Verse of the Day 2/24

Through the Bible - Exodus 19-20, 1 Thessalonians 5

 

Good morning,

What was the process that you went through to become who you are?  Perhaps, for most of it, it involved going to college, declaring a major, getting your degree, your diploma then obtaining a job in that field.

 

You may have started college before declaring a major, but you must have a major in order to graduate in that field.  The degree may have qualified you to be a doctor, lawyer, manager, nurse or any number of professions.  But when did you become one?  It was when you went out, found a job and put your training into practice.  When you lived it.

 

As Christians, we don't carry a diploma around with us or have one posted on our walls.  We don't carry a letter or recommendation to show others.  Our lives are to show our training, to reveal who we are and whose we are.

We can't just declare ourselves to be Christians.  We are to live what we profess, what we declare.  We are not the same person who we were before.  We have been transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:1-2) and are continually being formed into who we were made to be.

 

Rom 12:5-6  So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.  The Message

 

As it is in the secular world, once we received our diploma or our letters of recommendation, our training doesn't stop there.  We learn and grow as we practice and immerse ourselves in our profession.

 

John Piper writes, "Is it not plain therefore that there is one great task of the Christian life: Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. We need new hearts and new minds. Make the tree good and the fruit will be good (Matthew 12:33). That's the great challenge. That is what God calls you to. You can't do it on your own. You need Christ, who died for your sins. And you need the Holy Spirit to lead you into Christ-exalting truth and work in you truth-embracing humility.  Give yourself to this. Immerse yourself in the written Word of God; saturate your mind with it. And pray that the Spirit of Christ would make you so new that the spillover would be good, acceptable, and perfect—the will of God." http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/what-is-the-will-of-god-and-how-do-we-know-it

Study God's Word, pray and follow His leading that the "spillover" would be the will of God.

 

2 Cor 3:2-4  Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it — not with ink, but with God's living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives — and we publish it.

The Message

 

In Christ,
Mike
mikevw@bellsouth.net
http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com
Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace  NIV
Rom 12:1-9

 

A Living Sacrifice to God

 

12 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

 

3 Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don't think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. 4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5 so it is with Christ's body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.

 

6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

 

9 Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.