Today's Reading: John 3: 14-21
**For a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please click this link: Subject Shifting Devotion.pdf.
Please click this link to read John 3: 14-21
When you read this blog or listen to the podcast, I am in Colorado with 5 ACNA bishops and 5 AMiA bishops(including me) on a 14,000 ft. mountain hiking retreat for eight days until next Wednesday. In order to give you my daily blogs and podcast, I am going to use a shorter form starting today until next Wednesday.
This passage tells us one very important thing. In order not to be beaten by the snake which represents sins of this world and our own sins, we need to turn our eyes to Jesus as He has already taken our sins and nailed it on the Cross. The snake is already on the Cross!
N.T. Wright says, "Verse 14 look back to the incident described in Numbers 21: 5-8. During their wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites grumbled against Moses, and were punished by poisonous snakes invading the camp, killing many of them. God gave Moses the remedy: he was to make a serpent out of bronze, put it on a pole and hold it up for people to look at. Anyone who looked at the serpent on the pole would live...The bronze serpent was thereafter stored in the Tabernacle as a sacred object, until, much later, King Hezekiah discovered that the people were worshipping it, and broke it to pieces (2 Kings 18: 4). It wasn't the bronze serpent itself that had saved the Israelites, but the saving power of God...Here it points clearly to the death of Jesus. Moses put the serpent on a pole, and lifted it up so the people could see it; even so, the son of man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. Humankind as a whole has been smitten with a deadly disease. The only cure is to look at the son of man dying on the cross, and find life through believing in him...You don't have to let the snake kill you. God's action in the crucifixion of Jesus has planted a sign in the middle of history. And the sign says: believe, and live."
What I heard from Jesus is that since Jesus nailed the snake on the Cross, we have to ask Jesus help so that we can also nail our sins on the cross and live! Turn your eyes to look at Jesus and at how He nailed the snake on the Cross by taking all our sins on Him. Have faith and courage that you can also follow Jesus example to nail your sins on you cross to follow Jesus daily! Isn't that how Jesus calls you to do everyday?
Do you know how to do it now? Turn your eyes on Jesus, nail your sins on the cross, be transformed and live!
Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to be willing to turn our eyes upon you so that we can follow your example to nail our sins on the cross that you ask us to carry daily so that we can be transformed and live. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Chinese praise song - 祢讓我生命改變 You Transform My Life
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