From: "Phil Rembleski" <PHIl@rescuechurchofchrist.org>

To: "1111RESCUEMEMBERS"

Cc:

Sent: Mon, Jul 24, 2023 at 5:40 AM

Subject: 7-24-23 THOUGHTS

7-24-23   THOUGHTS

We talk much about IDENTITY, SELF-IMAGE & SELF-WORTH!  This is US!  It’s IMPORTANT!  But GET RID OF THE SELF!  THIS MUST COME FROM GOD TO BE REAL!  What is below comes from God’s promises and intentions for us.  WE must make it happen!  WE must allow God to work in us!   Php 2:13   for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for [His] good pleasure.  Desire to be His child in the fullest way!  Some passages on US in God’s gracious design.

Gen 1:26-27    Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;" .... 27  God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
1Cor 3:16    Do you not know that you are a temple of God and [that] the Spirit of God dwells in you?
2Cor 5:17   Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
Gal 3:26-28  For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27  For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Gal 4:4-7  But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5  so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6  Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"  7  Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
Eph 2:19-22    So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, 20  having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21  in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord,  22  in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.      
Php 3:20  For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;
Heb 12:22-24    But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels,  23  to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,  24  and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
Ps 139:14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.

My Prayer:
You, O God, have loved us so awesomely.  Your loving kindness has shown from the beginning.  In our desperate weakness and need, You save us in Jesus.  Your promises lift us up, You give us hope to sustain us.  You bless us, and bless us and bless us again.  In our casual thinking, may we not miss the precious relationship You desire for us.  Help us to abide in You, and You in us.  Give us power in aliveness to serve You with joy and rejoicing.  O God, we are fearfully and wonderfully made.   In the name of Jesus,    Amen.