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 Isaiah 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.This day is notable in English history for two great deliverances wrought by God for us. On this day the plot of the Papists to destroy our Houses of Parliament was discovered, 1605. "While for our princes they prepare In caverns deep a burning snare, He shot from heaven a piercing ray, And the dark treachery brought to day." And secondly--today is the anniversary of the landing of King William III, at Torbay, by which the hope of Popish ascendancy was quashed, and religious liberty was secured, 1688. This day ought to be celebrated, not by the saturnalia of striplings, but by the songs of saints. Our Puritan forefathers most devoutly made it a special time of thanksgiving. There is extant a record of the annual sermons preached by Matthew Henry on this day. Our Protestant feeling, and our love of liberty, should make us regard its anniversary with holy gratitude. Let our hearts and lips exclaim, "We have heard with our ears, and our fathers have told us the wondrous things which thou didst in their day, and in the old time before them." Thou hast made this nation the home of the gospel; and when the foe has risen against her, thou hast shielded her. Help us to offer repeated songs for repeated deliverances. Grant us more and more a hatred of Antichrist, and hasten on the day of her entire extinction. Till then and ever, we believe the promise, "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper." Should it not be laid upon the heart of every lover of the gospel of Jesus on this day to plead for the overturning of false doctrines and the extension of divine truth? Would it not be well to search our own hearts, and turn out any of the Popish lumber of self-righteousness which may lie concealed therein? Daily Light on the Daily Path Exodus 30:23,25 "Take also for yourself the finest of spices: of flowing myrrh five hundred shekels, and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, two hundred and fifty, and of fragrant cane two hundred and fifty, • "You shall make of these a holy anointing oil, a perfume mixture, the work of a perfumer; it shall be a holy anointing oil.Exodus 30:32 It shall not be poured on anyone's body, nor shall you make any like it in the same proportions; it is holy, and it shall be holy to you. Ephesians 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 1 Corinthians 12:4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. Psalm 45:7 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of joy above Your fellows. Acts 10:38 "You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. John 3:34 "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. John 1:16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. 1 John 2:27 As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him. 2 Corinthians 1:21,22 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, • who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. Galatians 5:22,23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, • gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 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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