Thursday January 26, 2017
“The God who plans”
And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of
sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed – Romans 13:11
The Plan of Grace
The Plan of God
As we continue our study on the Christian life, we come to this rather “foreign”
idea of “planning” or plans, to Pacific Islanders. Of course, I’m being “cheeky”
(as you Aussies and Kiwis would say) or “tongue-in-cheek” as we say here in the
States. But really, would you agree that we don’t plan? And the sure plan would
be that we would “wing” it. Impromptu, extemporaneous etc. whatever expression
we use, we islanders are very comfortable with “going with the flow.”
However, our God has a plan and a purpose for everything. And His plan
for the lives of His children has a fix point. In order to fully appreciate
what God has done for us in Christ, we must look at His “Saving Plan.” We will
learn the key words and doctrines such as Justification, Regeneration and Sanctification
etc. and how they relate to each other.
This procedure has its dangers, the most obvious being that once we have
established an understanding of God’s grace and its pattern in our lives, we may mistake that for the experience of
God’s grace. But there is a world of
difference between knowledge of the truth in this systematic sense and a personal experience of its
powers. There is also the danger that we will want to fit everything into a
pattern when Scripture may not provide us with sufficient information to do so.
But, on the other hand, there are many benefits to be gained by such an
exercise. One major blessing is that it
offers us a divine perspective on our lives. It lifts our eyes up from our
own small measures of the experience of God’s grace to show us the largeness of
the purposes he cherishes.
Challenge: the next
time you see a homeless person or a beggar, ask yourself if you would trade
places with him? Praise God that Jesus did just that.. he trade places with us.
What an unfair trade! But it happened. And we are the beneficiary of this great
exchange.
This Day in Christian History:
Jan 26, 1800 – birth date of John Oncken (Varel, Germany),
founder of the Baptist church in Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Holland, Hungary,
Poland, Russia, and Switzerland.
Memory Verse: (Sun Jan 22)
Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to
withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand – Ephesians 6:13
Ko ia, mou to‘o ‘a e mahafu kotoa ‘a e ‘Otua, koe‘uhi ke mou lava ke
talitu‘u ‘i he ‘aho ‘o e fai mai ‘a e kovi; pea kuo lava kotoa pē kae tu‘u pē
– ‘Efeso 6:13
Bible Reading Plan: (52 weeks; 5 days a week)
Week 4 – Gen 49-50; Gal 4
No comments:
Post a Comment