Devotion
Saved By Grace
Chipo Biti
It is by grace you have been saved.
A timely reminder that we should always be conscious of. My heart falls whenever I come across Christians who are caught up in their own pride, believing that their righteousness within their personal capacity is the reason why they have received salvation. One of the biggest mistakes you could ever make, as a Christian, is to think that you are able to justify yourselves according to your own works. There is a reason why Jesus had to come to earth. No matter how many times man had tried to fulfill the standards of the Law, they could not do it. They could not be righteous on their own. Every time they tried to, sin would interfere and their actions would be rendered ineffective.
God didn't wait for us to show signs of perfection before He sent his son, Jesus Christ to the earth. No. When man was drowning in their sin, as far away from God as possible, Christ came to the earth. When human beings were nothing but dead souls walking, Jesus Christ came to the earth. He was not moved by what He saw. The state of man did not make him shout in hopeless angst.
Jesus knew what He was coming to face. He knew that He would encounter ignorance. He knew that He would encounter people who would not understand anything He was saying. He knew that He was going to be beaten, mocked, and scorned. He knew that He was going to be crucified on the cross.
Jesus knew all of this but it did not stop Him from fulfilling God's will. Even in Gethsemane, where He wept as He thought of what He was about to face, Jesus rose up and chose to continue with the mission.
He knew that the fate of mankind was dependent on His sacrifice and He counted us worth the pain. God saw us as worth sacrificing His Son, for our sake. We did nothing to merit it. We did nothing to deserve it. We deserved the damnation that was headed our way, but God didn't focus on that.
He focused on saving us so that we could be reconciled to Him. We, as His children, and He as our Father.
Prayer
That is what it means to be saved by grace.
We did not deserve any of the Father's love, but He gave it to us anyway because He loved - and still loves - us that much.
Devotion
Abraham is Father of All
Frances Taylor
There are questions in every age about the importance of the Old Testament for Christians. Abraham is considered to be the Father of Faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims. We forget that it was Abraham who believed in the doctrine of only one God. It is through him and his descendants that this tradition comes down to us. Another fact that we can overlook is that Jesus was Jewish. He was born a Jew, lived as a Jew, died, rose and ascended into heaven as a Jew. Because we believe that he was the Messiah, the Christ, and we follow him, we are called Christian. Without the Old Testament, we wouldn't understand the promise of salvation; we wouldn't understand why it was important for Jesus to be of the family of King David. We would not understand his teaching either, because Jesus quoted from Scripture – the Old Testament – frequently. He told us that he came to fulfill the Scriptures, not to abolish them. In the same way, we can ...
Morning Prayer
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Inspiration
We have a responsibility, as Christians, to abstain from the sinful practices we partook in before we became saved. While it may be a gradual process of change, we should ensure that we are putting in our best to play our part in resisting temptation. God enables us to resist temptation, but it is up to us to actually resist.
Prayer
Dear God, I pray that I will always be a person of action. Father, I take delight in my new life in you and I do not desire otherwise. I pray that in times of temptation, may I act on the strength you have given me to flee and/or resist. May I never rely on excuses or procrastination, Lord. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
Night Prayer
Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.
Inspiration
We have chosen to surrender our lives and serve the Lord. We serve Him by witnessing, completing missionary projects, and ministering to those in need. There is always work to do and a world full of people to help. We will look for opportunities to provide for our brothers and sisters in Christ by any means necessary. We are servants to one another as a service to the Lord; He will never forsake us.
Prayer
Dear God, Help us see the world through Your eyes. We desire to serve those around us by reflecting Your love through our actions. You will never forsake us, and we will continually lift praises of thanksgiving to You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
