Our ministry had some rough times last year and it seemed better times again more recently - the last few days there have been whispers of various troubles brewing. I was in our Palm Sunday evening service praying about this tonight - not knowing what the future holds. I realized that our ups and downs are really minor in the big scope of things. This week (2000 yrs ago) was truly dramatic for the disciples. They went from the Triumphal Entry to the Crucifixion to the Resurrection in a week - talk about your ups and downs!
I am certain the disciples were giddy with excitement when the crowds welcomed Jesus as the rightful King of the Jews. I am sure that along with the crowds, they were hoping that Jesus would drive out the Romans and right everything that was wrong. Perhaps that made it that much easier to run away when Jesus was arrested and tried. Why was he just letting this happen? From mountain top experience to the valley of the shadow of death in a week - it was more than they could handle.
Not so with Jesus, he was as steady as a rock. Jesus was not caught up in the hype of the elevation coming from a crowd that would bless him one day and condemn him another. He accepted the praise of those who were genuine but it didn't change his direction and plan. In fact, just before this welcoming, he is weeping over Jerusalem - knowing that they didn’t really get it. He even tempers their celebration of waving victory palms by riding in, not a horse - a sign of a conquering king, but instead a meek colt of a donkey. In the same way, later, in the greatest trial he did not despair but set himself on God’s will even when it meant betrayal to a terrible death.
Many times in the Old Testament God is referred to as the Rock- a fortress, unmovable, unshakable. It is a divine attribute of God - He doesn’t change. He is above time and circumstance- everything is under His control. He isn’t waiting for things to get better or wondering when they might get worse. Peter tells us that Jesus is the Living Stone and we too are to be living stones built to be God’s house (1Peter 2:4-5). Jesus tells us to build our lives on this Rock in talking about the wise and the foolish builders (Mat 7:24).
It is easy to ride the waves of good times and then be crashed down by the next trial. When we build our lives on Jesus, the Rock, we will not be so easily taken up and down by the waves of life. Jesus kept the goal of God’s will steadily in mind. Yes, we rejoice in God’s blessings but our faith is not built on them and can’t rely on them (just look at Job). Similarly, when we have trials we cry out to God, but it doesn’t shake our faith - we just hold tighter to the Rock.
So there in the quite of that service I just prayed, “God - I am small. I don’t know what will happen in the next minute, let alone tomorrow. Whether it is a time of refreshing or time of trial - I trust it all to you. Help me show Your character no matter what comes and through it all may You be glorified and people see who You are. You are the Rock - the unchanging one. Let my life be built on You.”
I don’t know what is happening in your life today, but I trust that you are building your life on the one true foundation - Jesus the Rock of our Salvation. Have a great Palm Sunday!
Sunday 17 April 2011
Monday 4 April 2011
Rotten
A few weeks ago we went to a new church with some volunteers. A lady told me the name of the church was Rabi. Most churches are named by the village name. The lady said, “Our village name was 'Kilong' - in the tribal language that means 'rotten' or 'smells bad'. A long time ago some men were killed here and left to rot in the open without burial. That became the name of this place.”
Some months ago a circuit (zone) Nazarene Missions president met some people at Kilong and began to pray with them in their home. They started a church. Later God gave a man a vision to change the name from Kilong to Rabi (the Pidgin spelling of Rabbi, or Teacher). They then changed the name to show the change God had made in that community. God took a place that was rotten, that smelled, and made it a place to proclaim and teach about God.
We believe in a God who changes names! A God who calls us not by what we have been, but what he can make us to be. Abram was an old man without children but God called him "Abraham" - a father of many nations. Simon was a fisherman, prone to errors in his thinking and actions, and a disciple who would deny Jesus, but Christ called him "Peter" - the rock. God saw in them what He would change them to be with His power.
We have seen evil, violent men changed by God’s power and become leaders who show righteousness and great patience in trials. We have seen people with no position and no training be raised up to lead the church in exciting ways. We have seen illiterate people become pastors. We have seen womanizers become model husbands that challenge others to change their marriage. We see a God who has the power to change lives!
Sometimes we get a bad name from our past mistakes and current inadequacies. People think bad of us and we think bad of ourselves. But God wants to call each of us by a new name, a name that reflects His righteousness and His power to change our lives from what has been to what He will make us.
In Rev. 2:17 Christ tells us that he has a new name for each of us no one else even knows.
Don’t be drug down by past problems and failures. Don't discount what God wants to do in your life because you don't think you are prepared for what He calls you to do. God wants to call you by what He sees He will produce in you. So the question is, “What name does God want to give you?”
Some months ago a circuit (zone) Nazarene Missions president met some people at Kilong and began to pray with them in their home. They started a church. Later God gave a man a vision to change the name from Kilong to Rabi (the Pidgin spelling of Rabbi, or Teacher). They then changed the name to show the change God had made in that community. God took a place that was rotten, that smelled, and made it a place to proclaim and teach about God.
We believe in a God who changes names! A God who calls us not by what we have been, but what he can make us to be. Abram was an old man without children but God called him "Abraham" - a father of many nations. Simon was a fisherman, prone to errors in his thinking and actions, and a disciple who would deny Jesus, but Christ called him "Peter" - the rock. God saw in them what He would change them to be with His power.
We have seen evil, violent men changed by God’s power and become leaders who show righteousness and great patience in trials. We have seen people with no position and no training be raised up to lead the church in exciting ways. We have seen illiterate people become pastors. We have seen womanizers become model husbands that challenge others to change their marriage. We see a God who has the power to change lives!
Sometimes we get a bad name from our past mistakes and current inadequacies. People think bad of us and we think bad of ourselves. But God wants to call each of us by a new name, a name that reflects His righteousness and His power to change our lives from what has been to what He will make us.
In Rev. 2:17 Christ tells us that he has a new name for each of us no one else even knows.
Don’t be drug down by past problems and failures. Don't discount what God wants to do in your life because you don't think you are prepared for what He calls you to do. God wants to call you by what He sees He will produce in you. So the question is, “What name does God want to give you?”
Sunday 3 April 2011
Call
A friend just wrote and ask me what it means to have a call. Here was my reply:
Our first call is always to Christ and who he makes us to be as believers (ie produces the fruits of the Spirit in our lives to make us more like Him). That is the real call to all Christians - to be changed by Christ and to be involved in making disciples, which is helping others become more like Christ. All believers are to be involved in discipleship, it is not a job delegated to pastors or a special few in the church - go make disciples, we are a nation of priests, bearing fruit, taking up our cross daily, letting our light shine, etc.... Scripture is full of that sense of call that we all have.
Of course, when people talk about "being called" they often mean a more specific call to a certain place or a certain ministry. But I think those specific calls come from our primary call.
I believe God guides us through the desires and talents he gives us. Here is the catch - I feel many Christians never seriously ask. My life changed my first year of college taking a missions class (when I didn't consider myself to have a "specific call"). The parable of the Good Samaritan was discussed - the idea of call was presented as "seeing a need, having the resources to meet the need, and being moved with compassion to do so."
That phrase stuck in my mind. It seemed to me to be a model of the ministry of Christ himself -who saw lost crowds and had compassion on them, and stopped for hurting individuals along the way. This idea of call as seeing a need and letting God move your heart to help, made sense to me. So I began to pray, "God, I am yours - make me into a resource you will use to meet real needs in a hurting world." Looking back, it was that prayer that changed my life - it led me to getting involved in inner city ministry in KC whenever I could, then a camp counselor for mostly inner city kids, it opened the door to thinking about helping people in a practical way, and ultimately led me into a "specific call" to medical missions.
I wanted to practically help people, I loved science, was fascinated by medicine,.... therefore becoming a doctor made sense to me. I think it is the same with other areas of a "call" - if you love working with young kids - you don't need God to write it on the wall to volunteer to teach a Sunday School class or reach out to kids in your neighborhood. If you are an accountant your ministry might be helping with church finance or starting a ministry helping poor people do taxes, or tutoring kids in math,... if you also were an accountant who also feels a tremendous burden for missions and the developing world, then maybe God is calling you to do those types of things in other countries.
I think any Christian who prays that prayer and means it, God will lead them by their talents and desires to find needs around them and meet them. It will lead them to seek more opportunities to build God's kingdom. That is the call of all Christians - let your primary call to serve God lead you to secondary or specific calls to what types of ministries you do and where you do them.
Our first call is always to Christ and who he makes us to be as believers (ie produces the fruits of the Spirit in our lives to make us more like Him). That is the real call to all Christians - to be changed by Christ and to be involved in making disciples, which is helping others become more like Christ. All believers are to be involved in discipleship, it is not a job delegated to pastors or a special few in the church - go make disciples, we are a nation of priests, bearing fruit, taking up our cross daily, letting our light shine, etc.... Scripture is full of that sense of call that we all have.
Of course, when people talk about "being called" they often mean a more specific call to a certain place or a certain ministry. But I think those specific calls come from our primary call.
I believe God guides us through the desires and talents he gives us. Here is the catch - I feel many Christians never seriously ask. My life changed my first year of college taking a missions class (when I didn't consider myself to have a "specific call"). The parable of the Good Samaritan was discussed - the idea of call was presented as "seeing a need, having the resources to meet the need, and being moved with compassion to do so."
That phrase stuck in my mind. It seemed to me to be a model of the ministry of Christ himself -who saw lost crowds and had compassion on them, and stopped for hurting individuals along the way. This idea of call as seeing a need and letting God move your heart to help, made sense to me. So I began to pray, "God, I am yours - make me into a resource you will use to meet real needs in a hurting world." Looking back, it was that prayer that changed my life - it led me to getting involved in inner city ministry in KC whenever I could, then a camp counselor for mostly inner city kids, it opened the door to thinking about helping people in a practical way, and ultimately led me into a "specific call" to medical missions.
I wanted to practically help people, I loved science, was fascinated by medicine,.... therefore becoming a doctor made sense to me. I think it is the same with other areas of a "call" - if you love working with young kids - you don't need God to write it on the wall to volunteer to teach a Sunday School class or reach out to kids in your neighborhood. If you are an accountant your ministry might be helping with church finance or starting a ministry helping poor people do taxes, or tutoring kids in math,... if you also were an accountant who also feels a tremendous burden for missions and the developing world, then maybe God is calling you to do those types of things in other countries.
I think any Christian who prays that prayer and means it, God will lead them by their talents and desires to find needs around them and meet them. It will lead them to seek more opportunities to build God's kingdom. That is the call of all Christians - let your primary call to serve God lead you to secondary or specific calls to what types of ministries you do and where you do them.
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