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Welcome
“The smoke coming out of the chimney is a sign that there is a fire in the house. Do we have the fire of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, in our lives and what is the evidence of it? Let us pray for more of the Holy Spirit so that people can see more of the glory and blessings of the Lord in us. Let us praise and worship Him for His amazing love to us.”
Stella
Worship
Word
When will Jesus Return?
Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.
Rom. 11:30-32
Here Paul is reminding the Gentiles that at one time they also were disobedient to Jesus Christ. This reminder is to help them not to get proud over the fact that they were saved and the Jews in large part were not. However, just as the Gentiles experienced and received God’s mercy and grace, even as a result of their disobedience, so too will Israel one day, when all Israel will be saved.
This is a strong point of the apostle’s teaching, “so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you.”
The “now” in this sentence can mean that it can happen anytime, meaning that Christ’s second coming can happen at any time for these two events are closely related. The remarkable ways of God can be seen in
For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.
Romans 11:32
Such always reminds me of the Prodigal Son, his father allowed him to rebel and go, and in a way bound him over to disobedience. As a result, he learnt the hard way he was better off in his father’s house. We can’t blame God for this for it was their choice. They chose to disobey and God bound them over to it, rather like they became imprisoned by their disobedience. But God has a redemptive purpose in mind, that he might have mercy on them all. It is the sick person that needs the physician, likewise it is the sinner that needs God’s mercy. This means everyone, both Jews and Gentiles need God’s mercy, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So we must pray that all people come to this place of realising this, for many don’t, Amen.
Quote of the week
“We must not suppose that if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world.”
C. S. Lewis
Verse of the week
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst.
1 Timothy 1:15 – written by the apostle Paul
Let’s Pray
Father God, we praise You for Your remarkable ways, Oh the depths of the riches of Your wisdom and knowledge. Father, we pray for this nation, for the UK and S. Ireland, for Lord, we have gone far away from You. Lord in Your anger remember mercy; in Your wrath remember mercy and forgive us O Lord and draw us back to Yourself. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit that we might once more live in faithfulness to You and be worthy of the name, ‘Christian Nation,’ in and through Jesus Christ, our Saviour, Lord and Friend, Amen.