He Is God and Father



Meditation

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
(1 Peter 1:3)

God came down! He didn’t have to – in his infinite mercy and grace he came to give salvation to a wretch like me while I’m here and hope for eternity after I die. Without God’s mercy I have no hope at all. Without Jesus, I am still on the path leading straight to an eternity in hell. However, God does not wish for me or anyone else to go to that horrible place created for Satan and his angels. If I were to go to hell, it would be because I rejected God and his mercy and grace. I don’t have to worry about what comes after this life because I have the resurrection of Jesus from the grave that points to my final destination.
Jesus could have come as a conqueror. He could have set himself down on any throne of this mortal world and demanded to be served and worshiped. He could have had his angels kill anyone who did something wrong. That would have been his right as the creator of all things. Instead, the Father had a different plan. His plan, from the foundations of the earth, was to give us a way to throw off the bonds of sin and be reborn. It was the Father’s plan to send the Son to serve humanity, be sacrificed on the cross, and rise again in three days. But I had to take the next step if I wanted to be saved.
All I had to do was confess his sovereignty over my life, be cleansed in the waters of baptism, and turn from my past in repentance and submission to his will for my life. When I came up from the waters of baptism, I was made new, born again to life everlasting. I have the assurance that this is true because the tomb they placed the body of Christ in is empty! If he had not risen from the dead, why didn’t the Romans and the Jews simply produce his body? Jesus is my living hope. The Savior is alive and sits at the right hand of God the Father! If I should die before he returns, I know I will be resurrected as well. To him be the glory!




Prayer Time

Our Father in Heaven, you alone are worthy of our praise and admiration. You make everything beautiful. We love you because you first loved us, even when everything we did was disgusting in your sight. You loved us so much, you gave us a way to shed ourselves of that revolting behavior and be reconciled to you. Your Son, Jesus Christ, came to serve us by sacrificing himself on the cross, taking with him to the grave, all our sins. Thank you, Father, for giving us the free will to either accept or reject your offer of salvation. Thank you for not making us like robots, programmed to love you, which wouldn’t be love at all. You have given us the blessed hope of life everlasting with our confession of Christ as risen from the dead and the Lord of our lives. Help us, Lord, to reach the lost with the gospel of the cross, that they, like us, may be born again. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!


Location: Winchester, VA 22601, USA

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