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For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.Eph 2:9 |
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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. Thursday, April 25, 2024
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :The Wages of Sin Bible Verse:Romans 6:20-23 (ESV) "For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" Message:
We discussed Paul’s use of the “slave” imagery previously, but it bears repeating. Quotes about Christians being “slaves of God” are sometimes cited out of context, without Paul’s caveat that his slavery metaphor is not to be taken literally. In ancient Rome, slavery was widespread, often voluntary, and without the baleful overtones it has in the modern world. Many of Paul’s Roman audience would have been slaves. Paul, in fact, speaks of wages, something we associate with employment, not slavery.
As he says, he uses it to try to find a human relationship that might make his words more understandable, but the metaphor does not work as well in the modern world—where we think of the antebellum south when we hear the word—as in the ancient. We are never God’s slaves, in the sense of coerced laborers, for we serve Him willingly. Neither the God of the Old Testament, nor Christ, nor Paul seeks to rob us of our humanity. Christ simply gave us a free ticket home; he put a pair of ruby slippers on our feet, and all He asks us to do is to believe. We don’t even need to click our heels together.
praise God children
But we do need to make a change, and that change is not to give ourselves into slavery. It is more like quitting a job, when we discover that our wages are illusory in value and will result in death, and getting a new one where the wages are goodness and life. Even better, our new boss loves us. As long as we show up, he will never fire us or punish us. His forgiveness of error is limitless, as long as we believe.
Paul asks us, “what fruit were you getting?” If you have sex with your neighbor’s spouse, where does it get you? What is a billion dollars earned by sin worth to a dead man? If you spend your time in covetous rapture over a shiny new Mercedes, what does it profit you? It is a four-wheeled trap, to keep your mind occupied by an illusion of greatness, while the truth goes unseen; it is like a shiny fishing lure that a brainless fish mistakes for real food.
There is nothing to say we shouldn’t enjoy the pleasures of life, but we cannot let them fool us. If they become more important to us than goodness and truth, we will forsake what we know to be right and be willing to sin to get them. We will one day be ashamed of them. Our only pride in our past is to say that we loved God and tried to do his will, for the wages of faith are eternal and life-giving.
Meditation : Prayer : I dedicate this day to you, mighty God. I pray that your Spirit will lift me up this day, and that your face may shine upon me all the day long, that I might do your will and lead a new life in Christ, reborn in the Spirit........Amen |
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