As Light Called to the Nations

Call in the New Testament The Beginning of a Call Live in the light of God (Isaiah 2:5)    Called Before Birth Isaiah 42:1-9 The Message God’s Servant Will Set Everything Right 42 1-4 “Take a good look at my servant.     I’m backing him to the hilt. He’s the one I chose,     and I couldn’t be more pleased with him. I’ve bathed him with my Spirit, my life.     He’ll set everything right among the nations. He won’t call attention to what he does with loud speeches or gaudy parades. He won’t brush aside the bruised and the hurt     And he won’t disregard the small and insignificant,     but he’ll steadily and firmly set things right. He won’t tire out and quit. He won’t be stopped until he’s finished his work—to set things right on earth. Far-flung ocean islands     wait expectantly for his teaching.” The God Who Makes Us Alive with His Own Life 5-9 God’s Message,     the God who created the cosmos, stretched out the skies,     laid out the earth and all that grows from it, Who breathes life into earth’s people,     makes them alive with his own life: “I am God. I have called you to live right and well.     I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe. I have set you among my people to bind them to me,     and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations, To make a start at bringing people into the open, into light:     opening blind eyes,     releasing prisoners from dungeons,     emptying the dark prisons. I am God. That’s my name.     I don’t franchise my glory,     don’t endorse the no-god idols. Take note: The earlier predictions of judgment have been fulfilled.     I’m announcing the new salvation work. Before it bursts on the scene,     I’m telling you all about it.” For Reflection In this Advent Season, we need to remember for whom we wait despite all the Christmas hubbub. Perhaps we have heard enough pretentious speeches and clanging symbols of empty promises to understand the bold contrast between the promise of God and the promise of Idolators. God has sent his Son to save us not from eternal damnation but to deliver us into a life of peace, justice, and joy. Before he was born, Jesus lived in God. God called Christ to be an example of how to fulfill the divine potential of human life. Jesus has shown us how to be delivered from a life dominated by selfish desires attained by spurious means.  The Christ event has freed us from the insufferable burden of endless hunger for meaningless satisfaction.  Jesus has shown us how to free ourselves to become what God has intended us to be, peacemaking, justice-seeking, joyfully stewards of the Creation.  Pray Pray, to empty your soul ego-driven desires. Pray so that you will displace selfish want with God-driven yearnings to live in harmony with the Creation. Forward to a friend