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For I know the plans I have for you,declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jer 29:11 |
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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 collecting daily manna), 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. Sunday, May 21, 2017
Today's Passage : Subject:Called to Be Holy Bible Verse:1 Peter 1:13-16 (ESV) "Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” " Message:
Today's passage continues the “pep talk” that Peter has sent to the exiled Christians in Turkey. The theme of the first sentence is commitment. His advice is as applicable to us as it was to his direct audience 2000 years ago.
F
irst, Peter tells us, take some time to prepare your mind. This is what many of us do each day, with the Daily Devotional or some sort of morning prayer: Take time to collect our thoughts, to think about the day ahead and to remember what is important to us that we do during our day. Second, we should be sober-minded as we plan our future, not thinking of frivolity, but thinking about how we will accomplish our most important and meaningful goals.
Finally, we must commit ourselves fully to Christ's grace. We cannot just have a vague hope that our actions will reflect our ambitions to live in Christ, for our bodies and minds will want to pull us astray. We must know and plan for temptations of the flesh. Will we be angry when, inevitably, someone displeases us? Will we allow our emotions or our greed or our pride to drown out the voice of the Holy Spirit? If we do not set our hope fully on Christ, we will be pulled away from Him.
The second paragraph is about willingness to change. When we are reborn in Christ, we set aside our old habits and attitudes, for they would lead us to death and misery. Temptation is like a poisonous cupcake, covered in frosting and pretty candy to the point where it is almost impossible to resist; and yet, once eaten, bringing us to sickness and death.
We must cast off our old habits, something that is never easy to do. We must learn to be obedient to Christ.
This is not a forced obedience, where we will be used as slaves working for someone else's good. This is the deliberate and voluntary obedience of a wise person, who grasps that someone else knows the way. Imagine that you must cross a great mountain range. Trying to do it yourself, you would die. But with a guide who knows what you do not know, you can accomplish the task and live if you will only follow his every footstep.
We are called to be holy. If you are reading this, rest assured that you have been called. You have been elected by Christ to receive His grace, as Peter told us in the first sentence of this epistle. He addresses the letter to “those who are elect exiles.” Anyone who is reading Peter's epistle with a mind to actually learning truth, with a mind open to finding how better to serve and follow Christ, is surely one of the people to whom the epistle is addressed.
Meditation : Prayer : All through this day, O Lord, by the power of your quickening Spirit, let me touch the lives of others for good, whether through the word I speak, the prayer I speak, or the life I live. Amen. |
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