But Ye Shall Be Baptized With The Holy Ghost Not Many Days Hence - Part 2206

The scripture for this day ... "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood." (Acts 20:28)

Far too often, many within the modern day religious culture have moved away from sharing the greatest love story ever told to their congregants -- His love story wherein our Lord God and Saviour Jesus the Christ shed His own precious holy blood on a cross for our sins, so that we might find everlasting life in Him. Instead, from the pulpits, tidbits from the world are highlighted with some attempt to relate those home-spun worldly stories to the gospel. Even when we who are charged with ministry know inside ourselves that the only good news that offers abundant life and forgiveness to one and all is when we tell those who are lost about the Holy Ghost that willingly robed Himself in flesh so that He could purchase us with His own holy precious blood, paying the ultimate price for our salvation. 

"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, [as] silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you ..." (I Peter 1:18-20)

Indeed, from the very beginning, and even before the foundations of this world were formed, the Spirit of the Lord God who moved upon the face of the waters in Genesis had you and I in His mind. So much so that this same Spirit of the Lord God knew that in order for us to receive His free gift of salvation, He would have to become our Saviour, shedding His own holy blood on a cross for you and I. And that after the pattern of the old, there would have to be a purchase. (Hebrews 9:8, 14-18)

Therefore, "blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you -- who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see [Him] not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, [even] the salvation of your souls.

Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace [that should] come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into." (I Peter 1:3-12)

The only good news message that offers abundant life. Stand in the offering plate.