Rise Up!

     Rise up!  Our Lord calls you to serve.  The time is at hand to take the Word of our Father to every person he desires to hear his word.  Where is your faith?  Where is your holy spirit?  It is time to let this world know that the one true God, our Father, is and has great love for them.  It is time to glorify his name before mankind; a mankind that has shown the human tendency to take up idol worship when our Lord is away preparing them an eternal home. 

     We must have faith and pray for his guidance, courage, and strength.  If we go forward with faith and in service to him, he shall fill our mouths and our writings with his divine words.  We need to add action to our words.  The world must know and understand through our faith that God is, was, and forever shall be.  The world must know his glory and his unconditional love. 

     The sheep have strayed.  It is time to call them in.  Our Lord will instruct and show us the way of the shepherd through prayer and faith.  He will show us the faraway nooks and crannies the sheep have strayed into.  He will be our guide, our light for searches in the dark recesses.  Yes, he will tell the mountains to move to bring in his lost sheep.  We must begin to put our faith into action.  Show no fear.  If you must fear someone or something, fear God for he has power over all things, all creatures, all people.

     Let us go forward with enthusiasm and great joy as one doing the work of our Lord surely possesses.  If you doubt, pray for conviction.  If you falter before the enormous task at hand, pray for his strength.  If you do not possess the means, pray for the source.  All these things shall be given to those who go forward in our Father’s work through faith and the holy spirit.  Who or what can stand against its creator, our God.

     We are blessed by our Lord for those acts we do in his name for his glory.  What other glory can be worth the effort, after we have worked for his glory.  Rise up!  Show the world that divine love we possess, and give it to them without condition as it was given to us. 

                                             

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.  Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written:

“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;
    I will sing the praises of your name.”

 Again, it says,

“Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”

¹ And again,

“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles;
    let all the peoples extol him.”

 And again, Isaiah says,

“The Root of Jesse will spring up,
    one who will arise to rule over the nations;
    in him the Gentiles will hope.”

 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

(Romans 15:1-13 NIV)