Sunday, January 21, 2018

21 January 2018 - from chained to changed


Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
"This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel."

Jesus proclaims the gospel of God to us. We need to actively choose to believe and be different because of it. This is the moment for which all people, consciously or unconsciously, have been waiting. This is the truth which sets us free. Our lives cannot be business as usual after this.

I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out.
From now on, let those having wives act as not having them,
those weeping as not weeping,
those rejoicing as not rejoicing,
those buying as not owning, 
those using the world as not using it fully.
For the world in its present form is passing away.

We were slaves to things that are passing away. Now we are friends of the one who alone abides forever. His gospel sets us free, just as surely as the message of Jonah set the people of Nineveh free from their impending doom.

Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day's walk announcing,
"Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed, "
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast
and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.

Let us be like Nineveh, ready to turn from our old ways when a prophet proclaims to us a better way. Let us not stay where we are once we encounter him. When we encounter Jesus let us follow him in join him in spreading the freedom and peace that is only found within his kingdom.

Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice
and teaches the humble his way.


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