We read the Bible passages in the Old Testament that proclaim how mighty God was, is, and is to come.  We read the stories of miraculous power and faithful compassions of God from Adam to David. We worship God through the Psalms of David and learn the wisdom of Solomon jotted down in Proverbs.  All these words of worship, prayer, praise, and wisdom come from the same God who Jacob wrestled and finally surrendered to in the desert.  The same God is waiting on our surrender. 

From the line of David we read of the generations who followed who fulfilled God’s prophecies proclaimed by His prophets of a child to be born humbly to a young couple in Bethlehem.  Not just any couple but two people from the line of David, Mary and Joseph, who were fully devoted to God.  It was the God of Jacob they worshiped, awesomely feared, and wholly followed.  God is the same God who is with us always and the One we worship today. 

Can we just pause before reading and meditating on our Psalm to let this truth soak into our minds that struggle to stay focused in a busy world that tries to distract us minute by minute with its demanding attention?  Can we pause to “Be still and know that I AM God”, God asks for our good. Be still and know God.  Be still and let everything else go to focus on the God who was, is, and is to come!  Be still.  Be one with the God of Jacob.  Just Be.

Psalm 114, The Message

^1-8 After Israel left Egypt,
    the clan of Jacob left those barbarians behind;
Judah became holy land for him,
    Israel the place of holy rule.
Sea took one look and ran the other way;
    River Jordan turned around and ran off.
The mountains turned playful and skipped like rams,
    the hills frolicked like spring lambs.
What’s wrong with you, Sea, that you ran away?
    and you, River Jordan, that you turned and ran off?
And mountains, why did you skip like rams?
    and you, hills, frolic like spring lambs?
Tremble, Earth! You’re in the Lord’s presence!
    in the presence of Jacob’s God.
He turned the rock into a pool of cool water,
    turned flint into fresh spring water.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

We learn that there is no one like our God who can move mountains and change the course of rivers.  God is the same; He never changes in his love and care for His created.  There is no one like our God who miraculously brings life to dead men walking and women who are broken by life.  He gives help to the poor and makes a way for orphans to have a forever home.  God stills calls, sends, equips, provides, and protects armies of believers to be His hands and feet in a broken world.

With God, everything is impossible.  Without God…yikes, I don’t want to think about it, because we see nothing but misery in the eyes of those who have turned away from Him. 

Paul took the command of Jesus who commissioned His disciples to heart.  Remember the Great Commission?  “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”—Jesus, Matthew 28:18-20

Paul writes to the Corinthian church of this great commission with ways to accomplish the call as Chris’s love compels us…It is the Ministry of Reconciliation;

^“ Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵ And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:11-21

So, our response is to not only see those without God but to do something about it!  ALL believers are called to reconcile those without God to God! We cannot save them, only Jesus saves them.  Our part is to point people to the One who saves and reconciles us to God once and for all!

It is not God’s desire that anyone perish. There is no human on earth that God does not love.  So, we are to love—like God loves us who sent His One and Only Son to reconcile us to Him! 

“Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change.” 2 Peter 3:9, MSG

Peter’s words were a response to the people in the early church who wondered why Jesus had not returned yet. The letter explains that God is giving people more time to change.  Can you imagine God in heaven, leaning over to Jesus to say—“Just one more, wait, just one more…”?  That one more could be our child, sister, brother, neighbor, cashier, student, teacher…that “one more” for me this morning was with the woman who cut my hair! 

Don’t get shy for all the power comes from God’s Holy Spirit speaking through us with truth in words that are understandable—no matter the circumstance!

“When they drag you into their meeting places, or into police courts and before judges, don’t worry about defending yourselves—what you’ll say or how you’ll say it. The right words will be there. The Holy Spirit will give you the right words when the time comes.”—Jesus, Luke 12-11-12

The same God who helped Abraham, Issaac, and Jacob is the SAME God who speaks to us today.  Sigh, breathe in His Spirit.

Lord,

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

In Jesus Name, Amen