Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

The chicken, or the egg?

Sunday, March 22, 2009

John 3:16-17
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Ephesians 2:8-10
It is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

I'm writing this devotion as time passes. I'm acutely aware of that time. Everything I think and feel and want and do is anchored firmly in time.

Time is woven through God's creation. At least I think it is. But how did our experience of time change as a result of the Fall? When God became the man Jesus, time affected him too. And perhaps God has always allowed himself to be subject to time, at least as He relates to us.

The Bibles declares in several places that Jesus was present at the creation of the world (e.g. Hebrews 1:2). And we too seem to have a permanence belied by our fragile bodies. I am "God's workmanship." And the good God has for me to do has been prepared in advance. It seems that time was made for man, not man for time.

I look back in my simple way to times when I turned away from God, when I chose not to help, to serve, to give. Was I throwing a wrench into the gears of eternity as I tried to repair my life or protect myself in my ignorance and fear?

These are good questions for a Sunday afternoon. They don't need to be answered, but in thinking about them I find myself quiet before God's wisdom. I am not afraid to be here. God does not condemn me, even when I might condemn myself. He saves me, even when I don't think I deserve saving. He saves me from myself, from death, from time and restores his Spirit within me.

Now I begin to know you, Lord, and I will sing your songs. How could I have sung when I was in a strange land? Let me always remember you, Lord and consider being with You in your home my highest joy.

Devotions Archive

The chicken, or the egg?

Sunday, March 22, 2009