THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD - PART 417

If one asserts that they are right even though the Word of God contradicts their assertion, should they still be permitted to carry on even when they prefer to believe a lie? Hopefully not. Still, many people today are not aware of their beliefs simply because they have never heard the truth concerning the Word of God.

A prime example is Paul. A radical adherent to the Jewish faith, Paul's radicalism was so radical that it classified him as a terrorist that pursued Christian believers with a vengeance, throwing them into prison. This, until one day when the Lord met him on the road to Damascus. There, the Lord confronted Paul head on saying, "It is hard for you to kick against your conscience." This was the arrow that penetrated Paul right into the heart. Until then, Paul was caught up in his religious ways attempting to climb the ladder of fame. The dilemma was that Paul, in so doing was violating himself.

How many people today are like Paul? Caught up in religious institutional practices or other pursuits taught to them as children? A pursuit that in the end has essentially disabled them from being themselves, unable to listen to their heart.

In Paul's case, it was being confronted with the Word of JESUS that changed the situation. It was hard for Paul to kick against his conscience. That conscience which pricks the heart saying - Yes we know that we ought to have said no. Indeed, there is a place where one can actually sear their conscience, so that nothing pricks their conscience again. This is termed as the hardening of one's heart.

Such was the case when a Jewish crowd upon being addressed by Stephen reached that place. The crowd had completely hardened their heart. Stephen told the people, "You always resist the Holy Spirit even as your fathers did before you." Imagine the reaction - and "so also do you." This is when they stoned Stephen, possibly thinking within their deranged minds that they were doing a great service to God. Little did they know at the time that like Adam and Eve who were put out of the Garden, so now would their people also be cut off from the same blessings of God in their conscience. Instead, as the scriptures point out, the crowd was left as it were to continue in their fanatical religious ways, totally estranged from God.

The result? The Jews were no longer Mr. Somebody but rather were now demoted to join the ranks of Mr Nobodies. Remember, JESUS had wept over Jerusalem saying, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you under my wings, even as a chicken gathers her brood and you would not come. Now your city is left to you desolate."

Yes, they were cut off from the vine JESUS and the Gentiles who had previously been on the outside looking in, were now being grafted into the vine JESUS. This same status remain even today because of unbelief. For there are many who are departing from the grace and mercy gospel returning instead to the house of bondage which is the Law.

But the scriptures state the Law is what no man was able to keep. That is, with the exception of JESUS. If we return to the Garden, we learn that the Law was the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil defined. JESUS fulfilled the Law of sin and death liberating all believers from the law of sin and death which had been imposed upon all of Adam’s sin prone descendants. Each and every one of us.

However, the good news is that we are NOT under the Law. All believers who have repented before God and been willingly baptized into JESUS' death have become a New Creation, a Purchased and Redeemed people resulting from the sacrificial death of God Himself as a Son at Calvary! Believers are the ISRAEL of GOD! Peace to ALL who are in JESUS!