A
Picture of God
TODAY’S
SCRIPTURE
“No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God
lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us”
(1 John 4:12, NLT)
TODAY’S
WORD
If you’re like most, you have photos in your home of the
people who mean the most to you. You may enjoy showing these photos to others
and reliving the special moments captured. But have you ever thought about
having a picture of God in your house? It may not be in a frame on the shelf,
but today’s scripture tells us that when we love others, we are creating a
picture of God. We are showing others what He looks like because God is love.
Understand today that God wants us to know Him, and He
wants to reveal Himself to the world through us. He wants us to display His
love and share it with others. First Corinthians 13 tells us what love looks
like. Take a few minutes each day and let that scripture sink down into your
heart.
Remember, you are never more like God than when you are
loving others. Love is the greatest thing. Everything else will fade away, but
His love is a picture that will last forever!
PRAYER
FOR TODAY
Father in heaven, today I invite You to show me Your
everlasting love. Reveal Yourself in and through me. Help me to love others the
way You do so that my life can be a perfect reflection of You, in Jesus’ Name!
Amen.
***
“Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.” (Acts 18:9b NIV)
As you are forming your worldview and searching Scripture for God’s truth on all kinds of matters, it’s important to understand God’s stance on the three most controversial parts of a Christian worldview today. I mention these three because they are the ones you need the most courage to speak up about. Why? Because not only will most people disagree with you about these topics; they will passionately argue with you.
It takes an uncommon courage to stand up against that kind of pressure.
There are a lot of parts of the Bible that people don’t have a problem with, like “You must help the poor.” Nobody disagrees with that. But there are three aspects of a Christian worldview that are hated by the world, and about which most Christians clam up. They are the areas of sanctity:
1. The sanctity of life: God has a purpose for every unborn child. God planned your life before you were born, before your parents were born, even before he created the universe! Psalm 139:16 says, “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed” (NLT). We are to speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves: the unborn, the 70 million Americans who would be here if they hadn’t been aborted. If I claim to be a Christian, then I must believe that every life is sacred.
2. The sanctity of sex: Sex is only for marriage. Sex was God’s idea. It isn’t dirty or wrong; sex is holy. “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral” (Hebrews 13:4 NIV). God’s instructions never change: Premarital sex is unacceptable to God. Living together without being married is unacceptable to God. Adultery is unacceptable to God. Pornography and the objectification of women are unacceptable to God.
3. The sanctity of marriage: One man and one woman for life. That is God’s intended, original design. A lot of people ask, “Well, what about all the polygamy in the Bible?” Not everything the Bible reports the Bible approves. It’s hard to think of a book that has more violence, greed, incest, and murder in it than the Bible. So why do we call it a “holy” Bible? Because it tells the truth. The humans in the Bible blew it as much as we do. The Bible is just reporting the brokenness of humanity. But God is very clear on the issue of marriage: “At the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh . . . So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate”” (Matthew 19:4-6 NIV).
There are many issues of life where people of good will can disagree. For example, there’s no economic recovery plan in the Bible, and Christians can disagree on that. But if you call yourself a Christian, you need to line yourself up with what God says about the sanctity of these three things. And you need to have the courage to stand up for them, even and especially when it’s not the popular or politically correct thing to do.
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