Unlimited: Acceptance and Blessings
Nov 29, 2019 1829
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age (Galatians 1:3–4, NIV).
There is a powerful truth in this verse. We all want grace and peace. We all want to be rescued from “the present evil age.” Whether that’s freedom from poverty or freedom from ill health, that takes many forms.
But what this Scripture tells us is that the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself. That is the gift: his own being. God doesn’t give sparingly or conditionally. When God gives, he gives himself. All of the good things come with him.
The problem is that many have their eyes on the good things but not on him. They want the blessings, but they aren’t prepared to accept him. They sing about him, talk about him, and say “Amen” at his name, but they don’t know him.
This was the case with the Jewish people at the time of Jesus. They knew and talked a lot about God. They talked a lot about receiving his blessings. But when they had to make a choice, it became clear that they didn’t actually want God himself. When God appeared among them in the person of Jesus Christ, they sang hosannas to him, because they thought that he would bring them the blessings they wanted. However, when they actually had to make a choice, they chose Barabbas and sent Jesus to the Cross.
– Eliezer Gonzalez
Eli’s Reflection:Jesus taught this same thing in Matthew 6:31-33. Read the passage. Then make time this week to go by yourself to a beautiful, quiet place, and seek Jesus only, to the exclusion of everything else.
Stojan Ninkovic
Nov 29, 2019
I remember Des Ford saying 'there's One that stands among you Whom you know not'. He said that could be true of most churches today. Even sadder is that there are so few true shepherds who can lead us to the Great Shepherd. Most are just padding their own nest and have no regard for His flock. Lord open our ears to Your knocking at the door of Your church.