November 19, 2016
1 Peter 1:22-25
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,
“All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
And this is the word that was preached to you.
Quote of the Week
Love is active, affectionate, pleasant, amiable, courageous, patient, faithful, prudent, long-suffering, strong and never self-seeking, because self-seeking cancels love.
Love is well-behaved, humble and honorable, not soft, frivolous and vain. Love is sober, pure, steady, quiet and guarded in response to the senses. Love is submissive and obedient to superiors, not focused on itself. Devout and thankful to God, always hoping and trusting in God even when what He gives isn’t very pleasant for without sorrow love cannot live.
Those not prepared to suffer anything at all and accept the will of the Lover, cannot stand worthy to be called a lover. A lover embraces willingly hard and distasteful experiences, for the sake of the Beloved; refused to turn away from him because of what appears contradictory.
Thomas a’Kempis, The Imitation of Christ. From Book III: Inner Encouragement. “The Wonderful Effect of Divine Love” Chapter 5. para 7-8. (Edited and Paraphrased by Donald E. Demeray. Alba House Press.)
DO THE 11.19.16 SIXTH DAY EXERCISE HERE. NOTE– NEW VERSION 3.0
In case you are just joining us, each week we share in an exercise called “The Sixth Day Exercise.” As Genesis 1 has it, God created human beings in his own image on the sixth day. Genesis 3 shows us the desecration of the image of God in our race which has only compounded itself across the centuries. It’s why the Image Bearer himself, Jesus Christ, came. His life, death, resurrection and ascension reversed the curse of sin and death and created a pathway whereby our broken race could be made gloriously whole again; restored to the Creator’s intent. Paul put it this way:
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:22.
Given we were made on the Sixth Day, it makes sense that we might stop and assess how it’s going on the long journey of being “remade” on each successive sixth day.
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J.D. Walt serves as Seedbed’s Sower in Chief. jd.walt@seedbed.com.