Archive of Daily Bible Lessons |
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God's Grace -- Manifested in YOU - grace for holy living | |
God's Power -- Manifested in YOU - power for holy living | |
The Abundant Power of God - power for holy living | |
God's Law Written on Your Heart - Law VERSUS Grace | |
There were no Bible lessons on May 15 & 16, 2004 | |
The Letter versus the Spirit - Law VERSUS Grace | |
"I Felt Her Infirmities" by marc weinstein - a gut-wrenching testimonial about sickness & suffering |
And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant. (2 Corinthians 3:4-6) |
You have been studying about four characteristics that God is developing in your life by His grace...
These characteristics will grow within you to the extent that you humbly trust in God, and not in yourself. "And we have such trust through Christ toward God."
As a *new covenant servant* you live by the grace of God. Consequently, your sufficiency is what the Lord Himself supplies! This is precisely what God promised of old through His prophets. "I will make a new covenant . . . I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts." (Jeremiah 31:31, 33) God inscribes these spiritual traits upon your heart and mind by His grace. The result is that these characteristics of godliness WILL develop in your life. For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, |
O Holy Father, I long to grow in the knowledge, and love, and grace of my Lord Jesus. I am not sufficient to produce these characteristics by my resources. My greatest hope is to be changed by You from the inside out. I humbly bow before You. With confidence in You, I ask that You unleash Your grace upon my heart and mind, as I seek You in Your word. Through Christ my Lord, I pray, Amen. |
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God . . . We have no confidence in the flesh . . . I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (2 Corinthians 3:5-6; Philippians 3:3; 4:13) |
You have been studying about the ways whereby God's grace develops traits of godliness in your life. Now you need to consider a very key question: HOW does God expect you to find the spiritual power that you need to live a godly life in this sinful world? The Bible answers this question in a two-fold manner.
As you strive to live in a godly manner, be aware that God does not require you to go it alone.
The fact that God's powerful assistance is available to you is the second matter that He wants to teach you. "Your sufficiency is from God."
{ God says: } |
Holy Father, You and You alone are my sufficiency. Help me always to remember what your Bible has taught me today. I want to grow in Jesus, and to be all that You want me to be, but I need help -- Your help, Father. Please teach me to plug in to Your power for everything I need for godly living, in Jesus name, Amen. |
You are manifestly an epistle of Christ . . . written . . . not on
tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. (2 Corinthians 3:3) |
The old covenant of law was written upon "tablets of stone." God's new covenant of grace is written upon "tablets . . . of the heart." This is a BIG difference between the old and new covenants.
The law's message is magnificent. In terms of attaining holiness, however, the law-giver {God} intentionally limited the law's utility. Consequently, the law has no saving power for obtaining eternal life.
God wrote the new covenant message of His grace upon your heart: "on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart."
Now that you are a believer in Christ, God has written His law of holiness upon the *tablet of your heart*.
Beloved, now we are children of God. |
O Holy Father, thank You for bringing Your holy will inside of my life, thereby providing me with Your power to live holy, and grow in godliness. Lord, I look to You to transform me from the inside out, in Jesus name, Amen. |
God also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. (Second Corinthians 3:6) |
Today's Bible verse makes a sharp distinction between "the letter" VERSUS "the Spirit"...
You did not become a child of God by rules. Instead, you were begotten into God's family by the power of God Himself: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." (First Peter 1.3) You cannot develop your life as God's child by regulations.
Consider circumcision, which is required by the law of God for the Jews. "And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised." (Leviticus 12:3) Circumcision has somewhat the same function as a wedding ring.
Obeying the law of circumcision doesn't change a person's life.
The kingdom of heaven is "of the Spirit." It is not about external "do's and dont's" (such as, whether to follow the standard of God's law concerning certain foods). "For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Romans 14:17) Your standing as God's child does not hinge on following various regulations. Rather, it is about the Holy Spirit supplying you with all that is needed to ensure that you SHALL be: "...kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." (First Peter 1.5) Your life with God is always "of the Spirit " (God's sufficiency), not "of the letter" (your sufficiency). |
Father, I admit a tendency to reduce life with You to following regulations. Help me to live by the work of Your Spirit within my heart. Through Christ I pray, Amen. |
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses." (Matthew 8.17) |
This evening, I experienced just a morsel of how God feels when
He endures the pain of our infirmities. I called my wife, Janette, in the Philippines. We were divorced in 1998
after 8 We glibly say; “I understand how you feel” or “I feel your pain” but no one can ever truly say that unless they have had the same identical experience or illness. But to read of God’s feeling our infirmities, we often wonder how can this be? How can an omnipresent God feel our individual pain? We cannot fathom that in our human minds, let alone our spirits. But I realized tonight that, because God loved His creation so much, He humbled Himself and became human flesh and took all the pain upon Himself -- not only the pain for our sins, but also the pain of what it’s like to be human. And when we pray, at times we can hardly utter adequate words to express the feelings of our infirmities. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities* *infirmities -- feebleness of body or mind |
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