A Bold and Arduous Project - March 10, 2010

Daily Reading

Numbers 35-36

Daily Verse

"Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell,

for I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites."

Numbers 35:34

Daily Thought

"Be holy, because I am holy."

--1Peter 1:16

Benjamin Franklin tried. "It was about this time I conceiv'd the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other."

He made a chart: Temperence, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Chastity, Humility.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

Benjamin Franklin failed. "I was supris'd to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined."

Sounds like the apostle Paul.

For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing.

-- If Ben can't do it, if Paul can't do it --

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me?

-- If I can't do it --

Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!

--Romans 7:19, 24-25

We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

--Hebrews 10:10

The blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

--1John 1:7,9

"Be holy, because I am holy."

--1Peter 1:16

To God's Glory,

Dave

Daily Prayer

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. We worship You, adore You, praise You. But how, then, do we approach You? For we are not holy. Far from it.

By the blood of Jesus Christ, who bore our sins, we are made righteous with his righteousness. We may approach You, O God, with confidence, through a holiness not of our own, but through our Savior, our Lord, our God, Jesus Christ.

Amen