Moments of Quiet Truth

"T hen Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying, "I called out to the LORD, out of my distress , and he answered me ; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, ' I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple. ' The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD , and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you ; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to th

     P aul goes to Jerusalem in Galatians 2. He brings a Gentile with him - Titus. Jerusalem - the city of peace - becomes the display case for the reality of gospel peace. Paul brings a non-law keeping Gentile into the headquarters of legalistic Judaism to show the world the freedom Christ brings from the bondage to the law. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." 3:28      God displays His glory and His pleasure in crossing every wall of partition imaginable - social, racial, economical, religious. . . . . .      Titus was accepted, without circumcision.The Jewish church leaders understood that Christ's law-keeping and penalty-paying death removed the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile, between uncircumcised and circumcised.  He had circumcised their hearts. The blood of the Lamb of God had atoned for, payed for, more than covered their sins. As a new entity - Christ