DEVOTIONAL
Today, Christian, is a day of rejoicing. For if you be in Christ you are a new creation and God has made it so. It is true, all things have passed away and behold the new has come. He himself, with great love, plucked you from the fiery brands of His fury and clothed you in garments of love and His own righteousness. He has loved you with an everlasting love that dates back before the beginning of time, just as it is written, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” And again, He says concerning His love for us, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Blessed Christian, the Son of God left all of His glories of heaven to take up your cause. May the Holy Spirit show you the scourges upon the back of Christ, the holes in His hands and feet, and the blood upon His thorny brow. May He open up your ears to hear the anguish of His cry while He was fastened to the tree, “It is finished!” It was there He bowed His head and gave up His spirit for you. It was there He displayed His love for you. Christian, just as sure as the sun will rise in the morning, the lamp of God’s word will never go out in your heart. No, it will burn continually like the golden candlesticks in the ancient temple of Solomon until the day your eyes gaze upon the beauty of His appearance, for the High Priest, Jesus Christ, will keep it lit Himself, it will never burn out. Though He was killed and laid in the Tomb, behold He has risen and is alive forevermore. The Father has accepted the Son’s sacrifice, so rejoice, and again I say rejoice, for as it is written, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.”
Let us continually call to remembrance these things, for it is food to the soul and hope in the day of struggle. It is a wellspring of life that breaks forth in the heart as the Holy Spirit impresses upon the mind this grand reality, that you are a child of the living and eternal God. What shall we say about these things, If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” His Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Jesus Christ, for the Scripture says, “Whoever BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”