GodReflection: A Brand-New Life And Have Everything To Live For.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:1-2).
In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8: 37-39).
Just think about it. Paul, the Apostle, writes a letter from a little-known distant village located in the Roman Empire. This obscure letter follows Jesus’s church around the globe to become one of the most widely read letters to flow from any pen in the history of the world.
And what a letter it is. It shares a description of millions of believers who have placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ since The Teacher first called the twelve. Just like those millions of new
believers, who have lived in the centuries before us, at the same moment new believers of our day give him their lives, they find A Brand-New Life And Have Everything To Live For. Certainly, Paul the Missionary Apostle believed that, but I am getting ahead of myself.
Let’s go back to when it all began. Who were the first ones to join Jesus when he called them to show each person The Way? It was a new way of life not available prior to Jesus. Before God sent 
Jesus His Son to rescue us, we humans were alienated from God. We lived a lifestyle that was introduced by Satan to Eve and Adam with a certain fruit tree.
Jesus is ready to change all of that as he begins his ministry. So first, Jesus obeys God, is baptized by John, and successfully survives his own 40-day desert encounter with Satan.
He is now ready to call his first chosen twelve disciples. These were his Apostles, daily he will teach them and then send them out across the known world to share A Brand-New Life And Have Everything To Live For. Unlike what we might expect, he picks these twelve from the blue-collar workers of the day. Some fished for a living, one was an IRS guy who collected taxes, another a businessman, and one who just enjoyed all the money he could place his hands on and secretly use for himself.
To that group of twelve he added two latecomers. The first was a man to replace Judas, named Mathias. We don’t know much about him. The second is Paul the Apostle who wrote the letter to the Romans, referred to above, and at least twelve additional letters that make up our New Testament Scriptures.
I invite you to read over my shoulder as I attempt to reflect on these fourteen individuals chosen by Jesus to introduce A Brand-New Life And Have Everything To Live For.
In our next post before we meet the initial twelve. We will begin with an overview of the life and culture of Jesus’s first apostles. We want to get a sense of the demands these men will face. What will their lifestyle be like? Are there perimeters related to hours, length of service, and travel demands?
Get ready, I believe this will be both an enjoyable, as well as a challenging read.
Stay tuned.
Gary J. Sorrells
A GodReflection: A Brand-New Life And Have Everything To Live For.
God Reflection 