Bible League: Living His Word "No one has ever seen,no one has ever heard, no one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." But God has shown us these things through the Spirit. Our verses for today say that God has prepared something for those who love Him. What has God prepared for us? In I Corinthians 2:7 Paul refers to it as "God's secret wisdom." He says the secret wisdom "has been hidden from everyone until now." Indeed, God has been keeping the secret since "before the world began." Whatever else the secret wisdom may be, Paul says it is a plan "for our glory." That is, it is a plan for making us glorious. What is the substance of God's secret wisdom? Most certainly it is the gospel of Jesus Christ and everything it contains and implies. But it is much more than the simple gospel considered in the abstract. God's secret wisdom is everything God has planned for those who love Him and the gospel message. It is everything God has planned for us to redeem us, restore us, and make us glorious. Many have thought our verses refer exclusively to the future state of the life to come. God's secret wisdom surely includes plans for the future, but it also includes plans for this life. It is God's eternal plan for those He has saved. It includes all of God's blessings that He plans to confer on true believers in this life and the next. The secret wisdom is, indeed, secret. That's why no one has ever seen it, heard it, or imagined it. But, as Paul says in verse 10, "God has shown us these things through the Spirit." People without the Spirit, however, cannot discern the secret wisdom. They have no part in the blessings to come and they have no knowledge of them. The fact that God has shown us these things through the Spirit does not mean that we know the fullness of everything God has planned for us now and in the future. Rather, it means that we know the gospel and what the gospel implies for us and it means that we are able to spiritually discern the working out of gospel salvation in our lives as time goes by. Those who have the Holy Spirit, in other words, can recognize God's plan at work in their lives and, as a result, can cooperate with it. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingJeremiah 40, 41, 42 Jeremiah 40 -- Jeremiah Set Free by Nebuzaradan, Remains in Judah NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Jeremiah 41 -- Ishmael kills Gedaliah; Johanan Rescues the People NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Jeremiah 42 -- Jeremiah Assures of Safety in Judea and Destruction in Egypt NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Hebrews 2 Hebrews 2 -- Pay Attention; The Author of Salvation Perfected in Sufferings NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion And through him God reconciledeverything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. Insight Christ's death provided a way for all people to come to God. It cleared away the sin that keeps us from having a right relationship with our Creator. This does not mean that everyone has been saved, but that the way has been cleared for anyone who will trust Christ to be saved. Challenge We can have peace with God and be reconciled to him by accepting Christ, who died in our place. Is there a distance between you and the Creator? Be reconciled to God. Come to him through Christ. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Psalm 100:4 Be thankful unto him, and bless his name.Our Lord would have all his people rich in high and happy thoughts concerning his blessed person. Jesus is not content that his brethren should think meanly of him; it is his pleasure that his espoused ones should be delighted with his beauty. We are not to regard him as a bare necessary, like to bread and water, but as a luxurious delicacy, as a rare and ravishing delight. To this end he has revealed himself as the "pearl of great price" in its peerless beauty, as the "bundle of myrrh" in its refreshing fragrance, as the "rose of Sharon" in its lasting perfume, as the "lily" in its spotless purity. As a help to high thoughts of Christ, remember the estimation that Christ is had in beyond the skies, where things are measured by the right standard. Think how God esteems the Only Begotten, his unspeakable gift to us. Consider what the angels think of him, as they count it their highest honor to veil their faces at his feet. Consider what the blood-washed think of him, as day without night they sing his well deserved praises. High thoughts of Christ will enable us to act consistently with our relations towards him. The more loftily we see Christ enthroned, and the more lowly we are when bowing before the foot of the throne, the more truly shall we be prepared to act our part towards him. Our Lord Jesus desires us to think well of him, that we may submit cheerfully to his authority. High thoughts of him increase our love. Love and esteem go together. Therefore, believer, think much of your Master's excellencies. Study him in his primeval glory, before he took upon himself your nature! Think of the mighty love which drew him from his throne to die upon the cross! Admire him as he conquers all the powers of hell! See him risen, crowned, glorified! Bow before him as the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the mighty God, for only thus will your love to him be what it should. Daily Light on the Daily Path 1 Corinthians 7:31 and those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it; for the form of this world is passing away.James 1:9-11 But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; • and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. • For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. Genesis 5:27 So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died. James 4:14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 1 John 2:17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. Psalm 39:4 "LORD, make me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am. 1 Thessalonians 5:3,4 While they are saying, "Peace and safety!" then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. • But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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