Treasured Possession, Holy Nation 5-4-07

Good morning, Lord Jesus. At Your name, my knees bow and my tongue confesses that You are Lord. ... "Now therefore, if you obey My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for Me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:5-6). Father, thank You for Your covenant with Israel, teaching us through the generations of the nature of Your faithfulness even in the face of our unfaithfulness. No people of any nation can completely obey Your voice and keep Your covenant, nor even desire to, apart from Your grace and power. All will fall short of Your glory and Your will. All will turn, sooner or later and usually sooner, to their own ways instead of Yours. So we all need the Savior who sends His Spirit to lead us back to You in repentance and faith. Israel needed a Messiah, and so do we -- the people of every tongue and tribe and nation. And by the mercy of Your grace, we have One -- "in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Galatians 3:14). For ourselves and on behalf of our nations, let us be Your "treasured possession." We are treasured because You love us and gave Your life for us. We are Your possession because we choose to submit our will and our ways to Yours. Through the blood of the Lamb that cleanses our sins and restores our soul, as a people and as a nation, You remind us of our calling and destiny in Christ -- to be a priestly kingdom and a holy nation, to receive all the blessings of Abraham. And through this kingdom and nation of a people redeemed and restored out of every kingdom and every nation, "all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:3). In Christ, the Messiah of Israel and all nations, we are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that (we) might proclaim the mighty acts of Him who called (us) out of darkness and into His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9). In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays Friends, thank you for joining with us in prayer yesterday for our National Day of Prayer. At our state-wide gathering at the Capitol in Kentucky, we were able to come inside because of the rain, and fill the floor of the Capitol Rotunda with over a hundred people form across our state to pray for our nation. Just outside the Governor's office and in between the chambers of the House and Senate, we boldly worshipped and prayed, proclaiming the mighty acts of God in the name of Jesus in the freedom we have. May the Lord hear our prayers on behalf of our nation. We believe He has -- and so did everybody in our capitol building! God bless you and all the families of the earth! To subscribe/unsubscribe, please send a note to me at Messiah Ministries -- MessiahMin@aol.com -- "Ministering the Healing Love of God ... Preparing the Way of the Lord." 2800 Tates Creek Rd; Lexington, KY 40502 www.messiah-ministries.org Daily Archives: www.morningbymorning.injesus.com