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WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY TO YOU?
Are you feeling inferior?
Now the word of the LORD came to me
saying,
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations."
Then I
said, "Ah, LORD GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." But
the LORD said to me,
"Do not say, 'I am only a boy';
for you shall go to all to whom I send you,
and you shall speak whatever I command you.
Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
says the LORD."
Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD
said to me,
"Now I have put my words in your mouth.
See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant."
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Am I now seeking human approval, or God's approval? Or am I
trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of
Christ.
For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel
that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human
source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was
violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in
Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the
traditions of my ancestors. But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and
called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim
him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, nor did I go up to
Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into
Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus.
Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas
and stayed with him fifteen days; but I did not see any other apostle except James the
Lord's brother. In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie! Then I went into
the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown by sight to the churches of
Judea that are in Christ; they only heard it said, "The one who formerly was
persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy." And they
glorified God because of me.
Galatians 1:10-24
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life
worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness,
with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were
called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
But each of us was given grace according to the measure of
Christ's gift. Therefore it is said,
"When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a
captive;
he gave gifts to his people."
(When it says, "He ascended," what does it mean but
that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same
one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The gifts
he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors
and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of
Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be
children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's
trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we
must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body,
joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is
working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.
You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old
self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and
to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true
righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:1-16, 22-24
Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet
chosen and precious in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a
spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ.
For it stands in scripture:
"See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."
To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,
"The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very head of the corner,"
and
"A stone that makes them stumble,
and a rock that makes them fall."
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined
to do.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out
of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people,
but now you are God's people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:4-10
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