ACTS 20:28
Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.
This is a gentle reminder to the church leaders not only to the church in Ephesus, but to church leaders everywhere even in this present time. For The Word of God is alive and ever flowing, like streams of living water flowing into His trees of righteousness, strengthening us and causing us to grow: in Him and in each other.
Jeremiah 3:15 tells us what the shepherds of God's people will be like: "Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding."
John 21:15-19 shows us how Jesus reinstated Peter into the twelve after Peter's denial and Jesus' resurrection. Through Christ's neverending love and mercy, He was able to reveal to Peter not only what his life was to be about, but also his death.
God wants His shepherds, His church leaders, to have hearts like His heart: to seek and to save the lost; to have and to show the love of God by our words and our actions; to have knowledge and understanding of God's Holy Word that we might be able to share It with His wisdom, His Holy Spirit, active in us.
Every born again believer has been purchased by God with the blood of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. We are not our own: we have been bought from sin and its punishment at great cost: the blood of Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 9:14
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Matthew 26:28
For this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
This blood of my Jesus covers me. Now when I face God on my day of judgment, God will not see this fleshly body in which I currently dwell: He will see His Son and I will dwell in the house of The Lord forever.
What will God see when He looks at you on your day of judgment?
Romans 10:8-10, 13
(8) But what does it say? “The Word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, The Word of Faith we are proclaiming:
(9) that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
(10) For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.
(13) For whosoever shall call upon The Name of The Lord shall be saved.
I am a whosoever. Are you?
SINCE YOUR LOVE - United Pursuit
I AM NOT MY OWN - Keith & Krystin Getty
NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD - Jars of Clay
COVERED - Planetshakers
