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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :The Failure of Morality Bible Verse :Philippians 3:7-11 "But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss because of the surpassing value of following Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of [or the participation in] His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." Message:
Wow. This run-on sentence, very typical of Paul’s style, is so hard to read that it is difficult to get anything other than a broad idea of his meaning, unless we really study it. (If it is any comfort, the Greek is even worse!)
First, we must remember the verses before. Paul has just recounted his life of compliance with the Judaism of the Pharisees. The ideal of their theology was a life of very high moral standards, reverence, and service to God. It had devolved into enormous hypocrisy, a life of outward ritual compliance but inward greed for money and political power, with little if any thought for the higher meaning of Mosaic Law. Jesus chastises them for this hypocrisy, relentlessly and harshly, in the Gospels.
We see the exact same problem in Christian churches, today and throughout history. If Christianity is viewed in terms of the world, Christians and Christian leaders are often as corrupt and hypocritical as the Pharisees of Judea in 30 A.D.
In today’s Scripture, Paul attacks the fundamental concept of righteousness as something we gain by following a moral code. What do we gain by, say, a life of chastity, humility, and other “Christian” virtues? Nothing. Our only gain comes from faith in Christ and participation in His suffering, fellowship with the Son of God. Because we have learned, through the Jews and the Law, that hypocrisy is inevitable. Nobody can follow God’s Law.
Most Christians are aware that riches, power, and fame ultimately avail them nothing (even if we sometimes act otherwise). But many people who understand the vanity of earthly treasure have not grasped the futility of trying to follow the Law. Christianity is fundamentally not about conforming to a moral code given to us by God. That is Judaism. We know we will sin. If we sin while holding to a religious belief based in morality, we are hypocrites. We say one thing and do another. We begin to hide our non-compliance with our moral code, just as Adam hid from God after tasting the forbidden fruit.
But “if we confess our sins, He (Christ) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).” Confession, and acceptance of forgiveness, is the fundamental point of our lives in Christ.
We must try not to sin. We do admit that God’s moral code exists and we do try to comply with it, but not in order to go to heaven; rather, because we love God so much. He gave us our human lives, which we inevitably mess up; and then, He took our suffering upon Himself, so that we might find eternal life with Him. And so, we love Him and strive to follow His law out of love.
Meditation : Prayer : The blessing of the Lord rest and remain upon all his people, in every land, of every tongue; the Lord meet in mercy all that seek him; the Lord comfort all who suffer and mourn; the Lord hasten his coming, and give us, his people, the blessing of peace...........Amen |
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