Isaiah 55:1

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

 

From Background Notes [BN] for October 27^th & 28^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Salvation is first of all about admitting that we are spiritually poor and desperately in need of God’s mercy and grace. That’s a hard admission, filled with the acknowledgement of our own inadequacy — something that self-assured human beings hate to do. We know that we are thirsty for something.

We know that we are hungry for something. But what? In an attempt to shore up these deficiencies, we cobble together a deed here and a good work there, and perhaps even accomplish some limited good in the process. Yet our need is far greater than the good we do, and sooner or later the deficit catches up with us. In his famous Pensees, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) remarked, “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.” What we need, Paul reminds us in our Titus reading, is for God to “pour out on us” (Greek: ekcheō, “pour forth, stream out”) mercy, rebirth, and the Holy Spirit, something He wants to do “generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.” Compare the word “generously” to the phrase “poor in spirit” and you will see a sharp contrast, artistically crafted.  [BN, 9]

Join us this week in Study, Worship, Praise and Celebration at Chicago First Church of the Nazarene:

* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am