NOVEMBER 26 READING…AMOS 8-9 & ACTS 15
Today we finish reading the book of Amos. This farmer called by God to be a prophet finishes his prophesies with the statement to Israel that their time is done. The judgment of God was about to fall on them, no more time to repent, no more chances. God is going to destroy Israel. God will send famine on the land and the Assyrian army will defeat them and take them captive. They will be spread across the land and will lose their identity as a people. They will remain an unidentifiable people until the day that their Messiah restores them back into the land…they will once again be Israel. God will use them again, and they will never be taken out of the land. Paul is brought before the council in Jerusalem for examination of what he was requiring the Gentiles to do in order to believe and follow Jesus. All of the council were raised in Judaism, so they assumed that these Gentile concern would be required to follow to the Jewish covenant requirement of circumcision. Paul did not require Gentile converts to do this, and the council wanted to know why. The basic reason was that circumcision was a sign of the old covenant between God and Israel…under the new covenant all that was required was faith in Jesus. For you and I…it’s just faith in Christ, with nothing else added…for if anything else is added then it is no longer salvation by the grace of God. Never let man’s religion require of you what the Lord does not…for who could add anything to the finished work of Christ for our salvation, and for our daily lives?
Please share your thoughts.
TOMORROW’S READING…NEHEMIAH 1-2 & PSALM 66 & ACTS 16
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