How are we representing Him today? Are we meeting people at the point of need with the love of Christ or the morality of Christianity? Are we offended easily? Do we give up too easily? Do we see the sins in the world and pass judgment upon the very people we are supposed to represent Christ to? After Paul and Silas were set free from prison by the divine earthquake the guard was going to kill himself. To Paul and Silas this guard was still the same guy who had clamped them in the stocks in the inner dungeons. He may have been one of the guards who had beaten them with wooden rods! Yet when the time came to turn their noses up to him -- they showed him Christ instead. We need to stop valuing this life over the eternal life. We need to look at the people God puts in our paths as divine appointments. They insulted our delicate sensibilities? They are blind and going to hell unless someone shows them the grace and mercy of Christ -- just like someone once showed us. The final practical application for us today is that our life is no longer ours to live. It belongs to Christ who died for us. There are plenty of people who are staring at an eternity in hell unless someone shows them heaven. Wait a minute Pastor; you don't know how bad this person is"I do not have to know. We all fell short of the glory of God. Can they be any worse than those in the capital city of the Assyrian Empire? Nineveh was home to one of the most ruthless regimes ever known on this planet. They routinely massacred even the people of God yet in the Book of Jonah we see that God still wanted to offer them the chance to repent; much to the displeasure of Jonah:
But the Lord said, "You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left--and also many animals?" -- Jonah 4: 10-11 (NIV)
When it comes to God, this world does not know its right hand from its left. We need to stop worrying about the little comforts we enjoy and get back to the business God saved us for. There is a work to do and we need to start applying the lessons God has given us in His Word to our lives. We need to fill our lives with His Word. We need to teach and counsel each other within the trusted confines of His wisdom. We need to cultivate a thankful heart in our lives to protect us from pride. Thanking God for what He has said, what He has done, and what He is still doing today in our lives. Lastly, we need to remember in everything we do -- we are representing Jesus Christ. Apply these things today and watch the power of God explode in your life as a new creation.
Reverend Anthony Wade -- May 13, 2013
