January 1, 2024

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4.1-6)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

As mighty ones of God through Christ Jesus His Son and our Lord and Savior, we would do well to beware of the call of the “one world government” and the invitation to become as “one people.” The Church must rise up and speak against this call and this invitation providing the counterpoint of “oneness” to which Christ followers are called and invited to become. Let us say this LOUD and CLEAR: they are not the same. Their purposes are not similar. Their intentions are diametrically opposed. And the means by which they are accomplished are in contradistinction. We would do well to pursue in 2024 the proclamation and manifestation of being “the one people of God.” Being unified under that banner will provide far more benefit by God’s mercy and grace than that proclaimed by the “one government/one people” system promoted by the Father of Lies, Satan the Accuser.

In my Advent reflections based on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount[ainside], I submitted for our consideration that we all, the entire population of the earth, have entered into the Advent of Advents. We are now in the season of the Church’s rule and reign. As such we are called and invited into a generation of preparations for the coming of the King of kings, Lord of lords, Prince of Peace, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and the one upon whose shoulders is laid the mantel of governing the whole of creation. The whole of creation exists from the souls of the feet of the body of Christ (the Heavens and the earth) to the top of its head (that which is Christ alone made incarnate in the birthing of humanity in spirit and in truth.) As the liturgical Advent season was designed to help move believers, and invite non-believers to move with them, to prepare for a singular worship experience recognizing and honoring the gospel which was born in Bethlehem, so now we ought to grasp the sense of this eschatological Advent season. That season, this season, is the Age of the Church. Calling to mind the commissioning of all believers beginning with the disciples as eyewitnesses to “Go therefore into all the world and make disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ in and of all nations, teach them all that Jesus had taught as recorded in the gospels by word and action, and baptize them into the unity of the Body of Christ in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” (reference Matthew 28.19-20″ Further, Jesus concluded that commissioning statement with a promise sealing the call and the invitation in this way “…and know that I will be with you always to the close of the Age [of the Church.]”

Focusing on the liturgical Advent season as bringing to light the voice of the Promise of God to redeem His people which had been dormant for over four hundred years until John, known as the Baptizer, who was the cousin of Jesus of Nazareth, known as the Christ, I submit that it is time for the voice of the Promise of God to speak now as it has never done so before. In the era of mixed messages and innuendos which has lasted far too long, there needs to be a harkening back to “the way, the truth and the life” which the gospel inerrantly proclaims. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the faith in Christ community established in Ephesus to be a unified people sharing one hope having been called and invited to share “one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God of all who is in all and over all for all time,” so we must now accept the charge and challenge to fulfill that covenant and take hold of our destiny as believers in Jesus who is the Christ. We can no longer stand mutely by and allow the world to simply be what it wants to be. Doing so moves the Church out of the Kingdom and into the world to be reshaped, reformed and removed. It will no longer bear witness to the God of All revealed best to us in Jesus the Christ. It will bear witness to the failure of “one people of One God” to take hold of their truth identity and be the authentic measure of life as it was meant to be. God will not pass away but His people may surely do so because of their failure to be obedient to the call and invitation of righteousness. Jesus is coming at the time when the Father declares the Age of the Church has been fulfilled by success or failure. We must prepare ourselves for it. I pray that in 2024 we will be far more and far better prepared than we have been to date.

What are we preparing to be? One people with one heart, one mind, one soul dwelling in one body with one Head for one purpose abiding by one call and one invitation. Let’s be that people in 2024!

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit spoke us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.