First, we are led to faith in Jesus and His ability to save us. After we believe, we are born again and we are filled with the Spirit of God who dwells in our revived spirit.
We are made alive in God who has saved us out of the kingdom of darkness and death.
From that point, an intricate process of bringing our minds and bodies into subjection of our spirits begins. This process has an aim of causing our minds and bodies to behave more and more like Christ. Ultimately, we are sanctified and made able to exemplify the perfect nature of our Lord Jesus.
The Lord does this work of sanctification in us and is faithful to complete it.
Amen.
Friday, July 09, 2021
THE LORD OUR HELP IN TIME OF TROUBLE
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. - Psalm 121 verse 1
There are times in our lives when we are cornered, or ensnared or surrounded or exhausted or injured.
Our own resources are fully expended and we are now without hope in our strength.
Psalm 46 verse 1: Our God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. We look to the hills from where our help comes.
Praise God.
Amen.
Thursday, July 08, 2021
JESUS BIDS US SHINE
Jesus bids us shine,
With a clear, pure light,
Like a little candle burning in the night;
In this world of darkness, we must shine,
You in your small corner and I in mine.
Jesus bids us shine, then, for all around,
Many kinds of darkness in the world abound;
Sin and want and sorrow, so we must shine,
You in your small corner and I in mine.
Amen.
Wednesday, July 07, 2021
OUR LORD IS A SOVEREIGN KING
The God of heaven and earth is a sovereign king and is Lord of all.
His ranking is the highest possible ranking that is beyond our ability to conceive.
His Kingship is the expression of His absolute authority over all creation and His every interaction with creation is from the perspective of an eternal absolute Monarch.
It is from His Kingship that His mercy and His generosity and His benevolence and His patience and His grace flow from. A king of great authority trades is these characteristics as a hallmark of their kingship.
An insecure and limited king would never be lavishly generous or gracious or patient. In fact, such a king would showcase impatience, miserlyness and graceslessness to exert authority through intimidation.
Our Lord and God, in His limitless assuredness and wisdom, moves gracefully in His sovereign Kingship seeking to include as many as possible in the responsibility of rulership.
Our Lord seeks to bring believers in Jesus into a place of responsibility over tasks and routines and jurisdictions in His kingdom.
Our sovereign King calls us into a shared role with Him in the care of matters of His awesome kingdom of light.
“and He has made us {to be} a kingdom, priests to His God and Father--to Him {be} the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
- Revelation 1 verse 6
Amen.
Tuesday, July 06, 2021
THE LORD WHO PAID THE PRICE
Let us always think of our Lord and God as the one who undertook the horror of death on a cross to pay the price for the salvation of we who were yet sinners.
The great God of heaven, surrendered His vast power and estate to give His life unto death for the benefit of people who were scoffing at him and who cried out for His crucifixion.
This is the excellency of Jesus. He faced the reality of surrendering Himself to the Roman military machine where He would be brutally executed like a criminal. The bible says that He set His face as flint and would not stray from the path He set himself on even though at any time, He had the power to call the whole thing off.
He saw it through to the point where He gave up His Spirit and died which resulted in the salvation of the children of Israel who believed and then the salvation of all the rest of us around the world who were enabled to believe that the Jewish Messiah was the salvation for the rest of us as well.
Praise our Lord who paid the price.
Amen.
Monday, July 05, 2021
THE LORD OUR GOD IS LOVE
1 John 4:8, : "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
This very succinct biblical description of God's essence gives us a beautiful window into the nature of God. This is because the bible also gives us a succinct definition of what love is.
1 Corinthians 13 : Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Amen.
Sunday, July 04, 2021
OUR LORD AND GOD IS WISE
In wisdom, God created the universe and everything in it.
In wisdom, God designed the plan of salvation for mankind.
In wisdom, God enacted the plan of salvation and the story of Abraham initiated the foretelling of the Saviour Jesus and His sacrifice as the Son of God for the salvation of the human race.
In wisdom, God guides each one of His chosen ones into the knowledge of the truth where they can believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus for their salvation.
In wisdom, God sets His followers on the path He has provided for them.
In wisdom, God is building His kingdom in righteousness.
In wisdom, God will judge the living and the dead when all things will be brought to account at the time of the end.