“… delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles— to whom I send you to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” (Acts 26:17-18). This final occurrence of ‘Jesus faith’ in Acts.
Remembering now, how Death went down in August of 2022 in a way that causes most Faith Driven Lives to take a serious pause. Lelia Smith McBath, for whose services I brought a Word of Life in Los Angeles, CA. Rev. Dr. Kathy Olgetree Goodwin, whose services I attended in Louisville, KY. Dr. Walter McKelvy, a former President of Gammon Theological Seminary. And then TSU’s University Physician, Dr. Ivan Davis, (son of our 30-year President credited for moving TSU from College to University in 1951); at whose passing I took… Pause. The 139th Psalm as sung by the now also late Mandisa whose two CDs in their entirety speak to my heart: “He is with you in the ICU when the doctors don’t know what to do, and it scares you to the core, He is with you. …When nothing else is left, and you take your final breath— He is with you!”
Amplification of this verse requires in-depth thought on this:
1. “turn from darkness to ‘phos/light”. (“I AM the ‘phos’ of the world”. “Let your ‘phos’ so shine…”. “You are the ‘phos’ of the world”. “that they which enter in may see the ‘phos’”. “what I tell you in the dark, speak in the ‘phos’”. “and the life was the ‘phos’”. “to bear witness to the ‘phos’”. “but shall have the ‘phos’ of life”. “…stumbles, because there is no ‘phos’ in him”. “the ‘phos’ which is in thee is not darkness”. “as long as I AM in the world, I AM ‘phos’”.
2. “from the power of Satan to God” (waaaaay to much ‘satanology’ in the preaching and teaching of the Christian Church.) Stands to reason why so much HELL, yeah I said it… So much HELL IN THE CHURCH! Only one name under the heavens for salvation, CALL on the name JESUS.
3. “receive forgiveness of sins”. I’ll settle for “those who are sanctified by faith in me”; (remembering this to be the 3rd recording of ‘S(P)aul’s Call’.
First used of ‘sanctuaries’, the ‘agios’ word groups spoke of the sense of ‘reverence’; ‘the object of awe’; ‘the most beautiful and sacred without public access’. ‘Sanctus’ is spoken of in the essence of most every god known in ancient cultures. It is a ‘state’ and never an ‘action’. For Israel, it becomes a conscious transference to the possession of God to whom the dedicated person, place or thing now belongs. In this divine state of holiness, cleanliness, sanctification— life must be lived! An ‘abiding’. This life is only possible as a personal being taken up into the existence of God. This ‘place’ among those who are “sanctified by faith” is translated by some as ‘inheritance’ (NJB New Jerusalem Bible; NAB New American Bible). Perhaps the revelation of the songwriter that penned: “Living, He loved me; Dying, He saved me; Buried, He carried my sins far away. Rising, He justified; Freeing me forever…”
This NATIONAL STATE affairs of men whose faces are covered with masks, appointed and sanctioned by a Justice System that gives ‘carte blanc’ to these masked men to take GENTILES/Immigrants (of which they themselves ALL ARE descendants) —take LIFE by theft… into an “Alligator Alley Prison” built in Florida… and other unknown place of abyss. America “Eating its young”. DO WE HATE GOD? Real Talk!
It must be borne in mind that this ‘inheritance’, this ‘living place’ of holiness, IS NOT an action! The action is ‘Jesus/faith’— faith must remain active AT ALL TIMES! Somebody says, “The Dynamics of Faith!” —Living, Dying, Buried, Rising, Freeing…
It is no small thing that we reach this concept of ‘holy by faith’; ‘sanctified by faith’ as the final occurrence of ‘Jesus/faith’ in Acts. It’s what Acts is ALL about— receiving the power of The Holy Spirit! That POWER that has become “A Foreign Affair” to the men of 2025 America.
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