Daily Bible Reading

Verse

Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles:  that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.  –1 Peter 2: 12

Reflection

There are people amongst you who think you are wrong for believing in Jesus Christ – they may even accuse you of doing evil.  Yet, as believers, we have the ability to change their opinions to glorify God when he returns by the lives we lead.  How?  By living such a good life filled with the love and teachings of Jesus that they may see  we are different.  We can do good deeds in the name of Jesus showing event those who doubt our faith that Jesus is real and has made a difference in the way we live our daily lives – we serve, we love, and we extend mercy.

Prayer

Dear God, help me to live a life that is so radically different from those who do not know you that even they will glorify Your name when You return.  Give me opportunities to share Your love with others and to serve wholeheartedly the people You have placed in my life.  Allow me to extend mercy to those around me.  Thank You for giving us a reason to love others, Father.  Help my life to bring glory to Your name, O Lord.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

He Gave Us What We Did Not Deserve

If you take a look at the world back then, and eve at the world now, you would probably think otherwise.  Mankind has been riddled with evil since the Fall of Man at the beginning of time.  Human beings have turned on God many times.  They have hurled curses at Him, doubted His existence, and accused Him of many things.  But God never shook in His love for us.

After the Fall of Man, mankind became quite a terrible sight.  Sin abounded in so many ways and there was no way of stopping it.  People were murdering one another, stealing from one another, committing strange acts with one another, and worshipping strange gods.  The children of Israel abandoned God many times, choosing to worship idols instead.  Not once did they think of the great amount of pain they were causing God.

If you were asked to die for such people, would you?  Probably not.  You would probably give all the reasons in the world as to why these people deserved to suffer for their actions – and you wouldn’t have been wrong for it.  Human beings were terrible.  We still see that terrible nature in many of them in the world today.  The most heinous acts have occurred in history and there are new ones that we see as each day passes.  Murder.  sexual violence.  War.  Hatred.

But none of this deterred god from giving His son up to save us from ourselves.  He carried on with His plans, even when mankind had turned their backs on Him.  He refused to let His love be based on our love for Him.  If He had done that, we would have died a very long time ago.

There is no greater love than the love that Jesus Christ has for us.  Jesus laid down His life for every single person in the world, regardless of who they are or what they have done in their lives.  It was not a simple decision for Him.  The thought of suffering the consequences for the sins of the world was not an easy thought to bear.

In the days leading up to His crucifixion, Jesus was troubled by what was to come but this did not stop Him from following through.  He wept about it.  He wasn’t celebrating at the fact that He was about to endure so much pain.  But He still chose to go through with it because He believed that we were all worth it.

It’s not much of a task for us when you compare it to what Jesus had to go through.  We won’t find such love anywhere else but in Him.  He loves us completely and there is nothing that will ever make Him change His mind about us.  He is for us, now and forever!!!!!!!