And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:24.
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:7-8.
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17.
Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. James 5:16.
And continuing our 351 Old Testament prophecies, promises of God, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, we come to number 194: The Gentiles seek Him. Isaiah 11:10: Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples; and His resting place will be glorious. And, John 12:18-21: For this reason also the people went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the whole world has gone after Him.” Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast; these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
Last night in our Midweek Encounter, we talked about journaling our experiences of living life with Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit. We think we will never forget the wonderful epiphanies, the Spirit-led understanding God brings, but we are human and easily distracted. To share everything in a journal is to share with God and our own hearts at the same time, and in writing it down we honor it and remember.
A friend recently shared a post on Facebook about all Muslims being taught non-believers, infidels, should be killed. It was immediately troubling and I needed to understand and not lose faith in God who knows what He is doing here if that makes sense. I googled it and found that that is rejected by the vast majority of the world’s 1.9 billion Muslims. Without question, radicals in that religion do believe and horribly carry out that ideology of men and we all suffer for those actions. But then, so did Saul of Tarsus, before his personal encounter with the risen Jesus, the Son, the Christ. I loved this last part of a Psalm David wrote: For the sake of my brothers and my friends, I will now say, “May peace be within you.” For the sake of the house of the LORD our God – I will seek your good. Psalm 122:8-9. The Pharisees couldn’t believe that the whole world was going after Jesus – but isn’t that what God promised Abraham, to be the father of a multitude of nations? The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” Galatians 3:8. And Paul continued, Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life – then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin – so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ – might be given to those who believe…There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise. Galatians 3:21-22, 28-29. Who imparts life? Creator God! Only God can transform hearts and minds, all minds. How can I hold that? Because of what happened to Saul! Because of what is happening in me! Because of Gentiles converted by hearing Jesus and later the Apostles as they taught what they learned from Jesus, which was contrary to all that their religions in their ignorance of God had taught them. So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ…And Isaiah is very bold and says, “I was found by those who did not seek Me, I became manifest to those who did not ask for Me.” Romans 10:17, 20. An epiphany! One day all nations will stand before Jesus, the Son, the Christ. And before that blessed day, I want to trust all that Creator God is doing now, things we cannot see or imagine but that can transform our hearts and minds so in need of His Truth and His Love. Even in the face of all that is being done on earth today and until He returns that is so very troubling and wrong, I want to trust Him and follow Him. Jesus knew His disciples couldn’t understand everything He was doing but He asked them to trust Him anyway. He asks that still. It’s the only way forward. Truly a walk of faith with Him.
***OUTREACH – LORD Jesus Christ, who didst stretch out Thine arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of Thy saving embrace, so clothe us in Thy Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know Thee to the knowledge and love of Thee, for the honor of Thy name. Amen. Book of Common Prayer, (1552).
