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Curses and Blessings - Part 2 - Blessings

by Jerry Ousley  
6/07/2013 / Christian Living

God blesses us each and every day. Most of the time we take it for granted that we have food to eat and air to breath, but folks our life depends on it! Without food and without air, we won't last long. God has blessed me many times, besides those daily taken-for-granted blessings. I remember as a kid growing up, when a buddy of mine (who was also a pest) insisted on a bicycle race around the block.

I didn't have a good feeling about it at all. I refused but he kept on insisting (as I said, he was a pest). Finally I caved in and agreed to the race but insisted that we do it on the sidewalk. His response was, "That's for sissies!" Well, being the pest he was it became evident that this was going to be easier to just let him have his way and get it over with rather than spend half the day arguing about it.

Someone gave us the "get ready, get set, GO" signal and we were off. I was ahead around the first corner. Normally I won when riding against this guy. Maybe that's why he was so determined that we were going to run this race; he may have been trying to race me until he beat me! If I had known that I would have let him win just to get him off my back.

At the second corner something happened. As we were going around the corner he crowded me out causing me to wreck my bike. Down I went skidding across the pavement of the road. Then I heard something else; tires were screeching and when I looked up to see what was happening I saw the bumper of a car just above my head. That's how close I came to getting run over! That's also why I believe that I had a bad feeling about this race. God blessed me and spared my life that day and I'll never forget it as long as I live!

We've talked about the passage in Deuteronomy 27:14-26 that gives all the curses for being disobedient to the law of God as given to the nation of Israel by Moses. Those curses are affective upon mankind even today. They are God's standard for righteousness (or a right standing before Him).

But when Jesus came He changed everything. He didn't change the law but He did provide a way to escape the curses of breaking the law. According to the Bible if a person was guilty of breaking even just one of the laws, no matter how big or small, then it destroyed his or her righteousness.

Jesus came to give blessings. We read about a lot of them in Matthew 5:1-12. We call them the Beatitudes. Here they are: Blessed are the poor in spirit, because if they seek God they can be made rich in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn, because if they live in Christ God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Blessed are the meek, for even though the world may run over them now, they shall inherit the earth during the Millennial Reign with Christ. Blessed are those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, for if they seek they will find it. Blessed are the merciful, for God will be merciful to them. Blessed are the pure in heart (those earnestly and honestly seeking for God) for they shall see Him! Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the Children of God. And finally, blessed are those persecuted for the sake of Christ, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

That's the contrast between the law and grace under Jesus Christ. He alone is the sacrificial Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. He alone can free us from the curse that comes from breaking the law. He alone can substitute blessing for the curse. So which will it be; curses or blessing?

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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