Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 312
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IMMERSE
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MESSIAH
4:2-19
suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. You won’t spend
the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious
to do the will of God. You have had enough in the past of the evil things
that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and
drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.
Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge
into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you.
But remember that they will have to face God, who stands ready to judge
everyone, both the living and the dead. That is why the Good News was
preached to those who are now dead—so although they were destined to
die like all people, they now live forever with God in the Spirit.
The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love
for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. Cheerfully share your
home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.
God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.
Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking?
Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you
have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that
God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through
Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through,
as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for
these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you
will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all
the world.
If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be
blessed, for the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you. If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into
other people’s affairs. But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian.
Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name! For the time
has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if
judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never
obeyed God’s Good News? And also,
“If the righteous are barely saved,
what will happen to godless sinners?”
So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what
is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never
fail you.
