The gospel is described here as ‘our gospel’, not because it belongs to us alone, but because it is entrusted by the Lord to all who believe. This message of God’s salvation has been made available and open for all. It is not hidden by God, nor should it ever be hidden by those who believe and have benefited from it. It has been given freely as an endowment of all mankind. The only limitation on it being appropriated as ‘ours’, is our own will and desire as individuals. We might say similarly that the sun shines and all can see it, unless they close their eyes to it and choose not to. The flow of a river is there for all to benefit and satisfy their thirst, unless they select not to drink from it. In context then, the gospel is not hid by divine mandate. If it remains hidden to some, the fault is not with God or with the gospel He has given, but rather with those that through their own pride, sinfulness, indulgence and self-centredness, remain blinded to the sight, beauty and power of it and therefore are deemed ‘lost’, without hope and without Christ. This however, is not a condition which must inevitably remain, as can be seen by so many of us who were indeed lost and yet are now found. What corrects our lost-ness is as simple as making a change in our will to ‘see’, give place to and accept that it is we who are blinded to the beauty of God’s gospel, and in need of spiritual surgery! Once that admission is made in our personal hearts and minds, we begin to find that which had been ‘hidden’ by our own doing or lack of! It is probably for this reason that many, when referring to their conversion say something like ‘when I found God’, as if God had been somehow lost! In reality what we mean by such statements, is that though God was in plain sight, like the light of the sun, we had our blinders on and could not see Him! We were the ones who were lost, and only when we finally and willingly removed the impediments from our eyes, did we begin to see God! In that sense then, we ‘found Him’. It was from that moment onwards that we became conscious and aware of Him, His plan for our lives, His salvation, His beauty and Majesty and at that point, we ceased to be lost and by accepting Jesus, we became found in Him! The glorious message of salvation, which powerfully presents the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the way by which we can identify with and make ours what He did for us, is plain and manifest; but if it remains veiled, hidden and out of sight, then it is so to those who are among the countless lost, and who so desperately and in spite of themselves need to found! The task and commission is left to those who believe, to make every effort and try every means, by which we may help someone else who may be willing, to see what is yet hidden to them!
http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion
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