Just Keep Praying

Acts 28:25-28 ESV

And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet:

“‘Go to this people, and say,

“You will indeed hear but never understand,

    and you will indeed see but never perceive.”

For this people's heart has grown dull,

    and with their ears they can barely hear,

    and their eyes they have closed;

lest they should see with their eyes

    and hear with their ears

and understand with their heart

    and turn, and I would heal them.’

Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”

If you are at all in tune with what is happening in today’s institutional church, you are probably aware that the truth that Jesus taught, and the truth that Paul taught is largely not what is being taught as the gospel here in America, not in its fulness. For so many people are now diluting and altering the gospel message and the character of God/Christ to make them more acceptable and appealing to human flesh and to the ungodly.

For so many who profess faith in Jesus Christ are stopping up their ears, and they are closing their eyes to the truth, and they are refusing to listen. For they want to hear that nothing is required of them other than some obscure faith in Christ that is of their own creation, or that is created in the minds of other humans who also do not want to hear the truth of the gospel. They don’t want to hear that they must repent and submit and obey the Lord.

They like the messages which tell them that they can just believe (not usually biblically defined) in Jesus Christ once in their lives and now all their sins are forgiven (past, present, and future), and now heaven is guaranteed them when they die regardless of how they live. And so they reject the messages which teach the necessity of dying to sin daily and of walking daily in holiness and in righteousness, in obedience to the Lord Jesus.

So, this isn’t exactly what Paul was generally faced with, although he was to some degree, for he wrote much on this subject of how we need to die to our old lives of sin and how we need to now walk in holiness and in obedience to our Lord. But he generally was up against the Jews who refused to believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Messiah, and so that is why the Lord sent Paul to the Gentiles (non-Jews), for they would listen, though not all did.

So, it isn’t that we are being faced much with non-believers who are refusing to believe in Jesus, but what we are up against are many nominal Christians who profess faith in the Lord but who try to find wiggle room around his commands so that they don’t have to obey them. So, in this sense, we are faced with the same situation as Paul, for the Jews had been God’s chosen people, and the promise of the Messiah was given to them first, but the Jewish nation, as a whole, but not every single Jew, has denied Jesus Christ.

So, we should be in prayer for our countries, wherever we live, that God will open the blinded eyes and that he will turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God so that they will receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those sanctified by faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKiG4fil-Sk

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Constantly Abiding 

By Anne S. Murphy, 1908 

There’s a peace in my heart that the world never gave,

A peace it cannot take away;

Though the trials of life may surround like a cloud,

I’ve a peace that has come here to stay!

All the world seemed to sing of a Savior and King,

When peace sweetly came to my heart;

Troubles all fled away and my night turned to day,

Blessèd Jesus, how glorious Thou art!

This treasure I have in a temple of clay,

While here on His footstool I roam;

But He’s coming to take me some glorious day,

Over there to my heavenly home!

Constantly abiding, Jesus is mine;

Constantly abiding, rapture divine;

He never leaves me lonely, whispers, O so kind:

“I will never leave thee,” Jesus is mine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opnmojpwHb0

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