April 22, 2012 … Remembering Whose We Are

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: 1st Chronicles, Chapters 1-2 … To study these chapters, go to this link -
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Highlight Passage : 3: 16 …  For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

My Journal for Today: Today I’m taken, by the chronological Bible reading, to the book of 1st Chronicles, Chapters 1-2; and it seems like a drag, on the surface to be asked to read through this “Who’s Whom” in the list of the descendents of Adam. However, when you consider what’s being remembered here, one is (well, at least I am) stricken by how God, through the author of 1st Chronicles [likely Ezra by Jewish tradition], wanted His people to remember exactly from WHOM they were descended. And we, who are New Covenant believers, must take this into account when we realize, recognize, and remember exactly from WHOM we are grafted into God’s Holy Covenant.

And it was that remembrance which took me right back to the one verse in the New Testament which most Christians would remember as their jumping-off Scripture when it comes to how they were grafted into the reality of God’s New Covenant as believers, which was established by the life, death, and resurrection of God’s only Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus. And that verse would most likely be John 3: 16, and the verse which I’ve copied above, though most reading here could likely site if from memory.

So, today, I first REMEMBER THE REDEMPTIVE LOVE which became mine through the love of my God. And I do languish this morning in the memories of what God did by sending and sacrificing His only Son that I would have the blood-bought gift of the Lamb of God. He came to live FOR ME. He came to die FOR ME. And He was raised from the dead FOR ME that I might be raised for eternity to live WITH HIM. And going through the beginnings of these chronicles this morning, which were written into God’s word so that His chosen people might remember God’s love, has taken me back to remember that I am one of those who has been written into God’s chronicles of chosen ones. This morning I remember, as I hope you do, WHOSE I am in God’s book of life.

Secondly, in my reading through 1st Chronicles today, I RELISH THE REPENTANCE which allowed me to receive God’s free gift of saving grace … by believing in and receiving the blood which Christ shed FOR ME. I am a sinner who was redeemed by the blood of The Lamb; and today I’m so grateful to remember and realize that I’m on my way to be with my God forever because I was willing to surrender my life TO HIM … to become HIS … forever.

And finally, this reading today has helped me to RELIVE THE RESTORATION which is now my life IN CHRIST. As Paul wrote about in 2nd Cor. 5: 17, I am one of those redeemed, renewed, and reformed NEW CREATIONS in Christ. As Paul also wrote about in Gal. 2: 20,  " I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” 

And so, having been prompted by reading in 1st Chronicles how God wants His people to remember those who came before them, I come to this place today to remember who I am and, more importantly, Whose I am, … in Christ. Hence my remembrance in John 3: 16; and it is my prayer this morning that we all take in these chronicles as reminders of the reality that we, who have been grafted into this line of believers, can remember, relish, and relive our listing in God’s book of life, … being written in, through our faith in the One Who now brought us into His family forever.

My Prayer Today: … Lord, I am renewed today in my remembrance of being one of the redeemed, now listed in Your Book of Life. Amen