Many aspects of an envisioned future can be influenced or changed by decisions and actions you make today. For the church, this is not simply projection-based planning but the realization that through prayer and obedience you can be a catalyst to help bring about a future that is in alignment with God’s will. Through prayer, the framework for plan is established. Implementing strategy requires continued daily prayer for direction accompanied by obedient action in response to what God reveals.
There are two conversions in Acts 10, the conversion of a gentile named Cornelius and an apostle named Peter. Both were necessary for the mission of God to go forward. The inclusion of gentiles into the Christian family would become a thorn in the flesh for many, and eventually it lead to a complete rejection of Christianity by Jews. But it started here, and it was brought about by God. As far as Luke was concerned, this was Peter’s climactic sermon, and he would always be known as one who, though sometimes reluctant, was determined to do what God wanted.
What a change! The Law can enslave us; the Gospel sets us free to live for Christ. The message puts a new joy in our hearts and new smiles on our faces. The Gospel ushers in a new day.
If we follow Peter’s logic, we will see that Jewish believers do not have to keep the laws of Moses, either. They are saved by grace through faith, just as the Gentiles are. The old covenant is obsolete, so its laws are no longer required for anyone, and that is why Peter could live like a Gentile (Gal. 2:14).
Having accomplished salvation for the elect, God now applies it to us by faith. Justification is the primary and foundational act of God in applying our salvation because it is the bestowal upon us of the right to all the blessings Christ has won on our behalf and will thus progressively apply to us—such as sanctification and glorification. Justification means and seeks to demonstrate that it is received by faith alone.
There is certainly to-day amongst many of our missionaries a tendency to encourage their converts to teach others from the moment of their conversion. That may seem a very strange thing to say, and it would be a very strange thing to say unless it were still somewhat rare, and was not even now checked and hindered, often by those who desire it most sincerely.
The term “passion” is used to describe everything from romance to hunger pangs. I don’t know what it means to you, but for me passion means whatever a person is willing to suffer for. In fact, that’s the
root meaning of the word. It comes from the Latin paserre, to suffer. It is what you hunger for so intensely that you will sacrifice anything to have it.
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