The scripture for today, September 28, is Hebrews 9:28 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”

Waiting is hard to do. We wait for relatives to arrive at our house for a visit. We wait for our next promotion. We wait for babies to be born. We wait for enough money to buy new clothes.

But what about waiting for something that we have never seen? Waiting for something we believe in by faith? Waiting an entire lifetime?

All the more reason to keep our eyes on the Word, our activities in good works, and our hearts on our Creator and Savior. It’s a long spiritual walk. But just keep walking, and keep walking, and keep walking until some day in the distant future you walk right through the gates of heaven.

Then, when you look back from eternity, you will say, “The wait wasn’t so long after all.”

The scripture for today, September 27, is Nehemiah 9:27 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“So you handed them over to their enemies who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed, they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies.”

With many people, the only time we think about God is when we feel oppressed by something or someone in our life. Then, we are likely to blame God. That can be a good thing. Perhaps we hadn’t given God a second thought since their last calamity. So now we’re thinking about him. We may be angry at God, but at least we’re thinking about him.

Let us thank God for times of oppression. Sometimes that is what it takes for God to get our attention. Then perhaps God can show us that he wants to be our friend.

The scripture for today, September 26, is Hebrews 9:26f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face the judgment.”

According to the Old Law of Moses, sacrifices of perfect animals had to be made to temporarily pay the price of death for people’s sins. (Remember, the wages of sin is death ~ Romans 6:23.) But it had to be done on a regular basis. Then Jesus became the perfect Lamb of God. In a sense, he laid down on the altar of the world and paid the price of death for our sins. Once was enough, for in his death he nailed the Old Law of Moses to the cross (Colossians 2:14). He had fulfilled the Law of Moses by living it perfectly and never sinning (Hebrews 4:15).

And so, just as Jesus died once, we too die once. Then our judgment. No second chances. No reincarnations.  No going back and trying to be perfect again and failing again. Jesus released us from all of our failures at being perfect. Thank God, he was perfect for us.

How amazing God’s plan for us!

The scripture for today, September 25, is 1st Corinthians 9:25f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like a man running aimlessly….”

Every few years there are world-wide Olympic Games with many races. The racers must eat properly, rest sufficiently, and exercise daily.

The Bible has been called the Bread of Life. As Christians, we need to eat our spiritual meal every day to stay fit. We cannot keep up our strength without it. Our time of rest is prayer. We enter a room alone and talk to God every day. We need our rest. We cannot keep up our strength without it.

I Timothy 4:8 says, “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” We exercise our godliness by being out in the world and being a good example in the face of temptation. We exercise our spiritual muscles daily.

The race is our Christian life. We run every day. How is your race going?

The scripture for today, September 24, is Luke 9:24 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.”

Romans 6 explains this phenomenon best. We are to put our old self to death ~ to crucify that part of us that sins and doesn’t care, that part of us that puts ourselves first (verse 7) ~ in imitation of Jesus dying. Once we decide to put that part of ourselves to death, we are buried, just like Jesus was buried (verse 3 & 4a).

And then, “just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (verse 4b). Why? “If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection” (verse 5). Having been “brought from death to life” (verse 13) through baptism, we have been born again!

This is a spiritual death, of course. There is another spiritual death called the second death in Revelation 21:8. If we go through the first spiritual death at baptism, we will not have to go through the second spiritual death in hell. We will have lost our life of sin and in the process saved our souls.
How amazing this is.

#SoulDeath, #Reborn, #BornAgain, #Baptism