Tag: God’s workmanship

Loving the God who Loves You

Deuteronomy 13-14

You have been hand-selected to be a highly-valued and cherished child of the Most High and living God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. 

Do you believe that? I mean, do you truly and wholeheartedly accept that this is true?

So many people long to have confirmed that they belong and that they have purpose.

You, my friend in faith, have been confirmed for both! 

As if the verses from today’s reading don’t state it plainly, let’s look elsewhere in the New Testament. According to Ephesians 2:19, You are a member of God’s household.

And in the same chapter, just 9 verses before, it declares that you are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for you to accomplish! 

If you accept your position and your purpose, then you need to start acting like it. 

  • Honor God by worshipping Him alone; avoid and get rid of anything, or anyone, that could lead you astray. (Deuteronomy 13)
  • Honor God by taking care of your body. (Deuteronomy 14:1-21). While this section of the chapter is referring to clean and unclean foods, something that the Israelites had to pay close attention to, we can extend the meaning to modern times and consider what we put into our bodies. 
  • Honor God with your stuff and by being generous to those in need. (Deuteronomy 14:22-29) 

Friend, God loves you more than you can possibly imagine. Love Him back, with all that you are. 

-Bethany Ligon

You can read or listen to today’s Bible passages at BibleGateway here – Deuteronomy 13-14 and Luke 15

2021-seekgrowlove-bible-reading-plan-1Download

On Purpose

Eph 2 10

Imagine a marathon runner who starts the race excited, prepared and pumped.  But, he doesn’t know where the finish line is or how to get there.  Add in lots of runners who are running lots of different races – following completely different paths to multiple finish lines.  It is questionable whether our racer will finish the race he had hoped to win.

Or, take an archery championship where all the competitors are lined up and across the field are 1000 targets.  They do not know which target they will get credit for hitting and they each have a limited number of arrows and time.

WHAT is YOUR TARGET_

“It’s not how you start out that matters but how you end.” (Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Church p. 26).   Life gets messy and when you lack a clearly defined goal and a plan for how to get there, it is easy to get completely off track and find you don’t reach the finish line you thought you would and you don’t hit the target that really counts.

 

Just as individuals need a goal – churches also will drift without a set purpose and vision.  Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”  Why does the church exist?  Why do you exist?  God knows.  And He gave you His Word to help point the way.   Jesus knew his goal, and what sustained him and kept him going in the right direction.  “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”  (John 4:34).  Paul said that we all have God-given work he designed us to do – “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10).

You don’t want to end life (whenever that might be) with the big house, cute family, lots of adoring facebook friends, and retired from the dream job; BUT, find you missed the mark on doing what God planned for you to do – meeting HIS Purpose for your life.

By digging into God’s Word we can get a clearer picture of what our God-given purposes are for us as individuals and for His church.  Take a few minutes today to look up a few key passages.  Matthew 22:36-40, Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 2:41-47 are great possibilities.  Tomorrow we will look further into God’s Purpose for YOU!

-Marcia Railton

 

Marcia has the cute family and the dream job (wife and mom).  She is working on seeking God’s purpose for her and for the Family of God she gets the pleasure of worshipping with in Granger, Indiana. 

 

 

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