Sunday, March 20, 2011
Listen: Day Eight
Listen: Day Eight: "Let's go to the King James Version of the Bible to see what was going on with John in the First Epistle of John. &n..."
Day Eight
Let's go to the King James Version of the Bible to see what was going on with John in the First Epistle of John.
The First Epistle of John
God is light; God is love; and God is life. John is enjoying a delightful fellowship with that God of light, love, and life. and he desperately desires that his spiritual children enjoy the same fellowship.
God is light. Therefore, to engage if fellowship with Him we must walk in light and not in darkness. As we walk in the light, we will regularly confess our sins, allowing the blood of Christ to continually cleanse us. Two major roadblocks to hinder this walk will be falling in love with the world and falling for the alluring lies of false teachers.
God is love. Since we are His children we must walk in love. In fact, John says that if we do not love, we do not know God. Love is more than just words; it is actions. Love is giving, not getting. Biblical love is unconditional in its nature. Christ's love fulfilled those qualities and when that brand of love characterizes us, we will be free of self-condemnation and experience confidence before God.
God is life. Those who fellowship with Him must possess His quality of life. Spiritual life begins with spiritual birth which occurs through faith in Jesus Christ. Faith the apostle John's name is not found in this book, it was given the title Ioannou A, the "First of John."
Day Eight
From [Christ's] fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
John 1:16
For several years my family and I wew priviledged to live near the ocean. Not only did the beach serve as a favorite family relaxation spot, it also provided an endless supply of kelp for our garden. Kelp? Yes, kelp. With every ocean wave...after wave...after wave...God provided, free of charge, buckets and buckets of kelp. We used the seaweed as fertilizer and even planted seed potatoes in it for an ease, no-digging-required harvest! Kelp was organic, plentiful, and great for our garden.
In today's Bible reading, John mentions Christ's "grace upon grace." Can't you just picture the continuous ocean waves as a model of the way God lavishes His grace on us? Time and time again. He freely sends wave upon wave of grace our way. We do nothing to earn this grace and love. God simply loves us, daily watching over us and forgiving all our many sins because of Christ's death and resurrection.
Day by day, hour by hour, God's grace keeps coming... and coming...and coming! And we receive that grace hour after hour, day by day, challenge after challenge, time after time, with thankful hearts.
His grace is always more than enough to satisfy our needs.
Prayer suggestion. For what specific challenge do you need God's grace today? Pray about it now.
The First Epistle of John
God is light; God is love; and God is life. John is enjoying a delightful fellowship with that God of light, love, and life. and he desperately desires that his spiritual children enjoy the same fellowship.
God is light. Therefore, to engage if fellowship with Him we must walk in light and not in darkness. As we walk in the light, we will regularly confess our sins, allowing the blood of Christ to continually cleanse us. Two major roadblocks to hinder this walk will be falling in love with the world and falling for the alluring lies of false teachers.
God is love. Since we are His children we must walk in love. In fact, John says that if we do not love, we do not know God. Love is more than just words; it is actions. Love is giving, not getting. Biblical love is unconditional in its nature. Christ's love fulfilled those qualities and when that brand of love characterizes us, we will be free of self-condemnation and experience confidence before God.
God is life. Those who fellowship with Him must possess His quality of life. Spiritual life begins with spiritual birth which occurs through faith in Jesus Christ. Faith the apostle John's name is not found in this book, it was given the title Ioannou A, the "First of John."
Day Eight
From [Christ's] fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
John 1:16
For several years my family and I wew priviledged to live near the ocean. Not only did the beach serve as a favorite family relaxation spot, it also provided an endless supply of kelp for our garden. Kelp? Yes, kelp. With every ocean wave...after wave...after wave...God provided, free of charge, buckets and buckets of kelp. We used the seaweed as fertilizer and even planted seed potatoes in it for an ease, no-digging-required harvest! Kelp was organic, plentiful, and great for our garden.
In today's Bible reading, John mentions Christ's "grace upon grace." Can't you just picture the continuous ocean waves as a model of the way God lavishes His grace on us? Time and time again. He freely sends wave upon wave of grace our way. We do nothing to earn this grace and love. God simply loves us, daily watching over us and forgiving all our many sins because of Christ's death and resurrection.
Day by day, hour by hour, God's grace keeps coming... and coming...and coming! And we receive that grace hour after hour, day by day, challenge after challenge, time after time, with thankful hearts.
His grace is always more than enough to satisfy our needs.
Prayer suggestion. For what specific challenge do you need God's grace today? Pray about it now.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Listen: Seventh Day
Listen: Seventh Day: "Last week I had to go to my dentist for gum surgery. Knowing that I would be hard pressed to eat anything for awhile afterward, I bought mys..."
Seventh Day
Last week I had to go to my dentist for gum surgery. Knowing that I would be hard pressed to eat anything for awhile afterward, I bought myself some Ensure for my muscles, and Benevia to keep up my strenght and to give me energy. Knowing that I neede something on mys tomach so I could take my vitamins as I always do. Talk about blessings, even small ones help a lot. Yesterday I recieved a sample of Mio liquid water enhancer through the mail. "It is just what the doctor ordered," sort a speak. I wanted to thank the good people at Kraft for remembering me.
The Second Epistle of
Peter
First Peter deals with problems from the outside; Second Peter deals with problems from the inside. Peter writes to warn the believers about the false teachers who are peddling damaging doctrine. He begins by urging them to keep close watch on their personal lives. The Christian life demands dilligence in pursuing moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perserverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and selfless love. By contrast, the false teachers are sensual, arrogant, greedy, and covetous. They scoff at the thought of future judgement and live their lives as if the present would be the pattern for the future. Peter reminds them that although God may be longsuffering in sending judgement, ultimately it will come. In view of that fact, believers should live lives of godliness, blamelessness, and steadfastness.
The statement of authorship in 1:1 is very clear: "Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ." To distinguish this epistle from the first by Peter it was given the Greek title Petrou B, the "Second of Peter."
Seventh Day
Grow in grace.... of our Lord.
2 Peter 3:18
I'm not a patient gardener. I begin to fidget when winter temperatures warm above freezing. I mark pages in gardening catalogs months before it's time to order seeds. And it doesn't get any better once the plantings sprout.
Several times each day I check to see if buds have set n, if aphids are active, or if plants need more water. I'm not a patient gardener.
So, you might wonder, why would I plant a Century Plant (Agave americana)? A Century Plant grows v-e-r-y-s-l-o-w-l-y-. Evenutally this succulent will form large, pointed leaves, but Century Plants bloom only once enery thirty or forty years! Given my current age and life expectancy, it's a good possibility that I will see my first plant flower! I'm not sure why I planted this unique species, but it serves as an object lesson for the apostle Peter's second letter--specifically, chapter 3. Peter reminds us that Jesus will return one day to judge the world. Will it be today? tomorrow? thirty or forty years from now, when my Century Plant is in full bloom? Only God, our Father, knows.
What should impatient people do as we wait for Christ's second coming? Verse 18 tells us: " Grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. "How do we grow in grace? God has already given a full measure of His grace to us through Jesus. We have all we need! Perhaps growing in grace means appreciating God's grace in a deeper and deeper way. We can understand His grace by meditating on it, thinking thankfully about it. As we contemplate the abundance of grace God has shown to us, we gratefully share that saving grace with others. And we wait for His coming in expectant hope.
Prayer suggestion. To move fully appreciate God's grace (His undeserved love to us in Christ) make an acrostic. Print the word Grace vertically along the left side of a paper. Use each letter in the words or phrase to explain what God's grace personally means to you. Praise Him for His love!
The Second Epistle of
Peter
First Peter deals with problems from the outside; Second Peter deals with problems from the inside. Peter writes to warn the believers about the false teachers who are peddling damaging doctrine. He begins by urging them to keep close watch on their personal lives. The Christian life demands dilligence in pursuing moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perserverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and selfless love. By contrast, the false teachers are sensual, arrogant, greedy, and covetous. They scoff at the thought of future judgement and live their lives as if the present would be the pattern for the future. Peter reminds them that although God may be longsuffering in sending judgement, ultimately it will come. In view of that fact, believers should live lives of godliness, blamelessness, and steadfastness.
The statement of authorship in 1:1 is very clear: "Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ." To distinguish this epistle from the first by Peter it was given the Greek title Petrou B, the "Second of Peter."
Seventh Day
Grow in grace.... of our Lord.
2 Peter 3:18
I'm not a patient gardener. I begin to fidget when winter temperatures warm above freezing. I mark pages in gardening catalogs months before it's time to order seeds. And it doesn't get any better once the plantings sprout.
Several times each day I check to see if buds have set n, if aphids are active, or if plants need more water. I'm not a patient gardener.
So, you might wonder, why would I plant a Century Plant (Agave americana)? A Century Plant grows v-e-r-y-s-l-o-w-l-y-. Evenutally this succulent will form large, pointed leaves, but Century Plants bloom only once enery thirty or forty years! Given my current age and life expectancy, it's a good possibility that I will see my first plant flower! I'm not sure why I planted this unique species, but it serves as an object lesson for the apostle Peter's second letter--specifically, chapter 3. Peter reminds us that Jesus will return one day to judge the world. Will it be today? tomorrow? thirty or forty years from now, when my Century Plant is in full bloom? Only God, our Father, knows.
What should impatient people do as we wait for Christ's second coming? Verse 18 tells us: " Grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. "How do we grow in grace? God has already given a full measure of His grace to us through Jesus. We have all we need! Perhaps growing in grace means appreciating God's grace in a deeper and deeper way. We can understand His grace by meditating on it, thinking thankfully about it. As we contemplate the abundance of grace God has shown to us, we gratefully share that saving grace with others. And we wait for His coming in expectant hope.
Prayer suggestion. To move fully appreciate God's grace (His undeserved love to us in Christ) make an acrostic. Print the word Grace vertically along the left side of a paper. Use each letter in the words or phrase to explain what God's grace personally means to you. Praise Him for His love!
Friday, March 18, 2011
Sixth Day
By grace you have been saved...
We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared beforehand.
Ephesians 2: 8-10
Just imagine! Twenty-first century computer technolgy partnering with gardening, an activity as old as Eden! It's true. You can use your computer and relatively inexpensive software package to plan your entire landscape. With a click of a button, shorter varities of flowers are positioned virtually- in front of taller plants or climbers; shrubs requiring full sun or partial shade are virtually planted in exactly the right location in your yard- long before the frost is out of the ground. In minutes, you can see your virtual garden- in bloom!
Experienced gardeners know a computer isn't a necessity. It may take a bit longer to plan your landscape without one, but careful planning is important nontheless. Good planning can turn an ordinary garden into a work of art.
A work of art-that's one way to translate the word for workmanship found in today's Scripture. In classical Greek, the word was sometimes used to mean poem. Read the text again and substitute the words work of art for workmanship.
Just as a gardener carefully chooses individual plants for a garden, God has handpicked you to be His own, dear child. He created you as His very own work of art. Awesome, isn't it? Awesome grace. When we begin to understand grace-the undeserved love of God in Christ- we bloom!
And there's more! Having created each one of us with His loving hand. God "plants" us together with other believers. Why? So that through God's grace and in His strength, our good works, together with those of other believers, bloom in the landscape of God's glory.
Prayer suggestion. Thank the Lord for the fellowship of believers He's planted in your life, and ask Jesus how you can "bloom" in His grace today. </144719> </TruthinThinking>
We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared beforehand.
Ephesians 2: 8-10
Just imagine! Twenty-first century computer technolgy partnering with gardening, an activity as old as Eden! It's true. You can use your computer and relatively inexpensive software package to plan your entire landscape. With a click of a button, shorter varities of flowers are positioned virtually- in front of taller plants or climbers; shrubs requiring full sun or partial shade are virtually planted in exactly the right location in your yard- long before the frost is out of the ground. In minutes, you can see your virtual garden- in bloom!
Experienced gardeners know a computer isn't a necessity. It may take a bit longer to plan your landscape without one, but careful planning is important nontheless. Good planning can turn an ordinary garden into a work of art.
A work of art-that's one way to translate the word for workmanship found in today's Scripture. In classical Greek, the word was sometimes used to mean poem. Read the text again and substitute the words work of art for workmanship.
Just as a gardener carefully chooses individual plants for a garden, God has handpicked you to be His own, dear child. He created you as His very own work of art. Awesome, isn't it? Awesome grace. When we begin to understand grace-the undeserved love of God in Christ- we bloom!
And there's more! Having created each one of us with His loving hand. God "plants" us together with other believers. Why? So that through God's grace and in His strength, our good works, together with those of other believers, bloom in the landscape of God's glory.
Prayer suggestion. Thank the Lord for the fellowship of believers He's planted in your life, and ask Jesus how you can "bloom" in His grace today. </144719> </TruthinThinking>
Thursday, March 17, 2011
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