By Tin-chee Lo (盧天賜); February 2, 2012
Devotional Scripture passages of the date (Note)
Date: February 2, 2012
Shared by TC Lo
Ex 15:22 Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water.
Ex 15:23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.)
Ex 15:24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
Ex 15:25 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them.
Mt 22:18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?
Mt 22:19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius,
Mt 22:20 and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?”
Mt 22:21 “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
Sharing:
Suffering and evil are realities of this fallen world. They have a spiritual origin: sin. We are made to thirst for fulfillment, we long for what the world offers us, but what we find out is that the worldly water is bitter, like the water of Marah. Nothing can fill our God-shaped void (after Blaise Pascal, 1623-1662) except God. The only solution to this predicament is the CROSS OF CHRIST. When this piece of wood is thrown into the bitter water of our lives, it transforms them into sweet water.
But the question is how this transformation is to take place existentially in our day-to-day lives? Jesus gives us a hint:
When our Lord was tempted by hypocrites concerning the matter of taxation, He replied by first asking, “Whose portrait is this in this coin?” Then Jesus replied back their answer, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
Now, if Jesus asks me, “Whose portrait is this in you?” What difference will it make if my answer is “I bear Your image”? If we really bear the image of God, our lives will be sweet even amid bitter circumstances because, for one thing, part of God’s image consists of JOY and PEACE. The purpose of our lives can be found in Genesis 5:1, “When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God” and we are to reflect His image in our lives.
Note: http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/
