Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Being a Faithful Witness


Water and meat. A hidden Elijah was privately nurtured by God from a brook running through the Kerith Ravine, and from bread and meat delivered by the raven’s talons. These were life-sustaining provisions, absolutely necessary to Elijah’s survival.

Water and meat. A public Elijah called for water, and then more and more, to be poured on the altar of God. He cut the bull into pieces and laid the meat on the altar. Then he called for fire, and those elements of water and meat were consumed by God’s answer to the challenge on Mt. Carmel. The result? Four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal lay dead, and the people of Israel lay prostrate, crying, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!”

And us?

Water. “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the Spirit” (Jn. 7:38-39 NIV).

And meat. “Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” (Jn. 4:34). Our water and meat: the Spirit and the will of the Father.

Do we each have a public ministry for Christ? All who belong to Him can. It may be counseling or singing or interceding in prayer or teaching or preaching or sending cards of encouragement, but He has some way that we can minister to others. “For you have been chosen by God himself – you are priests of the King… so that you may show to others how God called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Pet. 2:9 LB).

But notice… the provision begins privately. No private provision, and Elijah wouldn’t have been around when it came time for public ministry. He’d have shriveled up at the bottom of the Kerith Ravine first! Likewise in our lives, the Spirit flows from within, and the will of the Father has to be internalized, made our own. Then they will pour through us and overflow from us into public ministry. Then, instead of offering others our best human effort, through us will pour divine provision for their drought and famine.

So here’s a question to ask ourselves as we consider Sunday’s sermon: “What am I offering when I reach out to others? The fruit of my own efforts, maybe words and work given legalistically to prove my worth to God and others? Or is the Holy Spirit pouring through me, is the will of the Father simply taking on hands and feet as I reach out to others, nurturing them with the elements God has already given me?

It’s so easy to get off-balance, to give all our time and energy into our public ministries… but it starts within. If we stay open to the Source, and allow the Spirit to pour through us, and feed on the will of the Father, we may not get the dramatics that took place on Mt. Carmel. But we will surely will see the forces of evil (discouragement, doubt, despair) defeated in the lives of those we minister to, and we will hear from lips that used to worship the idols of sin and self, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!”

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Deliverance


“Deliverance.. sometimes it’s instantaneous; sometimes it’s gradual,” we heard Sunday.

Why, I wonder? Why isn’t it always instantaneous? Is it lack of faith, is it because of disobedience, is it because we didn’t pray hard enough and long enough? Why is deliverance from a besetting sin or inner stronghold frequently so long in coming? Why does it take so long to unravel the tangles in relationships and find the solutions for head-scratching dilemmas? Maybe it’s because…

 God wants us to see, through repeated failures, that there is no other Source of deliverance. We never would have pulled it off!
 God wants to build a firm foundation of faith in Him as we walk through this problem together.
 He wants to us to experience a new depth of fellowship with Him as we pour out our hearts to Him over and over for this need.
 God wants to change what we’re asking for and why we’re asking for it, so that we truly seek His will instead of our own.
 He wants to develop our patient perseverance. There is a spiritual fitness gained over the long haul that cannot come to us in the momentary miracle.
 He wants us to realize He is not a gratification machine; He is God, a Person with His own feelings and will and His own plan. Sometimes that plan is so far beyond our comprehension that He just asks us to trust the mystery.
 He wants us to involve each other in praying for our need… thus binding the body of Christ more closely together.
 He wants to involve others of His children in providing the answer as they use their gifts for edifying the church – Christian counselors, caregivers, those with the gift of helps in its various forms, etc.

Lots of reasons why deliverance from any bondage or trial can take time. It’s true not only in our personal lives, but in the life of our church. What good can come of an extended, careful search for our new pastor?

 It’s God’s safeguard against murmuring and second-guessing down the road
 It’s a time to remember that Jesus is the real Shepherd of the church, and the One we are following.
 It can bind us together more closely as we seek His will together.
 It calls us as a church to carefully consider our fears and our goals and our priorities.
 It calls us to step up to the plate and fill new roles.
 It gives God opportunity to conform us to the mystery of His will, His good and perfect will.

Deliverance is sometimes immediate; more often it’s a season. We’re in a season of deliverance right now at FAC. There’s a reason for this season - probably a lot of reasons, in fact. Let’s not miss one of them.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

The Way, the Truth, the Life


Relativism. Absolutes. Whew! Those are heady philosophical terms that few of us spend much time pondering out-of-sanctuary. We’re content to leave such contemplations to those who study within book-lined walls or in classrooms far removed from the assembly-line worker, the waitress, the quality-control engineer, the harried mom with three preschoolers.

And that’s okay. We don’t need to crack a philosophy book or sit in on a university lecture to get a handle on Truth. There’s really nothing high-brow or exclusive or hard-to-grasp about Life. Nothing it takes an egghead to understand about the Way to God (in fact, they often struggle harder).

Because the Truth, as we heard Sunday, is a Person who sat thirsty and hungry beside a well, and invited a Samaritan woman to end her long search for meaning. The Life looked up at a little man perched in the branches of a sycamore tree, and invited Himself home for dinner – and that day salvation came to that house. The Way stood in the shadows with a seeking Pharisee, and invited him into the process of new birth. The Way, the Truth and the Life is a Person – Jesus Christ. Have Him, and you have assurance of what is real and right, where you’re going, and how to get there.

Pastor Phillips mentioned Sunday “the wear and tear of relativism.” Aptly put. How easy it is for Christ-followers to slip into the mindset of the world, to compromise, to rationalize Truth. We hate to appear intolerable and we worry about coming off harsh and turning people away. Besides, we aren’t smart enough to refute our neighbor’s arguments. Where is the chapter and verse to support our stand? What respected authority can we quote to convince the skeptics?

Not to worry. Our heritage as Christian & Missionary Alliance people is “Jesus Only” - the watchword of founder A. B. Simpson’s life. Still today, as the choir sang Sunday, “We preach Christ.” Not merely conservative ideals or a particular brand of theology or denominationalism, but Jesus. A Person, not a theory. Flesh-and-blood, not words on a page or rules in a book. A relationship with Him, not intellectual enlightenment.

Do the same in your life this week. Preach Christ. Jesus only. Jesus, the Way, the Truth, the Life. Walk the Way He leads; live the Truth He teaches; enjoy the Life He gives. It will be, for you, a simple and freeing thing. And it may be, for someone you meet, a woman-at-the-well experience.