|
|
|
|
With his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5
I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.John 10:10, NKJV
There is more to life . . .
than being healthy,
than being happy,
than being problem free,
than being comfortable,
than feeling good, than getting what we want,
than being healed.
There is more to life even than living!
And the “more to life” is the development of our faith to the extent that our very lives display God’s glory!
Jesus does not protect those He loves from bad things happening but uses bad things to fulfill His greater plan. He is glad, not that we suffer, but that we have the opportunity to grow in our faith and display His glory, which is the fulfillment of the very purpose for our existence. Don’t settle for less than more!
Blessings,
|
|
Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.
Hebrews 5:8
Today's Reading |
TO BEDE GRIFFITHS: On Lewis’s favorite novel by Charles Dickens; on the desire to die; on longing; on joy; on having; and on wanting. 5 November 1954 The best Dickens always seems to me to be the one I have read last! But in a cool hour I put Bleak House top for its sheer prodigality of invention. About death, I go through different moods, but the times when I can desire it are never, I think, those when this world seems harshest. On the contrary, it is just when there seems to be most of Heaven already here that I come nearest to longing for the patria. It is the bright frontispiece [which] whets one to read the story itself. All joy (as distinct from mere pleasure, still more amusement) emphasises our pilgrim status: always reminds, beckons, awakes desire. Our best havings are wantings. From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III Compiled in Yours, Jack The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950-1963. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C. S. Lewis. Copyright © 2008 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. |
|
|
He poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors.
Isaiah 53:12
And when they crucified Him, they divided His garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take.Mark 15:24, NKJV
When Jesus finally arrived at the place of execution around nine o’clock in the morning, if His treatment followed standard procedure in those days, He was stripped of all His clothes. Possibly He was allowed to retain a loincloth.
Yet because Jesus was stripped “naked,” you and I can be clothed! The Bible tells us that all of our righteousness, including the very best things we ever do, are so permeated with sin and selfishness that they are like filthy rags in God’s sight (Isa. 64:6). But at the Cross, Jesus gave us His perfect, spotless robe of righteousness and took our filthy garments of sin in exchange (Phil. 3:9). On Judgment Day, you and I will be dressed in His righteousness before God because He wore the filthy garments of our sin. We will be clothed because He was stripped!
Blessings,
|
❄️🧤 “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for ...