Obedience is a tricky thing, isn’t it? Often we seek to obey God’s commands, but then find ourselves hoping for a reward, such as a better life, answered prayer or fixed problems. This week, our Take Five focuses on obedience, not because we can earn God’s favor or an earthly reward, but because our obedience is what he desires for us, the offering that we can bring to him in acknowledgement of all he has done for us. Aren’t you glad that we can’t earn our salvation, but that obedience is a daily sacrifice we get to make for Jesus? That’s good news!
“Have you noticed that almost every page of the Bible has something to do? Sometimes they are external or physical things…” Keep reading here.
“The commonest description in the Scriptures of a follower of Jesus is that he or she is a person ‘in Christ.’ The expressions ‘in Christ,’ ‘in the Lord,’ and ‘in him’ occur 164 times in the letters of Paul alone, and are indispensable to an understanding of the New Testament. To be ‘in Christ’ does not mean to be inside Christ, as tools are in a box or our clothes in a closet, but to be organically united to Christ, as a limb is in the body or a branch is in the tree. It is this personal relationship with Christ that is the distinctive mark of his authentic followers.” Finish the post here.
“I select a word and a verse each January to focus my life. I choose an area I believe I need the most growth, help or improvement. On the fall of 2010, I began to experience some physical issues in my body. In January that year, at a Christian Wellness week sponsored by First Place 4 Health, some blood tests returned that shook me to the core.” Keep reading here.
“Self-salvation is sinful man’s most natural inclination. We all know there is something wrong with us, that we are not all we want to be and not all we were meant to be. And left to ourselves we look for that salvation anywhere and everywhere except in the place it can be found—in Jesus Christ.” Finish the post here.
Read an earlier Take 5 post here.