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“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” — Matthew 5:11-12
Today’s sermon was on the persecuted church. A guest speaker came whose family had suffered persecution. He gave a first hand account of how his father fled from the home for over six years and how his family stood firm; risking their lives for the sake of the gospel. The service today reminded to pray of some specific things:
1) Pray that the believers being persecuted would stand firm in their faith, and that the believers who are being persecuted would remain united in their efforts for the kingdom of God.
2) Pray that God would open doors in for Christian literature to be printed so that the believers would be able to grow and develop their understanding of God, Scripture and theology.
3) Pray that the persecution of the believers would continue to make the truth of the Gospel evident to those who do not know Jesus Christ.
There are more things to be praying for, but these are the specifics that stood out to me this morning.
In Ezekiel 8, the prophet was allowed to witness blatent rebellion in the form of idolatry at the center of Jewish worship. God responded at the end of the chapter with this statement, “Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them.”
What struck me is that God made the deliberate decision to not listen to his people. As a believer in the new covenant, it is hard to imagine a God who chooses not to listen.
God demonstrates his love for his believers is by listening.
It’s pretty amazing to think of how he chooses to listen to believers. He chooses to always be available. He is not a doctor who is always running late for appointments. Although he is always working, he is not too busy to give us his full attention.
It’s not just that he listens, but he also responds. Our community group has been intentionally spending more time in pray for the last month. Not surprisingly, there are new updates each week of how God responds. Last night was no different, and it seemed everyone had an update that related to our prayers.
That led me to wonder if our prayers effected the outcome. In other words, did our prayers change God’s plan? This is an impossible question to answer because only God could know the “what ifs.” What I do know is that we would not have been ready to recognize the activity of God if we had not prayed. By taking the time to pray, it allowed us to fellowship with God and find joy because we know that he heard us.
Many people in this world worship a god who is not the God of the Bible. They offer prayers, but are never heard. They have no hope of a response. Remember to pray for them.
Tonight at Community Group, we watched an hour of The Gospel of John (it came out in 2003, so it is not old and cheesy). In college we did an assignment for our Gospels class where we watched several different movies about the gospels. Then after college, The Passion came out and I went to see that along with everybody else. However, after the first hour of The Gospel of John, I have to say that it is the best movie about Jesus that I have ever seen. We could actually sit with the book of John open and follow the lines word for word. I am looking forward to watching the rest of the movie.
The scene where Jesus fed the five thousand got me thinking about Re:Hope’s situation in Scotland. Their church has found themselves in a similar situation that Jesus and the disciples were in. Re:Hope is praying for God to do a miracle and provide them a place to worship God on a regular basis. They do not have enough money to meet the asking price of the seller, just like Jesus and the disciples did not have enough food to feed the five thousand people. I was struck in the story about how Jesus responded to his Father with the food he had…
…He gave thanks. The story does not say he asked God to provide enough to feed everybody. Instead it only says that he gave thanks for what was provided, and then his Father provided for more than what he needed. This is not to say that God does not want us to bring our requests to him in the manner that Re:Hope is doing (that principle is found in the story of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8). The point of this blog is simply this: to bring our requests to the Father while giving thanks for what God has already provided.
“Does this mean that God will provide for our needs if we are thankful for what he has provided?” No, that is not the right deduction. God is the one who ultimately makes the decision to provide or not. The thing to remember is that God is also ultimately good. Thus whether he chooses to provide or not, his decision will always remain within the pattern of his character to be good. He makes decisions, according to his will, for the good of those who love him (Rom. 8:28).
It is my prayer that God would provide for Re:Hope, and give them a place to worship God together. However, whether he provides or not, it is remains my prayer that the people of Re:Hope would also give thanks for what God has already provided (I think they are doing this, but I am writing this just as a reminder). Although Re:Hope is the example I use in this blog, this is also the prayer I have for myself: that I would be thankful for what God has provided, and when I bring my requests to God I want to remember to be thankful for what I already have…even if it’s not much.
I got a little more than I bargained for yesterday when an older gentleman, who I did not know prior to today, collapsed in the hall outside my office. We did our best to resuscitate him, but to no avail. The situation was grim when the EMTs carted him out because he was still unconscious and had not given us any sign of recovery. Later, word came back that he died.
It is my first experience with a heart defibrillator, and my first experience being with someone in the last moments of their earthly life. Rolling him over, I thought I could feel his heart, but it was hard to tell if it was my heart or his. It could have been his heart trying to pump without success. I am glad he has gone on to be with the Lord.
Later this evening I remembered that I had read Ecclesiastes 7:1-4 earlier this month. It says,
“A good reputation is better than precious perfume; likewise, the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth. It is better to go to a funeral than a feast. For death is the destiny of every person, and the living should take this to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, because sober reflection is good for the heart. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of merrymaking.”
I stopped this evening and reflected on this verse, wondering why death and sober reflection are good for the heart.
First, death today helped me understand my helplessness. Even though I did my best, there was nothing I could do to save this man. God is the only one who could have restored his life. Even if I did everything right; whether I did something wrong; God is the one who would have worked through my strengths and weaknesses. To top it all off, God did save this man today because he went home to be with the Jesus.
Second, and related to the first reflection, death helps us realize we’re not God. It shows us our limitations, and that each of our days have been numbered. Thus, death causes us to ask ourselves, “Am I ready to die?” My answer, “Yes, I am ready to die because Jesus died for my sins and rose from the dead. I have put my faith in him; he is my LORD and God.” Death causes us to realize that we need God, since he is the only one who can give us victory over the death of our earthly bodies.
I guess, death and sober reflection does help us to be wise because it humbles us before the one and only God.
LORD, please bring comfort and healing to this man’s family — Amen
About twelve people from our church gathered on Friday night to read the Book of Acts out loud. We all were not completely sure what to expect. As the facilitator, even I wasn’t sure how it would come off since it was the first time I had led a Bible read through. By the end of the night, people would say things like, “Let’s do this more often.”
The people who came learned more in that three hours by simply reading the Bible together then I could ever have taught them in three hours. As we read, we were all continually impressed that the story of Acts is true, and the God we believe in authored and willed the events to happen.
I have heard from my professors that “the Bible is meant to be read.” After Friday, I would add that the Bible is meant to be heard. It struck me as I realized that in ancient times the high cost of producing a Bible generally meant that there was only one Bible in a congregration, and I realized that the the authors of Scripture wrote to an audience where they expected the Bible to be read out loud. It’s no wonder that Scripture is written so concisely and that it repeats its message over and over again. The authors of Scripture repeated themselves so their message would be memorable for those who listened.
I’m grateful that twelve people sacrificed their Friday night to spend quality time reading the Bible with a group of people. I’m grateful that God harvested an idea in my head that became such a huge blessing for other people. I pray there will be more opportunities to read the Bible out loud in a community.
Last Sunday, Pastor Neil Tomba challenged the congregation to read the book of Acts this week individually. When I first heard that, I figured most people would not attempt the challenge.
That night I remembered seeing a description on Dr. Garry Friesen’s page (http://www.gfriesen.net/) of a Bible Marathon. The idea is to read through a large chunk of scripture orally with a group of people.
When I suggested this idea to my fellow community group leaders, they jumped on board and were interested in making this happen. So, this Friday night, a group of people from the church is going to read through the book of Acts together in a tiny little apartment. I am hoping and praying that lives will be changed as a result of this experience of reading the Bible.
