Greetings to you this morning in the name of the One who came to ‘open blind eyes and unstop deaf ears’, Jesus Christ – THE Risen Saviour.Wow! another beautiful morning in the Kingdom! I have been watching the news and have decided that I am so glad that there is ‘Someone’ in control who has a plan and that He is sticking to it! Today I will be praying for you, asking Father to quietly and confidently surround you with His rejuvenating presence – “Holy Spirit, rain down on my friends!”
We are staring a new direction in our morning devotional reading. We will be wandering through the atmosphere of the Ten Commandments or the Ten Words of God’s covenant. Now at the same time we are reading through the Book of Acts which is very exciting. I don’t know why I should be at this point, but I am aware of the relationship between the Old and New Testaments. So this morning in reading the devotional a question was answered…why did God wait until the Israelites were in the desert before giving them the Ten C’s?…because they needed to be redeemed before learning how to live’ Even in the Old Testament one cannot earn salvation.
In our Acts reading this morning, we read Acts 15 where we discover the expansion of the Christian faith into the Gentile world. There were those who believed that the Gentiles had to become Jews before they could become Christians. In other words…they had to change their lifestyle before they can truly experience salvation. Thanks be to God that He gave insight to the early leadership so that they adopted the idea that a changed lifestyle always follows salvation. God, it seems, redeems people waits for and longs for them to then become His people.
As much as we understand and accept and are examples of salvation first and lifestyle change second, human beings don’t seem to grasp it. I know you have heard, perhaps even said at one time yourself…”I can not come to church until I clean up my life, my actions, my lifestyle – I don’t want to be a hypocrite or phony -you don’t know the mess I am in. God says to them and to us…Come to me, let me redeem you, let me cleanse you, let me give you rest from all your striving — and then let me give you peace, clear-thinking, strength, a helping-hand to make the lifestyle changes that are necessary. Let me bring you out of your “Egypt” and then take you to your “Mount Sinai”.
Just something to ponder – have a blessed day!