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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 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. Saturday, October 16, 2021
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :Positive and Negative Bible Verse:Romans 6:1-7 (NASB) "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin." Message:
Read the quote from C. S. Lewis closely and you will notice that the two terms he contrasts — “unselfishness” and “love” — are not really all that different. When one loves someone else, in the highest sense of Christian love (or “charity,” in the KJV), one seeks the good of somebody other than oneself. The two terms are very nearly identical in meaning.
Love is not a gooey feeling; it is giving something to somebody else. One takes something away from one’s own worldly life and gives it, freely and with no hope of earthly reward, to someone else who needs it. I take a week of my life to help build a house for someone else; I take a dollar out of my pocket and give it to a beggar.
And this is how Lewis intends us to read it. The actual virtue being described by the modern good men and those of old is the same virtue: What Lewis is looking at, is the difference in how these persons express the virtue.
Love of God
We might express most any Christian virtue (or vice) as a negative or a positive. “She is chaste” versus “she is not promiscuous.” “I am joyful” versus “I am not in despair.” “He is temperate” or “he is not given to excess.” C. S. Lewis wants us to see that there is sometimes an advantage to stating a virtue in the positive. Nor is this some psychological stratagem, some attempt to manipulate the listener’s opinion through semantics. Rather, it is how we see ourselves in relation to Christ after our salvation.
It would be difficult to list all the benefits of the positive statement, but one obvious benefit is that it turns our eyes away from judgmentalism and towards reform. We look to our goal. If we say “Leona is an unselfish person,” or “we should strive to be unselfish,” there is the tiniest grain of criticism of people who are not unselfish. We are holding up a negative ideal. This is a very small point, because there is certainly nothing wrong with being (or trying to be) unselfish; it is just a tiny bit better, in the long run, to say “I am trying to express my love for God.” We look away from what we have given up, and look forwards to what we have gained.
Meditation : Prayer : May I go in peace, with God and with his other children, and may we love one another as Christ taught us. May I follow the example of good men of old, and may God comfort and help me and all who believe in Him, both in this world and in the world which is to come.....Amen |
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