I am going to pause in our study of Ezkiel today a wish everyone a happy New Year. We have the beginning of a year with nothing written on it yet. It is up to each individual what they will write on this year each day. Oh, I know there are forces beyond our control that will affect aspects of our lives, but they should not change who we are as followers of Christ.
First, we should reach out to God by the leadership of the Holy Spirit in everything that we do, and we should never be intimidated into doing anything less than what He calls us to do. "The just shall live by faith," is something we find recorded several times in the Bible (Romans 1:17. Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38, Habakkuk 2:4) so this is what we need to be doing, living by faith and not sight.
Next, we should be reaching out to our neighbors with the love of God. This is true of those who are poor and downtrodden in particllar. I don't believe we can say that we are living by faith in God and hate our neighbors. I don't believe that God sees people as worthy or unworthy of His gift of salvation based on where they were born. The whole world ad all of creation are His and at one point, He pronounced it all good, and when mankind rebelled against Him, He sent Hid only begotten Son to die to redeem all who put their faith in Him and not just for select people from select countries. We need to be reaching out to all with the love of God and not with hatred from a feeling of moral superiority.
Last, let's make this coming New Year one in which we live our life guided by God's love and not mankind's hatred, where we really do love our neighbor as ourselves, realizing that none of us deserve God's mercy, since we are all sinners saved by grace. Happy New Year to all.
