THE SAME VALUE - GOD WILL USE WHOEVER HE WANTS
It is important to know that people have the same value. In the world people sometimes are treated like they do not the same value. It can be in different ways. Sometimes rich are not treated the same as poor and old sometimes are looked down at. Sometimes younger are treated like they have more value then elderly people.
Sometimes in congregations there can be wrong thinking. People can be looked down at. In James 2:1 is written, “My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, The Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him ”You sit here in a good place” and say to the poor man “you stand there” or sit here at my footstool, have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?”
In Acts 3:6 is written that Paul also on one occasion did not have money. He said “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
In Gal 3:28 is written ”There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ.” Here it is written that it does not matter what background you have. You have the same value. We read that Jews and Greeks have the same value. All people have the same value and God wants us to stand together as one people.
It is also written in this Scripture that men and women have the same value. It is important in Scripture here that women have the same value as men. In the world women can be looked down at and also in congregations, but this is not how God looks at women and He wants women to be well treated and respected. God can use women. He used Esther so the Jewish people were rescued and He can also use women today. God needs both men and women to stand together in his Kingdom.
God also uses people without education. We read in I Cor 1:26 “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.”
In 1 Cor 13:1 it is written: ”Though I speak the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I have become as a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all the mysteries and all the knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned but have not love, it profits me nothing.” We read here that love is more important than for instance knowledge.
We have not been given gifts to “shine” ourselves, but to bless others with and to honor God.
In Luke 2:9 the angels came to shepherds, even as some had looked down at them in the society when Jesus was born. God did not look down at them. The first disciples whom Jesus called were fishermen.
In Luke 10 we read Jesus' parable that a man was robbed and hurt by thieves. He also was emotional wounded. He had nothing left. In the parable the priest did not help but left him there. Then a Samaritan came and he had compassion and helped the man who was robbed. The Samaritans were people who were looked down in their society, but it was this person who showed compassion.
In some congregations the leadership does not have love for people. We must not judge anybody, but God wants leaders to have a shepherd's heart. There are such leaders, but not all leaders have learned to know the Father's, our heavenly Daddy, heart of love and compassion.
For God, all people have the same value. He will use whoever He wants in the last days. He will use ill and the unemployed, for instance, as some would look down at, but God chooses. God did not choose David because of his height but because of his heart. God does not think as people think. He is more interested in the heart than clothes and cares more about the inside then the outside. The parcel is not more important then what is inside of it.
We need love among Christians. Jesus says in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, then to lay down ones life for his friends.” In Acts 2:46 the Christians had fellowship and broke bread from house to house. I think God wants to restore more real friendship in the new prophetic time. In 1 Cor 12 it is written that we need each other with different gifts.
We have been given gifts to bless others with and to honor God with. Gifts are also shown in friendship. Fellowship is not a building but living stones creating a temple.
The greatest is love, as we read in 1 Cor 13, and God is love. It is important to learn to know God as a loving God and to show love to each other. This will show the world that God is love.
In John 17:21 Jesus prayed that we may all my be one, even as your Father is in Me and I in you, that you also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.”
We need to seek this God of love together. Jesus showed the greatest love, as He suffered so much for us by His free will because He loved us so much. He showed what love is. In His eyes we are precious. Yeshua/Jesus was willing to give everything for us.
This is the value we have for Him. In John 3:16 we read, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Eva Haglund
