a child of god
this is the way, run in it
I have a list of these sayings, which I have collected, little epiphanies, God light-bulb moments, like beautiful beads collected on a string, to count, recount, remember, delight in . . . God is the One who created me, God is the One who redeemed me, God is the One who calls me by name, etc., and all of those apply to each one of us. and the one for today is this: God is the One who always leads us in Jesus, and God is the One who manifests through us the knowledge of Jesus Christ in every place. These sayings come from 2 Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 14. Here is the full verse: But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. God leads us! He will show us the way to go. And He leads us in Jesus. If we are living our lives for Jesus, allowing Him access to every part of our lives, and living in Him the way He would like us to, abiding in Him and He in us, then we will know the way to go. Not only that, but God will manifest through us the knowledge of Jesus in every place He takes us. Manifest means to make apparent, to burst upon people's consciousness, to display itself. Here is the definition from Google below. God uses you and me to show Jesus to others. That is a BIG task. I know that I do not always feel like I do a great job at that. But thank God it is not up to me to accomplish that by myself! God is the One who does that through us when we allow Him to. The Apostle Paul goes on to state that "who is adequate for these things?!" (v. 16b) I know that feeling! He then goes on to say that we aren't adequate in ourselves - the ability to do this doesn't come from us, "But our adequacy is from God" (Ch 3, v.5) The Passion Translation puts it like this: Yet we don’t see ourselves as capable enough to do anything in our own strength, for our true competence flows from God’s empowering presence. So when we live our lives with God, allowing Him to lead, cooperating with Him in living our lives like Jesus - full of His Word and His Spirit - then others get to see Jesus too. We have become the unmistakable aroma of the victory of the Anointed One to God — a perfume of life to those being saved and the odor of death to those who are perishing. The unbelievers smell a deadly stench that leads to death, but believers smell the life-giving aroma that leads to abundant life. And who of us can rise to this challenge? For unlike so many, we are not peddlers of God’s Word who water down the message. We are those sent from God with pure motives, who speak in the sight of God from our union with Christ. (2 Corinthians 2:15-17) We aren't responsible for how other people react to Jesus. But we are responsible for showing people/the world Jesus - so each one can choose whether they will say yes to Him or not, breathe in His life giving fragrance or not, accept His offer of forgiveness for sins, and know what it is like to live life with Him - clean and clear.
And God is the One who does all of these things . . . through us when we belong to Him. Praise Him!
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Franci Ballwatching and working for the kingdom of God in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham - UK Archives
January 2019
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