08142020 Devotion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK9PHEpACvM

Good morning brothers and sisters, this is Alice from HarvestLA. Today is Friday, August  14th, 2020. We are going to have our daily devotion on Romans 9:25-33. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we praise You and we love You. May we all humbly bow down before You and listen to Your words. In Jesus's name we pray, Amen!

Romans 9:25-33 25 As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,” 26 and, “In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’” 27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. 28 For the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality.” 29 It is just as Isaiah said previously: “Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.” 30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

The book of Romans is the letters from Paul, who wrote to the church in Rome about God's salvation. In verses 25, 26, 28, 29 and 33 Paul quoted from Hosea and Isaiah the prophets. Why did God change His mind about His blessings from the Jews and Israelites to Gentiles? Or should we say that the Jews and Israelites changed their minds. They worshipped other gods and idols. They refused God's Son Jesus Christ. They abandoned their identifications as God's chosen people. They thought they could obtain the righteousness by pursuing the law and how many works they have achieved. You maybe memorize every single detail of the law, but no one can perfectly fulfill every single bit of the law. God gives us free will to make our own choices and decisions. Otherwise, we will be like robots. God wants unity, not uniformity. We are saved by Grace and Mercy through our faith. Not because our bloodline, culture, race, the color of the eyes, skin and the like.

If not because of God giving us His one and only Son, who died for our sins and rose the third day, I wouldn't have been able to join this big family, HarvestLA, Adult fellowship, the prayer meeting team and the daily devotion team. A safe place that I am able to fit in and share my ups and downs. Brothers and sisters, is Jesus Christ your building foundation or stumbling stone!?

Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we praise You and we love You. We want to trust in You alone. Lord you are the potter we are the clay, please mold us into the vessel for Your purpose. In Jesus's name we pray, Amen!

Thank you again for joining our daily devotion. Have a wonderful weekend and don't forget to subscribe to our channel! Bye!