I love that! I once heard an illustration by a pastor who challenged his congregation to give him any verse of the Bible, and then he would preach on it and show Christ. I love that, too!
Reason being, the Bible is God's revealed Word to man about Himself and His work through Christ. Every word therefore, of Old and New Testament rightly teaches Christ. Now obviously, the words and verses cannot be taken in a vacuum, and so within this challenge to myself, I will see where the verse leads me to other verses and not apart from proper context.
This Sunday our pastor preached on 1 John 3:1-3. Here's the first verse:
"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him."
Here's what I wrote:
Can I even begin to thoroughly understand and grasp the depth and fullness of God's love to give me the name and title "child of God"? The name was not and could not be given lightly because sinners give birth to sinners. (Ps 51:5) So for God to take a child of sin and re-form her to such a degree that she now receives the new name "child of God" is nothing short of miraculous and supernatural in every degree. (Jn 3:5-8)
For the child of sin and a child of God are as opposite in wants, desires, thoughts, choices, behaviors, and nature as the poles of earth. (2 Cor 6:14) And for God to do this work in a child of sin, He does not merely soften the coarseness and depravity of the child. Rather God completely removes the heart of a child of sin and gives him the heart of a child of God. (Jer 31:33).
Which is why the world no longer recognizes the child of God who has been made through Christ's work to look and be like Christ. The entire nature has been changed. God Himself places the distinction now evident between the child of sin and the child of God.
1 John 3:1 preaches Christ. It was the Father's love for His Son and for us that has not withheld anything from us.
I think I am going to like this challenge. I challenge you to take a verse from the Bible, spend time studying just it, and then post on how it teaches Christ. Let me know in the comments so I can stop by and celebrate the Gospel.
All right, somebody help this blogger. Why is that silly smiley face there instead of the correct Scripture addy? Which by the way is Jn 3:5-8. Sigh. It's a Monday.
ReplyDeleteI think your challenge may have been inspired by my challenge to the women of my Bible Study to share how they would share the Gospel of Christ, using only the scripture passage we had prepared for that day's study.
ReplyDeleteIf I have some time later today, I will take a few moments and give an example from our last study together.
Thank you, Kim, for letting me know. I remember it now. I was impressed by that post and have since mulled it, wanting to practice the challenge. I'd love for you to include the link as well. And I look forward to reading your example.
Elle,
ReplyDeleteI think you have a space between your dash and the number 8.
You are probably writing on the "visual" page in the WordPress editor. When you do that, it automatically converts smilies for you. The smiley with the sunglasses is typed like this:
8)
Hope that helps!
Also - I lost your feed for about two days. (I used Google Reader.) I went to subscribe again, but discovered I was still subscribed when I went to "manage subscriptions. Your blog just didn't show up. Weird.
I also responded more on your comments on Pragmatic Communion - The author of the book I quoted actually quoted the same verse you did.
Okay, obviously the comment editor automatically converts smilies too!
ReplyDeleteThe sunglasses smiley is made by typing "8" followed immediately by a ")"
oops.
okay. seriously. I need some coffee.
ReplyDeleteIn John 3:5-8, you have a space between the number 5 and the dash - NOT between the dash and the number 8.
coffee. need coffee. a vente.
I'm going to stop now. I was right the first time. you can delete these last two comments if you want. really. I don't mind.
ReplyDeleteGood challenge Elle...
ReplyDelete