LCC Daily Devotions: Daily Devotion for November 30, 2006 from Lutheran Church Charities


Daily Devotion		Lutheran Church Charities November 30, 2006

Opening Note: Starting Next Monday, December 4th I will be starting a Devotion Series titled: The Kingdom of God Breaks Forth that will take us to Christmas. Please join me on this journey to Bethlehem and beyond.

Your Family Resemblance?

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:10

Who do you look like in your family? Whose eyes do you have? Whose ears? Who is responsible for your head of hair or in my case, lack of it? We are born with certain characteristics -- they come from our parents, sometimes from our grandparents. That's called heredity.

What is the resemblance in God's family? How can people have a family resemblance when they come from all over the world?

We are to resemble Jesus Christ to take on his attributes. We are to take on what Scripture describes as the Fruit of the Spirit. Notice it says Fruit, singular! We are to grow each day in having more of these characteristics in our life. Ask yourself this morning how can I be more: (highlighted words)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-25

The Bible says: Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

So what we are to look like is not heredity, its Christianity.

Prayer
Gracious God: This is yet another day to grow up, to become something more than we are. Help us to see the goal, that we all will grow into the full measure of Christ and that at our end, we will see the great family from which we have come and into which we grow, to the endless praise of God. Amen.

The above devotions are written by Tim Hetzner, President of Lutheran Church Charities and author of Word Among Us Bible Studies.

For permission to use these devotions please email Tim at his address below.

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Tim Hetzner - President