December 2 – Superabundant Supply

“For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” John 1:16 (NASB)

The Apostle John begins the account of Jesus' life with a promise. The Word made flesh (John 1:14) is the source of grace, which is the sum total of all the spiritual favors God gives to people. The words “we … all” refer to Christians and include John the author. Out of His fullness His grace … “grace in place of grace”. This phrase emphasizes the superabundance of grace that has been displayed by God toward mankind, especially believers. Grace comes to Christians in the way that waves continue to come to the shore in both calm and tempest. The Christian life is the constant reception of one evidence of God’s grace replacing another. God does not run out of a supply of grace to give us and He does not consider that any of us have received all the grace we need or will ever get. It is out of His fullness which never is exhausted and love which never ends. We hope the Lord has blessed you many times in the past. In many different ways and He continues to bless us these days. What a promise we have all received – an unending supply of grace.  

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July 19 – Unmerited Unending Favor

“For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”   John 1:16 (ESV)

These words were spoken by John the Baptist and are part of a much larger proclamation about Jesus when He was beginning His earthly ministry. The Baptist was announcing to his followers the purpose of Jesus' mission on earth.  God was blessing His people through His Son Jesus, and those around at the time were made aware of it.  Although the people of Jesus' race and country rejected Him, Jesus did not reject those who believed on His name.    From His abundance of grace – unmerited favor – we all who believe in Jesus have received grace.  But we do not receive this grace just once and for a singular purpose, we receive this grace continually – more grace is received upon grace that has been received – it overflows.  There will never a time where God's grace will run out.  His fullness is unending.  The Jews were used to the Law and followed it to remain right before God.  Jesus brought grace and truth and forgiveness, which fulfilled once and for all the obligations of the Law.  Do we have a struggle? Do we need grace for a challenge facing us?  It is there and will be there the next time we need it. 

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July 18 – He Knows

“I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,”  John 10:14 (NASB)

We are glad and comforted knowing that we have a wonderful Savior who is watching over us every day.  We have not been left alone to live our Christian lives by ourselves.  Jesus used the imagery of a shepherd and his flock of sheep to teach us how He cares and takes care of us who have believed and received Him as our Savior. When Jesus was teaching His followers He wanted them to realize how closely He would be paying attention to their needs.  A good shepherd always knew his sheep, where they were, what they needed, and he watched out for their safety.  As our good Shepherd, Jesus knows us because we are His and we know Him. We've looked at this lesson previously and it is always good to be reminded that Jesus knows us, His followers, and calls each of us by name. He knows our name and He knows our needs and He watches over us.  He protects us from evil and the evil one who seeks to destroy our faith.  Let's stay close to Him today and each day.   

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March 26 – Freely Given to Freely Serve

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace:”   1 Peter 4:10 (ESV)

This promise is for us, for each person who has willfully and purposely put their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.  God has, in response, provided each of  us with a gift that fits the work He calls us to do. Becoming a believer has great benefit and purpose. For one, our purpose is to bring Glory to God and to share the opportunity God has made for all people. We are helped when we come to realize that God wants to use us, His children, to help others know about His wonderful grace and to help them take advantage of it in their lives.  In this way we will be serving our families, our friends, and our neighbors  in a way that will bring them closer to God and help them realize how great God's grace is.  To accomplish this, is why we each have been gifted with a spiritual gift to use in this purpose of service to one another. Our lives receive the benefit and blessing of close fellowship and support from each other. It is how God designed our stewardship through His wonderful grace.    

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January 16 – Adding Grace to More Grace

“For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”  John 1:16 (ESV)

The words of our verse today are for us just as much as they were for those who had walked and worked with Jesus and known Him when he lived in our world.  We recognize these words as a testimony of the blessings the disciples of Jesus had experienced during that time.  And after Jesus was crucified, died, and rose from the grave he ascended back into heaven, the truth of these words became even more relevant and true for all who believe by faith and receive the gift of salvation.  It's a promise that we received grace to believe and we continue to receive grace to walk and obey God's teaching and instructions.  It is grace that makes our belief and obedience possible.  By ourselves we are unable to do it.  The blessing of grace in our lives is a continual blessing from God the Father through Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Always there, never exhausted we have grace from our Lord. Grace and then more grace upon that and even more upon that is provided.  It's a promise made to us.   

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July 28 – Grace In Place of Grace Received

“Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.” John 1:16 (NIV)

The Gospel of John begins by telling us how the Son of God took on a human form and lived here on earth.  Our verse today reminds us how much good we have received because Jesus did this, because God the Father sent His Only Son to earth for us.  When John wrote these words, Jesus had returned to heaven but the blessings His followers had received from Him were still continuing.  And they still continue for each of us.  We don't need to go through a day without experiencing the blessings of the Lord. And the blessings we received are not limited to one-a-day.  God's grace can be as our verse says, blessing upon blessing. God's grace comes to us multiple times and so we receive grace heaped upon grace we have already received.  So aren't you glad my friend,that God continues to pour out His blessings on His children?  His storehouse is great and has an endless supply of blessings for us.  What an encouraging promise we have received from God.

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February 12 – Freely Given

“What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.” 1 Corinthians 2:12 (NIV)

Our God is a giving God, generous to all who seek Him. He is the great creator of our universe and the One who has given us life. He knows what we need to live here on earth. He knows what we need to prepare for eternity and He is anxious to provide for all these needs. But, He wants us to trust in Him for each need we have. So how do we know what God is willing to share with us? We need some divine help to know what is available to us. Our verse tells us where that help comes from. God has given each of us His Holy Spirit to live in us to help us understand what is available. Lets open our hearts and our minds to let the Holy Spirit do what our verse tells us.

December 2 – Unending Supply

“For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” John 1:16 (NASB)

As the Apostle John begins to write the account of Jesus' life he gives us a promise. These words of course are from John's experience as well as that of the other disciples of Jesus and of those who followed Jesus in the Way. But more than that, this is a promise of our experience as well. We too receive grace in on top of grace already given to us. God does not run out of a supply of grace to give us and He does not consider that any of us have received all the grace we need or will ever get. It is out of His fullness which never is exhausted and love which never ends. Hasn't the Lord blessed you many time in the past my friend? In many different ways and He continues to bless us these days. What a promise we have all received – an unending supply of grace.