WORD Committee: devotional sharing

During the past few weeks, our WORD committee has been brainstorming ideas on how to get our Home Group more excited about God's Word.  Here's the first fruits of their labor: regular devotional sharing.

Galatians 2:20-21

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

As I read this verse, I just grow once again in my appreciation for the cross.  I strive to live my life out of gratitude for the truth of the cross - what it says about me and what it says about Him.  In front of the law, I'm completely broken and lacking in every way possible, yet God calls me not with the punishment and consequences that I justly deserve.  He has reconciled us with the Law and Himself through the Cross.  He calls us His beloved and more and more I strive to deepen my understanding of this through understanding what my Father has saved me from.  Christ died for a specific purpose - to offer grace and love with the hopes of our relationship with Him being restored once again.  

 

When I first read these verses, I felt rather challenged and a bit scared thinking about the high calling that God has called me to live.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.  To be able to completely live this out on my own is so daunting and I constantly fail to be able to utter these words out of pure conviction because of the ways I still continue to succumb to my laziness and apathy.  However, I'm not doing this on my own, but rather my Jesus loves me and gave himself for me.  It is THIS GOD that I have and love.  Before the law we have utterly failed, but before Him we are His beloved, forgiven, unconditionally loved Child.

- Ray Shin