And the winner of Lane Jordan’s book, 12 Steps to Becoming a More Organized Women: Practical Tips for Managing Your Home and Your Family (Updated & Revised)…TA DA!… is…(drum roll—hear it!)…Jeanne Doyon. Congratulations, Jeanne, please send me your mailing address. Thank you to everyone who put in their names.
On another note, I bet you were careful to say the title of this blog post. Yes, it is dangerous. But as I’ve been noticing and meditating on how the word “as” is used in the Bible (that’s better wording, right?), I’ve been excited to see an important concept again and again.
For instance, check out these verses (NASB):
Romans 15:7
Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.
How can you and I
accept others,
be kind,
love,
forgive,
be subject to, and
spiritually walk?
Because Jesus Christ, our great High Priest has gifted and graced us with those very things.
Only as we recognize how undeserving we are, just like the person we are struggling to
accept,
love,
forgive,
be subject to and
spiritually walk alongside,
only then will we be able and empowered and desire to share with others what we have received.
As soon as we refuse or struggle with (yes, here it is again)
accepting,
loving,
being kind,
forgiving,
being subject to, and
spiritually walking,
we are forgetting or rejecting God’s gracious gift for us of (wait for it!)
acceptance,
love,
kindness,
forgiveness
subjecting Himself to die for us, and
power to walk spiritually.
We have immediately revealed our heart that says, “I am better than you because I’ve been given (you know), but I don’t think you should have the same thing that God gave undeserving me like (yes, that!)”
Out of gratitude and joy in being brought from the area of darkness to the kingdom of light (Acts 26:18), we can respond in God’s power. Gratitude of what we have received empowers us to give what we could not give otherwise. When we see how we were blessed, though undeserving, we can offer godly responses to others.
All of us knee equally at the cross. If we don’t have that view, we’re not motivated to respond the way God responded to us: on Jesus’ behalf.
What “as” instruction in the Bible do you need today?