Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Christian Life

And if you take the Christian life one day at a time, one step at a time, and go from one answered prayer request to another, from one time of Sunday fellowship to another, from one blessing, one good Christian friend to another. 

When you go from strength to strength, you will look back over your life and be amazed that you have come so far. 

In 2 Corinthians 5:10, Paul echoes this verse here when he writes, “For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ.” He knew that wherever he went, whatever he did and said, would all be assessed when he stood before Christ, and he kept laboring, kept serving, kept striving, kept running, because he wanted to be bold and confident and unashamed before Christ at His coming.

The world is not my home

At a friend’s bedside in a hospital emergency ward, I was moved by the sounds of suffering I heard from other patients in pain. As  I prayed for my friend and for the ailing patients, I realized anew how fleeting our life on earth is. Then I recalled an old country song by Jim Reeves that talks about how the world is not home for us --we’re just a passin’ through.”
Our world is full of weariness, pain, hunger, debt, poverty, disease, and death. Because we must pass through such a world, Jesus’ invitation is welcome and timely: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). 

We need rest.

In the Beginning.

He (the Word Jesus) was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. - John 1:2-3

Jesus was there. He was with God in the beginning. But he was more than just a witness of Creation; he created it! Jesus, who allowed himself to be limited to human flesh and to die a cruel and agonizing death on the Cross, was there at the beginning as the Word speaking our world into existence. He made it. It is his. Yet he came and died to redeem it. More specifrically, he came to redeem you and me. So when the Word speaks to us telling us how to live to please God, don’t you think we’d better pay attention? Better yet, don’t you think we ought to do it?

Familiar verse from the Bible…

1 John 1:9 

 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

2 Corinthians 5:17 

 If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new has come

Hebrews 11:1 

- Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Post a Comment