You Forgot The Candlesticks - September 1, 2010

Daily Reading

Ezekiel 18-19

Daily Verse

"Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?"

declares the Sovereign LORD.

"Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?"

Ezekiel 18:23

Daily Thought

Jean Valjean took shelter in the Bishop's home. He also took the silver.

"He claimed that you gave it to him," mocked the Constable.

"Yes, of course I gave him the silverware," replied the Bishop. "Thank you for bringing him back. Release him."

"You forgot the candlesticks, Jean Valjean. They are worth 2,000 francs. Why did you leave them?"
--Victor Hugo's Les Miserables

Do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?
--Romans 2:4

The Bishop glared with terrifying love, "Jean Valjean, you no longer belong to evil. With this silver I've bought your soul. I've ransomed you from fear and hatred. Now I give you back to God."

You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
--1Corinthians 6:19-20

To God's Glory,
Dave Price

Daily Prayer

My Lord, my God, You have shown a love unimaginable. You bought me with Your love, a love that sacrificed what is most precious to You. You made Your Son sin. Not sin of His own doing, but my sin and the world's sin. He bore it all, sin and the just consequence. He died, separated and forsaken by You, because You cannot look upon sin. But sin could not hold Him, and He rose again, the first of more to come, of which I am one.

I am Yours, God, bought fully by the blood of Your Son, my Savior, Jesus Christ. I am, therefore, a living sacrifice to You, showing the world Your good, pleasing and perfect will.

Amen.