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Isaiah 29:13

So the Lord said, “These people draw near to Me and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me, and they worship Me in vain, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men.”

Personal Challenge…

Oh, how easy it is to slip into the mode of preaching and teaching about Christ and what we should be doing as His followers and yet not practice what we are saying in our own hearts and lives. God judges my heart and He knows what the truth is within me. This is why it is so important for me to worry about my own life in Christ and not about everyone else’s. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!

Isaiah 28:16

therefore, thus says the Lord: “Behold, I lay for the foundations of Zion a costly stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone for its foundations, and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.”

Encouraging Words

From the beginning of eternity, God had chosen His Son to be the cornerstone that humanity would be built upn in order for us to be in relationship with Himself. Man was created through Christ in His image and likeness. Then after man exercised his free will and fell from the presence of God. Christ was once again built upon through the law and the prohets to teach us of our need for a Redeemer. Finally after the law and the prophets were rejected, once again Christ became the cornerstone through His incarnation, death, burial, and resurection. He once and for all laid Himself down to be the cornerstone for our eternal relationship with God. Glory be to Him!

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Encouraging Words

What is time to the one Who is eternal? What is lovew in relationship to time? God, our creator, our sustainer, the lover of mankind, desires so much for us to be in relationship with Him that He suffers long waiting for us to turn to Him in repentance and become His child. Am I not asked to love others this way as well, so that they might experience the love of God?

1 John 5:10-12

Proverbs 12:1

He who loves instruction loves perception,
But he who hates correction is without discernment.

Personal Challenge

Why is it so difficult to take correction or instruction from another? For me, I believe it all boils down to pride. I want to be right. I want to believe that I know what is best for me and others. This, however, is as sinful and unrepentant attitude. For what is at the root of true repentance? Hearing correction, accepting it, and then changing my behavior. Oh, how many times have I hurt those around me by not practicing this teaching and being a lover of instruction. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!

Mark 8:34-35

When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.

Personal Challenge

How is it that we are told that a Christian life is one of joy, peace, and love and yet we are commanded to take up the cross of Christ and live our lives as living sacrifices for Him? This is one of the great mysteries of God. If I fully give my life over to Christ then my life will become a life of servitude and submission to Him and to those whom I am called to love, which is everyone. This is the life in the physical, temporal realm that I live in this body. And yes, at times it will be tiring, it will be painful, it will be draining. However, this life is also being lived in the spiritual realm and it is here that God fills my life with joy in doing His work, with peace knowing that I am pleasing Him and drawing closer to Him, and love that He is pouring into me, abundant enough that it overflows through me to those around me that I am called to love. Thank You, Lord Jesus!

Romans 2:1

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.

Personal Challenge

If I judge another person for what they do, or say, or look like, or represent, or whatever, am I not putting myself in the place of God and then becoming self-righteous? Is this not just a grievous a sin as what I am judging? As a child of God, one of the commandments that I am to follow is to love my neighbor. Can I truly love them and judge them at the same time? No! Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

Encouraging Words

I have a hope! We, the members of the Church, have a hope! A hope that just as God rose Jesus from the dead, triumphant over death once and for all, He will raise those who die in Christ from the dead as well. This is not a hollow hope, for Christ has already gone before us in his resurrection. Glory be to God!

Proverbs 11:9 (11:10 LXX)

A man in need of discernment treats citizens with contempt,
But a man of discernment keeps quiet.

Personal Challenge

What a valuable life lesson to remember. My tongue can get me into trouble more often than anything else in my life. It is this kind of godly discernment that I desire from my Lord so that when I speak, and the words I speak, are His words and timing, not mine. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!