Heavenly Father I praise You for today and for the air I breathe and the mind You provided me that can do so many different thoughts at the same time. I praise You for the recordings of what Jesus said by the disciples. I praise You that you inspire the Bible but what trusted man to write so that we could comprehend in our language. I know over time we have lost some cultural context to what was being said, but the message is still true as it was then.
Holy Spirit last night in our men’s Bible study we read from Luke 14 and 15. It struck me as significant that in the parable of the prodigal son the dialogue between the father and the oldest son. The oldest was trying to distance himself through pride by calling his brother the father’s son, but the father quickly rebuked that when he returned the statement “your brother” to the eldest. It has taken me a long time to realize in that simple statement, that you are our brother’s keeper and to fulfill the law of Christ to love our neighbor as ourselves puts the responsibility on us to love them even when they do wrong. Paul wrote and I take to heart and ask that this wisdom become a part of who I am: Beware lest any man spoils you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. [Colossians 2:8] I as a follower of Christ can not be so selfish as to not find a way to demonstrate mercy, grace, the and love of Christ to all people. Does not mean I have to be a doormat to anyone, but it also does not allow or excuse me from helping them and offering them the hope of salvation. Help me to not be like the Pharisees, politically intolerant or selfish in how I live my life, as a believer I laid my life out to be a living sacrifice for God.
I thank my God always concerning the grace of God which was given to me by Christ Jesus, that I am enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in me, so that I come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm me to the end, that I may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom I am called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. [1Corinthians 1:4-9] I praise You for today and for the air I breathe and the mind You provided me that can do so many different thoughts simultaneously