Grace. Grace. Grace.

This past week the pastor of our church preached on Luke 13:6-8. Some of the points he made hit me like a ton of bricks.  It has been a considerable long time since I have been hit with a message that sank deep in my heart. Like many around me, I have been a christian my whole life and have grown up with amazing amount of bible knowledge poured into me. So when something hits me like this simple scripture it just reminds me that I don't yet have it all figured out! (well, I already knew that, it is just a healthy reminder)
The part that hit me the most was the ending part of the scripture below. The part about the man and the apple tree. I love how Jamie (pastor) brought up in his message to us at CLA that this could well be the most overlooked scripture of grace in the bible. So applying it to my life over the last week and remembering that even when people do bad things to us, there is always another chance. It is my choice on how I react to the situation. What I do with the choices ahead of me.
I also love how this scripture liberates us to move on. It encourages us that our father (God) still believes in us! That there is hope for our lives! We can change things!!!
So I will continue to ponder on this and apply it to my life. I am glad this has become a revelation to me! I pray it will change my actions!

Luke 13 (Message)
Unless You Turn to God

6Then he told them a story: "A man had an apple tree planted in his front yard. He came to it expecting to find apples, but there weren't any. 7He said to his gardener, "What's going on here? For three years now I've come to this tree expecting apples and not one apple have I found. Chop it down! Why waste good ground with it any longer?'
8"The gardener said, "Let's give it another year. I'll dig around it and fertilize, 9and maybe it will produce next year; if it doesn't, then chop it down.'