Thursday Devotional - Faith and Righteousness

Did any of you take AP (advanced placement) classes in high school and then get college credit for it? You didn’t have to take or pay for the class in college, but were given the credits as if you had!

With God’s righteousness, we won’t ever meet His standards. However, for those who place their faith in His work on their behalf, He credits with Christ’s righteousness. He treats us as if we were righteous and have met His standards.

Romans 4:1-8     What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? ² If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. ³ What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

⁴ Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. ⁵ However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. ⁶ David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

⁷ “Blessed are those
    whose transgressions are forgiven,
    whose sins are covered.
⁸ Blessed is the one
    whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”

For believers, our sin is treated as if the punishment has been paid. We didn’t pay for it, but Jesus did on our behalf. He paid our punishment and we get His righteousness!!! Fair, huh?! No. What love, grace and mercy!!!

Alice

Love, Love, Love!

Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate?  Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.  Philippians 2:1-5

It’s St. Valentine’s Day, and of course, love is in the air.  One might think it is stating the obvious that I would write about the topic of love.  Well, there were many topics that I thought of writing about.  I thought about how humble it is to be . . . loved by God.  Then I thought about how my wonderful wife is such a shining example of . . . God’s love for me.  Then I reminded myself that I must be true to God’s word because . . . I love Him.  And to be funny, God decided to instill one of my favorite Beatles song in my head, “All You Need Is Love.”  No matter how I tried to get around it, I found myself back at love.  So here I am choosing to talk about the obvious: love.  What could I possibly say about love that is not already known?  Nothing really, but I can remind us of what God’s love is all about.  It is a gift to be given much like the candy boxes and red roses today.  It is not shallow or something you say in passing.  It is a feeling that can be overwhelming and the greatest you can ever experience.  So today, I want to share this reminder on Valentine’s Day.  Love is a verb.  Not a noun.

Godly love is an attitude that goes beyond just the words.  Someone once told me that they loved me because God commands us to love each other as we love ourselves.  I agreed that is true, but that is not what Godly love is.  Today’s verses give insight as to what Godly love truly is.  You cannot have love for your brother or sister unless you know them.  Yes, you can love people, but God did not intend for us to love others like a check mark on our ‘Being A Good Christian’ checklist.  Godly love forces us to do better.  It requires an attitude that says, “I will love on someone today as if they are my brother or sister.”  Now I am not going to hug strangers as if they are my oldest brother.  I will, however, make a deliberate and sincere effort to get to know them.  We must learn to dig beyond just the surface and get to know people beyond just a simple hello.  Godly love requires that we be involved in the discussion, and share in others’ successes and failures.  It is not easy, but since when did anything worthwhile ever become easy?  Now before someone says there are some things that comes easy to them that they enjoy, I would then say God expects much more of you.  Godly love is in a way is like spiritual growth.  It stretches beyond the boundaries of what we ourselves normally could reach, and expands our ability to be more like Christ.

We should always be encouraged by the love Jesus Christ has for us.  Whether you have a significant other to celebrate today with or not, know that He said, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13)  Jesus calls us friend even as we are not always His.   That’s special and should be celebrated on a day like today.  So let us make an effort to truly love others as He, who sacrificed His life, first showed love for us.  Who can you show greater love to?  How will you commit to displaying more Godly love to others?  My prayer is that we embrace the spirit of today, and from a more Godly (and Beatles) perspective, be all about love, love, love!  Amen!

Tues Devo: Just a little bit

Matthew 16:1-6 “The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away. And the disciples came to the other side of the sea, but they had forgotten to bring any bread. And Jesus said to them, ‘Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’” (NASB)

Hello,

I was reading through Matthew 16 this weekend, and had trouble paying attention to the end of the chapter after reading verse 6. Jesus is with His disciples after 2 events: 1) feeding over 4,000 people with seven loaves of fish and a few small fish (chapter 5) and 2) being tested here in the first bit of chapter 6 by the religious leaders.

Coming from the miraculous work with bread, a leaven comment is not out of place.

Leaven, or yeast as the modern day equivalent, is a strong ingredient. It doesn’t take much, and it spreads through the dough to have it rise. Without the leaven, the bread dough doesn’t change as much as with the leaven. But notice that the comment wasn’t directed at having an absence of leaven, but rather which leaven we are folding in.

It doesn’t take much mis-aligned teaching to sway and impact our choices – we have to watch and be careful of our sources. I think we see this a lot today from a culture perspective. We allow a cultural or political opinion (left or right – either direction) to start to drive our view of God and Scripture. We need to really put a guard up for our sources of influence, and vet them against Scripture – not our feelings or opinions.

Have a blessed day,

Will Hill