Look inside this book.Where the Bush is Burning: A Daily Devotional by [Thomas Tice]

Category: Where the Bush is Burning

Even As God

Even As God

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And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave You.  

Ephesians 4:32 

How does God forgive us? Our text falls in what we may term the practical portion of Ephesians. Typically, Paul in writing his epistles, begins with the doctrinal discussion of his subject and proceeds later to the more practical application for which the doctrinal portion has laid the groundwork. Our text exhorts us to forgive one another ‘even as God in Christ forgave you.’ The implications of this statement are more far-reaching than we may immediately realize. We understand that the process of sanctification involves the work of God’s free grace wherein He renews us in the whole person after the image of Christ. Thus Christ is first, Our Redeemer, and afterward the Great Example for us to follow. We become imitators of Christ. Therefore, if we are to forgive each other as God has forgiven us, we need a clear understanding of how God forgives. This becomes the model for our own forgiveness of one another. We want to examine this carefully, that we do not assert that God does things He does not do and somehow lay upon ourselves, and others practices which are not an accurate reflection of how we should forgive.  

Our Good and Wise God, 
we rejoice that You have given us Christ 
to show us how to do. 
We praise You, that as we follow Him, 
we grow to be like Him.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Not The Same

Not The Same

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For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.  

Romans 12:4-5  

We are all the same in that we are redeemed, but we are all different as far as how we function as the Body of Christ. Paul makes direct reference to these differences in our text.  Here, he suffices to say, ‘we have many members in one body, but all members do not have the same function.’ In later writings he will expand on that idea. He points out the different functions by saying, ‘if the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body?’ It is evident from his description that each of us, who is a member of the Body of Christ has a role or function in that Body. God has chosen that role for us, fit and fashioned us to fulfill it, and placed us where we can perform the function He has for us. Therefore we should appreciate the diversity of the Body of Christ and the valuable role we and others play in it. It is not even all-important that we have a full understanding of the extent of the role we play. There are many things which God has not fully revealed to us. As we look to Christ daily, living in the imitation of Him, we will fulfill our purpose in His Body for the greater good of the whole.  

Our Holy and Wise God, 
we rejoice that You have given us a place in Your Body. 
We praise You that You have prepared us 
for the role we play. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

One Body In Christ

One Body In Christ

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For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.  

Romans 12:4-5 

The redeemed people whom Christ has purchased with His Own blood are the Body of which He is the Head. This enables us to understand how the church, which is another term for the redeemed, functions in a practical way. To be clear, the church of Christ is not an organization, a denomination, or any single local body. We tend to use that term, but it is not an accurate reflection of what the church really is. The church is all the redeemed people of all ages. They are the Body of Christ. As such they have different functions. Christianity is not a competition. If we consider how our own body functions, we have a good illustration of how the church does. The head is the key to everything else. The head is the command center which guides the body through all operations. Christ is our Head. From Him we receive our instructions. The rest of the body has a huge and varied collection of parts all of which have their role in transporting,  feeding, resting, and caring for the rest of the body in every other way. Body parts are not competing with each other, but rather aiding each other for the good of the whole. If we know this, we understand the value of others. Thus as we grow in grace, we begin to understand the usefulness of others who are very different than we are.  

Our Glorious, Living Savior, 
we rejoice that You are our Head. 
We praise You that we have the privilege 
to be members of Your Body. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Nothing And No One

Nothing And No One

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Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 

Romans 8:35 

God has done all that is necessary to secure us. He has done it through Christ, His Son. The evidence of this lies throughout the Scripture from the first mention of Him in Genesis 3, to His last remarks in Revelation 22. As Paul reaches the crescendo of his writing on the security of the redeemed, he asks the rhetorical question, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?’ He follows that question with a list of things and people, all of whom he contends cannot separate us from the love of Christ. He speaks of tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, death, life, angels, principalities, powers, things present, things to come, height, depth, and any other created thing. He declares that not any one of these people or things can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thus the answer to the question, who shall separate us from the love of Christ, is nothing and no one. This bolsters our faith in a way that few other things can. Christ has us completely. We are safe in Him.  

Our Great God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You hold us and will not let us go. 
We praise You that You have  
guaranteed our future. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
Delivered Up

Delivered Up

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He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 

Romans 8:32 

God delivered up His only begotten Son for us. He delivered Him up to various things all of which spelled humiliation. His being born, and that in a low estate was humiliating. His life as a member of the poor class was humiliating. His privations of being homeless and indigent were humiliating. His being arraigned as a common criminal was humiliating. The degradation of His trial with the spitting, hitting, whipping and mocking was humiliation. His crucifixion with its public nakedness, agony, sweat, blood and gore was humiliating. His death and continuing under its power for a time was humiliating. It was to all these horrific humiliations that His Father delivered Him. Perhaps the most poignant aspect of it for us personally is that He delivered Him up for us all. He delivered Him up for a specific people of whom we are part. Therefore, we cannot behold the sufferings of Christ casually. We gaze upon Him knowing that everything He did in life and in death was for us.  

Our Generous and Sacrificial God, 
we rejoice that You were willing to deliver  
Christ up to such humiliations. 
We praise You that because He endured them, 
we have forgiveness of sins.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

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