{"id":25897,"date":"2019-06-19T03:30:04","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T10:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=25897"},"modified":"2019-06-14T10:03:02","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T17:03:02","slug":"june-19-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2019\/06\/19\/june-19-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"June 19, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\u201c\u2026Whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.\u201d <\/em>2 Corinthians 4:4<\/p>\n

Blinded<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>We all have family members or friends that refuse to believe in Christ\u2019s redemption. There are those I love deeply, and pray for relentlessly, seemingly with no change.<\/p>\n

The gospel is readily available. It isn\u2019t because they haven\u2019t heard about Christ\u2019s love and salvation. Most experience a time when confronted with the truth of the gospel and for some reason come to the conclusion it\u2019s just a story, or a \u201ccrutch.\u201d I remember when I was in the 5th\u00a0<\/sup>grade riding my bicycle thinking, \u201cIf I believe in God I have to be good, but if I choose not to believe, I can do whatever I want.\u201d That\u2019s a sorry state, but unfortunately many people stay in that place. God gripped my heart and led me to Himself years later. Hallelujah!<\/p>\n

Christ constantly reaches His hand out to the unbeliever. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 4, talks about a veil over all hearts until we turn to Christ. When a person makes a definite choice not to believe, the enemy confirms their choice with lies of self-made happiness and aspirations that they can accomplish on their own without having to obey God. They don\u2019t realize that God\u2019s law is for good, for our best happiness. They\u2019ve allowed the \u201cgod of this age\u201d to rip them off! Tragic! They miss out on a relationship and friendship with our Lord that opens our hearts to His glory. He gives wisdom and understanding far beyond earthly thinking. It\u2019s frustrating for us, because in the Lord there is solution and resolve to the hurting and empty heart that only He can satisfy!<\/p>\n

Scripture helps us understand why others don\u2019t believe and how to pray for them. \u201cFor it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ\u201d <\/em>(2 Corinthians 4:6). We can pray that the veil over their hearts be removed and that His light would shine in.\u201cNevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(2 Corinthians 3:16).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>We continue to pray and not lose heart. \u201cFor our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal\u201d <\/em>(2 Corinthians 4:17-18). The Lord is working for His glory in His time. We can pray in faith, knowing He\u2019s in control!<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus, we love You and thank You so much for our salvation and Your relentless love towards our loved ones who do not yet know You. Please continue to shine Your light, opening unbelieving hearts to You!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-6JH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25897"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25899,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25897\/revisions\/25899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}