Transforming Lives: Jesus revealed in me

God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

Galatians 1:15-16

What a crazy year this has been. Like you I have floundered in the unknowns. But in the midst of sheltering-in-place like you, the redefined vision statement at GABC has rattled around in my brain: Transforming Lives with the Truth of Jesus. The downtime has been invaluable to chew on its singleness of purpose. Are we not, in today’s vernacular, looking at the great commission delivered by Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20?  

Tandem with tucking its simplicity into the recesses of my soul, I should not have been surprised then when my girlfriends and I had barely begun our winter dig into Galatians in January, and Paul’s words above jumped off the page. In this his first letter he immediately zeroed in on the one thing that mattered—the truth of Jesus, to be claimed and revealed in our lifestyle and our conversation.

Paul’s passion should be my passion. After all, I too have been set apart from birth and called by God’s grace. So have you. And to think that it pleased God to do so, especially to reveal His Son in all who have responded to His call. By God’s grace you know God—or rather are known by God (Galatians 4:9). By that same grace He wishes to reveal Jesus in your words and actions to all you come in contact with, so they too will know Him personally. 

Reveal, in Greek, means to take off the cover, disclose; or as defined by Webster, to make something secret or hidden publicly or generally known. In later letters Paul talks about the mystery of Jesus, as in Colossians 1:26-27: the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints...chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We, the saints, are chosen to reveal the truth of Jesus

Oh, I’m not so brash as to suggest I will preach Jesus like Paul preached Jesus. It’s just that everything I do does preach, and should preach him. No doubt in my mind, it’s all about my deliberately transforming lives with the truth of Jesus.

Nancy P