What New Thing is Christ Birthing in You?
Good Morning Friends,
Here it is a week and a day after Easter Sunday but the Easter season continues. And yesterday at worship, this time was explained to children during a children’s chat as like the setting of the Sun and then experiencing an amazing sunset with reflective colors that dazzle the sky after the Sun is behind the horizon. Indeed Easter is not an end but a unique kind of beginning… a time of spectacular and reflective things. Few understand that success in this creative time is not so much found in how we use resource as to how we are obedient to the Spirit of God….how the Spirit of God is birthed in us. Here we need to understand that we are to be a demonstration of God’s love in and through us…that we are to be imitators of Christ. Friends, if we look to our own skills, knowledge and resources we are likely to be discouraged. Today’s scripture puts Christian service in this different light…in an easy yoke….in the light of doing our best work of reflecting Jesus, of being our best for others, of abiding with Christ in new beginnings. So as we contemplate the events of the Easter Season, What New Thing is Christ Birthing in You?
Scripture: 1We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— 3we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4We are writing these things so that our* joy may be complete.5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; 7but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1 John 1:1-20 (NRSV)
1Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. 2 We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly 3remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4For we know, brothers and sisters* beloved by God, that he has chosen you, 5because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of people we proved to be among you for your sake. 6And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, 7so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place where your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. 9For the people of those regions* report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 (NRSV)
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1 (NRSV)
Message: If we are chosen by God and the good news has come to us with the power of the Holy Spirit, then we are supposed to respond as models for others. So what are we modeling? Is our faith evident in our behavior? Is our commitment to Christ showing forth in and through us? Do we choose God and Christ over idols? Today’s message is one that calls us to be obedient to the Spirit. It calls us to be a nursery for spiritual babies…a family circle of prevailing love… a school for spiritual development where the good news in modeled with truth and love. We need to understand that we are to be a demonstration of God’s love in and through us. We are to be imitators of Christ birthing something new.
Pray that we are never boring or irrelevant. Pray that we embrace the fellowship of the saints in the Spirit of the Sabbath each day. Pray that we realize we are models whether we want to be or not. Pray that we realize we are messengers from God. Pray that we are to share His message. Pray that our actions boost the fellowship of believers in the eyes of the world. Pray God take away all our worries replacing them with love. Pray our world is changed beginning with the conversion of our own hearts. Pray the mercy of God birth something spectacular in and through us. Pray we believe.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 