Sunrise, Sunrise

Sunrise September 24, 2014

From our Porch

Sunrise, September 24, 2014

From our Porch

On Wednesday morning I awakened to this gorgeous sunrise. In a few minutes it had turned from that deep orange to pinks and blues. It was breathtaking.

Whenever I see such amazing beauty, I am so grateful to God for giving us sight and perception. I know I've said that before, but each time it strikes me anew as to the generosity of our loving God.

 PSALM 95: 6-11

 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! For he is our God,

and we are the people of his pasture,

and the sheep of his hand.

Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,

as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

when your fathers put me to the test

and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

For forty years I loathed that generation

and said, 'They are a people who go astray in their heart,

and they have not known my ways.'

Therefore I swore in my wrath,

'They shall not enter my rest.' 

 'For there is one God, and there is 

one mediator between God and men,

 the man Christ Jesus,

who gave Himself as a ransom for all...'

- I Timothy 2:5-6
   
 

REPENTANCE

 

My Bible study group is studying I Thessalonians. In a commentary on that book, one author wrote, 'Repentance is not a philosophy of life. Repentance involves an allegiance to Jesus as Lord and Christ. For the Thessalonian Christians, repentance meant a change of allegiance from Caesar to King Jesus. For new Christians, that initial moment might be very clear, but idolatry is deeper than simply going to a temple to worship a false god. Idolatry is anything we put in place of God...People make idols out of history and nature and economics and politics...It is simply not true that once you say a prayer or have a certain kind of experience you are in...These Thessalonians had to keep turning to Christ for the rest of their lives, and so do we. They had to be continually delivered by Jesus through repentance and faith...Our final salvation does not rest on how good we are or how much we have changed. It rests upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus provides forgiveness and righteousness, and Jesus is continually at work to deliver us from the wrath to come.' 

 

 - from I & Thessalonians - The Hope of Salvation, James H. Grant Jr., edited by R. Kent Hughes. You can find this book in hardcover or for your Kindle at Amazon.com

Have a blessed Lord's Day.