file: /pub/resources/text/Our.Daily.Bread: db940109.TXT
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          OUR DAILY BREAD                        Sunday, January 9, 1994
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          READ:  1 Corinthians 11:17-32

                                  LOOK AT YOURSELF!

                            If we would judge ourselves,
                               we would not be judged.
                                --1 Corinthians 11:31

          State   employment  officials  in  Tucson,  Arizona,  posted   an
          interesting sign over a full-length mirror.  Directed to all  job
          hunters,  it  read,  "Would you hire  this  person?"  In  another
          office a mirror and sign posed this question:  "Are you ready for
          a job?"

          Self-evaluation  was  what  the  apostle Paul  called  for  in  1
          Corinthians 11.  Believers in Christ need to judge themselves, he
          said, to avoid being judged by the Lord as unfit for His service.
          In the Corinthian church, the "appearance problem" was especially
          serious.  Those  Christians "looked" awful.  They  were  actually
          getting drunk and quarreling among themselves while going through
          the  motions of celebrating the Lord's Supper.  So Paul said,  in
          effect, "Look at yourselves.  What a mess!  If you don't get your
          lives  straightened  out, the Lord will have to do it  for  you."
          Then  the  apostle added the sobering fact that God  had  already
          begun  to cleanse the church by sending some of them to an  early
          grave.  This  is a hard truth, but one the church still needs  to
          hear today.

          This  warning,  however, also carries a message of  hope.  If  we
          judge ourselves and repent of our sins, we will not be judged  by
          God.

          Author:  Martin R. De Haan II

                           O Lord, return to me Your power
                             That once by grace I knew;
                      Forgive the sin that grieved Your heart,
                               And help me to be true.
                                       --Anon.

          THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
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          Self-examination is one test from which no Christian is excused.

          THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:  Genesis 27-29

          
          



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