Grateful for GRACE ♥

 
Oh how amazing the grace the Lord has given! So many sins, so many sinners, and yet each of us have been offered God's amazing grace!

 I look at my past and although I can believe I am forgiven of the sins, it isn't so easy to believe that God could use me with all that is my past to do any thing great for His kingdom. Then lead by the Holy Spirit, a read of the genealogy of Jesus. The women that God chose to bring us Jesus-
Tamar
Rahab
Ruth
Bathsheba

Tamar, who was a Canaanite,  disguised as a prostitute tricked Judah (who was Joseph's brother, the one who convinced the brothers to sell him into slavery) into sex and conceives the next person in the genealogy of Jesus. Their story is found in Genesis 38.

Then there is Rahab. We meet her in the Book of Joshua. She is a prostitute in Jericho who saves the Israelite spies sent to check out the city. She and her family is saved from the destruction that occurs in Jericho after the walls fall. We know she marries a descendant of Judah and Tamar, Salmon. They have a son, Boaz.

That brings us to Ruth. Now Ruth didn't have the sin of the previous women, but she was an outsider, not an Israelite, who becomes part of the lineage of Jesus.

Finally of the women mentioned in Jesus's genealogy is Bathsheba. She cheats on her husband and gets pregnant while he is at war. The man she is involved with, King David, has her husband killed. Then their child dies but the Lord gives them another and that child is Solomon.

How amazing is God's Grace that He chose to bring HIS Son to us through these women. He didn't use only the most righteous men or women to create the genealogy. He could have. Instead, God brought us Jesus through a lineage that showed that HIS Love & Grace is what gives us hope and a future not how righteous our parents were or even how righteous we would be.

Yes to today I am GRATEFUL for GOD's GRACE and that I can be used to bring Glory to His Kingdom!