September 21
Today's Reading: Ecclesiastes 7; 2 Corinthians 13
Today's Thoughts: The Cross is Enough
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23
Where do you find a group of people who openly admit that they are sinners but do not go to church? Traffic School. A few years ago, I had the opportunity of being with a group of people who openly admitted their sins to each other as we went around the room explaining what wrong we had committed. These people may not have actually called themselves sinners but they all knew they were wrong with something in their driving. By showing up for traffic school, we were protected from insurance premium increases, points placed on our licenses and the DMV. While at traffic school, the instructor (who was a professional comedian—after all it's hard to admit you are wrong) sets the class up in three ways: what you want to know, what you need to know and what you should know in order to bypass future consequences. By the end of the day, I was filled with so many statistics of future repeat occurrences that I fully believed that I would break the law again—somehow, someway, some day. What are their motives for inducing such fear, guilt and inadequacy? Well, in this traffic school class, the organization was selling "lifelong memberships" to traffic school. I watched the whole class buy a membership, and then, he looked at me. And I said in front of everyone, "Is this legal? You are soliciting a profit off of our sins?" They are right that I will break the law again (it does not take much to realize that); however, their intent was wrong.
Man's ways are not God's ways. God demonstrated His love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus' motives and intentions are pure and selfless. He went to a cross, innocent and blameless, to become sin for us so we can be made righteous by His blood. Jesus paid the price of a debt we could never afford to pay. Every day we need to come to the cross of Christ to acknowledge our sins before Him. We need to confess them and believe that His sacrifice is enough to cleanse us of our sins. Every day we need to come to His feet and beg Him to use us and convict us of the wrongs we do. Every day we need a new filling of the Holy Spirit so that we can be used by Him to bring others into His freedom from old habits and behaviors. God has a plan for you. Jesus went to great lengths to help you to believe, for no other reason and for no personal profit, but because of His love for you. He was crucified and you are cleansed. Will we continue to sin? Absolutely. But do those sins now separate us from God? Never. All He wants from us is to believe. Do you believe? Is Jesus enough? Is Jesus all you want? Today, pray that God will open the door for you to share with someone else the hope you have found in Jesus.
Our mission is to evangelize the lost and awaken the saved to live empowered lives by the Work of God and His Holy Spirit. Daily Disciples Ministries makes a difference for the kingdom of God by teaching and training believers how to be in God's Word, how to pray and how to walk with Jesus every day, as His daily disciple.
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