{"id":21354,"date":"2017-04-13T00:10:46","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T07:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=10588"},"modified":"2017-04-13T00:10:46","modified_gmt":"2017-04-13T07:10:46","slug":"april-13-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/04\/13\/april-13-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"April 13, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201c\u2026knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold\u2026 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.\u201d<\/em>
\n1 Peter 1:18-19<\/span><\/p>\n

Precious<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

My mother has a number of antiques in her home, mostly family heirlooms that she will pass to me some day. Some of them have been restored, and some are just as she received them. These things are precious to her in the sense that she cherishes them. She would rescue them in a fire, because she prizes them for sentimental reasons. She knows that one day these things will decay and fall apart (although probably not in her lifetime or even mine.)<\/span><\/p>\n

But when Peter uses the word precious in today\u2019s Scripture, he means something entirely different. A commodity in short supply is said to be precious. Rare. It can\u2019t be readily replicated or reproduced, which makes it extremely valuable and costly. It is highly esteemed.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is an apt description of Christ\u2019s blood: precious. Rare. It is one-and-only\u2014so rare that nothing else like it exists; it hasn\u2019t existed before, and it can\u2019t be reproduced. It is uniquely able to save. No other blood can save. No other blood can atone for our sins. No other blood can cover our corruption and redeem us. Only the blood of one Man, the very Son of God, was without blemish or spot. This blood never existed outside of Christ; no one else\u2019s blood has the ability and power that His has.<\/span><\/p>\n

Silver and gold will disintegrate\u2014our riches can\u2019t save us. Our bodies will return to the dust of the earth\u2014our friends, family, and counselors can\u2019t save us. All the stuff that seems so valuable to us will pass away in some manner, some time, no matter how closely we guard it. Things that pass away, corruptible things, cannot save us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only the rare, unique, spotless, blameless, perfect, precious blood of Christ redeems. Give thanks to our God and Father for giving us His Son! And give thanks to Jesus Christ, for His willing obedience in shedding His blood for us.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFather, thank You for loving us and giving us Your willing and obedient Son, Jesus, that we might be saved. In Jesus\u2019 Name, Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c\u2026knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold\u2026 but with the precious blood of Christ, […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-5yq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}