A Planting of Faith Seeds for the Glory of the LORD
No Turning Back…

“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus gave himself for our sins to free us from this evil world we live in, as God the Father planned.” (Galatians 1:3–4, NCV)

This morning during my time exploring the bible 5 words caused me to momentarily pause and think hard on what they meant. “…this evil world we live in,” my immediate response was to ask myself if the world is really evil. I know there is evil in the world but does that make the world evil? From there I found myself thinking not only about my relationship with Jesus and his part not only in the world-at-large but my portion of the world.

Is Jesus an escape from evil? Is Jesus like a storm shelter where we can go during storms then when the storm passes go back to what we were doing? There are perhaps more people especially Christians who think of Jesus that way then we may think; I used to be one of them. Eugene Peterson in his translation of the bible puts an end to Jesus as an escape. “So I greet you with the great words, grace and peace! We know the meaning of those words because Jesus Christ rescued us from this evil world we’re in by offering himself as a sacrifice for our sins. God’s plan is that we all experience that rescue.” (Galatians 1:3–4, The Message)

“Jesus Christ rescued us,” Jesus comes not into THE world but OUR world not to take us out of the world but to take the evil world out of us! Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians (and to us) makes a bold statement then backs it up with what God did in his life through Jesus. “If anyone belongs to Christ, there is a new creation. The old things have gone; everything is made new! All this is from God. Through Christ, God made peace between us and himself, and God gave us the work of telling everyone about the peace we can have with him. God was in Christ, making peace between the world and himself. In Christ, God did not hold the world guilty of its sins. And he gave us this message of peace.” (2 Corinthians 5:17–19, NCV)

“If anyone belongs to Christ, there is a new creation. Old things have GONE! Everything is made NEW!” (Added emphasis is mine) To belong to Christ is not some casual relationship we enter and exit whenever we want it is TOTAL LIFE surrender to one who comes to us with both arms extended giving us life – HIS LIFE! Like the song says, “I have decided to follow Jesus! I have decided to follow Jesus! I have decided to follow Jesus! No turning back! No turning back!

Believe it! Experience it!
Grace and PEACE!
Gary

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“The LORD is my strength and shield. I trust him, and he helps me. I am very happy, and I praise him with my song.” (Psalm 28:7, NCV)

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"Scriptures marked NCV are quoted from The Holy Bible, New Century Version, copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Word Publishing, Dallas, Texas 75039. Used by permission."

Scriptures marked MSG have been taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.”