Daily Bread 3-7-17
1 Peter 1:18,19
18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition of your fathers;
19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
ref. - Ezk 20:18 - But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols:
1P 4:3 - For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, reveling, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:
Matt 26:28 - For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Ex 12:5 - Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, and from the goats:
Jn 1:29 - The next day John teeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Do you want the sins of the world to be taken away from you? To be taken off of your chest? Do you want a new beginning? If so, why would you look for this release and this new life where you found the old one? There are very few things that we bring from birth. Just about everything we learn that makes up our beliefs, our actions, and our standards, has been taught to us. For many of us this ended up in a life filled with sin. For others, maybe not such a terrible life, but a life filled with beliefs that have been taught us of the world by worldly people. Don't discount this, it is part of what brought us to a savior in the first place. You see, we weren't made for this traditional, worldly, sin filled life, we were made to serve God in purity from our souls with love and dedication, perseverance and honor. Inside each human soul there is a true uncomfortability with the way the world operates. Inside us we know there is a better way, we just do not know where to find it. That is, until we hear of Jesus! Jesus Christ offers us the pure unaltered will of God and our true reason for living. Not from someone who has tried and failed and learned the hard way, nor from someone who is only interested in part of God's will, but from the Lamb of God. A man who is the Son of God, without sin, without mistake, without spot or blemish. We do not have to follow someone who came from the world and it's traditions when we have the instruction and the purpose through Jesus Christ. Trying to be a good person by following the ways of the world is a pretty good thing, in the eyes of a worldly person. But once we meet Jesus and our eyes are opened to his ways, we realize that all we are taught in the world is how to act and react. We are not taught that all good things come from God and that all things from God come from within. We are taught in a way from the world that failure is inevitable and if we act like someone else we will become that someone else. Usually from someone who is doing just that; acting like someone else. So why do we go to these people and why do we cling to their ways? Many, because we have not truly met Jesus. We may have acted like someone else, even mimicked their prayers and clothed ourselves in the way that they clothe themselves, but we have not truly been Spiritually changed. We need to go to the one who has been offered to us that has no sin or falsehood in him. He is a completely clean and perfect leader that cannot lead us astray. If he taught it, rest assured, it was and is meant for us to obey. He did not come down here to find the Holy, he came down here to show us, the imperfect ones, that there is a better way. We need not to follow imperfect idols or their ways when we have a perfect Lord right in front of us. All of these actions, traditions, and ways were replaced with a better way when Christ brought us the New Testament, offering us not atonement for our sins, but forgiveness. Not an outward appearance of Godliness, but an inward transformation. Not a salvation of bodily exercise, but a salvation that is unique and personal to every person, opening a relationship with God in Jesus Christ. We have the best there ever was, is, and ever will be in Jesus Christ. Let us become obedient to his teachings and to his ways and it is promised that God will be pleased with us the way that he is pleased with his Son! For Him to increase the world must decrease. Push toward this inward perfection that is offered us in Christ and we will soon see........This world is not our home, we're merely passing through!!! Have a great day!!!!