Devotion
No Greater Love
Chipo Biti
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.
If you take a look at the world back then, and even 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.
When Jesus, who was God in human form, was on earth He experienced the same thing. But this did not deter Him from what He came to do. He continued to love every person that came His way. Today, Jesus does not view us, the children of God, as servants. He considers us to be his friends. He sees us as more than people who do his bidding. He sees us as people He loves us wholly, completely, and He desires to have a relationship with us. In this relationship He guides us, strengthens us, and instructs us. We reciprocate that love through believing in Him and carrying out His instructions.
Prayer
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.
Devotion
Don’t Judge
Frances Taylor
This is a pretty consistent theme in the New Testament. Jesus certainly makes it clear that judging is unacceptable. In more than one Gospel the message is clear: don't judge. We humans do it though! We judge for lots of reasons. One of the not so nice reasons is to make ourselves feel better. If we can judge someone to be worse than ourselves, it can make us feel superior. Often people caught doing something will turn and say that it's not as bad as what "so and so" does. Other times, we make a judgment and spread whatever we think we know about another's behavior as gossip. It gives us a sense of power to act like we "know" everything. And often we are wrong in our judgments. Spreading gossip can ruin a person's reputation often without any substance behind it. We also tend to make judgments based on color, race, gender, age, ethnicity, all sorts of things that bias us. If you were sick in a foreign country, would you trust the doctors? If you see...
Morning Prayer
Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
Inspiration
Our victory, as believers, is not by our might or by the height of our intellect. Nothing in our own power can ever make us righteous. We are where we are, as children of God, as a result of the Spirit of God residing in us. The Spirit of God is able to reside in us so easily because Jesus Christ justified and sanctified us by his blood. Isn't that glorious?
Prayer
Dear God, I thank you that it is never by my might or power that I am saved and victorious in you. It is because of your son, Jesus Christ, that I am able to have access to the Holy Spirit who enables me to function as your child. Lord, may I always take heed to the guidance of your Spirit. In Jesus' name, I pray. ...