Now for the good news!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us.
(Isaiah 33:22 (NIV))

Our deeds cannot save us. Our good works cannot save us. We cannot do anything to rectify us to what God created us to be. We have failed miserably in our sin. We have fallen far short of guiltless in the eyes of our judge, who is the One who created the laws. We cannot escape the punishment for our judge knows the laws that we have broken intimately. He also knows us in all of our sinful nature. We have been judged and found guilty. We have been condemned by our sinful nature and have been sentenced to eternal separation from God.

Now for the good news!

Even though we have been found guilty by the One who made the laws, He has had compassion upon us and has given us a means to escape the sentence that we face for our sins. God knew that we would need a savior. He knew that we would need someone to intercede for us because we could not do it on our own. That is why he sent His only Son, Jesus, to be an atoning sacrifice.

Even though Isaiah was written long before Jesus came to the earth to fulfill this prophesy, we had the promise! We knew that it would come to fruition. Every promise that God has ever made has come to pass. Some people say that God has not kept all of His promises because some of them have not happened, yet. But that is only their interpretation. They do not choose to believe the record of God’s promises.

What do you believe?

Copyright 1998 – 2014 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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What do you embrace?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
(Genesis 2:15-17 (NIV))

Just what is good and what is evil?

In today’s society where everything is relative, that simple question does not get a simple answer from man.

Why do you suppose that this simple concept of good and evil has been lost?

Perhaps it is because we, as humanity, lost site of what is good in the Garden of Eden and the more time that passes since this happened, the more we embrace evil as good and good as evil.

How can we recapture the truth behind good and leave evil behind?

We have been given a redemptive gift through Jesus. This gift allows us to experience grace and mercy when we really don’t have a concept of what grace and mercy are! We are given a wonderful gift when we don’t understand or have the ability to appreciate this gift. Even so, God gave it to us anyway!

Why did God give us grace and mercy when we don’t understand it or deserve it?

God created us! God loves us! He longs to embrace us in His sinless perfection, but we are sinful. For this reason, God provided a “graft” that allows us to escape the knowledge of evil and embrace the good that He has given us.

We are now free once again to embrace the good that God desires for us even though we have embraced the evil in the past. We can turn from the evil and embrace the good.

When you hold out your arms, what do you embrace?

Copyright 1998 – 2014 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Are you ready to surrender your life for the testimony?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

They overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
(Revelation 12:11 (NIV))

It is often thought that those who call upon Jesus as their Lord and Savior are not supposed to love their life. This false belief is based on this passage from Revelation. It is often misquoted or misunderstood to mean that we should not love our life and fully embrace death.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
(John 10:10 (NIV))

If Jesus came that we may have life to the full, then why should we not love our life? Life is a precious gift from God. It is to be loved.

What is in question is not whether we are to love the life that God has given us, but do we love God’s Word and His truth more? Will we be willing to lay down our life, which is a gift from God, for the ultimate gift from God? Can we see beyond our limited perspective and realize that God is capable of so much more than our individual lives? Can we understand the simple truth that God created us and has something far greater in store for us?

Jesus knew this. Jesus lived this.

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
(John 15:13 (NIV))

Do you know it? Are you ready to live it? Are you ready to surrender your life for the testimony?

Copyright 1998 – 2013 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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