Daily Radio Bible - September 21st, 21

"God for me, but not for thee". Seems as that was the story that they were all expecting Jesus to tell. He went into their synagogue, and he read from the scroll. And they loved every word that came from his mouth. Until he said another word until he started to talk about other people. people that were outside of their tribe, people that were considered the enemy. When he began to talk about God's favor for them, well, their delight and approval of Jesus and his sermon and his words, quickly turned into rage, anger. They had murder in their minds, as soon as he dared to suggest that God's love went beyond the borders that they had prescribed. That God was for a Gentile woman in the land of Zarephath, that God was for a Gentile enemy, military commander from Syria, that somehow God would favor and see and love, and somehow work their lives too into his plan in his purposes.  To suggest that somehow God loved them, as well as us, was something that that forced them to the brink of murder.

And that's what religion will do. That's what's happening. In our country right now, we've lost the plot. We can't see that God is the Lord of all. That somehow God is at work in the lives of every human being. That somehow God is seeking to, to make himself known to every every person.  To suggest that might get you killed, might get you fired, might get you expelled. But that's the truth. Jesus has come to show us the expanse of God's good news. And it's much bigger than we've been told. Or that we've even dared to imagine. This is how Jesus begins his preaching ministry. Oh, Lord. Isn't that something? One moment, they absolutely adore everything he's saying, the next moment - because he dared to say that God is not just for me, he's also for thee, he's for them too. Well, may God help us to see that. To hear our Lord's first sermon well, and may have begun to transform us and our communities. For him.  And that's the prayer that I have for my own soul. That's the prayer that I have for my family, for my wife and my daughters and my son. And that's a prayer that I have for you. Maybe so.

You are loved!