Reading The Fine Print

    Usually the fine print is found at the bottom of the page in very tiny almost illegible font. With the intent that most people wont even bother to read it at all. Then to make everything worse, the meaning is buried in rhetoric and most boring so that one really doesn't care to wade through.

    I did that with a weight loss herb one time. They were offering a free bottle if you only pay the shipping. Well, I didn't even see the fine print, much less read it. But the following month I found out what happens when you don't read the fine print.

    First off I noticed a charge of $80.00 on our debit card. when I called in to protest they assured me that I had enrolled in a monthly program and that I would receive one bottle of pills per month, that was obviously worth it's weight in Gold!

    They were hard to shake too. They kept offering me potential refunds and whatnot. I finally wrote a cancelation notice and changed our Debit Card number to get them off our back.

    I call that bad business.........


    But I have noticed a different kind of small print that we skim over all the time and we don't notice it or pay attention. It's found at the beginning of almost all of Paul's Epistles in the Bible. Starting at the very top of the page in regular size font and easy to understand if we pay attention and dare to believe it.

  Let's take a look........

  Romans 1: 6-7
 You are the called of Jesus Christ; beloved of God, called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 1 Cor 1, 2-9
 We are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,
The grace of God is given to us by Jesus Christ.
We are enriched by Jesus who will also confirm us to the end, that we may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

2 Corinthians 1
   Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our tribulation,

Galatians 1:
 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴ who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age,

Ephesians 1
  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
³ Blessed be the  Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, We are adopted by Jesus Christ to God, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. ⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace ⁸ which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,

  Philippians 1
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; 
  the fruits of righteousness are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Colossians 1
  We are strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power,  the Father  has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. ¹³ He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

1 Thessalonians 1
 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Thessalonians
 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1Timothy
 Jesus is our hope,

2 Timothy 
The promise of life is in Christ Jesus,

Hebrews 1
 God, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom is the heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
 Jesus purged our sins by himself and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

  Some of this is paraphrased. Most people say GRACE is unmerited favor or not getting what we deserve. I'm wondering if that could be better defined as MERCY?

Definition for Mercy:  Kindness toward the miserable and afflicted coupled with the desire to help them.

Definition for Grace: Divine influence on the heart and it's reflection in ones life. (in other words, God's power giving us the ability to do the right thing.)

Definition of Peace: The tranquil state of a soul assured of salvation through Christ and so fearing nothing from God and being content with our earthly lot of whatsoever sort it is.

  I hope you have enjoyed reading the fine print of the Bible and that in doing so it promotes faith in the power of Christ to cleanse our sin, purify our lives, give us the ability to do right and fill our hearts with the Peace that passes understanding.

  If you read further, beyond the fine print you will find that the Apostle Paul always reminded them of who Jesus is and who they are in Christ before he gave any instruction or correction.

  Is that what we are missing today?