“The Lord is the only God. He
is the living God and eternal King” (Jeremiah 10:10). The contrast
between God and the gods is simple. God made us. We made the gods. In
the Lord our God, there is majesty and mystery - the majesty of the
“eternal King”, the mystery that He is always beyond our understanding.
Before this majesty and mystery, we bow down in worship. We acknowledge
his greatness. We give Him glory. He is worthy of our worship. When God
speaks His Word to us, “Obey Me, and do everything that I have told you to do. Then you will be My people, and I will be your God. I
will keep the oath I made to your ancestors and give them a land
flowing with milk and honey, the land you still have today.” We are to
give our answer, “Yes, Lord” (Jeremiah
11:4-5). There will be many times when our "devotion" to the Lord will
be put to the "test" (Jeremiah 12:3). These will be times of temptation -
times when our 'Yes, Lord' could so easily become 'No, Lord.' When this
happens, may God help us to return to Him and hear, again, His
wonderful Word of amazing grace: "I will have compassion on them again ..." (Jeremiah 12:15).
"The Son of Man came to save the lost" (Matthew 18:11). In Matthew 18:12-13, Jesus speaks about sheep. He's really speaking about us. He is the Shepherd. We are His sheep. Sheep wander away from the shepherd. We wander away from the Lord. The shepherd looks for the lost sheep. Jesus has come to seek for us and find us. He brings us home to God, our Father. Through His saving grace, we receive new life - a life in which we rejoice in our great Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. He delivers us from the condemnation, which our sin has brought upon us. He brings us into the knowledge of His forgiveness. This Gospel of salvation changes us. It teaches us to live in the power of God's love. Jesus speaks about "the Kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 19:12,23), "the Kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:14,24) and "eternal life" (Matthew 19:29). Jesus' way of thinking and living is so very different from the world's way of thinking and living. He chall...
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