Anyone can be totally transformed by God’s grace and live a holy life.
Anyone?! Whatdayamean,
anyone? There’s NO WAY
- the drunk on the street,
- the mafia guy in the big Mercedes,
- the esoteric librarian who dabbles in witchcraft,
- the old lady next door who would NEVER change her ways,
could EVER be transformed. They are so far from it!
OK, OK. God
is pretty powerful. He did a lot as
recorded in the Bible. But I’ve just not
seen enough of His transforming power to be convinced!
Right! That’s the problem. But just
because you and I haven’t seen it doesn’t meant it can’t happened in the POWER
and GRACE of the Lord Jesus Christ!!
Well, then, maybe the librarian. Maybe she will turn over a new leaf and her
life will be changed, yeah, transformed. Here’s a start! Let’s start with
one!
“And
everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
will
be saved.”
Acts
2:21
And everyone or anyone means this librarian and the
one who you are just about to give up hope. I gave up on some people. I’ve felt
like giving up on others. But Jesus
refuses to give up.
Jesus came for all.
"This
is good, and pleases God our Savior,
who
wants ALL men to be saved and
to
come to a knowledge of the truth."
I
Timothy 2:3-4.
This means our neighbors. All of them. It means those who live down the street, those classmates in school, our
teachers, our little grocery store clerks, our government officials, the street
cleaners, and every person we know and don't yet know, and won't ever know.
But this means that when we talk to any ONE person,
we know that God our Savior wants this person "to be saved and come to a
knowledge of the truth." We may
never see this person become saved, but we can hope it, pray it, believe it and
hold on to it for as long as possible.
Because you and I are bridges of hope! We are the
holders of hope for the one and the all. We have experienced and are experiencing the knowledge of the
truth! We stand between this truth and
the host of lies, deceits, empty promises, delusions, despair and the like.
"You
are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals,
because
you were slain,
and
with your blood you purchased men for God
from
EVERY tribe and language and people and nation"
Revelation
5:9
My daily prayers include a small map of the world I
pull out and lay next to my Bible. I
also pull out my prayer cards of people I specifically pray for by name. I've been to a number of countries on this
map before me, but I've seen only a very small part of the whole. Yet God knows each one. He knows each and every of the people from
each tribe, language and nation. He
loves each one. Jesus purchased the
souls of each one with his own blood. So
there's not a one we will meet for whom God hasn't first loved, first given,
first hoped, first interceded.
With one sacrifice 2000 years ago, Jesus sets EACH
AND EVERY, ALL free! He has come to set
the captives free!
Stand there. Intercede. Hope for awhile. Help this one connect. Connect with God through Jesus. Pray for the 730 million people in
Europe. Believe. Reach out and hold this person's hand while
God holds yours. Someone did for
you. There is not one person for whom we
cannot still believe, still hope, still love.
Anyone
can be totally transformed by God’s grace and live a holy life.
- When do you tend to give up hope?
- What people do you have difficulty believing God could ever redeem?
- If all this were true about EACH and EVERY and ANYONE, how would it affect our belief system, our judgment of others around us and our active ministries?
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Posted by: Sumot | 10 June 2008 at 12:03