July 04, 2022

 God With Us

Happy Holiday!

Happy Monday! 

We have been reading about a very religious man name Saul whom God hand pick to be his Apostle. Saul became a new person .....the Apostle Paul. Paul was not exactly in the temple when God showed up, but he was on the road to do wrong things. God is not limited to a building he will save you anywhere. What I love about the Apostle Paul is he tells us through his life and his teachings that we all need to be born again. To the Jew, Gentiles, Greek, saved, and unsaved we all have to be born again by his spirit. It may be easy to convince those in the world and very hard to convince those on the inside, but Paul does a beautiful job teaching, preaching, encouraging, and building upon the Rock. We know we have God when we have love one for one another. If it was based upon good works, it would be confusing. The mark of a Christ follower is love. And love......patient, kind, .....etc... It is impossible to love God and hate your brother or your neighbor. They may make you angry, but it is impossible to hate them. Hatred is when you do or say ill things to a person. Before God open his eyes, Paul was convinced that the believers were doing wrong things and he needed to punish them. When he found God, he begins to teach them. He begins to help them. He no longer chases them down with chains threatening to put them in jail. 

Paul tells us that we all need to be saved.

His story tells us that sometimes we might not know we need saving but God showed up and opened his eyes and put him on the right road. 

Romans 9 continued...

21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

• God wants to save all mankind. Religion sometimes makes one group think only their group will be saved or they are the only ones who know God. But Paul tells us that God has called all mankind to himself even though many will reject the offer. He went beyond his chosen people and chose the world. He is not rejecting anyone, but they may reject him. His arms are open. 

25 As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.

• How hard is it for us to love beyond our families and close friends? He welcomes everyone. Remember when Paul was a Pharisee they did like the disciples. They wanted them killed and imprisoned. But that's more like religion than love. God goes beyond his chosen people to call forth a foreign people. 

26 And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:

28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

29 And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.

30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.

31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.

32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone;

33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

Have a great holiday!