Psalms 105 and 106 challenge us to remember, not only God's miracles, but also His faithfulness to us, in spite of our faithlessness. His grace truly is amazing. But, may we not take that grace for granted and presume upon His mercy, but rather press on towards holiness as His transforming power works within us.
I appreciated Pritchard's thoughts again...
Why do we fight so hard for the truth of the gospel? I find the answer in Galatians 5:5-6. “But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Our hope is in the Lord alone. All that we need comes from him. The righteousness we need is found in Christ. And that righteousness comes to us by virtue of his bloody death on the cross. God doesn’t care whether or not we are circumcised. The only thing that matters is true saving faith that expresses itself in a life motivated by love.
And, of course, one of the most well-known verses....
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. We are known by our fruit - does this verse describe you and me?
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Psalms 107-109; Galatians 6
3 comments:
Psalm 105:4
Seek the Lord and his strength;
seek his presence continually!
This verse stood out for me, I need to make the effort to seek Him more. This ties in to our NT reading as well, seeking the Lord can be done by working to build up the fruits if the spirit in our lives. For me patience is the one that hit me first when reading this, I need to be more patient and not be expecting things to happen immediatly all the time.
A few things stood out for me:
When he summoned a famine on the land
and broke all supply of bread,
17 he had sent a man ahead of them,
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
God always has a plan. This year, our school did the story of Joseph for our Spring concert and it really hit me that God needed Joseph in Egypt when the famine hit. God planned for Joseph to be there...in a surprising way, but God got him there. I wonder what circumstances God is placing me in because he needs me to be there in the future?
These verses made me think about the abortion epidemic in our culture:
They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to the demons;
38 they poured out innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
and the land was polluted with blood.
39 Thus they became unclean by their acts,
and played the whore in their deeds.
If you substitute "society" for "Canaan" you have the situation we are in today where sex is not sacred and new life is sacrificed for convenience. People have poured out the innocent blood of the unborn and they don't even think it is wrong.
From the NT:
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy,[d] drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
I think sometimes we think that some sin is worse than others and that's when we begin to devalue the fact that ALL sin separates us from God. According to this list, jealousy, fits of anger, and envy are listed with sexual immorality, sorcery, and orgies. Sin is sin.
When Christ lives in us, we are all given gifts. But more important than the gifts is the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit describes a wholistic lifestyle that God wants developed in all Christians.
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