Nurtured like newborn babies

Today's Devotional

 An Emoji Devotions for Sun 11 April, 2021

Topic: Nurtured like newborn babies

By H. U. Wenger

Highlights: Like newborn babies, (quasi modo geniti infants) crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1. Peter 2:2 – 3)

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 1. Peter 1:3 – 6)

In the old church and in the church year even now, todays Sunday is called “quasi modo geniti infants”, like newborn babies. Babies crave nourishment, but there is not much available that could feed them and make them grow. The reflex to suckle from the breast of the mama is inborn to them. Peter praises God that he has given us a new birth through the resurrection of Christ Jesus. Now, as we became newborn babies in Christ, we need nourishment to grow. Growth is, however, not all we need. We have to learn how to crawl, how to walk, how to behave and how to act in the new life. 

The only nourishment that can bring us forward is the word of God, is the Holy Bible. As I was a child, able to read, it was even for kids unthinkable to go to the worship service without having the own Bible on them. Everybody was asked to read, reflect and examine, whether the speaker was preaching the truth. I must confess that I did not do much searching of the scriptures, but at least I did read the given passages of scripture on my own. Evangelistic preaching is unfortunately often times geared to call people to a decision for Christ, but it does not do enough to teach the newborn Christians that everything they need in the new life flows out of scripture. Scripture is the only pure spiritual milk and without enough of it we succumb to retarded, malnourished and distorted followers of Christ who will often much more react according to generally accepted rules of society than according to the resurrection power of Christ. 

We are born into a living hope through the resurrection of Christ Jesus. The living hope is nothing else but the resurrected Jesus himself. In his earthly life, he only said what he heard the Father say, and he only did what he saw the Father do. Before he left to take his place at the right side of the Father, he told us at least twice: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” (John 20, 21 compare John 17, 18) He oriented himself on the Father and we must orient us on him, if we want to be his children and his disciples. When you are suffering on a unfulfilled life, when you are missing the resurrection power in your daily routine, just turn to studying scripture and begin to live out, whatever scripture tells you. Do not consider what your society or your congregation thinks. Do what you feel compelled to do according to scripture.

 However, do consider that you are born into a living hope and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. Gods’ way to nurture you and me is through his scripture. It is the nourishment we need to grow strong and which enables us to truly be his followers as salt of the earth and as light of the world. By following him like he followed his Father, we will become more and more the city on the hill. The world has become a dark place, full of evil. What God has declared as good, is called bad and what he designated as evil is called bad. In this situation we need to let our light shine, brighter and clearer than ever.

 Therefore let us crave pure 

spiritual milk and proclaim the glory of God with our lives. Good is the Lord – good and full of life is the word of the Lord because his word is he himself. (John 1, 1 – 5) 

Prayer: Father I praise you for your provision, for your goodness, for your love and for your mercy. Open the scriptures to me so that I may grow and become stronger in you. Make true for me what you promise in John 7:38: “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” Amen.