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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. Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :The World Will Hate You Bible Verse:John 15:18-27 (ESV) "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’ But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.”" Message:
Previously, we read the Scripture in which Jesus told us that we would be his friends. We are now the cool crowd; we are a clique, with one major difference between most cliques — anyone who wants to join can do so and will be treated as a full member immediately. The most powerful man who ever walked on earth has declared that we are his friends.
Painting of Christ with sinner in His arms
Still, there are a lot of people who hate us. Christ himself warned us that there would be. We are widely hated or at least disdained, looked down upon as deficient in intelligence. We are compared to people who hunt for paranormal activity or believe in alien abduction. We are branded as hypocrites. People think we judge and condemn them.
It is hard to understand this hatred. Anyone who read the Bible and understands Christ’s message could not possibly hold such an attitude, unless they are utterly lost to evil. But many people have been misled about what it means to be a true Christian, that is, a person who believes in, and follows, the teachings of Jesus Christ.
And many, many people who have grown up in a church have fallen away to the temptations and philosophy of the world. Some cling so tightly to some aspect of worldly pleasure that they do not understand how happy they would be, if they would fasten their gaze on God instead of sex, money, prestige, or power. They do not understand how powerful Christ’s forgiveness can be, or how completely he understands our weakness to sin.
Others have simply been misled by people who have misrepresented the Gospel to them. I heard this message on Sixty Minutes, of all places, when they did a piece on Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan (now Cardinal Dolan). Dolan is a real Biblical Christian and a force in the Catholic Church. He has vowed to emphasize the loving and forgiving aspect of Christian faith, instead of the condemnatory, rule-based message that has so often characterized Christian teaching. (He is a “conservative,” by the way, and has no thought of abandoning the traditional teachings of his denomination.)
I think he has part of the answer to the disturbing abandonment of Christianity in North America and Europe. Rather than trying to make the church (in the wide sense) more “relevant” to modern society by abandoning the word of the Bible, he seeks to attract people by teaching the New Testament instead of the Old, by teaching the God of love, as personified by the life and teachings of Jesus.
Meditation : Prayer : And now, as a little child, let me abide in you all this day, oh Christ, so that when you appear I may have confidence and not shrink from you in shame at your coming. For I know that you are righteous, and I am sure that I will be made righteous only by my life in you.......Amen |
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