
From his fullness we have allreceived grace upon grace.
It's the grace for me. I'd liketo share a story that may be new

(05:24):
to some of you and familiar toothers. This happened about
fifteen years ago, and it's beenwell documented across various
news outlets. In July 2010, afamily from Colorado was
vacationing at their cabin inthe mountains. It was during the
July 4 weekend.

(05:46):
The mom, dad, and threechildren, their ages at the time
were three, five, and six. Theyhad plans for some, fun over
that weekend. They were going todo some exciting things
together. And on July 6, as themother was getting the youngest
child who was just under, 21 oldat the time ready for bed, she

(06:10):
turned her back to pick up hispajama bottoms. Just two
seconds.
Two seconds, and he disappeared.Just two seconds, and he was
gone. She looked around thebedroom first and then went
through the house, asking therest of the family if they had
seen him. Finally, she made herway to the door and noticed that

(06:34):
the screen door had beenunlocked. The little fellow,
whose name was Gore, had leftthe safety of the cabin.
He'd figured out how to flip thelatch on the door and he had
vanished. For the next hour orso, the family called out to him
and they searched for him alongwith neighbors and friends. Then

(06:57):
suddenly he was spotted by hisgrandfather, stuck under a rock
at the bottom of an irrigationditch. They have surmised that
he was there for at least twentyfive minutes, maybe more. You
can imagine their horror as theypulled this precious little

(07:18):
fella out of that ditch, pale,lifeless.
They were scared. Hisgrandfather, a retired
orthopedic surgeon, began CPRand continued that until the
paramedics arrived. His hearthad stopped beating and he was
clinically dead. Minutes passedand became an hour. Finally,

(07:45):
finally, Gore's heart began tobeat.
Gore's dad was away from thecabin when this incident
occurred and after receiving aphone call from his wife he
prayed and he called a couple ofthe people from the church and
he asked them to pray for twothings: one, a miracle and two,

(08:07):
peace for his wife. Little Gorewas flown to a nearby children's
hospital and given only a onepercent chance of living.
Doctors said that if he lived,he would likely have significant
brain damage. Oh, but grace.This particular irrigation ditch

(08:29):
uses water from the ColoradoRiver.
And one of the interestingthings about the Colorado River
is that it is cold. The averagetemperature is about 54 degrees
during that time of year. Whenthey checked Gore's temperature
at the hospital, it was a mere82 degrees. Remember, normal

(08:54):
body temperature is 98.6. Thefact that the river was so cold
may have worked in this littlefella's favor.
The doctors decided to keep hisbody temperature low for a
period of time in an attempt toprevent further brain damage.

(09:15):
After that time, they slowlybrought his body temperature
back up and then came themiracle. Gore woke up. He
resumed living his active lifeas though he had never ever been
in that ditch. To this day, hedoesn't remember much of

(09:36):
anything about the wholeincident.
In the days and the weeks andthe months following his dip,
little Gore endured every kindof test the doctors could think
of and they all came back sayingthe same thing. Gore had no
brain damage whatsoever, none.Now I noticed the entire time

(10:00):
that the family was conductingthe interview on the Today Show
set as I was watching, Gore wasin the background exploring all
the furniture. He was pointingto himself on the television
monitors and at times he waseven rolling on the studio
floor. I celebrated every bit ofit, every disruption, because it

(10:23):
was behavior typical of a childhis age.
He was acting like a normal kid.The interviewer asked Gore's
parents what they thought tookplace in that hospital. Their
reply was a miracle. She pressedthem and asked who should get
credit for this miracle and theyresponded, God. They said a lot

(10:50):
of people worked on him but inthe end it was God who brought
gore back to us.
Grace. You see, this is why theenemy of our souls hates God's
grace. God's grace covers uswhen we don't even know it's
there. God's grace protects usfrom dangers seen and unseen.

(11:13):
Grace is indeed a shield.
So, the grace of God is thetheme of the New Testament, and
it is key to understanding itsmessage. As its writers speak of
salvation, they always connectit to grace. Our salvation from

(11:35):
sin was God's gracious ideabefore the beginning of time. To
help us understand the fullextent of God's grace, let's
just take a look at the ApostlePaul. Isn't it amazing that God
would take one of the greatestlegalists of all time and make

(11:57):
him the most prolific promoterof his grace?
So in the book of Acts we'reintroduced to Saul that was his
Hebrew name. He was a welleducated Pharisee, devout Jew,
and Roman citizen from the cityof Tarsus. He had gained a

(12:17):
reputation for being a vengefuland violent man. He had called
for and approved of thepersecution of many Christians.
In the ninth chapter of Acts,Saul was on the road headed to
Damascus to gather up somebelievers and bring them back to

(12:38):
Jerusalem for trial and possibleexecution.
As he was traveling, a brightlight from heaven suddenly
flashed around him. He wasblinded and he fell to the
ground. Then a voice startscalling out to him about his

(12:58):
behavior. When Saul asked, Whoare you, Lord? The reply came, I
am Jesus whom you arepersecuting.
Verse six says, But get up andenter the city and you will be
told what you are to do. Grace.The men who were with him on

(13:23):
that road that day heard thevoice, but they didn't see the
bright light that Saul had seen.They led him into the city,
where he met a man who usheredhim into the presence of the
Lord. His sight was restored, hewas baptized, and immediately

(13:44):
went about proclaiming thatJesus was the Son of God.
Sometime thereafter, he beganusing his Roman name, Paul. The
encounter on the road toDamascus changed the trajectory
of his life. He was no longerthe same person and he

(14:06):
recognized it was grace thatsaved him. Yes, accepting the
grace of God will move you totake off the old and put on the
new. This is what Paul wrote tohis dear friend and protege in
first Timothy, chapter oneverses 12 to 16 and this is the

(14:29):
message translation.
Listen, I'm so grateful toChrist Jesus for making me
adequate to do this work. Hewent out on a limb, you know,
entrusting me with thisministry. The only credentials I
brought to it were violence andwitch hunts and arrogance. But I

(14:49):
was treated mercifully because Ididn't know what I was doing,
didn't know who I was doing itagainst. Grace mixed with faith
and love poured over me and intome and all because of Jesus.
It goes on. Here's a word youcan take to heart and depend on.

(15:15):
Jesus Christ came into the worldto save sinners. I'm proof,
public sinner number one, ofsomeone who could never have
made it apart from sheer mercy.And now he shows me off evidence
of his endless patience to thosewho are right on the edge of

(15:36):
trusting him forever.
That's grace. After Paulrepented for the crimes he had
committed in his former life,the Lord used him in a truly
dynamic way. Paul understoodthat God could and would forgive
what seemed unforgivable. That'swhy he could write in Romans

(16:00):
eight:one, Therefore, there isnow no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus. Paul iscredited with writing 13 books
of the New Testament.
His letters have gone down inhistory as some of the most
potent and influential parts ofthe Word of God. That too, my

(16:25):
friends, is grace. You see, thegrace of God enables us to do
the things God created us to do.I hope you'll come back for the
next episode. We'll continuewith this topic because there is
more to share about how Godgraces us to fulfill our

(16:48):
assignments here on earth.
On that note, I know that manyof us are battling to get
through our assignments and aswe're battling, we're fighting
against various issues that comealong with just living this
life. I'm here to say that nomatter what you may be facing, I

(17:10):
want to remind you that God'sgrace is sufficient. I'll end
with this promise from the Wordof God. This is first Peter five
and ten and after you havesuffered for a little while the
God of all grace who has calledyou to his eternal glory in

(17:31):
Christ will himself restoresupport, strengthen and
establish you. Friends, there isjoy in knowing God's grace is
enough to sustain us.
You've been listening to Joy inEvery Step. I'm Sarita
Bernadette and I'm grateful youchose to spend some time here

(17:54):
with me. You can find Joy inEvery Step wherever you listen
to your podcasts and give us afollow there. Do check out the
website at joyineverystep.org.