daily_bread

December 1             The british novelist J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, "sheep"
Saturday                   get to be like their shepherd, it is said, but slowly."
                                 The renewal of the inner person, becoming
                                 Christlike, is not accomplished in a moment, but in
                                 a lifetime. Augustine (354-430) observed that this
                                 process is like healing from a near-fatal wound.
                                 "It's one thing," he said, "to remove the spear, but
                                 quite another to heal the wound by long and
                                 careful treatment." This healing occurs gradually
                                 as our old ways of thinking and living are erased,
                                 and we become more like our Saviour as we are
                                 renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16).
                                      This renewal takes place not by self-effort
                                 alone but by faith. It involves reading, meditating
                                 on, and obeying God's Word. We must also fix
                                 our minds on the character of Christ and ask
                                 God to make us like Him. Then we must wait,
                                 confident that God is working in us to accomplish
                                 His purposes. Every day has it's mishaps and
memories of something we should have done or not done, but we must
not be impatient. Though incomplete, we are in process. Sin may
frustrate us for a day, but God is at work - an on ahead lies perfection,
which is 'the hope of righteousness' (Galatians 5:5). Some day we'll
see His face and we'll be like Him -as holy as the Holy One. (1John 3:2)

          THE NEW BIRTH TAKES ONLY A MOMENT;
          GROWTH IN HOLINESS TAKES A LIFETIME

Waiting
for
Holiness

read:
Galatians 5:1-6

We through the
Spirit eagerly
wait for the hope
of righteousness
by faith
- Galatians 5:5

An example of 'Our Daily Bread'

an example of 'My Utmost for His Highest' by Oswald Chambers

           The Riches of the Destitute

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
                                         Romans 3:23 and 24

The gospel of the grace of God awakens an intense longing in human souls and an equally intense resentment, because the truth that it reveals is not palatable or easy to swallow. There is a certain pride in people that causes them to give and give, but to come and accept a gift is another thing. I will give my life to martyrdom; I will dedicate my life to service - I will do anything. But do not humiliate me to the level of the most hell-deserving sinner and tell me that all I have to do is accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.
     We have to realize that we cannot earn or win anything from God through our own efforts. We must either receive it as a gift or do without it. The greatest spiritual blessing we receive is when we come to the knowledge that we are destitute. Until we get there, our Lord is powerless. He can do nothing for us as long as we think we are sufficient in and of ourselves. We must enter into His kingdom through the door of destitution. As long as we are 'rich', particularly in the area of pride or independence, God can do nothing for us. It is only when we get hungry spiritually that we receive the Holy Spirit. The gift of the essential nature of God is placed and made effective in us by the Holy Spirit. He imparts to us the quickening life of Jesus, making us truly alive. He takes that which was 'beyond' us and places it 'within' us. And immediately, once 'the beyond' has come 'within', it rises up to 'the above', and we are lifted into the kingdom where Jesus lives and reigns. (see John 3:5)