Good Morning All,
Romans 1:16; “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the
power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew,
then to the Gentile.”
It is amazing to
me how fragile our world really is.
Think about what happens when the electricity goes out for a while. Most of us cannot prepare food, heat or cool
our houses and, as darkness settles in, we cannot see, even in our own
houses. If the power outage lasts very
long, the area can actually begin to shut down as businesses cannot conduct
business and sometimes traffic controls do not work.
This is one of the
interesting facts about our faith.
Christianity is not about “finding serenity” or “finding myself” or
“connecting to the cosmos;” our faith is about power. Our faith is about being connected to the
power. This is what Paul is telling us
in this verse and elsewhere in his epistles.
Paul doesn’t call the gospel “good advice,” “a nice path to follow,” or
even “a viable lifestyle;” Paul calls the gospel “power.” It is the power that God uses to save
us. It is this powerful statement,
Christ died for your sins, and you receive it by faith; that connects us to
God. It is God’s power given to us. It
is God taking you and then reshaping you into the creature that you were meant
to be. It is God’s power to bring you back into his holy family and kingdom.
Our faith is about
power. It is about the power of God to
forgive us. It is about the power that
God gives to us to forgive others. It is
about the power that God gives us to change our lives. It is about the power that God gives us to
reach out to others and change their lives.
Never doubt for one moment that when the Gospel of Jesus is spoken to a
heart that will receive this message in faith; lives are changed. The Word of God in the hearts of men (and
women) changes lives. The Gospel of Jesus is the power to change
lives and to do so in a most dramatic fashion.
It is the redemptive power to restore us to the body of believers. It is
God cleansing us of the sin and filth that we dwell in and makes us perfect in
His presence.
Our lives are never the
same when we hear the Gospel of Christ.
We either receive it and live a life of faith or we fight it and try to
keep pushing God out of our life. Either
way, your life is different; changed forever.
The Gospel is the power to change your life; receive it as God’s mercy
to bring you into his kingdom as his redeemed child. Without Christ, we have no
peace in this life, no comfort in death, and no hope for eternal life. Yet the
Gospel is the power to have all these and much more because it is freely given
to us out of his great love and mercy for us. We are his children, and we are
given the power of life to live in His glorious salvation. Don’t be ashamed; be
joyful!
Almighty God of power and might, you give us the power to change by
your Holy Gospel. Use us as the agents
of change in this world bringing your message of hope and forgiveness. Bring your power to change lives to those who
suffer the most and are desperate for your mercy. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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