| Topic: |
Religions > Bible |
| User: |
"rhuff163" |
| Date: |
02 Aug 2005 11:02:40 PM |
| Object: |
How faith is a personal transaction |
Devotional Guide
For the week of July 31, 2005
GOD'S GRACE
How faith is a personal transaction
To Read: 1 Samuel 13-15
To Know:
"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our
iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his
stripes we are healed." (Is.53: 5)
Our high school football team had hardly any substitutes. We were a small
town school and very few boys were able to play at the varsity level. The
subs could be counted on one hand. Substitutes were vital. Only our
substitutes could give us rest or replace an injured starter. It is obvious
that when a substitute was in the game the first-string player was not. It
was an either or situation. A substitute always replaces the one for whom he
or she substitutes.
The Savior of the world substituted himself for sinners. Isaiah 53 takes us
into the center of the spiritual universe and the deepest region in the
heart of God. Charles Wesley wrote, "In vain the firstborn Seraph tries to
plumb the depths of love divine." It was on the cross that Christ plumbed
those depths. On the cross Jesus Christ substituted himself for sinners. He
was doing for the guilty what they could not do for themselves. No sinner
can survive the wrath of God.
To Do:
A cross looms in the path of every human being since "all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God." (Rm.3: 23) There is no hope apart from
repentance and faith. Faith is a personal transaction. No one can trust
Christ for us. No parent or spouse can take us to heaven on his or her coat
tails. Our only hope is that a substitute will bear away our judgment by
being judged for us. The better we understand what our Savior did for us,
the more willing we will be to live for him.
To Ask:
Father, open my heart and mind that I may appreciate and accept your love
the way I ought to.
08035$-08035
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| User: "Read The Bible" |
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| Title: Re: How faith is a personal transaction |
05 Aug 2005 07:37:42 PM |
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rhuff163 wrote:
The better we understand what our Savior did for us,
the more willing we will be to live for him.
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if
one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them, and rose again.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will
save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my
sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain
the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? For whosoever shall
be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be
ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and
of the holy angels.
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye
should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain:
that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it
you. These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world
hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of
the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not
greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also
persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because
they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them,
they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. He that
hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works
which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both
seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the
word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me
without a cause.
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