Wednesday January 18, 2017
“Restored to Perfection”
1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we
should be called children of God! Therefore, the world does not know
us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it
has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is
revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And
everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1 John
3:1-3)
God’s Broken Image
Salvation
The glory of the gospel meets us at our point of need and comes to us in
our sin to undo and restore the broken image of God in us. And as our verse for
today reminds us in this rhetorical question, “what manner of love?” NOTHING OF THE KIND!!!
Perhaps the most wonderful thing of
all this: God lifts us not only from what we are by nature to what Adam
was in the garden of Eden, but to what Adam was to become in the presence
of God, and would have been had he persevered in obedience. The gospel
does not make us like Adam in his innocence – it makes us like Christ, in
all the perfection of his reflection of God. This is the essence of the
salvation Christ provides…
I was going to continue on to the “How”
of the salvation provided by Christ, but decided to end here for today. My
intention for putting this devotional together and exposing you (and me) to the
basics of our Christian faith, is not to load you with “stats” and facts but to
make us more aware of the “grand” design of God’s wonderful plan for us and
allow His Spirit and His Word to lead us to worship Him.
Challenge: Re-read our
text and the paragraph above and enter into worship as you meditate on the
magnificence of God and the despicable state of our sin and how He initiated
contact with us and performed it Himself for His own glory! Hallelujah!
This Day in Christian History:
Jan 18, 1678 – date of the execution of James Mitchell in Edinburgh. James
Mitchell was part preacher and part assassin. He was a Scottish Presbyterian
who stood up against the powerful church establishment – Anglo-Catholic system.
Memory Verse: (Sun Jan 15)
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of
His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren – Romans 8:29
He ko kinautolu na‘a ne toka mea‘i, na‘a ne toka tu‘utu‘uni foki ke nau
hokosi ‘a e ‘īmisi ‘o hono ‘Alo; koe‘uhi ke ne ta‘okete ki he tehina tokolahi – Loma 8:29
Bible Reading Plan: (52 weeks; 5 days a week)
Week 3 – Gen 35-37; Psalm
12; Mark 14
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