Devotional Guide For the week of March 9, 2008
STARVED FOR HOPE
About love for God
To read the Bible in one year, today read Nehemiah 10,11
To Know:
³For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the
love
of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.² (Romans 8:38,39)
How can God guarantee eternal life to free beings if eternal life requires
unending heartfelt obedience to the will of God? Why can someone, even in
eternity, not choose against God and plummet from heaven to hell? How can
a
person be eternally secure? Eternal security arises from the same source
that rendered it certain that Jesus Christ would not fail in the face of a
cruel, brutal, and unjust execution. Jesusı character protected him from
compromise. Jesus was motivated by the love he had for his father. No
temptation and no threat were stronger than his desire to please his
Father.
When, under the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr.
called this nation to task for its racism, he dreamed of the day when his
little ones would be judged, not by the color of their skin, but by the
content of their character. It is character that renders a person or
nation
safe. Out of our character proceed our preferences. We, being free
creatures, will always choose what we want most. If God can give birth in
us
a desire for him above all else, then are we thereby made safe from all
temptations to defect from his kingdom.
To Do:
The apostles centered their lives on the cross of Christ. This was the
great
secret of Christian living. Paul wrote, ³But far be it from me to glory
except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been
crucified to me, and I to the world.² (Gal.6: 14) God reveals his love for
us in the cross of Christ. Christ died in the sinnerıs place. He is Godıs
gift. In light of this Paul asks the Romans, ³If God is for us, who is
against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all,
will he not also give us all things with him?² (Rm. 8:31,32) Godıs love
defies explanation. How can we receive such love and afterward betray one
who loved us so?
03128$-03128
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