Facing the Challenge

“Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem” (Nehemiah 2:20).

It is important to remember that all who are Christians have one life.  In the sight of heaven there is only one life that matters before God — it is the life of the Lord Jesus, indwelling each of us by His Spirit.  This is an amazing fellowship.  Because we share that one life, we share one great purpose and one great work:  it is the building of lives into the Kingdom of God, and in such a task one hundred per cent cooperation between Christian people is absolutely vital.  The greatest menace to revival is the Christian who refuses to work with other people because his view of Christian togetherness is different and short-sighted.

Would it not make a great difference if each believer would say this before God, “Lord, I will make my own immediate locality my mission field. I will see to it that every family is regularly supplied with gospel literature, loved and urged to attend church“?  Would it not make a great difference if every believer was an example to their family and to others that the prayer meeting is the most important meeting of the week night?

In the Christian work organizing and agonizing should go together.  Alas, too often organizing has crowded out the agonizing.  There is too much working before men and too little waiting before God.  There is more and more motion and less and less unction.  We wrestle with problems but we seldom wrestle on our knees before God against the real enemy, Satan.  We should have a ready burden at all times for the work of 100% cooperation in this work!  We have no room for the independent Christian; we are engaged in one supreme task, that of reaching this world for God, and it will take all of us.  This is how our God works.  Let’s allow the Lord Jesus to work in us and through us.

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  • Praying the Bible

    “When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness”  (Acts 4:31).

    On the cross the Lord Jesus only said out loud seven brief things. The Romans had flayed His back until it was ribboned and torn, and was seen by every eye that passed by. Severely dehydrated, His entire body weight hanging on three nails that held Him to the wood, the Lord of love had to push himself upward to be able to talk, and then only briefly before releasing and settling downward.

    Understandably, then, everything Jesus spoke from the cross was important. And as He lifted himself up each time I am convinced that He prayed through the verses of Psalm 22. As He weighed back downward, wrestling on those nails, He continued to pray silently through Psalms 22. Oh! How that pangs my heart. Yet, oh, how, it rejoices my soul! His first prayer from Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The last prayer was from Psalm 31:5, “Father into thy hands I commit my spirit.”

    Jesus prayed the Psalms. The final act of His earthly life was to pray the words of a psalm, the Word of the Bible. Friends, if the Lord Jesus prayed the psalms and the Bible, and the early church prayed the psalms should we not do as well? There is power in praying the Bible.

  • Those Who Refresh

    “The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well” (II Timothy 1:16-18).

    Here is a man who, as far as we know, never preached a sermon, wrote an epistle, or sang an anthem. He was quiet in his efforts, unassuming in ministering in his love to the lonely Paul, reaching out in grace to a great missionary statesman by the name of Paul. Onesiphorus refreshed Paul in every possible way that he could. He was the object of Paul’s intercession and doubtless will receive a great reward in heaven for his love and kindness shown to Paul.

    When we look into the field of Christianity there are many who want to be refreshed but few Christians who are refreshers. Being refreshed is much easier than being a refresher. This is probably the reason Jesus so sadly lamented, “…The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2).

    The great God of glory never forgets those who serve Him and who serve and refresh others. The true refreshers will shine in glory and will receive a great reward. Unknown on earth in many ways but known in heaven. “For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister” (Hebrews 6:10). Who we are is more important to God than what we do.

  • Accountability

    “Practice these things; be committed to them, so that your progress may be evident to all” (I Tim. 4:15).

    Over the years, our understanding of discipleship has changed — and not always in a good direction.  Discipleship has shifted — from an ongoing process over the course of one’s life to a class you sign up and hopefully complete.  Usually after some time the class that started with twenty dwindles to eight or ten.

    I grew up on the tail end of the “training union” of the late 1960s and early 70s.  But even in this the shortcomings were felt.  Again, it was based upon this premise…you come and sit, I’ll teach.  You and I ought to be dissatisfied with mediocrity.  God has placed in each of us the desire to minister and develop through others.

    Discipleship should not be left to chance.  The Lord Jesus was intentional and calculative from the beginning.  In fact, as Jesus discipled the twelve men who would change the world, He gradually released them into ministry through a definitive four-step process.

    First, Jesus ministered while the disciples watched.
    Second, Jesus allowed the disciples to assist Him in ministry.
    Third, the disciples ministered with Jesus’ assistance.
    Finally, Jesus observed as the disciples ministered to others.

    If Jesus had a model and a plan, shouldn’t we have one?  If discipleship was then, should it not be for today?

  • Peace, God’s Peace

    “Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again” (Luke 24:7).

    The Lord Jesus was judged upon a cross that was planted in His heart. He grew in statue and wisdom having searched the Scriptures and found favor with God and with men. The Scriptures and His life with sinful men proved the necessity of a Savior for their sinfulness and ignorance, while viewing the utter hopelessness of mankind without God’s intervention.

    We are afraid of so much in this present evil world and fearful of the future ahead. We may not speak of this in sober words but inside there is great conflict that is hidden and controlled by a deafening low sound within the recesses of the soul. It’s there but we do nothing about it.

    We will find God’s pardon at the cross and we will see God’s peace at the tomb where He no longer is dead. He arose again and now all sinful men may find peace when they kiss the Son. The peace with God and the peace of God only comes to those who view God through the prism of His grace.

    Can we say, “The Son of man has been delivered into the hands of sinful men, and was crucified, and the third day He rose again?” If you can say that in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit then you have a peace that the world cannot give or take away. It is called God’s Peace which is none other than God’s Son the Lord Jesus.

  • Pleasure Seekers

    “Woe unto them…and the harp, and the lute, the timbres, and flute, and wine, are in their feasts; but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands”  (Isaiah 5:11-12).

     

    There is a way that seems right unto man, but afterwards it yields death. When mankind refuses to recognize the operation or the working of the will of God, then he or she will find death and loss at the end of their pleasure seeking.

     

    There are too many people, especially the youth of today, who are in desperate need of some mentors who will love them to Jesus. God is looking for someone to get up from the table and work with the God of orphans. There are too many women who have been abused by men’s lusts. God is looking for someone to come alongside and to love them to the bosom of Christ.

     

    America and other countries are in a stupor. They are drunken with pleasure While we take our pleasure trips, buy our modern things, God is looking for someone to stand in the gap. It takes a wise man to recognize that the ways of the world are coming to an end.

     

    It is God who gave us all things to enjoy. And it is God who will take it away. Push yourself away from the table of pleasure and go get someone and feed them the bread of life.

     

  • Became A Human Being

    “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this way: When, as his mother, Mary, was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:12).

     

     Isaiah tells us, “For unto us a child is born” (Isaiah 9:6a), not just a child of human conception, but a child of divine representation. God who created all things created and condescended Himself into the span of a young woman’s womb. God took up residence, Himself, in the womb of a woman.

     

     Who would have thought of such a thing? One question would be, “Why”? Another question to ask is “How low can you go?”

     

     Would you be willing to become a cockroach to save the world of cockroaches from their filthiness? NO! We would not even think of it. But God became a baby, a child, and for this reason to die upon a cross to save us from our sins! To save us from our sins is to save us from physical, spiritual, and eternal death. To save us from our sins is to allow God back into you to be God in you.

     

    “Great is the mystery of godliness,” Paul tells Timothy. God became a man so that you can become a son or daughter of God. God was born of a virgin so that you and I can become born again. Are you consciously, conspicuously, continually found with the child of the Holy Spirit within you? If not, why not?