Friday, July 29, 2016

Christ—Our Everything.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Thomas Sheppard (1605-1649) was raised in a godly Puritan home, but while he was attending Cambridge University he fell into a life of sin. One Sunday morning, when he awoke from a drunken stupor, a heavy weight of sadness over the enormity of his guilt crushed him to the point that he left his former way of life.

For the next 9 months, the fear of God's wrath almost drove him to "run my head against walls . . . and kill myself." But while listening to a sermon on 1 Corinthians 1:30, he suddenly realized that Christ was everything he needed—that Jesus had lived the perfect life he couldn't live, had paid for his sins on the cross, and was now his Advocate in heaven.

Commenting on John 1:12, "As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God," Sheppard wrote, "The Lord gave me a heart to receive Christ with a naked hand, . . . and so the Lord gave me peace."

If you want the kind of peace that only God can give, ask Him to give you a deep awareness of your own sinfulness. Then reflect on the wonder of the grace by which He made Jesus Christ everything you need. Finally, either renew the commitment you have already made to the Lord, or for the first time receive Jesus as your Savior.

The outstretched hand of God extends To those weighed down by sin; He offers to remove the load And give His peace within.

Jesus died in our place to give us His peace.

Quotes

 “If we seek God for our own good and profit, we are not seeking God.”

“Human beings need not despair and go on an eternal search for the Eternal, for the Eternal has come to the temporal.”

 “Preaching is thirty minutes in which to raise the dead.”

“The kingdom of heaven is not for the well-meaning but for the desperate.”

“The people of God are not merely to mark time, waiting for God to step in and set right all that is wrong. Rather, they are to model the new heaven and new earth, and by so doing awaken longings for what God will someday bring to pass.”

Adversity 

    "Conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional."

Kindness

"A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles." - Washington Irving

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