|
 |
Wednesday, June 30, 2004 |
"Stunned by Grace": Freedom from Bitterness NavPress, home of the Discipleship Journal, includes in its archives an outstanding article, Stunned by Grace by Carol McGalliard. Extract: Long ago, someone hurt you. Your shoulders hunch up when you think about it. You set your jaw and get a bad taste in your mouth. When you talk about the hurt, your voice sounds crabby no matter how carefully you choose your words. You hope God will get even with the one who hurt you, but you dream about your own revenge—just in case He doesn’t. Sound familiar? Each of us has suffered from sin’s effects. We live in a fallen world where wounds—and the heartaches that accompany them—are inevitable. The wounds should heal. But occasionally, time ticks away and our pain does not end. Instead, we nurture the hurt until it develops into the churning anger of bitterness. (Click Here For Entire Article)
3:04:57 PM 
|
|
Daily Discipleship From The Navigators  | | Devotional for Wednesday, June 30, 2004 | | | | Something Beautiful
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! - 2 Corinthians 5:17
Ezekiel was taken in a vision to a high mountain overlooking Jerusalem, a city that had been demolished and plundered. From this mountain, God gave Ezekiel a vision of what was to come as recorded in Ezekiel 40. "Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the house of Israel everything you see" (40:4). A temple, grand and glorious, would rise out of the rubble, and once again God would be glorified in that place.
Is your Christian life all that you want it to be? Are you as close to God as you would like to be in your walk of daily discipleship? God can breathe in a freshness of new life and bring a new beauty to your soul. But it will take some effort on your part. Begin the day with morning prayer and Bible reading. Get into a good Bible study designed to get your roots down into Christ and give your spiritual life a solid footing. Take some of the most meaningful verses from your Bible study and commit them to memory. Put them in your heart so God can continue to use them to encourage you and transform your life.
God gave Ezekiel two visions of how His power could bring beauty out of tragedy. Is there a relationship that was once like a beautiful city that has been destroyed and plundered? We are called to cooperate with the power of God in Jesus Christ, by which old things are taken away and all things are made new.
Prayer
Lord, bring glory to Yourself as You transform the rubble areas of my life. Amen.
To Ponder
By God's power, life and beauty can emerge from death and destruction. Where is that happening around you? |
The text for this devotional comes from the NavPress book Daily Discipleship, which features devotionals taken from radio broadcasts by long-time Navigator LeRoy Eims. For more information or to order a copy, visit the NavPress website.
Copyright 2004 The Navigators. All Rights Reserved. | |
7:53:16 AM
|
|
© Copyright 2005 ChristianWalkOnline.
|
|
|
