Wednesday, October 29, 2014

ALL OF GRACE - Devotional Thought For The Day

ALL OF GRACE (Devotional Thought For The Day)
Theodore H Epp

EPHESIANS 2:1-10:
God dealt in judgment at Babel when He scattered the people and confused their language, but God dealt in mercy and grace as He called Abraham. Abraham did not receive God's call because he merited God's esteem. Rather, in God's foreknowledge He knew Abraham and chose him for a special purpose. God's election must always be traced to God's will and purpose. It is all of grace, for it is by God's sovereign choice.

Theodore H Epp
(Founder Back to the Bible)
It is the same with our salvation. If it were not for God's grace, we would be doomed to an eternity in hell. But notice what God has done because of His grace: "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:4-6). God did not do this for us because we merited it—it was while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us. It is important that we realize that our salvation is all of grace.

Abraham was not chosen because he was a special kind of person nor because he had a high 10 nor because he had great faith. It was totally of the grace of God that He called Abraham out of idolatry, and it is only of the grace of God that we have been called out to salvation.


But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound (Rom. 5:20). 

Source: 
Back to the Bible Intl.

Monday, October 27, 2014

A Heart Problem

A Heart Problem
(Does your day begin with God?)

by  Warren W. Wiersbe
(Present Bible Teacher Back to the Bible)

Picture Credit: simplyjuliana.com
It’s imperative for us to meet God in the morning if we want to have a good day.  Jesus got up early in the morning to pray, according to Mark 1:35.  Here we find the psalmist saying, “My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up” (v.3).

When I used to work in the night shift, I would sleep in the morning.  So when I got up in the afternoon, I would meet with the Lord.  Meeting with God is not an appointment on a clock but an appointment in your heart.  Does God hear your voice in the morning?  When He looks on you at the beginning of your day, does He look on you as a priest who has come to offer Him sacrifices of praise?  That’s what direct means (v.3)—“to order my prayer.”  It means to arrange the sacrifice on the altar.

When you wake up in the morning, remind yourself that you are one of God’s priests.  How did you become a priest?  Through faith in Jesus Christ.  “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father” (Rev. 1:5,6).  You’re one of God’s priests.  That means wherever you are is God’s temple, because your body is His temple.

The first thing we do in the morning is the first thing the high priest used to do every morning.  He laid the burnt offering on the altar.  The burnt offering is a picture of total dedication to God.  If you want to have a good day, start by giving yourself to the Lord as a burnt offering, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God (Rom. 12:1).  A good day begins in the morning, and it begins at the altar.

 Warren W. Wiersbe with his wife Betty
Does your day begin with God?  If not, decide to start each morning by dedicating yourself to Him as a living sacrifice and ask His guidance for the day’s decisions and actions.  He wants to direct your life.  So view each day as a gift from God and determine to be a good steward of the day’s resources.  Make your time with Him a daily appointment.

Source: 
Confident Living Magazine, Secunderabad
Back to the Bible Intl. Lincoln, Nebraska.



                                                                                                      



Thursday, October 23, 2014