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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 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. Wednesday, October 3, 2018
Today's Passage : Today's Passage:Subjecta:Jesus as a Friend Bible Verse:John 15:11-17 "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another." Message:
Christ drops a bit of a bombshell in this quote, because he changes the relationship between God and man. He no longer calls us his faithful “servants,” but rather, “friends.” This is no accident of semantics. He does it deliberately. He intends for us to understand that the relationship has changed.
Friends treat each other very differently than a master and a servant. A servant stands in a lower social class than a master; this was even more pronounced in the past than in the democratic world of the 21st century. Christ here elevates his believers to more of a degree of equality with him. And as one comes to understand the importance of Jesus’ humanity, the reasons for it become clearer and clearer. Jesus, the carpenter, was just like us in many respects. He emptied himself of his divinity so that he could suffer and die, face human love and loss, just as we do.
He had said in the past that those who followed him would become the children of God; here he acknowledges that his disciples have done so. And, as children of God, we become worthy of friendship with him.
Of course, there are limits to this equality! Christ has been and will be the sinless child of God. We will still worship him and know that he, and only he, has been perfect among all humanity. In His resurrected capacity, He will still come to judge us. We will still seek to obey his commandments (although they are very few and very simple, compared to the laws of Moses).
But he told us to consider him a friend; and if he said to do it, we should do it! If you believe in him, Jesus is your friend. He could not be a better friend, because you could not hope for a better friend than one who willingly died to save you.
Still, our relationship to God was changed in this moment. We need not always prostrate ourselves and look upon God as our master, for he himself has told us to consider him a friend. We can talk to him as well as pray to him. We can go to him at any time and knock on his door. He even tells us that he isn‘t friends with everybody; he has chosen his friends.
Meditation : . Prayer : Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that you direct my way unto you, and make me and all of us to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you; to the end that we may establish our hearts unblameable in holiness before you, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.,....Amen |
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