WATCHWORD:
“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” Isaiah 1:16-17
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26
“However, he has given each one of us a special gift[a] through the generosity of Christ. 8 That is why the Scriptures say,
9 Notice that it says “he ascended.” This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world.[c] 10 And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself. 11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Ephesians 4:7-13
Meditation:
Rehabilitation
Redemption – “The act, process, or an instance of redeeming.” That is the Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of redemption. In theology, redemption is a metaphor for what is achieved through the Atonement. Okay, so that the death of Jesus pays the ransom, releasing Christians from bondage to sin and death. It is a completed process.
The wife of a dear friend and colleague of ours is going through a process of rehabilitation. Or said another way, she is going through the means of being restored to normal physical capabilities.
In a sense, we are all going through a process of rehabilitation, putting us in a right relationship with God, the one that God designed us to be, which is what Christ did in the redemption. The process rehabilitation for us is restoring us on the Jesus Christ plan, incorporating His life in us, individually. Jesus sent his apostles and teachers for this purpose.
We are not here to develop a spiritual life of our own or to enjoy a kind of spiritual retirement, resting on our blessed and forgiven nature. No, we are here so that the body of Christ maybe built up and realized through the way we live our lives.
We may ask ourselves, are we building up the body of Christ? Or, am I looking for my own personal development, my own achievement, my own success? Forgetting that the essential thing is my personal relationship with Christ – That I may know Him.
There is a stanza in the old hymn, “My Goal is God Himself”, that sums this up pretty well:
My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace,
Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God;
’Tis His to lead me there—not mine, but His—
At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.
The question, then, becomes, am I measuring my life by this standard or by something less? How are you coming along on your rehabilitation? On your road to redemption?
In Jesus Calling for this morning, Jesus says to us: “I long for you to trust me enough to be fully yourself with me. When you are a real with me, I am able to bring out the best in you: the very gifts I have planted in your soul. Relax, and enjoy our friendship.” Amen.
Bulletin Board:
Some humor for the day –
- What did the farmer say after he lost his tractor? “Where’s my tractor?”
- Before beginning the service, our pastor read aloud a note he’d been handed moments earlier. “It says here that I should announce that there will be no B.S. tomorrow morning,” he said. He tucked the piece of paper into a pocket and added, “I’m hoping they mean ‘Bible Study.’”
- A minister and a priest and a rabbit walk into a bar. The rabbit says, “I’m a typo.”
Luther’s Morning Prayers:
“God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit watch over me. Amen.”
“I give thanks to you, my heavenly Father through Jesus Christ your dear son, that you have protected me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you that you would also protect me today from sin and all evil, so that my life and actions may please you completely.
Lord, I lift up to you many loved ones that are hurting, and are in need of your Holy touch this day. Be with them, Lord, in their need and strengthen them to meet the challenges that this day may bring.
Into your hands, I commend myself: my body, my soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel be with me, so that the wicked foe may have no power over me. Amen.”
