I just got back yesterday from my week’s fishing vacation with three other Calvin College buddies in Northern Ontario, Canada. The landscape and starry sky were particularly stunning in beauty, detail, and extent. This photo represents the adventure and joy of checking out what was behind a narrow channel: more lakes, more islands, more beaver dams, more fishing holes in steep drop-offs by bolder walls, and so much more.
Today’s devotion concerns a vacation meditation: the endless variety of manifestations of God’s grace through Jesus Christ.
Often, we thought we were “closed-in” at the end of a bay. Likewise, in life, there may be many who taunt us specifically about our problems and generally about evil in the world. We may feel “closed-in”. But, look! There is a channel!
Psalm 52:1
“Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? The lovingkindness of God endures all day long.”
“Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? The lovingkindness of God endures all day long.”
Psalm 84:11
“For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”
“For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”
Romans 8:32
“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”
“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”
Psalm 23:6
“Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
“Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
In conclusion, similar to how we need to take the particular channel to get to all of these wonderful things, we need Jesus Christ to get to all of the other of God’s gracious blessings.
John 1:17
“For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”
“For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”
Romans 5:15
“But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.”
“But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.”
Ephesians 2:7
“so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
“so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions 