Romans 10:15
And how shall they preach unless they are sent?
As it is written:
“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!”
How beautiful are those who share glad tidings, let that sink in, not a future wrought with fear. God created us in His image out of love. He wanted a relationship with people who would love Him in return. When we failed to accept the perfect world that He created for us He created the perfect sacrifice for our failure…JESUS. In Him the world could be saved. He came to the world with shouts of peace, peace to the people of earth. Did we listen?
Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
Only in Jesus is peace with our Creator possible. The hardest thing that we will ever do is to abide in peace. Sharing His peace He offers with others is our act of worship. God tolerates our hatred for each other He loves us and wants no one to live without Him…but it will not always be so.
Jesus gave us another command, adding to the command to love God above all, we are to love our neighbors as much as we do ourselves. God’s way is the way of peace. The world chooses the idols of money, power and control. How sad that we give up our peace in exchange for unrighteous mammon. Carla
Paul quotes Isaiah 52:7 to emphasize the importance of spreading the gospel. This verse is just prior to the Servant Songs of Isaiah 52:13–53:12 that find their fulfillment in Jesus, which Paul alludes to throughout this letter. Faithlife Study Bible.
Paul emphasizes the universal offer of salvation. Whoever in verses 11, 13 means “all.” Verse 12 explains that this includes Jew and Greek (Gentile). Not all Jews have obeyed the command to believe in Christ. The NKJV Study Bible
Isaiah 52:7
How beautiful upon the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace,
Who brings glad tidings of good things,
Who proclaims salvation,
Who says to Zion,“Your God reigns!”
Nahum 1:15
Behold, on the mountains
The feet of him who brings good tidings,
Who proclaims peace!
O Judah, keep your appointed feasts,
Perform your vows.
For the wicked one shall no more pass through you;
He is utterly cut off.
“My deepest vocation is to be a witness to the glimpses of God I have been allowed to catch.” This makes me smile big. Thank you, Henri Nouwen.
And yet, as Confucius reminded us, “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
Which brings to mind the question: why do we see only what we want to see?
It’s all about the paradigm we choose.
Do we choose open, or do we choose closed?
As we’ve been saying this week, it's not that we “choose” to dance, so much that we “choose” to give up being afraid. Okay, not that we choose to “be open”, so much as we choose to give up “being closed”.
Yes, and amen. I choose to give up being closed.
Now, open to beauty. Open to glimpses of the sacred.
Yes, and amen. I choose to give up being closed.
“Sabbath Moments”
2 Corinthians 9:8 (ESV) "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work."
Interestingly, this moving verse is tucked into Paul's plea for money from the Corinthian church. It's important to see that he didn't ask for funds because of greed or ambition: He desired to care for suffering believers in a famine (2 Corinthians 8). Paul asked the church at Corinth to give cheerfully and sow generously, and our key verse gives the reason why. Because God's grace had poured into them, Paul said they should overflow with grace toward others.
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