Grace and Change

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. I'm Tom Felton, and I titled today's reading Grace and Change. The crime was shocking, and the man who committed it was sentenced to life in prison. In the years that followed, the man, in solitary confinement, began a process of mental and spiritual healing. It led to repentance and a restored relationship with Jesus.

These days, he's been allowed limited interactions with other inmates. And by God's grace, through his witness, some fellow prisoners have received Christ as Savior, finding forgiveness in him. Moses, though now recognized as a great man of faith, also committed a shocking crime. After he witnessed an Egyptian beating a Hebrew in Exodus 2, he looked this way and that, and killed the Egyptian. Despite this sin, God in his grace wasn't done with his imperfect servant.

Later, he chose Moses to free his people from their oppression. In Romans 5-14, we read, Death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command. But in the following verses, Paul states that God's grace makes it possible for us, regardless of our past sins, to be changed and made right with him. We might think that what we've done disqualifies us from knowing God's forgiveness and being used for his honor.

But because of his grace, in Jesus, we can be changed and set free to help others be changed for eternity. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Exodus 2, verses 11-15. One day after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that, and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew? The man said, Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid and thought, What I did must have become known. When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses.

But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your life changing grace. No matter what we've done, we can find forgiveness and new life in Christ. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.