Read To Me Daily Semester 3Намуна

LAMENTATIONS 1-2:
In the early chapters of the book that bears his name, Jeremiah spoke repeatedly of his tears.  Lamentations will help us to understand how this ‘weeping prophet’ felt, and how God mourned also. This book has been a comfort to many who mourn. Light breaks through in the middle— in chapter 3, with words that are used in one of our greatest hymns. The book ends with poignant questions to God.

PROVERBS 12a:
Here is a favorite verse to introduce today’s proverbs:

12:12 NLT Thieves are jealous of each other’s loot,
but the godly are well rooted and bear their own fruit.

Re-reading EPHESIANS 1:
Chapter 1 of Ephesians has four instances of ‘joined in union’ with Christ. I want to give a note about how Paul calls the Ephesians “God’s holy people” (in the NLT), or in the KJV and the ESV it is ‘saints’. The problem with both of these ways of translating the Greek is that most of us Christians do not see ourselves as saints or ‘holy people’. In our translation work in Indonesia we found the same problem. The solution we found is to translate that we are ‘people who have been made holy by God’. That is the meaning! The people in Ephesus were ordinary humans, and were not holy because of their own efforts. God makes us holy when we fully believe the Good News about Christ that is proclaimed in this letter. And again I want to highlight that believing what God says about our identity is key to being able to live appropriately in that identity.

Let’s pray.
Dear heavenly Father, help us to believe that we could be included in the wonderful things Paul says in Ephesians. First, help us to believe that we have not just been made acceptable to You, but even holy and without fault in your sight because of the sacrifice of Christ. Help us to believe the overwhelming greatness of your gracious kindness to us. We have no trouble at all believing that we don’t deserve your kindness. Help us to believe that we are now your children, and that because of our union with Christ, we have been given every spiritual blessing in heaven. And this chapter says more than once that we were chosen by You for this honor. We know what it feels like when people don’t choose us. But You chose us before the world was made! And You have placed your stamp of ownership on us by giving us the Holy Spirit. We have your guarantee that You will treat us as your children and we will be given a glorious inheritance. And now we praise You for revealing your plans to us— plans that were kept secret for ages and ages. We kneel before You in thanks and worship.