Articles, Thinking in Public, Bible Studies, Sermons, Devotions, Biblical Theology, Historical Theology, Contemporary Theology, Doctrinal Studies and etc
Month: December 2011
Do you know how to be STABLE, Satisfied, static – Deeply Contented, Rooted and Unmovable? There is a difference between confident movement of faith and craving movement of frustration! You want to be satisfied? Go with Jesus to your neighborhood or to the nations!” (JP).
“You have to listen to the voice who calls you the beloved, because otherwise you will run around begging for affirmation, for praise, for success. And then you’re not free.” Henri J. M. Nouwen
In the Book of Proverbs, King Solomon stated that the Lord specifically regards “six things the Lord hateth, and the seventh His soul detesteth.” namely:
(1) A proud look.
(2) A lying tongue.
(3) Hands that shed innocent blood.
(4) A heart that devises wicked plots.
(5) Feet that are swift to run into mischief.
(6) A deceitful witness that uttereth lies.
(7) Him that soweth discord among brethren
You may not be able to read the meaning of those small gifts of tithes and offerings on this side of heaven, but once with Christ, in that kingdom that shall never come to an end, {reigning with Christ who never causes any child of His one unnecessary tear}, you shall understand His wise and good reasons for allowing you to make such a gift. As you see souls transformed because of your generosity you will hear him say, “well done my good and faithful servant.”
Deceit in word and deed is so common today that it may be said to be the habit of the world. The Christian, however, should shun hypocrisy or deceit in any form. Pretending to be or do what we have no real intention of being or doing is sin. May that “simplicity and godly sincerity” which God ever blesses be yours in 2012.
Two young women who lived in the same house and who both had an infant son came to Solomon for a judgement. One of the women claimed that the other, after accidentally smothering her own son while sleeping, had exchanged the two children to make it appear that the living child was hers. The other woman denied this and so both women claimed to be the mother of the living son and said that the dead boy belonged to the other. The story is recounted in in
16 Now two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 One of them said, “Pardon me, my lord. This woman and I live in the same house, and I had a baby while she was there with me. 18The third day after my child was born, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one in the house but the two of us.
19 “During the night this woman’s son died because she lay on him. 20 So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I your servant was asleep. She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast. 21 The next morning, I got up to nurse my son—and he was dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t the son I had borne.”
22 The other woman said, “No! The living one is my son; the dead one is yours.” But the first one insisted, “No! The dead one is yours; the living one is mine.” And so they argued before the king. 23 The king said, “This one says, ‘My son is alive and your son is dead,’ while that one says, ‘No! Your son is dead and mine is alive.’” 24 Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword for the king. 25 He then gave an order: “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”26 The woman whose son was alive was deeply moved out of love for her son and said to the king, “Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!” But the other said, “Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!” 27 Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother.” 28 When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice.
This story offers insights about how we can wisely approach the delicate issues we face daily in the family, church or nation. Whenever we get overly emotional and contentious about a controversial decision within family, church or nation, we are in danger of acting like the imposter in this story from 1 Kings 3. We then push for our own agenda no matter who gets “cut out” by our selfish behavior.
When flesh takes over, then all we care about in those instances is getting our own way. That is just the opposite of the word of God teaches. We read in Ephesians 5:17-19;
17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord.
We read in the gospel that Jesus after his baptism and being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit he went to the wilderness and while there is was tempted. The tempter could not overpower him because he was responding in by the power of the Holy Spirit. How we desperately need that power. When Christ’s love and His Spirit control us, then we are not hindered by the personal agendas.
Many people have left families, churches and nations after being treated with disrespect and hostility. Many families, churches and nations have been greatly weakened in their witness and effectiveness by infighting over issues that need not divide a unit that believes to be the body of Christ. There is no reason that issue has to divide individual families, churches or nations. If matters are handle in the Spirit rather than flesh, then different opinions can be welcomed and discussed while everyone works hard to promote a spirit of unity, mission, and friendship in Christ.
1 [a]Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress.
In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—
2 The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
3 You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
when dividing the plunder.
4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.
5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.
Luke 16:19-31
[19] “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. [20] At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores [21] and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
[22] “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. [23] In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. [24] So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
[25] “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. [26] And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
[27] “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, [28] for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
[29] “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
[30] ” ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
[31] “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ “
Jesus is saying that
In the context, Jesus is condemning the Pharisees for their love of money but lack of mercy for the poor. Remember his comment about their scrupulous tithing? “Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone” (Luke 11:42). It isn’t their piety that he is condemning, but what they AREN’T doing — showing mercy to the poor, seeking justice for the downtrodden. It is ironic that the Pharisees who prided themselves on being such Bible scholars largely missed the spirit of the Old Testament — mercy and justice.
Who is at our door that we don’t notice?
The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats teaches a similar lessons.
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matthew 25:41-46)
Wealth is not bad. After all, Abraham was wealthy. But wealth brings with it certain responsibilities, a certain stewardship. We will give an accounting for how we handle the wealth God has given us. Of course, in the USA, even the poorest enjoys a lifestyle far above a huge slice of the world’s population. We have relative wealth. Perhaps not relative to our own culture, but relative to the global village that we can affect with our giving. We will give an accounting. Archibald Hunter writes:
“If a man (says Jesus) cannot be humane with the Old Testament in his hand and Lazarus on his doorstep, nothing — neither a visitant from the other world nor a revelation of the horrors of Hell — will teach him otherwise. Such requests for signs are pure evasions.”[11]
SERMON BY Robert Murray M’Cheyne
Here is the piercing question of every awakened soul.Doctrine.—The good way of coming before the Lord.
“Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good: and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
MICAH vi. 6-8.
The question of an awakened soul.—
“Wherewith shall I come before the Lord?”
An unawakened man never puts that question. A natural man has no desire to come before God, or to bow himself before the High God. He does not like to think of God. He would rather think of any other subject. He easily forgets what he is told about God. A natural man has no memory for divine things, because he has no heart for them. He has no desire to come before God in prayer.
There is nothing a natural man hates more than prayer. He would far rather spend half an hour every morning in bodily exercise or in hard labour, than in the presence of God. He has no desire to come before God when he dies. He knows that he must appear before God, but it gives him no joy. He had rather sink into nothing; he had rather never see the face of God. Ah! my friends, is this your condition?
How surely you may know that you have “the carnal mind which is enmity against God.” You are like Pharaoh—“Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?” You say to God, “Depart from me, for I desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.” What an awful state it is to be in to have no desire after Him who is the fountain of living waters!
An awakened soul feels that his chief happiness is in coming before God. This was unfallen Adam’s happiness. He felt like a child under a loving Father’s eye. It was his chief joy to come before God—to be loved by Him—to be like a mote in the sunbeam—to be continually basked in the sunshine of His love—no cloud or veil coming between. This is the joy of holy angels, to come before the Lord, and bow before the High God.
In His presence is fulness of joy. “The angels do always behold the face of My Father. ” On whatever errand of love they fly, they still feel that His eye of love is on them—this is their daily, hourly joy. This is the true happiness of a believer. Hear David (Psalm xlii.),
“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God: my soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?”
He panteth not after the gifts of God—not His favours or comforts—but after Himself. A believer longs after God—to come into His presence—to feel His love—to feel near to Him in secret—to feel in the crowd that he is nearer than all the creatures. Ah! dear brethren, have you ever tasted this blessedness? There is greater rest and solace to be found in the presence of God for one hour, than in an eternity of the presence of man. To be in His presence—under His love— under His eye—is heaven, wherever it be. God can make you happy in any circumstances. Without Him, nothing can.
An awakened soul feels difficulties in the way. “Wherewith,” etc. There are two great difficulties.
1st, The nature of the sinner.—“Wherewith shall I,” etc. When God really awakens a soul, He shows the vileness and hatefulness of himself. He directs the eye within. He shows him that every imagination of his heart has only been evil continually; that every member of his body he has used in the service of sin; that he has treated Christ in a shameful manner; that he has sinned both against the law and love; that he has kept the door of his heart barred against the Lord Jesus, till his head was filled with dew, and his locks with the drops of the night. O brethren, if God has ever discovered yourself to you, you would wonder that such a lump of hell and sin should have been permitted to live and breathe so long; that God should have had patience with you till this day. Your cry will be, “Wherewith shall I come before the Lord?” Though all the world should come before Him, how can I?
2nd, The nature of God.—”The High God.” When God really awakens a soul, He generally reveals to him something of His own holiness and majesty. Thus He dealt with Isaiah (vi.), “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim; one cried to another, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is filled with His glory. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone.” When Isaiah saw that God was so great a God, and so holy, he felt himself undone. He felt that he could not stand in the presence of so great a God. O brethren! Have you ever had a discovery of the highness and holiness of God, so as to lay you low at His feet? O pray for such a discovery of God as Job had, “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Alas! I fear that most of you will never know that God with who you have to do, till you stand guilty and speechless before His great white throne. O that you would pray for a discovery of Him now, that you may cry, “Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God!”
3rd, The anxiety of the awakened soul leads to the question, “Wherewith?”—Ah! it is a piercing question. It is the question of one who has been made to feel that “one thing is needful.” Anything he has he would give up to get peace with God. If he had a thousand rams, or ten thousand rivers of oil, he would gladly give them. If the life of his children, the dearest objects on this earth, would attain it, he would give them up. If he had ten thousand worlds, he would give all for an interest in Christ. Woe to you that are at ease in Zion. Woe to those of you that never asked this question, Wherewith shall I come before the Lord? Ah! foolish triflers with eternal things! Poor butterflies, that flutter on from flower to flower, and consider not the dark eternity that is before you! Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel! Ye are hastening on to death and judgment, yet never ask, “What garment shall cover me, when I stand before the great white throne? If you were going to appear before an earthly monarch, you would ask beforehand, Wherewith shall I be attired? If you were to be tried at an earthly bar, you would make sure of an advocate. How is it you press on so swiftly to the bar of God, and never ask the question, Wherewith shall I appear? “If the righteous scarcely are saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
The answer of peace to the awakened soul.“He hath showed thee, O man, what is good.”
Be strong in the grace that is in Him. Live out of yourself, and live upon Him, Go and tell Him, that since He requires all this of thee, He must give thee grace according to your need. My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. He hath showed you one that is good—even the fair Immanuel; now lean upon Him—get life from Him that shall never dry up. Let his hand hold you up amide the billows of this tempestuous sea. Let His shoulder carry you over the thorns of this wilderness. Look as much to Him for sanctification as for justification.
So will your walk be close with God,
Calm and serene your frame;
So purer light shall mark the road
That leads you to the Lamb.
According to the Scriptures, Christians should contribute of their means cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately,and liberally for the advancement of the KINGDOM of God. God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him.
Deuteronomy 8:18 :
And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
Malachi 3:8-10:
Will a man rob God?Yet you have robbed Me!But you say,„In what way hav e we robbed You?‟In tithes and offerings.You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed
Me, Even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house,And try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts,,“If I wil l not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.
Matthew 6:1-4 :
Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a
charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.
Matthew 6:19-21 :
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 23:23:
Woe to you,scribes and Pharisees,hypocrites!For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and
faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.
Acts 2:44-45:
Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
Acts 20:35:
I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak.And remember the words of the Lord Jesus,that He said,„It is more blessed to give than
to receive.
2 Corinthians 8-9
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
2 Corinthians 9:6-8 :
But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
2 Corinthians 9:15 :
Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
Philippians 4:13, 19:
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me…. And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Observations
The Holidays are a wonderful time of year, a time of celebration, a time of reflection and a time of creating memories with the ones you love. It’s also a time of year when we make new goals for the new year as we seek God for direction.
This holiday season make a commitment to;
The word of God calls us to look boldly at the face of poverty and to let the faces of poverty look boldly back at us. In many places, Historical Methodism is among the poor. To put it another way, in our Methodist history, the poor is “us” not “them.” Our church’s roots are among the poor of 18th century England. Proverbs 31:8-9 offers a stirring summary:
Throughout the four Gospels, Jesus feeds the hungry, heals the sick, comforts the marginalized, and castigates the rich for their neglect of the poor.
In verse 24, the word is:
Jesus identified himself as the messenger of good tidings to the poor in his first reading in the synagogue in Nazareth. As Luke reports:
In Matthew 25:35-40, Jesus provides an ethic for confronting poverty. He places himself among the poor and the outcasts when he tells the righteous:
John Wesley’s example of hearing, accepting, and serving the poor suggests four themes that can instruct the church in our local as well as global ministry today:
Celebrate the holidays and simultaneously,
Help change the world as we choose to be His hands and feet
Among the wretched, lost, lonely and poor.
A story is told about a King who sent servants to search for the perfect gift for Him. The servants returned with power, wealth, honor, pleasure and wisdom. None of these was the perfect gift. When the final servant returned, she held nothing in her hand. All she could offer was herself in faithful service to the King for the remainder of her life. This was the acceptable GIFT.
When Jesus was born, shepherds came bringing their gifts. The shepherds were outcasts in ancient Israel. Worse than that, they were untouchables. The fact that God in the flesh would be born among soulless, slobbering beasts of burden is so profound that it beggars the imagination. It also tells us something so earth shattering that it will transform the way we look at life.
Jesus came to Bethlehem on a cold winter’s night as the perfect GIFT for our salvation. Some of the saddest words in Scripture are recorded in Luke 2:7: “…there was no room for them in the inn…” So the God of glory was born among barnyard animals, wrapped in rags, and laid in a feeding trough on hay gathered from the dirty floor of a cave. He was birthed by an unwed teenage mother, attended to by a poor country carpenter, and welcomed into this world by a ragtag band of outcaste shepherds. I think that Wanda and Lucille might have felt right at home in that cave.
Jesus doesn’t care so much about luxurious accommodations, or the social status of those who greet his arrival, as he does the passion of our welcome. Today he stands at the doorway of each of our lives. No matter what our condition, he who began his earthly life in a barnyard cave will gladly take up residence in us. He has only one demand: we must make room for him.
Luke 2:1-7 reads:
“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire world…Everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth…to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him, and was expecting a child. While they were there…she birthed her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for him in the inn.”
Sinister forces conspire to prevent the birth of Jesus. Caesar Augustus rules the greatest empire in history. But the Roman population is rapidly declining. If it continues, the slave nations might rise up in rebellion. You can hear demons whisper in his ear, “Take a census of the Empire. Make sure each family comes to its ancestral home to register.”
Joseph has to take his pregnant fiancée 80 miles to Bethlehem over rough roads on a donkey’s back. The odds of a miscarriage are great. The Prince of Darkness has orchestrated this well. But, just in case she survives the journey, he has contingency plans. The only hotel will be filled to capacity. The innkeeper can be trusted to turn this poor hillbilly couple away.
Mary will be forced to birth her baby in one of those caves reserved for barnyard animals. The possibilities are devilishly delightful: a freezing night, dirty straw, no midwife or boiling water, nothing but rags to warm the baby, and no place for him but a stone drinking trough amidst slobbering animals. The odds against Jesus surviving this unsanitary birth are overwhelming!
When he can’t stop the birth, the Lord of the Underworld is off to arouse a petty king’s paranoia: “Watch out! A rival has been born in Bethlehem. You’d better rid yourself of this threat while he is still a baby!” Two years after Christ’s birth, Herod goes on a rampage, killing all the baby boys under the age of two.
Two thousand years have come and gone, and the Enemy of our soul is still up to his old tricks. He will pull out every stop to keep Christ from being birthed in your life. If he fails at that, Satan will try to neutralize and destroy his presence and power in your life. There will be a thousand distractions. He will dangle seductions and substitutes to fill your life and crowd Jesus out.
Jesus was born in a place of abject poverty. The people surrounding His birth in scripture are the humblest sort: a country carpenter, an unwed teenage mother, and some ragtag shepherds. Then there are the beasts. Why would God in the flesh take up residence in a place for barnyard animals? Think about them. They are the lowest of God’s creatures, brute beasts without souls or hope beyond this life. They are born in pain, abused by the ones whose burdens they carry, scratch the dirt for their daily food, endure the horror of the slaughterhouse, and return to the dust as so much fertilizer. Such is the life of the barnyard beast.
Jesus is born among the beasts to show us that no one can sink so low as to be beyond God’s grace. A prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp wrote, “No pit is so deep that God is not deeper still.” Isaiah wrote, “God dwells in a high and holy place. But not only there; he dwells in the heart of the humble.” Only those who understand the beastliness of their own soul open their desperate lives to a Savior. That’s why God often does his best work in prisons, streets, and even in suburban communities where beautiful people see the desperation and hollowness of their lives.
One of the characteristic features of the great spiritual awakening which God granted in England during the mid-eighteenth century was the compelling desire which the newly converted experienced to spread the good news of salvation far and wide.
It was this burning zeal for outreach that caused George Whitefield to embark on “field” preaching wherever people could be found gathered in large numbers. The same broad vision led John Wesley to state early in his ministry, “I look upon all the world as my parish”, in answer to the criticism that he had no authority to preach outside his own parish pulpit.
Through the working of the Holy Spirit the burden for evangelism was felt by minister after minister as the revival spread, despite disapproval, scepticism and open opposition from many quarters including the religious, officialdom of the day.
When John Berridge, the vicar of Everton in Bedfordshire, was ordered by the bishop to stop his itinerant preaching in 1758, his reply was “…. since gospel ministers are thinly scattered …. and neighbouring pulpits are locked up against them, then it behoves them to take advantage of fields, or barns or houses to cast abroad the gospel seed.” Berridge concluded by telling the Bishop, “There is one canon …. which says,
“Go preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15)”
and that was what he intended to obey. Centuries earlier Peter and John, in similar circumstances, had told the Jewish religious authorities,
“For we cannot but speak the things \which we have seen and heard,” (Acts 4:20),
and it was such boldness that was to inspire the preaching in the eighteenth century revival.
DO IT AGAIN LORD!
Early 1994 a few months after my father went home to be with Jesus, a neighbor came home and stole two valuable log chains that we used to haul stuff with oxen. When I asked my mother what we should do, she said to me, son, you have three options;
Jesus said in Matthew 5:23&24,
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift.”
Jesus says three powerful things here:
Jesus while on earth forgave and overlooked small things. When his accusers attacked him, he remained silent. When the crowds mocked him, he quietly picked up his cross and walked all the way to Golgotha. Even when the criminals on either side joined in the taunting, he focused on the mission at hand. They called him a blasphemer and a fake, but he knew that he was the King. He knew that carrying the sins of the world all the way to hell was more important than throwing gravel back at his accusers. He was able to say, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He was able to bow his head in humility because he knew that his Kingdom would be established in heaven and on earth. He confronted the most important thing so that we could overlook the small things. He forgave the worst things about us so that we could believe the best things about others and ourselves. Because of his Amazing Grace we are saved. Because he has risen from the dead, his resurrected power resides in us by the filling of the Holy Spirit. We can overlook the small things so that we can do the best things in suburbia, rural communities, downtown areas, city outskirts and etc.
Deuteronomy 34 verses 10 – 12 reads:
Early in this chapter, Moses begins what might appear to be a lonesome walk to his grave site. As he goes up the rocky spine of Mount Nebo, he pauses every so often to catch his breath and look back at the camp below. Finally, he reaches the summit. At the mountaintop, he gazes at the Promised Land opposite the Jordan in almost a similar version that many of us today in Dallas gaze at the future site and pray about the new worship sanctuary to be constructed and dedicated for the glory of God in HIS time.
When Moses gazed at the promised land and the future generation of Israelite, he was filled with joy for after forty years of crossing the most desolate string of deserts on planet earth, he has brought his people to the edge of their Promised Land. It’s been a challenge, but he’s finished his course and has faithfully lived the words of Psalm 71:18- 19 thus;
At the mountaintop, Moses looks back and sees both the success and failure of his life.
I like to believe that one of his joys is that with dogged determination and faith, he has forged a nation out of a ragtag rabble of slaves and led them to the land of promise. Yet, because of the one great sin in his life, he is not allowed to go into the Promised Land. Verse seven is profoundly significant for us all:
Even at 120 years of age, he’s not ready to die. Yet, the first kind of death comes anyway. There are two kinds of death, the first and the second. Scripture teaches that those who put their hope and trust in Jesus will not die the second death, but will live with Jesus in that bright land where we’ll never grow old.
At first glance Moses death as recorded in Exodus seems so pitifully lonely. He dies alone in the desert badlands of Moab. It appears that no one is there to comfort him during his last gasps of breath. No one dresses his remains, or lays them in a casket, or gives a eulogy, or sings a hymn, or says a prayer over his gravesite. But Moses was not alone. Verses 5&6 say,
He may have been alone when he breathed his last, but heaven was there to embrace him and say “Well done My Good and faithful servant.” Verse eight says,
Moses always spoke the truth to a people who were always ready to believe a lie. He was faithful when everyone else was unfaithful. He doggedly plodded forward when everyone else wanted to go back to Egypt. He stood strong when others faltered. Moses, however, was not perfect. After Moses, God raised Joshua to lead his people. Verse nine goes on to say,
Joshua was one of Moses’ greatest gifts to his people. Joshua was a young man when Moses first laid eyes on him. The 80-year-old prophet saw something special in that young warrior. So he took the young man under his wings, and invested in his life. He also poured his life into Joshua’s best friend, Caleb. Moses understood that the race of life is a relay race. God gave him wisdom to know that it’s not enough to run your leg of the race and then celebrate your individual achievement. Unless you can pass on to those who follow behind you what you received from those who came before you, you have not finished well. May our God give us wisdom to live our lives in such a way that when that day comes, we can hear him say
WELL DONE MY GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT!
Many people are coming to grips with the problems and opportunities that has come with attempts to run away from inner city problems.
The problem and opportunity is that while many ran to suburbia and rural areas at the start of the millennium to avoid the problems they saw in the inner city, the rich who were already in suburbia before the millennium articulated new goals and started to adopt new laws that has now resulted in the massive migration back to the inner city displacing the poor in to streets and suburbia with the high-rise living and patent walkways to grocery, doctor’s office, church, shopping areas etc.
Today, in the suburbia and rural areas, the poor continue to keep their High energy consumption autos and ‘large’ houses while the rich have moved to a new way of life that is thought to be less costly high-rise condominium, educating of children in private Catholic Schools and etc along Dart-rails; reliance on energy efficient auto, bicycles, walking, public transportation and etc. The poor now are guilty of carbon-emissions, contributing to high cost of utilities and waste, poor public school and causing traffic congestion.
THERE IS HOPE
God is always on the side of the poor and the marginalized. The current zoning laws in suburbia make it impossible to live without driving to school, to work, to church, to hospital and even to pick sugar or milk. Those in suburbia are not accessible to what seem to be the best private schools system operated by the Catholic Church and etc. The only option for those in suburbia and rural areas is home-schooling or what we seem to know as the poor public school system that not only “fails” our otherwise “talented and brilliant children” but also introduce them to drugs and promiscuous lifestyle.
There is hope because zoning laws can be changed. Who said laws made and ratified by humans cannot be changed? If the rich were able to change inner city zoning laws to allow new developments, why not also change the zoning laws in suburbia to allow the poor to escape the grinding poverty that comes with having to drive forty miles to work, thirty miles to church, twenty miles to a doctor, ten miles to buy grocery store and fifty miles to a private school for children or else home-school?
There is hope. Yet, before zoning laws can be addressed, we must first ask;
There is HOPE for the lost and poor now pushed into suburbia and rural communities throughout the world. This HOPE is wrapped in rags and laid in a cow’s feeding trough. He is born to those with little hope in a world of hopelessness: a peasant carpenter and an unwed mother who belong to a slave state under Roman occupation. For more than 700 years the Jews walked in darkness, looking for the light promised by the ancient prophet, Isaiah. Can you hear them tapping out a question: “Do we have any reason to hope?” But on Christmas day the angels filled the night skies with dazzling light as they sang the song of hope:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14)
Over 15 years ago, God called Joyce and I to leave our comfort zone to prepare for a ministry that reaches to the lost from diverse backgrounds and help them in our own unique way to worship Jesus together, grow together, serve together, and be on mission together.
In 2004, the call and journey became Victory Fellowship when God by his mercies led our path to intersect with a Macedonian call that the General Conference leadership heard, coming from Dallas, Texas.
Seven years later, Victory Fellowship is so far from a perfect diverse church. You can just ask our critics and they’ll be quick to tell you that Victory Fellowship is not on any lists of well-known, influential, dynamic, fastest growing, trend setting, or any other lists that are compiled out there. There is really nothing unique about Victory Fellowship except that it is a church that sowing the seed of the gospel among the lost from all nations and backgrounds and allowing God to do what he alone can do.
From the first day, the call of God for Victory Fellowship was to be faithful in proclaiming and living out the gospel of Christ until that day that he will fulfill his vision of diverse church where all people and nations gather to worship him. We must stay faithful towards this vision even if that day of fulfillment of this vision of a diverse church is in heaven. As we move towards God’s preferred future for Victory Fellowship, we are committed to that call and open to allowing God in his providence to birth or plant other churches, ethnic or diverse along the way.
As we stand on the brink of a new, we hear God say that Victory Fellowship must remain true in days ahead to the original vision of becoming a diverse church while also faithful to the mandate to help in all the place we can any ethnic group that seeks to be a church for the glory of His name. Joyce and I are not excellent church planters but over the years, we have come to realize that the work of God – while it can be done “strategically” or “organically” never happens out of chaos. There must be purpose, intention, and “a trajectory.”
Victory Fellowship is here today because of prayers and sacrifice of many people spread throughout the world. We do not exist on an island to ourselves but rather, we are woven together with others – past, present, and future – to a greater Story. And because we are comprised of fallen and broken people led by a fallen and broken pastor, we are an imperfect church and we are often reminded of our brokenness but nevertheless, we have witnessed – again and again (and again) – God’s grace and sufficiency.
Over the next couple weeks, we will be in much prayers that the journey ahead of us, which no eye has seen and no ear has heard will become part of God’s larger narrative of resurrection, redemption, and reconciliation of all people to Jesus for the glory of God. We encourage you to join us in prayers and in giving. In this season, please consider becoming a generous giver and help us as we labor in this vision we have received from God. Your prayers and financial gift is a concrete way of thanking God for this vision and a tangible way of making the vision of a diverse church where all people from all nations worship God for the glory of His name.
People hear what they see, not what they’ re told. That was true for Simeon as we read in Luke chapter 2. Sometime after the baby Jesus turned thirty days old, Mary and Joseph took him to the Temple in Jerusalem. There a certain old man by the name of Simeon gives a moving testimony. Simeon’s heart skips a beat when he recognizes that Jesus is the new king, promised by God, who will rule over his people. Also, Anna tells everyone in the temple that Jesus was the gift that everyone had been waiting for.
Simeon is a man that is something like the old testament character, Melchizedek, in that he suddenly appears out of nowhere. We are told very little about this man Simeon. We do not know from what tribe he is a descendent, although it would appear that he was an Israelite. We know nothing about his family, whether he was married or had any children. We are told nothing about his occupation, but he was directed of the Holy Spirit to go to the temple.
The only things we are told about Simeon are those things which matter most to God—things which pertain to his faith and his character, things while tell about his relationship with God. We are told that Simeon was righteousand devout (v. 25), which speak of his personal walk with God and his integrity among men. He was further a man of faith and hope, for he “looked for the consolation of Israel,” an expression which summarizes the faith of the Old Testament saint in the promises of God concerning the restoration of Israel through the coming of her Messiah.
Finally, Simeon was a man who was filled by the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who had revealed to Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Christ (v. 26), God’s Anointed One, Israel’s Messiah. It was also the Holy Spirit that directed Simeon to the temple on the particular day that Jesus’ parents brought Him to be presented to the Lord. Finally, in some unspecified way, it was the Spirit of God who revealed to Simeon that this child was indeed the Messiah. No doubt the name Jesus was one evidence, but there must have been further confirmation, for there were no doubt many sons given this special name.
The precise means by which Simeon was enabled to recognize this six-week old child as distinct from all others is not told us, for Luke is not so much interested that we know how He was recognized, but that He was identified by a godly man, a man filled with the Spirit of God, as the Lord’s Christ. Recognizing Jesus to be the Messiah, this elderly man took the child in his arms and blessed God. After a lifetime of seeking Messiah, one can hardly imagine the joy that was Simeon’s at this moment in time. Think of it, a man who knew that God held him in the palm of His hand, now holds God in his arms! The all-powerful God is a tiny baby, seemingly without any power at all. Simeon’s words of praise express the deep joy that was his at this moment, a joy which so utterly filled and completed his life he was ready to die: “Now Lord, Thou dost let Thy bond-servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation” (Luke 2:29-30a).
The psalmist in Psalm 71:18 says,
Like this Psalmist, Simeon had cried out in desperation to God. The good old days weren’t really all that good. And the future isn’t going to escape the problems of the past unless there was a redeemer. When the baby Jesus is brought to the Temple, he says
“Now your servant can go for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.”
In times of uncertainty there is a certain Refuge. Verse one of Psalm 71 says:
Refuge, rock, and fortress: these are words that speak of stability, safety, and security. In his tough times the Psalmist has found a Refuge. And he can hardly wait to share his testimony of God’s power with the next generation. We can never give up on the future.
When you read Psalm 71: 5-17, you see an older person who like Simeon had faced a lifetime of struggles. Through it all he has learned to trust in God.
Sometimes he was filled with shame when it seemed that his life was falling apart. But he lived long enough to see God come to his rescue, and his attackers go down. So now, as he faces new attacks, he can say,
As an old person, he can say in verse 17,
Again and again he has seen the power of God rescue him in the bad times. The Psalmist says in verse eighteen,
The Psalmist understands that God has a passion for the next generation. Simeon heard with his eyes God’s passion for the future of humanity. Let’s pray that God will open our eyes to experience his power and his salvation as we celebrate his coming to save us from sin.
Erick Chepkwony, TH.D 