I like change... but I enjoy comfort.

    I wouldn’t eat the same food every night. I need some variety in my diet. On the other hand I wouldn’t want to eat unfamiliar food for every meal either. I have my favorites and a waistline to prove it!

    I don’t like taking the same old road when I travel back and forth from Texas to Washington. It’s fun to see new country, experience new territory, and see the world (okay, see a different part of the United States, anyway). Then again, I want to take the same route back and forth to work. It’s proven. It’s consistently the fastest route.

    I like change... but I enjoy comfort.

    There’s a challenging statement in the first chapter of Romans that makes me examine my desire for change and comfort. It appears in verse 16. Here’s how it reads in the New International Version:

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”

Are you sure, God?

    For everyone? Are you sure, God? I like things to be different from time to time in church so I don’t get bored, but I’m pretty comfortable with the people who already come. I mean if you start saving “everyone” there may be some people who won’t look, act, and talk and live just like me! It’s easy to want the church to grow and to see new people give their lives over to God, but quite another to open the doors to the “everyone”!

    God has the power to save through the gospel. Thieves, prostitutes, drunkards, adulterers, homosexuals, swindlers, sexually immoral people... such a list describes what some people used to be who attended the church at Corinth. (2 Corinthians 6:9-11) God does save such people and bring them out of their sin into His glorious light. Praise God!

    Are you ready? Are you willing? May our hearts be open to the power of the gospel so that all those coming to God in Christ have a new place to call home!

    Father, open our eyes to see what you see, our ears to hear what you hear, and our hearts to know what you know. We want to be a home for hurting people who have been changed by the power of the gospel. Tear down our prejudices and our pride so it can be so. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

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© 2003, Mark Waltenbaugh. Used by permission. From The Online Devotional mailing list. To join, send an email to david@yourchurchcangrow.com with the subject "SUBSCRIBE TO DEVO."

Title: "The Power to Save Everyone"
Author: Mark Waltenbaugh
Publication Date: June 12, 2003