December 18, 2022
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Reading along with us in our Advent readings from “The Life of Jesus”? Here’s today’s reading:
Day 18 in the Book: “The Life of Jesus“
The Year of Popularity
Read Sections 3.33 through 3.36 (pages 49-51)
This book is an account of Jesus’ life and teachings told through in chronological order from the four Gospels to create one continuous story.
*If you do not have a copy of the book please contact the church at (401)667-0775 and we can get you a copy.
When we have built our foundation on Christ the rock and we continuously seek Him, it is much easier to resist the false teachings that are ever present today! So many people twist God’s words for their own desires and that leads to destruction.
God brings life! The same way Jesus simply raised that woman’s son up out of his coffin, He brings new life to all who believe. Faith is the key…we must believe and then that faith moves us to follow!
Completed readings through day 18
When I first became a believer. There was one guy that I knew read the Bible. I went to him and told him the good news. I got baptized immediately. Didn’t know it but he was part of a cult. I was a new born baby. But the spirit inside me guided me knowing that it wasn’t right what he was speaking. Someone told me of Christian research institute. And they let me know my feelings were correct. My first month of being a believer. And I’m in a battle! Always baffled how people so easily fall into the traps of a cult. I knew what I had was a strong foundation and I wasn’t going to let anyone push me off. The centurion not being a Jew and not feeling worthy to be with Jesus. Has faith without seeing but believing that Jesus could heal his servant. There is absolutely no way Jesus would have not helped this widow. Whose son had died. She would have been left with nothing. This is exactly why Jesus came, to bring life to the downtrodden.
Day 18
3.33 – 3.36
Two instances are given here that shows that what we say is not what matters, but what we do. One has to do with how much we trust people and allow them to influence us. If their actions show they are a good person, then we can trust them. If their actions are wrong, then we should not, regardless of how good they say they are. The other has to do with our relationship with God. He does not want lip service. It is not what we say we believe that matters, but what we do or don’t do because of our belief. And when we hear God’s words and then do them, we will find our lives stabilized and God can come alongside us and provide. But if we hear the word and don’t do them, we won’t be able to handle the storms of life….and it is not a matter if they come, but when they come. And we also must expose ourselves to the word on a consistent basis for this to work as well. An just in case we wondered what faith looks like, we have the story of this centurion, a gentile, who tells Jesus He doesn’t have to come and do something for his servant for the servant to be healed. He just has to say the word and the centurion would know he was healed. See faith is believing without seeing and trusting God’s word even when it doesn’t accomplish what we want. Which, in light of the above, makes God’s words the only ones we can trust like this (ie without Him doing something). And what power and compassion Jesus has. He raises the widows son from the dead! There is no greater expression of power than that! But how comforting that a God with that kind of power did this because he cared about what the widow was dealing with.
If God is our rock, the storms of life will not cause us to fall. When it passes, we will still be standing and we will be made stronger from it.