Luke 20.27-47-"Now He is not the God of the death but of the living; for all live to Him."
Genesis 37-"Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, 'A wild beast devoured him.' Then let us see what will become of his dreams!"
Psalm 28-For if You are silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit.
Luke 4.21-30-And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went His way.
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Peanut butter, ground peanuts made into a spread. Peanuts are the seed of a vine. Seeds produced and multiplied. Life taking various forms. In what seemed to be death for Jesus and for Joseph, came salvation and life. For Joseph was planted in a pit. But taken out of that pit and sold into slavery. Eventually this seeming death brought life and rescue to an entire nation through the life of Moses and God's saving action. The seeming death of Jesus. His rejection at his hometown. His inevitable stoning; Jesus passes through the crowd to carry out a ministry and plan of God ending in his apparent death and burial in a tomb. Jesus, then to rise and change the lives of all people for all time. Saving humans from sin, death and the devil from what appeared to be his own death. God is not the God of the dead. God is the God of the living. I need to see this and understand. I need to die to my own selfish, sinful ways and desires and give my life to God. I need to live in God because He is the God of the living. In my death, I live. I live not because of my action. But because of the action in and through the death of Jesus. Through His death, I live. Life changes. Like the peanut, life changes and, like the peanut butter pictured here, in death, comes nourishment and life. In Jesus death and in my own death to my selfishness comes the nourishment and life lived following my Savior in his Kingdom. Thanks be to God for the peanut and thanks be to God for the Life of Jesus.
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Lord, I sin and am selfish. I turn my sin and selfishness over to you. Take my life and let me live in you I pray. ---Amen
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