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Return To The Lord, Believe In Jesus And You Shall Be Saved

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Return To The Lord, Believe In Jesus And You Shall Be Saved

Isaiah 49:8-15
John 5:17-30

Today’s first reading from the book of Isaiah overflows with images of restoration and redemption from God. Through the prophet, God declares this is ‘the day of salvation’.
Here, God speaks of wanting to guide us to pastures where we shall neither “hunger nor thirst” and lead us to “springs of water” where we will forever be renewed. Isaiah tells us that God, like all good lovers, wants to comfort and care for us; heal every hurt and wounded place of our lives; free us from all that burdens and oppresses us; and do whatever is necessary to make us whole. Isaiah depicts a God eager to help and anxious to save. But God cannot do much for people who masquerade at wholeness and tiresomely pretend that all is well, those who do not obey his commands and trust in themselves. Like the psalmist says; The LORD lifts up all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down…The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth. This is who God is? The Lord is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness.

Jesus echoes this nature and faithfulness of God and our need to respond to God’s call to his disciples in today’s gospel. He says; Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation. What a gift of faith the Lord has bestowed on those who keep his and do his will. The Lord is calling us back to him.; to acknowledge him as the source of our lives and existence . No matter how far we have strayed so as long as we return to God we encounter a God who is gracious, kind and merciful. When we return to the Lord, we encounter his love, mercy and forgiveness Such a person Jesus retorts has passed from dead to life; he has received eternal life therefore he is not condemned, he is saved.

We are half way on our Lenten path and we recall to mind the words of the prophet Joel from God; Even Now Return to the Lord. Joel 2:12. God wants us to RETURN back to HIM, condemn not and you will not be condemned, judge not and you will not be judged…Matthew 7:1…though we may be black as coal, he will make us as white as snow, though we may be as red as crimson, they shall be like wool. Isaiah 1:18.

Fr Joseph Osho

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