I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed— I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God. Isaiah 43:11-12 NIV
Interestingly the word Messiah according to the Encyclopedia of the Bible, means to anoint or to smear with oil. I guess I have always thought Messiah to be synonymous with Savior. It seems savior is more of a function of Messiah. Messiah is the one set apart, anointed to be God's perfect king. In Israel they discovered that men, even anointed men were far from perfect. The two kingdoms had mostly bad kings with a few good ones here and there that followed the ways of David. I think the thing about David even with his flaws he was quick to turn to God. He was humble in his approach to kingship realizing that without God he could do nothing. Our verse today talks about apart from the Lord there is no savior. We are His witnesses and His ambassadors. We are to go about modeling Kingdom life and principles to others. Just as kings were endowed with gifts from God to help them to rule well. We are given gifts so that we can demonstrate God's goodness and grace to a watching world.
Each of us has a unique story of how God has dealt with us. We have been through good times and difficult times. In difficult times we have seen the Lord help us and in good times we have not forgotten that every good and perfect gift comes from God. As we have walked with the Lord we have seen how he has used us to minister to others.
I think it is interesting in regards to things that are anointed. Everything that they touch becomes anointed too. We who have touched Jesus the anointed Messiah also become smeared with oil and set apart for God's purposes.
In Massage School I am spending a lot of time around oil. I have had to re think how I dress because the oil we use gets on everything. So I have gone to wearing t-shirts that I don't care about and wearing a sweater over them that I take off. On skin oil does wonderful things but its difficult to get out of clothing. The sweater helps cover up the oil spots on my shirts. I also learned quickly that one gets pretty warm doing massage so a short sleeved shirt is plenty even in the winter. My point being that oil in a sense marks everything that it touches. I suppose I would remind you that you are marked by the Lord and set apart for His purposes. Don't forget who you belong to.
I aways remember the kids movie Toy Story. In that movie Andy put his name on his special toys. Cowboy Woody had Andy's name on his boot. We must never forget who we belong to and remember that we have been touched by the Anointed one and we are forever marked by His love.
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