OUR DAILY BREAD : VEINS OF GOLD

[cimi]

June 24
Tuesday


VEINS OF GOLD

READ:
Romans 6:1-14
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If we have been united
together in the likeness
of His death, certainly
we also shall be in
the likeness of His
resurrection
__Romans 6:5
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While visiting the charming Cost-world area of England, I purchased some home china mugs as souvenirs. I used them carefully, but eventually one fell in to the sink and shattered. I thought about that mug recently when I learned about the Japanese art of Kintsugi.

Usually when something breaks we are happy to repair it enough to make it functional again. But several hundred years ago, a Japanese artist decided he would make broken china beautiful. So he started using golden resin to hold the fragments together. Pieces repaired by using his method have intricate veins of gold.

Early in the human story, sin entered the world (Gen 3). Theologians refer to the event as "the fall." The inevitable result is brokenness. Life is painful because we keep getting hurt and hurting others with our sharp, jagged edges. But God doesn't want us to stay broken, and His repair work turns our brokenness into beauty.

Like a Kintsugi artist, God repairs us. But He uses something more precious than gold__the blood of His Son. Instead of having veins of gold, we are united by the very veins of Christ. "We have been united together in the likeness of His death" (Rom. 6:5). Nothing is more beautiful than that. __Julie Ackerman Link

```````````````````````````He shed His blood, poured out His life;````````````````````````
```````````````````````````````He gave his all at Calvary;````````````````````````````````
`````````````````````````````Oh what can we give in return```````````````````````````````
```````````````````````For love so rich, so full, so free? __Anon````````````````````````````
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The price of our freedom from sin
was paid by Jesus' blood.

**********************Today's Bible Reading __ Romans 6:1-14***************************

1 What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound?

2 Certainly not! How shall
we who died to sin live any
longer in it? 3 Or do you not
know that as many of us as
were baptized into Christ
Jesus were baptized into His
death? 4 Therefore we were
buried with Him through
baptism into death, that just
as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of
life.

5 For if we have been united
together in the likeness of
his death, certainly we also
shall be in the likeness of His
resurrection, 6 knowing this,
that our old man was
crucified with Him, that the
body of sin might be done
away with, that we should no
longer be slaves of sin. 7 For
he who has died has been
freed from sin. 8 Now if we
died with Christ, we believe
that we shall also live with
Him, 9 knowing that Christ
having been raised from the
dead, dies no more. Death no
longer has dominion over
Him... 11 Likewise you
also, reckon yourselves to be
dead indeed to sin, but alive
to God in Christ Jesus our
Lord.

12 Therefore do not let sin
reign in your mortal body

...13 but present...your
members as instruments of
righteousness to God. 14 For
sin shall not have dominion
over you, for you are not
under law but under grace.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
In verse 1, the apostle Paul reminds us of the danger of presuming
on the grace of God. It is possible that there were those in the
church at Rome who were advocating an immoral lifestyle, believing
that God overlooked such things because that is how grace
operated. Such a view, however, fails to balance the grace of God
with His holiness and can lead to lives that dishonor Him.