The Responsibility of The Christian

"To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel." Luke 1: 79, 80

       The question, Where is thy brother? comes to those who follow Christ, not only as it comes to other men, but also with another meaning, a meaning which enables us to give a very blessed answer to it. Abel was a type of Christ. Abel's sacrifice is the first recorded type of the sacrifice on Calvary. He who died on the cross is our Brother. As we hear the voice of God calling to us, Where is thy brother? we answer, Here is our Brother, crucified for sin, buried, risen, ascended, seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ever interceding for us. It is a new demand, a new question.

O sweetest Blood, that can implore

Pardon of God, and heaven restore,

The heaven which sin had lost:

While Abel's blood for vengeance pleads,

What Jesus shed still intercedes

For those who wrong Him most.

       And not only is Jesus the Brother about whom the question is asked of each of us, Where is thy brother? but in Him we all are brethren. Again, the question comes with a new meaning. "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another." Accordingly the perfect life does not consist in the cultivation of an isolated personal perfection. Christ lived in God; He was detached from the world, He spent whole nights in prayer; but the account of Him is incomplete until we add, "He went about doing good." "He came to seek and to save the lost." "As I have loved you," He said. In these solitary hours which He spent in communion with the Father He renewed the fires of His love for men, maintained and augmented His strength for serving them. While deepening His own delight in the Father's love. He added intensity to His passion for raising the most miserable of mankind into the same transcendent blessedness. And so the true imitation of Christ includes not only the discovery of the immeasurable strength which a devout soul may find in God, but the actual use of that strength for the service of mankind. Divall, A Believer's Rest 

Focus Your Thinking & Lather up with a bit of SOAP:

Scripture: "And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel."

Observation: This child Jesus grew stronger everyday in his spirit while exiled with his parents in Egypt and again when tested in the desert by the evil one. He was prepared for ministry and service to us in these lonely, dry places. But he was not truly alone. He was with God.

Application: God prepares us in our solitude, quietly, tenderly, and He waits for us to grow through our devotions and study, so that someday we all will return to the world to share our faith with others.

Prayer: Dear Lord, help me to take full advantage of our quiet moments together. Lead me forward on a path of deeper reflection, so that I may be made more like Christ. So that I may be made better prepared to share your wisdom with others. Amen.

Focus On Illuminating The Scripture: 

      I've created a free sample of an illuminated text that I colored for my personal copy of The Praise Bible. Because this coloring bible emphasizes garden motifs among it's illustrations, I have chosen to highlight planting, growth and harvest scriptures among it's pages in my copy.
     There are literally hundreds of literary motifs in the pages of scripture. Any number of these motifs may be selected among the Bible's pages to illustrate the faithfulness of God and the fruitfulness of the believer.

Print the following free illuminated scripture from kathy grimm. She hand-colored it with pencils and tipped it into her Praise Bible with copper washi-tape.

Free design of Luke 1:80 for Bible journaling by kathy grimm.

Focus On Listening:

"Come Holy Spirit" sung by City Harvest Church