Wednesday January 4, 2023

It's by the grace

For it is by grace that you are saved, through faith. It's not from you, it's God's gift. Ephesians 2.8

"You deserve it !" Flattered by my pride, and annoyed at the same time by this remark, I quickly replied that all the pleasure was for me in this work for which I had compliments. But what did I deserve ? I was given the time and the means to do so. Moreover, I am well aware that God gave me the strength and the capacities. Finally, in a more general reflection, did we deserve to live in a rich and war-free country, did we deserve our health, did we deserve our parents ?

Everything is a gift from God. Its benefits are free, undeserved. Jesus even said that God causes his sun to rise on the wicked and the good (Matthew 5:45). The right attitude is therefore first of all recognition. Some will object : Should I thank God for my osteoarthritis, for this grief that overwhelms me ? But if I breathe, if I can see, hear, walk, and if I still have people to love, shouldn't I be grateful to God for life ?

Next, let us not seek to earn his approval by our works, however good they may be. Faced with the justice of God inscribed in our consciences, we all need his forgiveness for what we have done wrong, or not done... It is only through faith in Christ that the grace of God comes to save us.

Elfriede Bloch

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Proposed reading : Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 20, verses 1 to 16.

Source (Live Today)

Saturday December 24, 2022

The light revealed

The Word became man... John 1:14

Christmas : God became a man. The invisible became visible, the strong became weak, the rich became poor, the Creator became creature, the immense became tiny, the Spirit became flesh.

The impossible Christmas message. The voice that roams the Garden of Eden becomes a man. The ancient promise (Genesis 3:15) is fulfilled. This is the beginning of a dizzying descent that ends on the cross. Why ?

Irenaeus of Lyons, around the year 175, put it this way : “He became what we are so that he could make us what he himself is." This is how God is. This is Christmas. Without it, only paganism remains.

Grace and truth. What does he bring ? An impossible law ? A few tasteless traditions ? He brings grace and truth. In our culture of merit and lies, this is unheard of. But how is it possible to give both ? Shouldn't someone be paying ? This is the gospel of the God who pays everything. There is another way, rejoice : it is Christmas !

Who to believe ? What confusion today ! There is so much “fake news”. Who to believe ? No one has ever seen God, not even Moses. The only God (Son) who is in intimacy with the Father makes him known. He is the only one who knows. He has amply proven himself to be credible. This Christmas, come to him !

The true light has revealed itself. Do you walk in this light? Will you come to her ? Now ?

Egbert Egberts

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Proposed reading : Gospel according to John, chapter 1, verses 14 to 18.

Source (Live Today)

Thursday, November 17, 2022

Live in the truth

Lead me in your truth and instruct me ; for you are the God of my salvation, you are always my hope ! Psalm 25.5

The word "truth" is specific to the biblical vocabulary. It is mentioned there some 165 times. Hence its importance to our salvation and Christian doctrine. The Gospel according to John often uses this word when speaking of Jesus Christ, because in him alone we have the knowledge of the truth. John affirms that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1.17)

Jesus embodied the truth because there was no sin in him. He could say : “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by me” (John 14.6) “If you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples; you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. (John 8.31-32) In praying for his disciples he said : “Sanctify them through the truth ; your Word is the truth. (John 17:17) Only the Word of God can make us grow in truth and enable us to live a life that glorifies him.

This truth enables the Holy Spirit to quicken and sanctify us, to bring us to spiritual maturity, to give balance to our Christian life, to make us living stones in his Church and to prepare us to live in the Kingdom to come.

Do not deprive ourselves of the Word of God which is the truth ! Let's read it every day for our greatest good.

Yves Perrier

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Proposed reading : Psalm 25, verses 1 to 15.

Source (Live Today)

Sunday November 13, 2022

Emergency, healthy rest !

Let us therefore hasten to enter into this rest so that no one falls by giving the same example of disobedience. Hebrews 4.11

We live in a world where everything is earned and paid for. We can therefore be easily inclined to think that our salvation before God is also merited. Resting from one's works may seem like laziness to some, especially if it is the work of another.

For the “ordinary” French people that we are, free admission is not of great obvious value ! However, God offers us free salvation and invites us to enter into his rest to be saved. This does not exclude that our salvation has a great price and is the result of an immense work : Jesus is the one who paid for our salvation, he suffered on the cross for our sins. To Him belongs all the credit for our salvation. To want to add our own sufferings and our merits would be blasphemous.

This is why God invites us to enter into the rest of faith in Jesus Christ, the perfect and only Savior. The world and the church need the lived testimony of truly rested Christians, Christians who are regularly renewed by this rest of God and not only by their leisure and free time.

Let us hasten to enter into the salutary and beneficial rest that God offers us. Whatever our present situation, it is urgent to take this step of trust.

Alain Monclair

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Proposed reading : Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 4.

Source (Live Today)

Monday October 31, 2022

Tired, discouraged ?

So that you do not get tired, with a discouraged soul. Hebrews 12.3

Have you experienced, or do you still experience moments of weariness, discouragement ? Are you prone to discouragement ? There are times when, as we say, we would be ready to move heaven and earth. At other times we have no taste for anything, everything seems bland, uninteresting. No desire to do anything. Considering the slightest effort seems out of reach. Even well-meaning encouragement from friends cannot always relieve us of our discouragement. It is discouraging for the one who wants to help his discouraged friend !

It seems that no one is immune to this phenomenon ; not even the one who writes the few lines of this leaflet. Servants of God have experienced discouragement several times, like Elijah : That is enough ! Now, Lord take my life, he said to the Lord. God's answer : Get up and eat. Later, he again declares to God : I am left alone, and they seek to take my life (1 Kings 19:4-5, 10). God reveals himself to him and encourages him with a soft, light whisper that precedes a marching order (1 Kings 19:12, 15).

Life generates many uncertainties that worry and discourage us. God gives strength to the weary, and increases the strength of the faint (Isaiah 40:29).

Jack Mouyon

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Proposed reading : Book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 40, verses 28 to 31.

40.28 Don't you know ? Didn't you learn it ? It is the eternal God, the Eternal, who created the ends of the earth ; he does not tire, he does not tire ; one cannot fathom his intelligence.

40.29 He gives strength to the weary, and he increases the vigor of the weak.

40.30 Youths weary and weary, and young men stagger ;

40.31 but those who trust in the Eternal renew their strength. They take flight like eagles ; they run and never tire, they walk and never tire.

Source (Live Today)