I was excited to receive two of my devotionals on Jesus in the mail today! The first is on the Parables of Jesus:
The second is on the Passion of Jesus:
As an excerpt, here's one of the paragraphs from the first week of Parables
"Good soil yields good fruit. It is tempting in our current climate to interpret this growth as getting more and more people to come to our churches. Certainly the New Testament at times models this sort of numerical growth. At other times, faithfulness only brings opposition and suffering. In the end, the kind of fruit that Jesus is most interested in has more to do with the fruit of righteousness. It is a fruit that does no wrong to others (see Matt. 3:8) and helps those who are in need (see Matt. 25:31-46). It is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). When we yield this kind of fruit in our lives, others are drawn to Christ (Matt. 5:16)."
These devotionals are in a new format, 6 x 4, I would say, almost pocket sized. My wife Angie saw how nicely sized they were and exclaimed, "I might actually read that one." :-)
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3 comments:
I bought them because your words are similar to the words that came to me in my sleep today.
(I am embarrassed to admit that, but there is a reason that when someone asks me a spiritual question I often look perplexed and say, “Let me sleep on that and get back to you.” Due to my history of rebellion and strength of human will, Jesus lovingly disciplines me into understanding that any good that comes out of me comes directly from His Spirit and has nothing to do with my conscious self!)
This explanation came to me in my sleep today:
Our behavior is a reflection of our maturity in Christ, not our identity in Christ. Our identity is unseen and written on the palm of His hand, in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Our behavior is what the world sees and measures, to judge how close we are in relationship to God.
So, although we are neither saved nor sanctified by our words or deeds, it is important for each person to claim one’s identity in Christ early. For when we claim our identity in Christ we are then empowered by the Spirit living in us to step into Christ and walk away from our residual sin nature. The result of our stepping into and walking away from is that we are enabled by Him to respond to the world in His holy and loving ways.
When we claim our identity in Christ, we are empowered by Him to love Him above all else and love people as ourselves: we are enabled to love sacrificially, as He first loved us.
“A new command I give you: ‘Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.’ By this all men will know that you are my disciples; if you love one another.”
I hope God speaks to you as your read. You know, our minds and thus perhaps our spirits keep working after we go to sleep. :-)
Pray that He speaks to me as I read, and maybe He will ("For where two or more are gathered in my name..."). :-)
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