Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotional: Jesus saves

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: We don’t save anyone. Only Jesus saves. Our calling is to love God and our neighbors. In the process of loving our neighbors, we will inevitably introduce them to Jesus. (There’s no way you can love someone and not tell them about the most important thing in your life.) What happens then is God’s business, but we will be a witness to what we know of God to those who are compelled to ask. In the meantime, our mission is to keep on loving our neighbors, regardless.

Love is truly our highest calling. It relates to all people saved or unsaved, regardless of religion, race, or gender. Love as God loves and you will not go wrong. When love is the goal, everything else gets done in the process.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast - Ephesians 2:8-9

Joy vs. Happiness

Joy is more than pleasure; and it is more than happiness. Happiness is a state of mind which lasts for a longer or shorter time and is dependent on many conditions, external and internal. In the ancient view it is a gift of the gods which they give and take away again. In the American Constitution, "the pursuit of happiness" is a basic human right. In economic theory the greatest happiness of the greatest possible number of people is the purpose of human action. In the fairy tale, "they lived happily ever after." Happiness can stand a large amount of pain and lack of pleasure. But happiness cannot stand the lack of joy. For joy is the expression of our essential and central fulfillment. No peripheral fulfillments and no favorable conditions can be substituted for the central fulfillment. Even in an unhappy state a great joy can transform unhappiness into happiness. What, then, is this joy?

This joy which has in itself the depth of blessedness is asked for and promised in the Bible. It preserves in itself its opposite, sorrow. It provides the foundation for happiness and pleasure. It is present in all levels of man’s striving for fufillment. It consecrates and directs them. It does not diminish or weaken them. It does not take away the risks and dangers of the joy of life. It makes the joy of life possible in pleasure and pain, in happiness and unhappiness, in ecstasy and sorrow. Where there is joy, there is fulfillment. And where there is fulfillment, there is joy. In fulfillment and joy the inner aim of life, the meaning of creation, and the end of salvation, are attained.

- Excerpts from "Meaning of Joy" http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=375&C=32

Echoes Of Paradise

Revelation 21:1-7

Our worship here is a mere prelude to the great praise service in the future when we stand in God’s presence. But sometimes when we join with others in vibrant worship, we experience an echo of paradise on this earth.

"I'm With Him"

Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise
—Luke 23:43

On the day Jesus died, three crosses were raised. Jesus hung on the center one between two criminals. One of the men mocked Jesus, but the other said to Him, “Remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus answered, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:42-43).
Imagine the man’s thoughts as he took his last breath. He had paid a horrible penalty for his crimes. But now, because he put his faith in Jesus, he was welcomed into heaven as a child of God. Perhaps he said with confidence, “I know I don’t deserve to be here, but I’m with Him!” gesturing toward Jesus. And Jesus would have confirmed it: “He’s with Me.”

The Waiting

Passage of Reading - Genesis 15:1-6

Not so in haste, my heart!
Have faith in God, and wait;
Although He seems to linger long,
He never comes too late.

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” – Heb 10:23