Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours immeasurably from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord. Welcome to the last week of the month of April 2020. And may it be a week of restoration and refreshing for us all, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
For some weeks now Coronavirus has been the major news on everybody’s lips. Everyday and everywhere people are reporting it. And why? It is because of its destructive impact on life in general. Everybody can see, hear and feel what it is doing to people’s health and lifestyles all over the world. So, though we are not happy about it, none of us is surprised that it is the main thing that is now being discussed everywhere.
In like manner, though those of the world may not like it, God’s desire is that our faith in Christ Jesus will be reported everywhere, not just for a while but till our Lord will come and take us to be with Himself. For example, Paul says of the Roman brethren of bible days, “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.” (Rom 1:8NIV) Did you see that? Paul says these brethren’s faith is being reported all over the world. In other words, people are discussing their faith in Jesus Christ everywhere.
But why are people discussing the faith of these brethren? First, it is because of the change they can see in their lives. They can see how they turned away from idol worship, immorality, drunkeness and greed in order to worship God and to wait for His Son Jesus Christ. Also, they can see how they are now doing what natural men find impossible to do – they are living a life of love and a life of righteousness. And these things are so obvious and suprising to everyone that they cannot but talk about them or call one another’s attention to them.
The second reason they are reporting the faith of the Roman brethren is the impact that it is making on their society. People are suddenly realising that there is a new breed of individuals among them that are not morally impotent, deficient or incapacitated. They are seeing that there is a new crop of people that can be trusted with lives, money, properties and so forth, a new crop of people that are constantly full of joy and are peaceable and lovely to be with. So, wise owners of businesses want them on their team or as their partners. Community leaders who truly care about their people want them among their staff. Slaves want them as their masters, and slave masters who have them don’t want to lose them because of the quality of service they are giving them. In short, these brethren are changing the mind of everybody about life and how to handle it meaningfully. There is, therefore, no way they won’t talk about their faith in Christ Jesus and its impact on their world.
Unfortunately, this is not the case with many of us believers today. People are not reporting our faith at all because they cannot see its relevance. They cannot see any good thing it has done to our own lives or homes, not to talk of our society. We have remained the old persons they used to know, that is, if we have not even become worse. I mean that they cannot see any good change our so-called faith in Christ Jesus has brought about in our lives. So, they don’t consider it something worthy of attention or something worthy of reporting.
Now why is this the case? It is the case because many of us who profess to be Christians don’t even understand what it means to be a Christian. In other words, we are not even saved at all – we are just church meeting goers. Then many among those of us who have been genuinely saved are not walking in the consciousness of who we are. We are not walking in the consciousness of the fact that we are the salt of the earth and that our lives are supposed to bring healing, preservation and taste to our world (Matt 5:13). So, we live carelessly and thoughtlessly, giving not much attention to how what we say and do affect those in our world. And the Lord is now saying to us, as we go this week, “This ought not to be so. You should not lose your saltiness in the world and allow yourself to be trampled upon, as it is the case with many. So, wake up and be the salt that you really are to your world, taking advantage of my grace. And before you know it, those in your world will begin to see and talk about the relevance of your faith in me.”
Do have a fabulous week.
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