The Five-Minute Quest
One Minute Memory Verse: 1Thessalonians 5:16-19 –
Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit.
One Minute Bible
2 Corinthians 5:16-21 NKJV
16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
One Minute Prayer
Lord, I believe that I am a new creation. Old things indeed have passed away, and all things have been made new. I understand, too, that I have it within me to turn my back on you, and return to the path to destruction, and I don’t want to do that. You, the Second Adam, the God-man who had never, ever sinned… You became sin so that I could become righteous. If you, my Living and Loving God, do not work through me, the only work I am capable of is sin. Keep me from all sin, I beg.
One Minute Praise
Psalm 1 NKJV
Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so,
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
One Minute Wisdom
Proverb 6:20-23 NKJV
My son, keep your father’s command,
And do not forsake the law of your mother.
Bind them continually upon your heart;
Tie them around your neck.
When you roam, they[b] will lead you;
When you sleep, they will keep you;
And when you awake, they will speak with you.
For the commandment is a lamp,
And the law a light;
Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
One Minute Devotion
There is more doubt than ever in holiness churches about the nature of holiness. It may be grasped only through a “second work of grace (the first work of grace being salvation). Many Christians in holiness denominations, however, deny that second work of grace – commonly known as sanctification – and claim that we are only fooling ourselves if we believe God can make us holy one minute before we join him in Eternity. We must strive to live a holy life, but we must be realistic, they claim, and accept the fact that we will never achieve holiness.
Holiness is in fact both a second work of Grace and a discipline. We can no more make ourselves holy than we can save ourselves from hell. When Brother Lawrence sins, he reminds God that it is his nature to sin, and that unless God prevent him, he can do nothing but sin. It is God who makes us holy, not ourselves.
Yet here is the rub: we have been given the guidance and comfort of the indwelling Holy Spirit. We have been given the complete Word of God that contains all that is necessary to lead us to eternal life and to live a holy life. We have been given “so great a salvation” (according to the writers of the Epistle of Hebrews) that we dare not neglect it and drift away. Change my heart, oh God. Make it ever true. Change my heart, oh God. Make I be like you