God’s Word to You today is Acts 26:17-18

17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

A pastor spoke from Nehemiah and spoke in reference to being a father as well as on some of the social problems we face today. Yes, it included racism, evil, the lost and more, the Gospel. That was the pastor’s point in that part of the sermon. Instead of us jumping the gun, seeking justice and wanting revenge he suggested we go straight to the Bible to see what God wants of us. And that is what we should do. I know I have been writing about us being God’s rather than good or full of works.

I have also in the past said it can be good to pray for bad things to happen to the lost. Now I don’t mean it to be in evil intent towards them. One point the pastor made that I also try to promote is love each other. He used 2 Corinthians to share how Paul told us to not just love the lost but that each of us should think MORE of each other than we do ourselves. In today’s world that in itself is a huge feat.

So, how can that be part of praying hard things on the lost? Well simply put, if we know someone who is a racist then we pray God convicts them and in doing so if He has to use hardship and things that will open their eyes to other races being just like us then so be it. We can’t keep pulling our kids out of the fire each time they get in trouble and expect them to know right from wrong. We can’t expect the lost to know they need God if nothing ever happens to make them know they do need Him.

One of my prayers for some of the lost I have been in contact with is simply Lord put whatever you must in their lives short of death to let them see they need you. And they need to know two things about God. He is real and they can be saved only by Him. In today’s world we each of us are tempted to fall into the I am God mentality if we aren’t careful . And that includes becoming a racist towards racists, or being angry because we can’t control others to think and be like WE think they should be.

It even falls over into different denominations, religions, social status as well as races. The answer was, is and always will be what defines and separates us from the rest of the world. The Gospel. The Gospel is the most important idea, thought and action in all of history. Because of it we are saved, because of it we are forgiven, because of it we are changed and because of it we are able to do those things and love those people in a way we can’t on our own. Amen? Amen!

me n’ God love ya