19Someone may ask, "How can God blame us, if he makes us behave in the way he wants us to?" 20But, my friend, I ask, "Who do you think you are to question God? Does the clay have the right to ask the potter why he shaped it the way he did? 21Doesn't a potter have the right to make a fancy bowl and a plain bowl out of the same lump of clay?"
22God wanted to show his anger and reveal his power against everyone who deserved to be destroyed. But instead, he patiently put up with them. 23He did this by showing how glorious he is when he has pity on the people he has chosen to share in his glory. 24Whether Jews or Gentiles, we are those chosen ones, 25just as the Lord says in the book of Hosea,
"Although they are not my people, I will make them my people.
I will treat with love those nations that have never been loved.
26"Once they were told, "You are not my people.'
But in that very place they will be called children of the living God."
27And this is what the prophet Isaiah said about the people of Israel,
"The people of Israel are as many as the grains of sand along the beach.
But only a few who are left will be saved.
28The Lord will be quick and sure to do on earth what he has warned he will do."
29Isaiah also said, "If the Lord All-Powerful had not spared some of our descendants,
we would have been destroyed like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah."
30What does all of this mean? It means that the Gentiles were not trying to be acceptable to God, but they found that he would accept them if they had faith. 31-32It also means that the people of Israel were not acceptable to God. And why not? It was because they were trying to be acceptable by obeying the Law instead of by having faith in God. The people of Israel fell over the stone that makes people stumble, 33just as God says in the Scriptures, "Look! I am placing in Zion
a stone to make people
stumble and fall.
But those who have faith
in that one
will never
be disappointed."
If we pay attention we will see the amazing power and glory of Christ moving westward...to Asia. What used to be centered in the American church...the amazing evidence of the resident Holy Spirit has seemed to dissipate and we are now a shadow of what the last generation of believers bequeathed to us.
The role of being "special" involves faithfully proclaiming the works and wonders of God through His son Jesus Christ...to the underprivileged. How long should we suppose God will tarry while we attempt to "get our act together"? I promise you this. If we don't become the people God desires us to be He will choose somebody else to be the vehicle for His grace and mercy.
It's what He did with Israel...when He handed the mantle to the church.
Don Fransisco authored a great tune titled "The Steeple Song".
I don't care how many buses you own or the size of your sanctuary
It doesn't matter how steep your steeple is if it's sittin' on a cemetery
I don't care if you pave your parking lot rr put pads upon your pews
What good is picture perfect stage if you're missin' all the cues?
I don't care if your pastor's super-powered and your program's always new
What you need is love and truth and men are going to come to you
It doesn't matter that you know the Bible if it's all just in your head
The thing I need to ask you is have you done the things I said?
I don't care if you pray for miracles I don't care if you speak with tongues
I don't care if you said you love Me in every song you've sung
It doesn't matter that your sacrifice of praise is loud enough to raise the dead
The thing I need to ask you is have you done the things I said?
Do you love your wife?
For her and for your children are you layin' down your life?
What about the others?
Are you living as a servant to your sisters and your brothers?
Do you make the poor man beg you for a bone?
Do the widow and the orphan cry alone?
That's what it means to be special. Let's live like we're special. It's not our fault the God chose us...it may even be unfair. An entire world out there will remind us daily that we aren't special. But, believing God today means believing God was serious when He said the life of Christ should shine through us. We probably all know well intentioned folks who have "lost their first love". They are busy building steeples and sanctuaries but can't seem to find the time to live like Christ. How "special".
It began in Europe. The believers got distracted so it moved to America. As we become distracted with our sense of privilege God will find others to carry on.
It should break our hearts...
Live boldly out there today...
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