TO CHEW ON: "To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their and ours." 1 Corinthians 1:2
I'm on holidays at the moment so this won't be a full-fledged, complete, thought-through devotion, just a question to myself, and you:
What does it mean to be a saint on a Saturday in January of 2011?
The study notes in my Bible say about this passage:
"As believers we are made righteous and holy in Jesus alone. Corinthians tells us that having been sanctified, we are called to live holy lives. Holy living requires that we rely fully on the Lord's wisdom and not the wisdom of the world. We are able to understand and discern God's ways by the Holy Spirit. Likewise, the Spirit empowers us to live as God's people, holy and set apart to Him." - "Pursuing Holiness," New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1606
I need that: the Lord's wisdom and Holy Spirit empowering. For already some of today's plans have gone awry and I hear the self-voice in my head saying: "You deserve to be in a snit!" I'd say that's of the world, and definitely not wise even by its standards!
PRAYER: Dear God, I need Your Spirit's wisdom and power to live out, in today's thoughts and actions, the fact of my sainthood. Amen
MORE: Practical sainthood
"The real test of the saint is not preaching the gospel, but washing disciples' feet, that is, doing the things that do not count in the actual estimate of men but count everything in the estimate of God....Paul focuses Jesus Christ's idea of a New Testament saint in his life, viz., not one who proclaims the Gospel merely, but one who becomes broken bread and poured out wine in the hands of Jesus Christ for other lives." - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, February 25th reading.
Note: If you read these devotions online, you may have noticed that the Bible verse now pops up in a little box when you hover your mouse over the reference of the verses that aren't linked to BibleGateway. I've installed a new widget called RefTagger which makes that happen!
The only problem is, the widget doesn't work its magic in the email version of the post. And neither does it work if the verse is already linked.
Because more people read these devotions by email than online, I will continue to link verses. If you want to see the unlinked verses display (without looking them up) you'll need to view the post online (at http://www.otherfood-devos.com).
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