06 Saturday Jun 2015
Posted in Daily Reading
I love reading Paul’s quote from Hosea 13:14 in 1 Corinthians 15:55, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” Because of Christ’s victory over death through salvation we no longer have to fear death and the uncertainty of eternity. When we have faith in God, and His promises through Christ, we are certain of our eternal life in heaven with Him.
29 Friday May 2015
Posted in Daily Reading
Looks like I forgot to post yesterday, so today I will do two post to catch up.
We must never take for granted all God did for us by sending His Son to be sacrificed for us. 1 Corinthians 7:23 says, You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of man. Christ paid the price to set us free from the whims of this world that lead us to unfulfilled lives and slavery to sin. Christ set us free; let us not allow ourselves to be placed back into slavery.
25 Monday May 2015
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We all want to be liked by others. No matter what your personality style, you want to be liked and not judged. But in the end, it does not matter what other people think of us; it only matters what God thinks. In 1 Corinthians 4:3-4 Paul tells the Corinthian believer this, 3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. Our conscience should always be clear because of Christ’s sacrifice for us. While we will never be perfect, nor will we ever stop sinning because of our nature, God’s grace for us is all that matters. What others think of us, or even what we think about ourselves, does not matter.
24 Sunday May 2015
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This is a fascinating video with many interesting thoughts, both spiritually and just plain interesting. The video is produced by a guy name Destin Sandlin who is literally a rocket scientist. He credits his fascination with scientific method and his job as a rocket engineer for having inspired him to make educational videos on his YouTube channel “Smarter Every Day”. One of the things Destin talks about in the video below is, “Knowledge does not equal understanding”. While I believe Destin is a believer, he does not come right out and say it, but this has some very interesting spiritual implications. Just because we have knowledge, does not mean we understand. In other words, if we do not have the Holy Spirit to help us understand God, all the knowledge in the world will not bring us closer to Him. Moreover, as believers, telling people about God and giving them more knowledge about Him does not necessarily help them understand His love and desire to have a relationship with Him. It is not an issue of knowledge, but instead, it comes from an understanding that can only come from God Himself.
On the non-spiritual side, and something incredibly interesting, is the complexity of the algorithm in your brain used to ride a bicycle. It really is THAT complicated. If you really think about it, there are innumerable calculations and adjustments your brain instructs your body to make to do something as “simple” as riding a bike. Your brain is an amazing computer and able to do much more than we may ever realize.
Sit back and enjoy the video. I hope it blows you away as much as it did me.
If you ever come across anything you’d like me to post on this blog, please feel free to contact me at dino.evangelista@gmail.com.
22 Friday May 2015
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God gave us the Holy Spirit so that we could begin to understand who God is. We do not need to be educated to understand God, we simply need to look to the Holy Spirit and ask for knowledge and wisdom about who God is. In 1 Corinthians 2:12 Paul says, We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. The reality is we will never fully comprehend all that God has done for us until we are finally in the presence of God. But with the Holy Spirit we can at least begin to grasp our need for God and all that Christ has done in providing salvation to us all.
05 Tuesday May 2015
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Under Roman law, and adopted son was guaranteed all legal rights of his father’s estate. He was not treated as a second class child, even if he was born a slave. In Galatians 4:7 Paul talks about this in reference to our relationship with God when we accept the gift of salvation through Christ’s sacrifice, So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. Likewise, as adopted children of God, we share all the rights as heirs of the Kingdom of God. We have a full identity as His children. Let us all try to remember this as we live our lives; we are children of the King.
04 Monday May 2015
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I find it interesting that we, as believers, still struggle with the things Paul talks about to the Galatians 2,000 years ago. People who are supposedly strong believers still relying on what they do for Christ rather than what He did for us. In Galatians 3:24 Paul says, So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Nowhere does it say we are justified by the work we do for Christ, yet that is what we classify as a “good Christian”. Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to say we don’t need to be good people. God created us to serve Him by serving and loving others, but that is not salvation. It is obedience and a byproduct of loving God and wanting others to know that love. Let us work to be a reflection of Christ and recognize that He does not expect us to be perfect or even strive for perfection, but rather to simply be a reflection of Him and His love.
02 Saturday May 2015
Posted in Daily Reading
The beauty of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is He crucified our sins with His death. Paul describes this beautifully in Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God. When Christ died for our sins, our sins died with Him. Because our sins died with Christ, we are no longer condemned and have relationally become one with Him. Our old life no longer exists.
30 Thursday Apr 2015
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The obvious benefit of belief in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us on the cross is salvation. But the most compelling reason for our present circumstances is a changed life. In today’s reading we see a prime example of this when Paul and Silas are beaten and jailed. When the earthquake happened and all the prison doors were opened, instead of running away, Paul and Silas did what most people would not and stayed. Moreover, they took the opportunity to save the jailer, not just physically, but spiritually as well. We see this in Acts 16:31, They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.” Paul and Silas knew that a changed life does not just impact the individual, but everyone around them. Sometimes the impact is positive and sometimes it is negative, but there is no doubt there will be a reaction.
29 Wednesday Apr 2015
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The Law of Moses was put in place to guide the people of Israel. They had no other choice but to try to follow the Law because it was the only way to stay in communion with our perfect God. But the Law was hard and it was impossible to keep fully and to the extent required by God. It was for this reason Christ died on the cross for us; to give us a way to God provided by grace. In Acts 15:10-11 Peter spells this out, 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are. It is a simple process to believe and yet we all know it is conceptually difficult for some. It all comes down to trust and faith in the love Christ has for us all.
Daily Devotion 