AMBASSADORS

AMBASSADORS

Friday, January 15, 2016

Psalm [MKJV] 30:4; 149:; Mt.21:16b Sing praises to Jehovah, O you saints of His, and give thanks at the   

       memory of His holiness. . . . Praise Jehovah! Sing to Jehovah a new song, His praise in the       

       congregation of saints. … Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?

Ephesians [MKJV] 2:19-22 Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens

       with the saints, and of the household of God, 20 and are built upon the foundation of the apostles

       and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom every building having

       been fitly framed together, grows into a holy sanctuary in the Lord; 22 in whom you also are built

       together for a dwelling place of God through the Spirit.

  As 5 year old grandson Michael was leaving he quoted Romans 3:23 to me. His conversation roused a few moments meditation:

  When we trust Christ as Redeemer, agreeing with God about sin and salvation, we instantaneously become sons and daughters in His eternal family. (Rom.3:21-26; Jn.1:12; 3:3) This is not however the only instantaneous event inclusive to His redemption; regardless of our prior or present position in life we instantly become saints with a new overarching vocation. (Believers are clarified as being saints in 61 NT verses.) Saul/Paul is a prime example of this grace available to one and all. We are ambassadors for Christ; messengers of God’s redemptive grace, His good news!

  “… we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

  And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” (NLT 2Cor.5:16-21)

  Hmmm … but this leaves me with examination question “I know I personally cannot redeem anyone, but just how saintly and reconciling is my manner?”

  Thank you Michael for your perfecting words.  EBB4