What a privilege to belong to the Eternal Kingdom of God!
“Thus it would be a lowly kingdom, not asserting its own interests but observing the agreement so that it would survive.” Ezekiel 17:14 CEB
As I said yesterday, once our heart’s are circumcised, that is once God removes our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh, that He can clean and shape and grow, we become an established member of God’s Forever Family. If you are familiar with the Book of Ezekiel, you will know I am referring to Eze 36:26, another great verse to memorize, BTW. This means we become New People. The Bible calls this becoming born again, where we no longer live by our worldly ideas or self-centered desires, but we begin to follow Jesus and His Way of Life. We are to leave our old MMI kingdoms behind and learn to live for God’s Kingdom. It IS a learning process, but if we are still more concerned with our own little world, then we miss out on so many blessings in this life, and we can lose the opportunities to be a blessing to others too. None of this glorifies God. Or worse, if others know we call ourselves Christians, our actions can give a really bad reputation to Jesus.
Once we are His, we must begin to live for God’s Eternal Kingdom…but that is such an amazing trade, don’t you think? We used to live for this world, with its cut-throat mentality, and it’s temporary reality…and now we GET to experience and share the selfless Love and unending Grace of our Creator. What a fantastic exchange we have received because of the Cross. Jesus took our sin and made us righteous. (see Ro 3:22) Jesus took our weaknesses and gave us “the Joy of the Lord” which is our strength. (Neh 8:10) Jesus took our shame and declared us acquitted and free. (Ro 8:1) Why wouldn’t we want to live for Him, instead of for ourselves? Hmmm…let’s think about that today…more tomorrow.
Join me in memorizing 52 verses this year:
January: 1- Jn 3:16; 2- 2Co 5:17; 3- Jas 2:26; 4- Eph 2:10
February: 5- Jn 10:10; 6- Ro 6:23; 7- Rev 21:4; 8- Php 4:13
March: 9- 1Pe 5:7; 10- Jn 8:32; 11- Dt 30:19; 12- Jn 3:30; 13- 2Chron 20:3
April: 14- 2Chron 20:12; 15- 2Chron 20:15b; 16- 2Chron 20:17
May: 17- Ro 8:28; 18- 1Co 13:13; 19- Php 2:12; 20- Mt 5:4
June: 21- Lk 23:42; 22- Jas 4:7; 23- Pr 22:6; 24- Mt 5:3; 25- Jn 14:6
July: 26- Jas 2:19; 27- Dt 31:8; 28- Jn 14:15; 29- Jn 8:11
August: 30- Ro 8:1; 31- Pr 4:23; 32- Pr 18:21; 33- Ps 118:24; 34- 1Jn 4:4
September: 35- Mt 16:24; 36- Isa 53:6; 37- Ps 23:1-6
October: 38- Heb 4:12; 39- Jn 15:5
November: 40- Jas 5:16; 41- 1Jn 3:1; 42- 1Jn 5:12; 43- 1Jn 3:3; 44- Ps 139:16
December: 45- Ps 119:105; Eze 17:14
<>< Peace, Diane
