Life: October 30, 2012

TODAY’S WORD FOR TUESDAY OCTOBER 30, 2012.

LIFE

DEFINITION:

Duration of existence; a living being; human existence; a career; a condition or course of living.

SCRIPTURE:

For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. Psalm 139: 13-14. 

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6.

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. Deuteronomy 30:19

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

The Psalmist in Psalm 139 (above) informs us that God not only created us but we are wonderfully made. God created us to have a life that is productive and full. A productive and full life comes from a total commitment to God. It is not an easy commitment because it requires discipline and a willingness to yield oneself to God.

Many never find happiness in life, like the believer does, because they look for it in gratification of getting possessions and material things that they feel will make them “happy.” The problem with this philosophy is that things really do not satisfy. A full and productive life does not come from having material possessions.

Contrast this with the life of one that has put his or her faith in the Lord. Even though we were born as sinners into an evil world with Satan’s sinful influences all around us, God provided His only Son as a substitute for us to pay our penalty for our sins. The result is, as believers in Jesus Christ, we can live a life of hope with the assurance of eternal life. A life yielded to Christ leads to a life of blessing which is the life God desires for us. 

David recognized that God is life and the creator of life. In Psalms 139, David describes God as fashioning his tiny body together in the darkness of his mother’s womb. God knew and loved David before he ever existed. God designed the person that David was to be and brought him into being according to His predetermined plan.

David was shaped by his Heavenly Father into a unique creation and David chose life and lived a life of obedience to God. Like David, each of us is a unique production of our Creator’s genius. All life is created by God and bears His autograph and it is our choice to choose to have life by serving God.

Moses in his last days just before he put Joshua in command of the Children of Israel urged the people to renew their covenant with God. They had spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness because they had broken their covenant with God. He gave them a choice of life and prosperity or death and destruction.

In the verse above from Deuteronomy, Moses told the children of Israel to make the right choice and choose LIFE! In the next verse, Moses says that God is their life. In choosing life they were choosing to love the Lord, obey His voice and cling to Him. And Moses continued by telling the Children of Israel that if they chose life they were to be obedient to God and that they would live longer and would dwell in the land that God promised them through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Forty years earlier they had not chosen life. They chose death and destruction, and because of their disobedience, they suffered greatly. As a result of their choice not one person in that generation saw the Promised Land.

Jesus as God’s Son is life and also the giver of life. In John 4: 46-54, Jesus was asked by a nobleman, an official from the king’s court, to come to Capernaum and heal his son who was on the brink of death. He came to Jesus believing He could give life.

The crowd did not believe so Jesus put him off by saying that “unless you people are dazzled by a miracle you refuse to believe.” The nobleman would not be put off and he insisted, “Come down! It is life or death for my son.” Jesus simply said, “Go home. Your son lives.” The father chose to obey Jesus and went home and asked when the son got better. It was the exact time that Jesus said to him that his son lived. As a result the nobleman and his entire household believed in Jesus.

Jesus used this miracle to let us know that Jesus is the giver of life. When we believe and accept Him as our Savior, He gives us eternal life that does not perish. Each of us has a choice. We choose life or we choose death and what we choose lasts for eternity.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Proverbs 22:6.

Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.

PRAYER:

Thank You for the life that You give me here on this earth where I can serve You each day. Help me to share with others today what life is like when they put their trust in You. I look forward to spending an eternity with You because You have given me eternal life. Make my life demonstrate to others the life that You alone can give.