ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS September 12, 2019 Scripture: Isaiah 43:19 Look! I’m doing a new thing; now it sprouts up; don’t you recognize it? I’m making a way in the desert, paths in the wilderness. A Thursday Prayer: Overwhelmed! Swamped! Buried! So often the news and the events of the world can leave us feeling incapacitated. Could there be, Merciful God, an agenda of despair? Could there be a strategy
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS September 11, 2019 Scripture: 1st John 3:23-24 This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love each other as he commanded us. The person who keeps his commandments remains in God and God remains in him; and this is how we know that he remains in us, because of the Spirit that he has given to us. Thought
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS September 10, 2019 Scripture: 1st John 3:13-14 Don’t be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have transferred from death to life, because we love the brothers and sisters. The person who does not love remains in death. Thought for the Day: In our culture, there is some hate toward Christianity and other religions. My concern is that it is
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS September 8, 2019 Scripture: 1st John 3:7-8 Little children, make sure no one deceives you. The person who practices righteousness is righteous, in the same way that Jesus is righteous. The person who practices sin belongs to the devil, because the devil has been sinning since the beginning. God’s Son appeared for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil. Thought for the Day: At
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS September 7, 2019 Scripture: 1st John 3:1a See what kind of love the Father has given to us in that we should be called God’s children, and that is what we are! Thought for the Day: Children of God! That is what we should be called because, according to the author, that is what we are. It doesn’t say, “…that’s what we will become” or “if
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS September 6, 2019 Scripture: 1st John 2:28 And now, little children, remain in relationship to Jesus, so that when he appears we can have confidence and not be ashamed in front of him when he comes. Thought for the Day: Too many people (and I have done it) read through this verse quickly and project it to some final day, when Jesus appears in ultimate glory.
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS September 5, 2019 Scripture: 1 John 2:25 This is the promise that he himself gave us: eternal life. Thought for the Day: Many who read this simple verse are immediately transported in their minds to a heaven with angels and puffy clouds and golden streets. I’m not knocking that mental picture, but eternal life is not the life after this one. Eternal life, as I have
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS September 4, 2019 Scripture: 1st John 2:18-21 Little children, it is the last hour. Just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really part of us. If they had been part of us, they would have stayed with us.
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS September 3, 2019 Scripture: 1st John 2:12-14 Little children, I’m writing to you because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus’ name. Parents, I’m writing to you because you have known the one who has existed from the beginning. Young people, I’m writing to you because you have conquered the evil one. Little children, I write to you because you know the Father. Parents, I write