Wednesday, March 08, 2017

What is the church? Called.

What is the church?  What shall we liken it to in Genesis 6?

"And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth was filled with violence because of them. Now, look, I am going to destroy them along with the earth. Make for yourself an ark of cypress wood..."

i'm always telling my kids in the Sunday school class i teach, 'Don't skip over that!  Don't read, "And God said to Noah," as if it were, 'Once upon a time,'!  In some ways, it is the most important and improbable words in the Bible!  That God, The God, Yahweh, the Great I AM, spoke TO us!  That's why we know anything!  That alone sets up the church!  God called us!  Jesus, God in the flesh, called us, "Come, put down what you're doing and follow me.  Put down what you presently consider your life, take up your cross, the life I will give to you of service and sacrifice, and follow me.  God calls people as they are, yes; God formed you in the womb and knows you through and through and loves you as He made you, but what we do with that on our own is very rarely what He has for us to do!  Otherwise stories like this one with Noah would read more like, "And God came to Noah who was building a boat and said to him, "Nice boat.  I spoke to the animals, they should be arriving sometime after Thursday."  And Noah spake unto him, "Cool."  And God merrily went upon his way.

"When Israel (which means, 'wrestles with God') was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt (slavery to sin)  I called my son."  (Hosea 11)


 

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