Today’s reading is Acts 5: 17-42 One of the common refrains that we see in Acts is the suffering of the early church. They were doing the right thing, proclaiming Jesus, and they suffered greatly for it. But what was their … Continue reading
I love reading the Bible and seeing a certain phrase or concept just sort of jump out at you.
That’s what happened to me today in reading Isaiah 1:16-18. Listen to what it says:
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
I was reading and I got the part that always encourages me, verse 18, about the forgiveness of sins offered to us by God. And that’s always good stuff. Good to ready, good to remember. That always motivates me and fires me up.
But the part that stuck out to me was verse 17. Where it says this.
“Learn to do good.” I like that. Learn to do go. Learn good. Work on it. Get better at it.
We aren’t just magically going to do right. We are going to fall. We are going to make mistakes. We are going to mess up. It’s going to happen. To me. To you. That’s human life.
Daily, each day, each moment, learn to do go. Work on it. Keep trying. Keep working. Keep being faithful.
You can do it! God loves you. God has forgiven you. Through His blood, you are redeemed, you are restored.
Learn to do good. Be faithful. As I like to say – pray, read your Bible, and go to church.
Learn.
When you fall down, get up. Today is a new day. Live it fully.
Today, you are forgiven. Today, work on being faithful. Live in His love.
And learn to good. May the God of mercy fill us with His grace, that we may be faithful today, and each day!
Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.
One of the questions that I am as a pastor is asked, and one of the questions that we are Christians can think through is this?
What does it take to be a Christian? How does one start? Where does one start?
But then from there, what does the Christian life look like? So, we say that we are a Christian, what should that Christian life look like?
We see today in Ephesians 2:8-10, Paul talk about this.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
He says this about the start of salvation – we are saved by grace through faith. This is not by our own doing, by anything that we can possible do.
We don’t earn our salvation. Our salvation is not about us “doing” anything right. We can’t earn it.
We simply by grace through faith accept it. God has done a great work in Christ Jesus. And that belief in faith in Jesus brings forth salvation. And new life.
Ok, so we are saved by grace through faith. Then what? What is the Christian life look like?
We see it next – we are created in Christ for good works, that are prepared for us.
So salvation starts with faith, and then that faith leads us to faithfulness.
We don’t earn it. It’s a gift.
And that gift changes us. That gift of faith changes our lives our heart our plans our hopes.
So today, know that this gift is yours. It’s God’s gift to you through faith. We don’t need to spend our life trying to earn it, we just need to accept it.
You are loved. Really. You are. Accept it. Let that love and salvation sink in.
And let that grace sink in. And let it change you. Be faithful in the faith that Jesus has given you.
We are saved by grace. But that grace changes us. Today, live in faith.
And let that lead you to faithfulness.
Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.
Each day is full of choices. There is nothing unique about that.
That’s the way that’s it’s always been.
In the Garden, Adam and Eve had a choice to make about eating the fruit. They chose to disregard what God had commanded, and they ate the fruit.
Noah had a choice to listen to the voice of God and start building the ark, even when his neighbors probably through he was off his rocker.
Peter and the other disciples had a choice to make when Jesus told them to “Follow Me.” The chose to follow.
The rich younger chose not to follow.
Choices are all throughout scripture. Choices run all throughout our lives. We have choices to make. We have choices to make today. Listen to the words of Joshua:
And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Today, we have a choice to make. Who will we serve? Will we serve and seek after God? Or will we serve and seek after what the culture tells us we should be about?
Will we choose to be faithful? We will choose to disobey?
Will we choose to follow God’s path? Or will we choose to follow our own?
We will choose to listen to God’s voice? Or will we choose to listen to the voice of the evil one?
Today, I have choices, you have choices. I can’t make your choices for you, you cannot make my choices for me. We each have choices to make today.
What will we choose? Will we choose to serve and follow God? Or will we choose to disobey?
Today, the choice is ours.
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