Ephesians 1:4-5
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.
Chosen and Adopted
Yesterday we learned that God designed you as a wonderful and unique person for a job that only you can do. He could do that because he knew his plan for you before he had even created the world. The scripture above makes it very clear that you are not an accident. He had your life all mapped out way before you were born. One vital stop on the highway of your life is the day you become his adopted child by accepting his offer to forgive your sins and save you for all eternity.
The word “predestined” means that God planned everything out and made sure you got saved so you could be his daughter or son. I never quite understood this concept until I learned what God did for my friend Margaret. I met Margaret at a Christian homeless shelter. She had suffered some of the worst tragedies we could imagine. She had been terribly abused as a child. As a teenager she used drugs and alcohol. After she was grown, she spent years and years living in poverty and unhappy relationships until she finally lost everything. She went to the shelter so she wouldn’t have to live in her car.
Soon after she arrived, Margaret accepted Jesus as her Savior. She immediately enrolled in the yearlong disciples’ Bible study program. In time, she shared her story. One day, it dawned on me that nearly every one of the women in the class had gone to church and read the Bible as children. They knew about Jesus and often prayed to him when things went wrong. God worked behind the scenes to move them here and there. He kept them alive until they came to the shelter and heard about Jesus.
Fortunately, God’s plan for most of us doesn’t include what Margaret suffered. Instead, he gave us Christian parents who love us dearly and tell us about Jesus from the time we’re born. They take us to church and share the plan of salvation with us. And one day, it all makes sense and we pray to receive Jesus as Savior. We ask him to forgive us for all the bad, mean, dishonest things we’ve done. He gives us a new heart and makes us pure enough to go to heaven when we die. At the very moment we ask him to save us, we are adopted into God’s family—all according to plan, right on time, and without fail.
Today’s Prayer:
Dear Lord, thank you for planning for my salvation. Thank you that before I was even born, you knew you would adopt me into your family. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to hear about Jesus and the faith to accept him as my savior. Please help me be a good son/daughter to you, one that will make you proud. Amen.
Written by Martha E Menne, Flagstaff AZ
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
Amazing Love
Amazing Love
1 John 4:10
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
God is Love
Another really important attribute of God is His love. No human being can love us as much as God does. His love for us reaches to the farthest corner of the universe. We can't begin to imagine how great it is. We can understand it in only one way. We have to think about how much love it took for God to have Jesus die for our sins on the cross.
God’s love for us goes way beyond the natural love a good father has for his children. The fact is, God loves us even when we are rebelling against every one of his commands. Every person who has been born since Adam sinned has inherited a sin nature that makes sin more attractive to him or her than goodness. You can observe this fact in action next time you hang out with your friends. Are you ever called names because you won’t do something good or right? Not likely. But, friends and classmates will tease you and call you names for not joining them in an activity that is wrong or hurtful. It’s way harder to do the right thing than it is to follow the crowd into sin.
Because of our natural attraction to sin, we are not God’s friends, but his enemies. However, he loved us so much that he sacrificed, not his own life, but the life of his son. That is way harder. Paul puts it this way in Romans 5:7-8. “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
God loved us so much that he sent Jesus to die for our sins. Every once in a while I hear a story about a father who jumps into Lake Powell to save his child who has fallen into the water. Sometimes the father is successful. Other times he's not. Sometimes, someone else in the boat rescues the child, but the father dies. I am always amazed at how much a father will sacrifice for his child.
If God loves us so much that he gave his only son to save us, he will absolutely care for us in every possible way. He will make sure we have what we need to grow and mature, both physically and spiritually. He will keep us safe. He will never let anything come into our lives that would hurt us in our relationship with him.
The fact of God’s love makes it possible for us to have peace even when things aren’t going like we want them to. God is all-powerful and he loves us perfectly and without any expectations. He never allows us to suffer unless it fulfills a part of His great plan for our lives. He uses both the good and bad things of our lives to make us mature and spiritually beautiful. What a treasure we have in the promise God gave us in John 3:16! “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Today’s Prayer:
Loving Father God, I surely am glad that I don’t have to earn your love by being good. I’d never make it. Thank you for loving me just the way I am. Thank you, too, for using everything in my life to make me more like Jesus. Most of all, thank you for giving Jesus to die for me so I could know you and live with you forever.
Written by Martha E Menne, Flagstaff Arizona
1 John 4:10
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
God is Love
Another really important attribute of God is His love. No human being can love us as much as God does. His love for us reaches to the farthest corner of the universe. We can't begin to imagine how great it is. We can understand it in only one way. We have to think about how much love it took for God to have Jesus die for our sins on the cross.
God’s love for us goes way beyond the natural love a good father has for his children. The fact is, God loves us even when we are rebelling against every one of his commands. Every person who has been born since Adam sinned has inherited a sin nature that makes sin more attractive to him or her than goodness. You can observe this fact in action next time you hang out with your friends. Are you ever called names because you won’t do something good or right? Not likely. But, friends and classmates will tease you and call you names for not joining them in an activity that is wrong or hurtful. It’s way harder to do the right thing than it is to follow the crowd into sin.
Because of our natural attraction to sin, we are not God’s friends, but his enemies. However, he loved us so much that he sacrificed, not his own life, but the life of his son. That is way harder. Paul puts it this way in Romans 5:7-8. “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
God loved us so much that he sent Jesus to die for our sins. Every once in a while I hear a story about a father who jumps into Lake Powell to save his child who has fallen into the water. Sometimes the father is successful. Other times he's not. Sometimes, someone else in the boat rescues the child, but the father dies. I am always amazed at how much a father will sacrifice for his child.
If God loves us so much that he gave his only son to save us, he will absolutely care for us in every possible way. He will make sure we have what we need to grow and mature, both physically and spiritually. He will keep us safe. He will never let anything come into our lives that would hurt us in our relationship with him.
The fact of God’s love makes it possible for us to have peace even when things aren’t going like we want them to. God is all-powerful and he loves us perfectly and without any expectations. He never allows us to suffer unless it fulfills a part of His great plan for our lives. He uses both the good and bad things of our lives to make us mature and spiritually beautiful. What a treasure we have in the promise God gave us in John 3:16! “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Today’s Prayer:
Loving Father God, I surely am glad that I don’t have to earn your love by being good. I’d never make it. Thank you for loving me just the way I am. Thank you, too, for using everything in my life to make me more like Jesus. Most of all, thank you for giving Jesus to die for me so I could know you and live with you forever.
Written by Martha E Menne, Flagstaff Arizona
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