Week Three: Sowing Seed Day 18: Sanctified Seed April 13, 2016

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"Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of

unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground;

for it is time to seek the LORD, until He comes

and showers righteousness upon you."

(Hosea 10:12)

Day Eighteen Devotions:

MORNING MEDITATION

AFTERNOON DEVOTION

EVENING PRAYER

MORNING MEDITATION

Glean the Word:

John 9:1-25

Glimpse of Glory: "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Jesus performed many miracles during His earthly ministry to prove that He was the promised Messiah, and in doing so He demonstrated to the people the kind of Savior that He was. As His disciples walked with Him on one particular day they came across a man who had been blind since birth. The Lord saw the man and immediately had compassion on him, but His disciples did not yet have the heart of Christ, for they saw only a sinner, rather than someone who needed to be healed. "His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind" (v. 2). Much like the pots filled with water that Jesus' turned into wine, this man would be another vessel through which God's glory would be revealed. "...this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life" (v. 3b).

The poor blind beggar provides a picture of our impoverished spiritual state without Christ. Jesus used this divine appointment to teach this important lesson to the religious leaders of His day (a valuable lesson to be learned, even today!); but they would only become even blinder by the hardness of their hearts, while the blind man would gain more than just his physical sight, as the Lord would shine His glorious light into both the man's eyes and heart that Sabbath day. "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind" (v. 39). The light of Christ shown brightly that day, and revealed the ones who were really blind, even though the Pharisees did their best to conceal His convicting light. They cast the man out of the synagogue because he confessed that Jesus was the Christ, but Jesus found the man again and blessed him by letting him look upon the One who opened his eyes; and when he saw Jesus he cast himself at Jesus' feet and worshiped Him. Let us spend time in praise this morning, with gratitude in our hearts, for our gracious Lord has opened our eyes and hearts and turned our darkness into light. "One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" (v. 25b). Let us also pray for courage for believers, and removal of the fear of man, so we will boldly proclaim Christ's transforming grace which He has so powerfully worked in our lives, and bring Him the honor and the glory due His holy name.

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AFTERNOON DEVOTION

Glean the Word: Matthew 13:33 (and Luke 13:20-21)

Gift of Grace: "May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

Throughout the Scriptures the term "yeast" is connected symbolically to evil, corruption, and/or false teaching. When the Israelites observed the annual Passover Feast, they were careful to remove all the yeast ("leaven") from their homes, and they prepared "unleavened" bread to eat. Sin in a person's life is like a small amount of yeast in dough - it permeates, completely infiltrating that person's life and wreaking havoc in every area of their life. It is a destructive force that must be dealt with immediately. Jesus had warned His disciples: "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy" (Luke 12:1b). The religious leaders of His day did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God, and demanded that He show them a sign. Jesus rebuked them: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean" (Matthew 23:27).

In the parable of the yeast, Jesus revealed that, just as sin has the power to overtake a person's life for evil, so also, the kingdom of God has the power to transform a person's life for good. Sin is a destructive force, but the Word of God is "living and active"; and like the active agent in yeast which permeates an entire batch of dough, the Word has the power, through the Holy Spirit, to work through the whole heart and life of man and produce abundant spiritual life. The Lord sanctifies us by the Word, and leads us to experience a life of deepening intimacy with Christ. "Sanctify [us] by the truth; Your Word is truth" (John 17:17). Then we are placed in the fire, like bread in the oven, so that we can be tried and transformed into a fitting vessel that can feed and nourish the world. This afternoon, let us pray for the lost, those who are spiritually blind; not judging them by their sin, but rather with the compassion of Christ praying fervently that they may experience the transforming power of God's Word activated in their lives. May they, like the blind man, experience such a physical and spiritual change, that the people around them will barely recognize them, and only see the Christ in them that has worked so great a transformation in their lives, and give glory to God!
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EVENING PRAYER

Glean the Word: Hebrews 11:20-22

Fruit of Repentance: "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth...Instead, they were longing for a better country - a heavenly one..." (v. 13, 16a).

Evening prayer focus: A sanctified faith (click on the image below for our evening prayer).

"But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word or mouth or by letter. May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who loved us and by His grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word." (2 Thessalonians 2:13-15)

This evening, draw close to the fire and experience the warmth, love and light of Christ as we come boldly before the Throne of Grace and join our hearts together in prayer:

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