Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 3-094 (Devotional)

NEW BIRTH INTO A LIVING HOPE

by Peter Kennedy

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” – 1 Peter 1:3

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a successful physician when he felt the call to become a pastor. He abandoned his medical career in 1927 and served in several churches including Westminster Chapel in London. In his book, “Safe in the World”, Lloyd-Jones writes: “Our normal, ordinary view of salvation is hopelessly and ridiculously inadequate. Our trouble is that we always start with ourselves instead of starting with God. Instead of going to the Bible and looking at its revelation and discovering there what salvation means, I start with myself and certain things that I want and desire, certain benefits that I always want to enjoy in this life and in this world.

“I want forgiveness of sins; I want peace of conscience and of mind; I want enjoyment and happiness; I want to be delivered from certain sins; I want guidance; I want this and that; and my whole conception of salvation is reduced to that level. … The most wonderful thing of all is not that my sins have been forgiven, nor that I may enjoy certain experiences and blessing as a Christian. The thing that should astound me … is that I am a child of God, one of God’s people.”

If you have trusted Jesus Christ with your life, you have a new living hope in Him. Today in prayer, give Christ praise that you not only have salvation, but you are a child of God!

“You could speak of Jesus’ rising as the most hopeful (hope-full) thing that has ever happened–and you would be right!” – J I Packer

God’s Word: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God–children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” – John 1:12-13

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DEVOTIONS IN THE BOOKS OF PETER

By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2003, Devotional E-Mail

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