Wednesday January 18, 2023

Wednesday – January 18th – 1 John 3:16-17     -----     

*The Daily Walk Bible NLT: Explore God's Path to Life (p. 236). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.
 
3:16) By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
17) But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
 
The Daily Walk Bible inspirational thought for today:
      OUR GOD HAS A BIG ERASER.*

     Welcome to Wednesday! Our inspirational thought today connects through the Daily Walk Bible reading in the opening chapters of the book of Exodus. When framed with what has happened and what is about to happen to the Hebrews in Egypt this thought is used by God to create the tension between the coming interactions between Moses and Pharaoh. Even better, for us today we need to be reminded that God is a God of forgiveness. When our actions go against God’s plan. the result is less than favorable on our part. God is a God of grace, and because He loves us unconditionally, we can celebrate that God erases our sins with the blood of Jesus.  The long-standing caution is that God’s grace and forgiveness doesn’t give us the privilege to do as we want and then rely on God’s love and forgiveness to get us out of trouble. Because of God’s grace we should have the desire to sin less and do more for the Kingdom of Heaven.

     In our pick verses today, John continues to encourage his readers to stay focused on being a model of God’s love to others. Jesus is our only source and the perfect motivation of love. This is the reason for His laying down His life for us. Jesus’ sacrifice puts us under a perpetual obligation to love others actively and sacrificially. Every day we can be given the opportunity to respond to a person in true need. How we view this opportunity and how we act speaks directly into the depth of our connection to Jesus. Certainly, we should realize that it is impossible to meet every need we see, but the measure of our Christianity is found are hearts are affected. Where is your heart today?

Blessings
   Pastor Jim
Thursday – January 19th – 1 John 3:18

*The Daily Walk Bible NLT: Explore God's Path to Life (p. 252). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

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