Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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Come Holy Spirit- Transform the Creation.
Acts. 11. 19-26

“And the Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.”(v. 21)

The Creator is also the re-Creator. 

Our eternal Father formed the World with the Word. He alone transforms it by the same.  The Word of God shares with us that nothing in existence was formed without Jesus.  Jesus is the living word. Not that he was the living word, not that he will be the living word, but He is the living Word.  You and I are literally held together because He wills it so right now. Science still fails to answer the question how something was formed from nothing.  It is for science to discover, our Father to know, and us to believe. All of creation points to a Father-Creator just as all of the new creation (by Jesus’ breathing His Spirit on to the early church) points to Father-Son-Creator. 

Outsiders Living  in the New Covenant

The covenant which God gave the people of Israel through Moses was just the continuation of the plan of Eternal Love.  So a major question we find in the early church (Acts 11) is that of God’s will among the outsiders.  The outsiders in this case being the Gentiles.  The early church fathers felt they could discern God’s will based on their past experiences.  The past can never predict how the spirit of God operates.  The Spirit of God operates in Love, while the spirit of man operates in sin.  Yet the early church members who lived out the covenant with Moses deemed it was they alone who could fulfill the new covenant in JESUS the CHRIST.  They were chosen by God for the covenant that Moses was the vessel for.  They assumed they would again be ‘the chosen’ for the new covenant.  They were, but not just them.  All are called to return.

Human’s unity at the cost of GOD’S disunity

What pleased God was not what pleased man.  God was pleased to give His Eternal and Holy Spirit to those the religious world deemed as “outsiders.”  This was why Christ Jesus was sent at that precise moment in History.  To bring unity to humanity, Christ, The Son had to be separated from His Father.  Man’s unity with himself and with God, came at the cost of our Father/Son disunity. It was the ultimate and final cost to bring Agape to creation.  When our Jesus cried “Why have you forsaken me?” The resounding silence from Heaven answered “For them.”

Prayer: Dear Father, in the name of Your begotten son Jesus, we pray for a complete transformation in our lives and the lives that you have entrusted us with.....Amen

Thought for Day: Transformation that God requires has two important parts. The 21st verse in Acts 11 shares that the first step is believing, while the second is turning to the Lord.  True Faith leads to true repentance leading to Love lived (Christ).
                           
Adarsh Abraham, Long Island MTC, NY


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