Does This Truth Paralyze or Energize?

Greetings All,

     This past week I received a book in the mail that was printed in 1918 -- just a month and a week past being exactly one hundred years ago!  The book contains the addresses presented by various people at the Philadelphia Prophetic Conference in May of 1918.  As a lover of history I had to read through it to see if what was said then was relevant to today.  Much of it was, of course, since it centers around the Bible. Yet because it took place the year WWI ended, eleven years before the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, and about 20 years before the outbreak of WWII, some of the applications of the Bible were obviously dated.

     I particularly enjoyed the presentation of one Pastor Herbert Mackenzie, a former missionary to Africa who "retired" to take a church pastorate in Cleveland, Ohio.  This message, entitled, "Does This Truth Paralyze or Energize?"  focuses on Matthew 24:14, "This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world, as a testimony to all nations, and then the end shall come," and the command in II Timothy 4:1 to, "preach the word in season and out" in view of Christ's appearing and His kingdom.  I hope you might find encouragement through it as well. Enjoy. 

     "Jesus has said unto us, 'Go ye therefore into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.'  In light of this war, we all recognize our duty as citizens to to do our best for our country, and for the world in a crisis as grave as the one which we are now passing through. We also recognize we have a Leader (Jesus Christ) who is leading us on in a spiritual conflict; that we have a commission which must be obeyed and completed in order that He may come again and receive us unto Himself.

     Doctrine always decides duty.  It does matter what a man believes...  Doctrine is the plan of teaching that precedes the plan of duty... The doctrine is intended to be the inspiration that gives us the impulse and impetus to obey all the commands of our Lord... A man asked me not so long ago what was the greatest thing he could do for God.  I said, 'The greatest thing that you can do for Him is to do what He is doing.'  That is what God wants for you and me to do.  To long for that for which Christ is longing. And Christ is longing to see a completed body; a body that must be drawn out from all the people of the earth.  Those who know the Lord's purpose do not need to be given any personal appeals. I have never asked any individual for a dollar for missions in 20 years. Men whose hearts are touched by the promise of the Lord's return need only to be informed of the need and are satisfied to give their best to the Lord, for they live in the light of the gleams of the coming glory...

     The Word of God instructs us concerning the plan of God for our service. Somebody has said that Judaism and heathen religions have respect for boundaries and are content to leave everyone else alone. But the man who knows the plan of God is not willing to leave anyone alone.  It does not matter how near or far away the man may be who needs the Gospel. I have come to the conclusion (by examining my own heart) that we can never be like Christ until we love the world.  Christ loved the world, and no man can begin to be like Him until in some measure he too can say, 'I love the world'... 

     In the first chapter of Acts Jesus says to His disciples, "But you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth."  And those disciples knew what he meant by 'witnesses.'  For that word witness (marturos) means 'martyr-testifiers.'  Those men knew when He uttered that word that this testimony which they were called to give, this witness which was to be their work, was to be of more value to them than their own lives. There are boys, perhaps your boys, your brother, your friend, who will lay down their life, or are willing to lay down their life, for their country in this war. Yet there is something wrong with you, and with me, if our lives are worth more in our sight than the witness for Christ which He has left to our trust... 

     Years ago (in the early 1890's) I was traveling through Central Sudan.  I found that from the west coast clear up to Lake Chad about 40 tribes were waiting for the Gospel.  Only one tribe of the 40 had the complete record of the Scriptures.  Forty tribes in ignorance (of the Word), in idolatry, in superstition, steeped in paganism -- with a thousand Moslem teachers and traders sent out to convert them from paganism to Mohammedanism. All that in comparison to one Christian missionary sent out by the entire church of God.  I walked 17 miles a day for 7 days without finding a trace of any person who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Scores of villages waiting, waiting, WAITING -- while you and I are enjoying the fullness of His blessing, sitting at His feet and looking into His blessed face.  My time (because of my age) has gone. I want, however, to say this. Somebody has spoken here about rewards. Somebody has said in this conference something about taking a crown and laying it at His feet. I know of no other way of securing a crown to lay at His feet than by gaining it in the work of soul winning; of making known to the world the glories of His cross. 

     There was a moment in the life of the Lord Jesus when He stood before that earthly judge, took the curse from beneath our feet, and permitted His enemies to take those thorns and entwine them into a crown and place it on His brow. He loved us enough to take earth's curse from beneath our feet and to lift it to His blessed brow.  Oh, what a delight that some day we may be able to take the crown which He has placed upon our heads and consider that the highest that He can give to us for our service, is only worthy to be placed at the feet of Him whose shoe latchet John tells us we are unworthy to loosen."

     Sudan is still a place which needs to be reached with the Gospel, as are many other places in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia -- not to mention (due to the changes in the spiritual climate since this book was published in 1918) the former strongholds of the Christian faith -- Britain, Continental Europe, Canada and the U.S.   What he pointed out then is still true today -- "there is something wrong with you, and with me, if our lives are worth more in our sight than the witness for Christ which He has left to our trust..."   If we would be willing to die in the service of our country, but not in the service of our Lord, something is terribly wrong deep in the recesses of our soul.

     The truth of Matthew 24:14 still stands before us: "This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world, as a testimony to all nations, and then the end shall come."  Will the hope of seeing His appearing, and His kingdom, motivate you to do all you can to join with Him in doing what He is doing? Will it move you to share the Gospel and carry out the task laid upon the whole church -- the task of taking the Gospel to the world we are called to love as Jesus loves it?

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

Service to God and Others

Greetings All,

Today's "thought" speaks of spiritual disciplines. Yes, spiritual disciplines!  Those activities we train ourselves to do to grow spiritually.  Yet this message is not always popular.  In an age of comfort and ease, even people in the church often see spiritual disciplines as "legalistic," often thinking (or suggesting) that somehow growth just happens without any effort or self-discipline on our part. Something they  will state even though Paul tells us in Galatians 5:23 that self-discipline is a Fruit of the Spirit.  It's one of the traits of character that God's Spirit (if that Spirit dwells within us) works to produce and grow in us over time as an expression of godliness.

     
     So, today, I will let Donald Whitney speak on this topic from his excellent book entitled: "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life."  For those whose hearts have been reoriented by God to desire godliness, this book is very helpful. For he shows us that spiritual disciplines are not contrary to grace, but flow out of the grace God gives. They don't earn us merits with God, they evidence that God has changed our affections so that we desire the things He wants for us.  They show us that God is within us moving us to engage in those activities that will bring growth in godliness. This selection has to do with the Spiritual Discipline called Service to God and Others.  Enjoy.

     "Discipline without direction is drudgery... It is said of God's elect in Romans 8:29: "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son." God's eternal plan ensures that every Christian will ultimately conform to Christ-likeness.  We will be changed "when he appears" so that "we shall be like him" (I John 3:2). This is no vision. This is you, Christian, in a few years. So why all this talk about discipline? If God has predestined our conformity to Christ-likeness, where does the discipline come in?  Although God will grant us Christ-likeness when Jesus returns, until then He intends for us to grow toward that Christ-likeness.  We aren't merely to wait for holiness, we're to pursue it.  "Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy," we're commanded in Hebrews 12:14, "for without holiness no one will see the Lord."  Which leads us to ask what every Christian should ask, "How then shall we pursue holiness? How can we be like Jesus Christ, the Son of God?"  We find the clear answer in I Timothy 4:7: "Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness."

     ...There is little value in practicing Spiritual Disciplines apart from the single purpose that unites them (Colossians 2:20-23, I Timothy 4:8). That purpose is godliness... The Spiritual Disciplines are the God-given means we are to use in the Spirit-filled pursuit of Godliness. Godly people are disciplined people.  It has always been so. Call to mind some heroes of church history -- St. Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Bunyan, Susanna Wesley, John Wesley, George Whitefield, Lady Huntingdon, Jonathan and Sarah Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, George Mueller -- they we all disciplined people.  Godliness comes through discipline.  We avail ourselves of the Spiritual Disciplines because they help grow us in Christ-likeness.

THE DISCIPLINE OF SERVING

     The Pony Express was a private express company that carried mail by an organized relay of horseback riders. The eastern end was in St. Joseph, Missouri, and western terminal was in Sacramento, California.  The cost of sending a letter by Pony Express was $2.50 an ounce.  If the weather and horses held out, and the Indians held off, that letter would complete the entire two-thousand-mile journey in a speedy ten days, as did the report of Lincoln's Inaugural Address.... Being a rider for the Pony Express was a tough job. You were expected to ride seventy-five to one hundred miles a day, changing horses every fifteen to twenty-five miles. Other than the mail, the only baggage you carried contained a few meager provisions... In case of danger, you also had a medical pack... In order to travel light and to increase speed of speed of mobility during Indian attacks, the men always rode with nothing but shirts, even during the fierce winter weather.  How would you recruit volunteers for this hazardous job?  An 1860 San Francisco newspaper printed this ad for the Pony Express: "WANTED: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18. Must be expert riders willing to risk daily. Orphans preferred."  Those were the honest facts of the service required, but the Pony Express NEVER had a shortage of riders [even though 20 employees lost their lives in the year and a half it was in existence until the telegraph wires replaced the need for riders].

     We also need to be honest with the facts about serving God.  Like the Pony Express, serving God is not a job for the casually interested. It's costly service. He asks for your life. He asks for service to Him to become a priority, not a pastime. He doesn't want servants who will give Him the leftovers of their life commitments. Serving God isn't a short-term responsibility either. Unlike the Pony Express, His kingdom will never go under, no matter how technological our world gets.  The mental picture we have of the Pony Express is probably much like the one imagined by the young men of 1860 who read that newspaper ad.  Scenes of excitement, camaraderie, and the thrill of adventure filled their heads as they swaggered over to the Express office to apply. Yet few of them envisioned how that excitement would only occasionally punctuate the routine of the long, hard hours and the loneliness of the work.

     The discipline of serving is like that. Although Christ's summons to service is the most spiritually grand and noble way to live a life, it is typically as pedestrian as washing someone's feet. Richard Foster puts it starkly: "In some ways we would prefer to hear Jesus' call to deny father and mother, houses and land for the sake of the Gospel, rather than His word to wash feet. Radical self-denial gives the feel of adventure. If we forsake all, we even have the chance of glorious martyrdom. But in service we are also banished to the mundane, the ordinary, the trivial." The ministry of serving may be as public as preaching or teaching, but more often it will be as sequestered as nursery duty. It may be as visible as singing a solo, but usually it will be as unnoticed as operating the sound equipment to amplify the solo. Serving may be as appreciated as a good testimony in the worship service, but typically it is as thankless as washing dishes after a church social. Most service, even that which seems the most glamorous, is like an iceberg. Only the eye of God sees the larger hidden part of it.

     Beyond the church walls, serving is baby-sitting for neighbors, taking meals to families in flux, running errands for the home-bound, providing transportation for the one whose car breaks down, feeding pets and watering plants for vacationers, and -- hardest of all -- having a servants heart in the home. Serving is as commonplace as the practical needs it meets. That's why serving must become a spiritual discipline. The flesh connives against hiddenness and sameness. Two of the deadliest of our sins -- sloth and pride -- loathe serving. The paint glazes over our eyes and puts chains on our hands and feet so we don't serve as we know we should or even want to.  If we don't discipline ourselves to serve for the sake of Christ and His kingdom (and for the purpose of Godliness), we'll serve only occasionally, or when it's convenient or self-serving...  However, those who want to train themselves for Christlike spirituality will find it one of the surest and most practical means of growth in grace."

     Tom Landry (former coach of the Dallas Cowboys for most of three decades) put it well when he said: "The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don't want to do in order to achieve what they always wanted to be."  That's true for us as Christians as well.  "Christians are called to do things they would naturally not be prone to do -- pursue spiritual disciplines -- in order that they might become what they've always wanted to be, that is, like Jesus Christ" (Whitney).  A mentor once told me (and I now have it taped to the wall in my house): "Character is making yourself do what you don't want to do because you know it will be good for you."  This can't happen without the fruit of the Spirit we call self-discipline. In an age that tends toward undisciplined living, his words go against the grain. Yet they are totally in line with the teaching of the New Testament (I Corinthians 9:23-27).  Self-discipline is a primary part in the pursuit of godliness.

In the Service of Christ, Pastor Jeff

Training Like Jesus

Greetings All!

     This week I received a magazine called, "Voice" (September/October 2018) which had a very interesting article on, "Training Like Jesus" in which the author -- Paul Seger -- shows the difference between the way Jesus trained people, the way the Church throughout history has done so, and the way we tend to do so today.   I found the differences quite fascinating, not to mention a bit convicting and very challenging.  I trust it might not only be informative and thought-provoking for you as well, but challenging to consider.  It gave me a much greater appreciation and respect for disciplers and pastors from the past.  Enjoy.

Training People Like Jesus Did

     "Life on the mission field has honed my conviction and commitment to discipleship. I have gained an appreciation for the absolute necessity of leadership training.  For years I have done both.  Discipleship of new believers and training men for church leadership became an indispensable part of missions and ministry.  But a visit I took to Israel this past year demonstrated how woefully inadequate my approach has been. As we traversed the Holy Land and rehearsed the life of Christ, it became obvious that His method of discipleship differed greatly from the way we disciple and train...

     The Gospels speak of Jesus moving around the country with little reference to distances he traveled.  In my naivete, I failed to factor walking into the equation. From His base of operations in Capernaum, Jerusalem was at least a five-day trek (approximately 121 miles, walking the whole way)...  What do these distances have to do with the amount of time Jesus spent training His disciples?  It is obvious these long walks would have given inordinate amounts of time to talk and train.  Lengthy hikes with conversations.  Lessons and lectures were enabled by hours on the road.  Add to that the absence of television, internet, phones, movies, electricity, and readily available entertainment, and the hours for teaching and training rapidly stacked up.  Evenings around the campfire allowed for unhurried conversations.  In the 21st Century we might wonder how Jesus could train disciples in 3.5 years. We anticipate four years of undergraduate work and then another three to four years for seminary. Yet in half that time Christ prepared the men who would be the foundation and future of the greatest initiative in history, the Church.

     Most preparation for ministry in the Western world takes place in a classroom and a 15-hour semester load is considered normal. Then, if there is an hour or two a week with a mentor, it is considered an exceptional experience...  But when Jesus called His disciples to follow Him, it was to spend 24 hours a day together for months on end.  They ministered together, ate together, worked together, relaxed together, socialized together and lived life as one.

     We will never replicate the teaching style of Jesus today.  We have neither the will nor the capacity to do this. But there have been phases of church history where something similar happened. In the early years of the United States there were no colleges and seminaries.  Men who wanted to enter the ministry did so by moving into the home of a pastor.  They rose in the morning and had devotions together. Breakfast was shared with opportunity to converse. Study for messages filled their morning hours and were done together (the older instructing the younger). Afternoon visits and evangelism were done together with opportunity to debrief after the event. Evenings were unhurried conversations around the table.  "In eighteenth-century New England, Christian leaders such as Jonathan and Sarah Edwards regularly had one or two pastor-trainees move into their home (alongside their 11 children!) where the budding ministers had opportunity to observe the quality of their marriage, the reality of their spiritual life, and the demands of pastoral duties" (Ted Engstrom, The Fine Art of Mentoring).  How many pastors do you know who have apprentices living in their homes?  Would I be willing to do that?

     Some pastors were better at doing this than others, so it was suggested that these shepherds do this full time.  With these full-time shepherds, Harvard and Princeton were formed to formalize the training and we never looked back. Our jam-packed schedules, programs, and Western approach to education have become the norm and crowded out the potential of training like Jesus.  I'm not sure we will ever go back to the way Jesus did it.  He spent the time... It would take a radical adjustment to ministry for the average pastor to include a couple trainees in their home and schedule... Even though we will not replicate the teaching style of Jesus, many of us could start moving in that direction."

     It is challenging to consider and think that maybe the newest way of doing things isn't the best or most effective.  It's also challenging to consider the depth of commitment it took to be disciples of Jesus. Or to be like a Sarah and Jonathan Edwards and open your house already full of 11 children to the watchful eyes of one or two pastors-in-training who watched (so as to learn) your every move. Imagine someone (or a couple of someones!) watching how you treat your wife and family, keep your house, spend your income, raise and train your children, pray and study the Word, evangelize and train leaders, speak of and interact with everyone in the Body of Christ, and seek to further the work of the Gospel locally and globally.

     Pastors often talk about "living in a fishbowl" where people observe everything you do.  And that's with people looking on from the outside!  Imagine them living in your house 24/7 for a couple years at a time!  Yikes!  For us who need our times of privacy to gather our thoughts and regain strength, it's a daunting thought!  We might all say, "Only by Your grace, O God!  Please give us what we need to begin to disciple more like Jesus did."

With You In Our Habitual Need For Grace, Pastor Jeff

Little Faith

Greetings Everyone!

     Today's "thought" addresses the question: "How much faith is necessary?" 
     On two occasions I have heard preachers speak on Jesus' words that, "faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains."  And in each case both of those preachers went on to speak of wanting to exercise a far greater quantity of faith than Jesus said is necessary.  One of the preachers even said, "some people are content with a thimble full of faith, I want a swimming pool full of faith -- faith I can swim in!"

     Yet, I believe both of them missed Jesus point.  For Jesus tells us that faith the size of a mustard seed is far more than anyone will ever need!   With that much, says Jesus, "Nothing will be impossible for you."  In other words, we don't need tons of faith to see impossibilities become possible, we simply need that small amount and we will see miracles happen.  As R.T. France says in his commentary on Jesus words: "It is not the 'amount' of faith which brings the impossible within reach, but the power of God, which is available to even the 'smallest faith.' " 

     That's what today's thought is about: "Little Faith."   It comes to us from a book entitled, "Day by Day with the English Puritans" by Randall J. Pederson.  This particular entry was written by John Rogers, a Puritan pastor from Essex, England, back in the 1620's.  I trust you will find it helpful and encouraging. Enjoy.

Little Faith

"If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain,

'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Matthew 17:20b

     "Little faith is true faith, as well as great faith.  A little man is just as much a man as a large man; a little water is just as truly water as the ocean seas. The disciples had true faith, yet very weak faith, weak in knowledge. Though they believed that Jesus was the Messiah come to save the world, yet they did not know how.  They were ignorant of His death, for when He told them of His coming sufferings, it is said that they did not understand what He was saying (Luke 18:31-34). Peter took Jesus aside and counseled Him not to go to Jerusalem to die (Matthew 16:22). They were ignorant also of His resurrection also, for when Mary told them of it, they did not believe her (Luke 24:11).  And of His ascension, when He spoke of going away, they understood it not, neither did they know where He was going, or the way to get there (John 14:1-31).  Their knowledge was very weak to be ignorant of such important things...

     But weak faith may prove strong in time. The most learned clerk was once in school studying his grammar book. The greatest giant was once in swaddling clothes. The tallest oak was at one time a twig. And faith grows from a grain of mustard seed to produce a tall tree.  As from a child to a man, so corn grows from a weak blade, to a stalk, to an ear with ripe corn therein. The disciples who were so weak before, afterwards, when the Holy Spirit was sent among them, were exceedingly strong and feared not in the face of tyrants."

     It was not unusual for Puritan pastors to affirm the words of Jesus that even little faith (faith as small as a mustard seed) was sufficient faith.   Thomas Watson, also a Puritan pastor, once said: "Though your faith is weak, do not be discouraged -- a weak faith may receive a strong Christ."   And Richard Sibbes, yet another Puritan pastor, once said: "A spark of fire is fire, as well as the whole element. Therefore we must look to grace in the spark as well as in the flame. All do not have the same strong faith, though they have the same precious faith (2 Pet. 1:1), whereby they lay hold of, and put on, the perfect righteousness of Christ. A weak hand may receive a rich jewel.  A few grapes will show that the plant is a vine, and not a thorn.  It is one thing to be deficient in grace, and another thing to lack grace altogether.”

     So, we are, as Peter says, to, "make every effort to add to our faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control...." (II Peter 1:5-9).  We are called to exercise and add to our faith. Yet, we must also remember that a mustard seed sized degree of faith is more than sufficient to "move mountains" and make "nothing impossible for (us)."   No one needs a swimming pool sized degree of faith!  Who needs more than a faith that is able to do all things?!

     In fact, if Jesus rebuked the disciples for not being able to cast out evil spirits, "because they had so little faith," and then went on to say "faith the size of a mustard seed" was enough to do anything that needed to be done, one must question how much the disciples could have had?  Maybe the tiniest speck of a mustard seed that had been ground to powder?  I suppose it really doesn't matter. Little faith in the infinite God is enough! The aim, after all, is not to focus on our faith, but the immutable, great, loving, and all-powerful object of our faith.  For faith grows as we look away from it, and seek to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.  The greater we understand Him to be, the greater our faith will become -- and that without even needing to focus on faith.

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

Not A Fan Testimony

Greetings All,







Today's 'thought' comes to you once again from Kyle Idleman's book, "Not a Fan."  Interspersed throughout the book are testimonies of people who were "fans" of Jesus at one point or another in their lives, but are no longer.  They had attended church, said their prayers, put some money in the offering plate, claimed a vague belief in Jesus, and generally went through the religious motions. But then at some point in their lives realized that it had all been superficial and not real.
     In most cases -- usually as a result of going through sickness, or trauma, or addiction, or coming close to death -- that which had been superficial in their lives became real. They stopped being a "fan" of Jesus, and became a true disciple and follower of Jesus.  This is Gary Polsgrove's testimony.  He's a man Jesus brought to his knees before He put him back on his feet. Enjoy.

Not A Fan Testimony

     "Sitting in front of the judge's stand, I started to cry. I heard the judge say something about jail time, and I sobbed even harder. An officer handcuffed me and took me to jail. I spent a few days there, trying to figure out what had happened to my life. How did it come to this? I had reached the pinnacle of my career as a pilot for UPS. I had everything going for me. Having left my wife in 1993, I didn't have anyone weighing me down. I had money, girls, friends, a great job — everything a guy could want. My life was all about saying yes to myself.

     But then I got caught at work stealing airline tickets. I didn't know how much my job had meant to me until the night I was fired. When I went in that night, they didn't just take my badge - they took away my entire identity. All these years, I had let my job define me. Losing that job felt like I was dying. But just because I had lost my job didn't mean I was giving up my lifestyle. Hard-headed guys like me don't go down easily. Without a job, I started missing child support payments. They gave some warnings that I better pay up, but before being sentenced, I still thought I was untouchable. That day in court was a major wake-up call.

     After my jail time, I stayed in a halfway home. I lived out of a duffel bag. I was allowed to work, but I wasn't allowed to drive. I rode the bus all around. I ended up working at a bagel shop. Some days, I'd run into co-workers from UPS. I can't describe the shame I felt. I know what I'm about to say doesn't make any sense, but it was during this time when everything I had worked for was dead, and my old life had died, that I started to finally discover true life. With nowhere else to turn, I returned to the faith of my youth. I began praying honestly and searching for comfort in the Bible. For the first time Jesus became real to me. I started saying no to me and started saying yes to Jesus.

     Soon after leaving the halfway home, I got a great job and started climbing the corporate ladder. My success was back. But I was afraid the old me would come back, too. I wanted to make sure that the old me stayed dead. I got on my knees and asked God to guide me and I committed to living completely for him.

     These days that continues to be my prayer. Now I mentor young men at church who are looking for spiritual guidance. God managed to take my mistakes and turn them into a priceless tool for keeping the young men I mentor from making the mistakes I made. I am also working with incarcerated men. It has become my passion to bring God's hope and healing into the broken lives of these men. Only God could take that kind of mess and turn it into a message about grace and redemption. My name is Gary Polsgrove, and I am not a fan." 

     St. Augustine once said in his well-known classic "The Confessions": "You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You."  I've often turned that into a prayer I pray for others who are walking aimlessly in sin, seemingly oblivious of their need for the Lord.  I've prayed for others (maybe even some of you!):  "Lord, give them no rest until they rest in you."

     To some it may at first sound "mean" to pray such a thing.  Yet if difficulty, hardships, trials and failure are what God uses to show us our desperate need for Him, and if we will never come to Him so long as we are comfortable where we are, it really is the most loving thing I could pray for any unbeliever or straying believer.  In fact, in love, I pray that for any to whom that may apply right now.

In the Bonds of Christian Affection,  Pastor Jeff 

The Day Jesus Lost His Temper

Greetings All,

     Today I'm doing something out of the ordinary. Because today my 'thought'  comes from a section of my sermon from this past Sunday (Palm Sunday) where I spoke about Jesus withering of the fig tree and cleansing the Temple (out of in Mark 11:13-14 and 20-21). 
     Many told me afterward that it helped them understand a text that had always confused and bothered them.  So, if  you are such a person, my prayer is that it may do the same for you. Enjoy (hopefully)!

     "The day after that first Palm Sunday, Jesus headed to the Temple, and on His way cursed a fig tree which had no fruit on it, and it eventually withers and dies (Mark 11:13-14 and 20-21). It's a story that makes some struggle, because it makes it seem like Jesus is simply in a bad mood, or being mean and irrational, since he expects a fig tree to bear fruit when it's not even the season for figs!

     Yet our struggle with the event can be resolved when we understand that Jesus is not mad, nor cursing the tree because He's irritated. Rather, He's engaging in a common form of prophetic instruction -- using a symbolic act that teaches a truth or serves as a warning of things to come. 

     God employed this form of instruction with Hosea when He called him to marry a prostitute and to remain faithful to her, even though she would be unfaithful to him -- sign of God's faithfulness to unfaithful and idolatrous Israel, as well as a reminder to us who so often "cheat on God" with other gods or idols. Isaiah engaged in it as well when he as called by God to walk around barefoot and naked for three years -- a sign to Egypt and Cush that they would be defeated by Assyria, and "led away stripped and barefoot" (Isaiah 20:2-6).

     So why does Jesus curse and wither the fig tree? Because as we often see in the O.T. the fig tree represents Israel (Jer. 8:13 / 29:17 / etc.). Paul uses the same imagery in Romans 11.

     And what's the message Jesus conveys through it? The fig tree, like Israel -- looks good from a distance to the human observer (v. 13).  She lush and green and healthy and full of leaves, and from all outward appearances seems like a tree that should be laden with fruit. But upon closer examination, she is found to have produced no spiritual fruit at all (v. 13b).  Yes, Israel had her large, magnificent temple (which even Roman writers described as one of the world's most magnificent buildings). She had her intricate religious organization with over 700 priests on duty at any given time, along with her highly detailed order of rituals and sacrifices and a priesthood with all its colorful robes and finery. She had her High Priest, religious lawyers, scribes and elders. There was even the Sanhedrin, the Temple guards, and so much more. It was all quite massive and impressive (similar in many ways to the Vatican).

     But like the fig tree Jesus cursed, she had not produced what God desired most: The fruit of a holiness. A people that loved Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, prayerfully worshiping Him in spirit and truth and praising all the consummate glories of His Name. People who through great effort and personal sacrifice take the message of His greatness to the ends of the earth. And therefore, like the cursed tree which the disciples found withered and dead (v. 21), Israel would also be judged -- for she was not what she appeared to be. She lacked the spiritual fruit she was supposed to produce. That's the message of Jesus through the withered fig tree. Any "fruit-bearing tree" (or person) that BEARS NO FRUIT, will eventually be judged, wither, and die (Mt. 3:10-12, 7:15-20, John 15:6...). 

     And the same is true for the cleansing of the Temple. It's another prophetic and instructive visual sign where Jesus seeks to show them, through actions that no one can ignore, that God is not pleased with the way they have taken what He ordained to be a place of worship and prayer and made it into a religious circus, and money-making machine.  As with the fig tree, Jesus "wrath" is a prophetic sign of what God would soon do to the nation if they did not repent and restore the Temple to what it was supposed to be  -- a place of reverence and praise and earnest prayer and the worship of the true God for people from all nations (vv. 15-17).

     Like the withering of the fig tree, the temple cleansing is intended to be a prophetic sign, foreshadowing in miniature what would actually did happen in reality in the year 70 A.D. when the Roman Army destroyed Jerusalem, and then dismantled the Temple stone by stone, until "not one was left upon the other" (Matt. 24:2). It may even foreshadow the Day of Judgment when God will clean house and separate the sheep from the goats.

     If those who witnessed this event had only heeded its true message, and the warning Jesus was giving them through it, it would have saved them from experiencing a much worse judgment in the future.  For in reality, it's a very gentle form of "wrath" that is meant to save them from a much harsher form of wrath in the future.  Which means it is really an act of God's grace and mercy, clothed in instructive anger, and conveying to all -- through a visual warning no one could forget -- a wrath that will be infinitely worse in the future if they refuse to repent and change their ways."

Food for thought as we approach Good Friday and rejoice to remember that Easter is coming! 

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Persecution for the Faith

Greetings All,

     This week's 'thought' has to do with persecution for the faith. It has to do with our brothers and sisters all over the world who are suffering for their faithfulness in following Jesus. As you know, in many parts of the world loving Jesus puts your life (and the lives of your family) at risk.
     Just recently Antonio Audo, Syrian priest and bishop of Aleppo Syria said of the current situation there: "Many churches stand empty, targets for bombardment and desecration... Now our faith is under mortal threat, in danger of being driven to extinction (in Syria) the same pattern we have seen in neighboring Iraq." Muslim militants often use the political unrest as a cover to eradicate Christians and destroy churches.

     This particular thought has to do with how we as Western Christians should respond to all that. It is by Steve Lundquist, vice-president for domestic ministry with The Voice of the Martyrs, and was printed in this month's (June 2014) Decision Magazine. I found it insightful and challenging, and for that reason offer it to you.

     "Steve Lundquist... has a challenge for Western Christians who are concerned about their brothers and sisters who are suffering for Christ.
     First, Lundquist says, realize that persecuted believers do not want your sympathy: "You do these people an incredible disservice to portray them as 'these poor, suffering people' who need you -- you blessed Westerners -- to come and give them stuff. This is not a 'worthy cause' to engage in. This is our family.

     Second, understand that the best response is not simply to rush in and try to 'make it better.' Rather, help them to be obedient to Christ's commands, including that of proclaiming the Gospel. Lundquist explains: 'At The Voice of the Martyrs, we ask, 'What do you need to become more successful in evangelism?' We give the people the resources to do things we know will increase the chances that they will be persecuted. And we also provide assistance when that persecution happens.' 

     Third, count the cost of being a true follower of Jesus. "I could effectively minimize Christian persecution all over the world,' Lundquist says. 'All I have to do is convince every Christian around the world to follow the example of the typical American believer. You know, compartmentalize your life: Go to church on Sunday, but don't talk about Jesus Monday through Saturday.'

     'We have so watered it down. We say: 'And now, with every head bowed and every eye closed, slip your hand up.' You know, don't take a risk. And then we wonder why, the first time there is opposition, people are not standing.

     'Our persecuted brothers and sisters have something that we so desperately need. If we take their example, our life is not going to get easier. But the message we need to be trumpeting is this: Count the cost. Understand the cross and figure out what it's worth to you, and then decide whether you're in or not.'"

     I've been preaching a series of messages from the book of Revelation and am currently focusing on the Seven Churches (in chapters 2-3). Therefore persecution has been a recurring theme (should you desire to listen to any of them, click on the following link: http://www.christcommunitybiblechurch.org/ and go to the 'sermons' page).

     This excerpt by Steve Lundquist presents us with the same question. Do we primarily seek our comfort, and thus invisibility, or do we seek to be obedient disciples, realizing it will inevitably increase the world's displeasure with us and possibly put us in the line of fire?

     Is it time to ask ourselves afresh: "Would I be willing to lose all for Jesus? Is my love for Him superior to my love for everything and everyone else?" And if so, will you commit (or re-commit) to following Him and obeying Him come what may? Will you pray for the grace to do so?

Yours in the Bonds of Christian Service and Obedience, Pastor Jeff