Devotional Guide
For the week of April 18, 2004
LOVING OTHERS
Every day-"What is your will?"
To Read: Numbers 1-3
To Know:
"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work
or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going" (Ecc/.
9:10)
Who believes in Jesus Christ and is not in full-time Christian service? When
Christ first found me, the expression "Full-time Christian service" was
coded language for ministers and missionaries. By singling out ministers and
missionaries as those in full-time Christian service, the message is sent
that Christians in other career fields have a part-time faith. It weakens
Christians when they think that buying groceries, painting a wall, driving a
car, earning a salary, investing a dollar, raising a child, eating a meal,
taking a trip, chatting with a friend, praying, pondering truth, or praising
God always and for everything can be divorced from faith in Jesus Christ.
Holiness is wholeheartedness. A holy life is lived in the work-a-day world.
Christianity is Christ and not churchgoing. It is not piety. It is not
religion. Christianity is, ".Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Col. 1:27)
When Moses came away from meeting with God his face glowed. The glory of God
shone in the face of the man divinely chosen to mediate his presence to his
people. Moses needed to veil his glory because the people he led were
hard-hearted. Christians are those whose hearts of stone have been replaced
with hearts of flesh. We who see the glory of God in the face of Christ
(i.e. understand his word), are to show forth his glory by living our daily
lives in obedience to his will.
To Do:
Let's begin every day by asking, "What is your will?"
To Ask:
Father, thank you for the gift of faith. Thank you for giving me your Holy
Spirit. Thank you for uniting me to your only begotten Son. Thank you for
befriending me. Strengthen me to live in conformity to your own holiness.
04214$-04214
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