“Then he stayed two whole years in his own rented house. And he welcomed all who visited him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with full boldness and without hindrance.” (Acts 28:30-31)
Interesting arrangement. Paul was a “guest of the state” in Rome (a prisoner), but he rented his own house there. He paid rent for 2-years. Essentially this was house arrest. Anyone who wanted to could come and go, but he had to stay put. That seems to have been his only real limitation.
With regard to kingdom work, Paul freely proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ “with full boldness and without hindrance,” says Luke. There were no attempts to muzzle him. Paul says in one of his letters that the entire “Praetorian guard,” that is, the troops assigned directly to Caesar heard the gospel during his stay. Undoubtedly, many came to faith in Jesus during those two years.
Since Luke says that Paul “stayed” two full years there, the past tense of the verb suggests at least the possibility that Paul was released after that and continued his itinerant mission work. Other allusions in the New Testament in the Pastoral Epistles seem to clearly indicate that Paul in fact had a 4th missionary journey, before being re-arrested and taken to Rome where he was then, according to tradition, beheaded.
The point of these verses Luke wrote is that the gospel of Jesus Christ will find a way to be proclaimed. The Holy Spirit intends for the gospel to be preached, and when we follow His lead He will show us the open doors. We must then have the courage to go through the door and share the gospel freely.
In your personal situation, you may feel that there are encumbrances around you that prevent you from sharing the Jesus story with others. Those hindrances may well be there, but what we need to remember is that they are not there for the Holy Spirit. So what we need to do is to ask Him to show us ways within our context for how we can share the gospel with others. We then trust Him to show us the way.
Lord, Show us today some ways we can share the gospel. Amen.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Too Old for Change?
“God said, ‘I am God, the God of your father: Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you back. Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.’” (Genesis 46:3-4)
Joseph finally revealed himself to his brothers. Terror streaked up their spines when he did. Throats got dry. Nobody could talk. Eventually, Joseph was able to convince them that he wasn’t going to annihilate them, and arrangements were made to bring their father, Jacob, and all the family and possessions to Egypt.
When Jacob got the word that Joseph was alive came through a time of being stunned, the reality revived his spirit, and he was excited for the first time in a long time. He wanted to go see his son before he died.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, however, Jacob knew that where he was in Canaan was the land God had promised to him and his descendants. He had to have wondered where Egypt fit into all this. He may have had some misgivings about going to Egypt, but still he boarded one of the wagons Pharoah had sent for him and his family.
The entourage spent the night at Beersheba, and Jacob gave a sacrifice to the Lord. That very night the Lord spoke to him in a vision and gave Jacob reassurance that he was doing the right thing, and that He would bring Jacob back to Canaan in the future.
By this time Jacob was very elderly, so this move represented another sudden change in direction and lifestyle for him and his entire family. He may have thought that he had made his last move in life when he returned to Canaan. But when someone is committed to the will of God and is willing to follow the Lord whenever, wherever, the need to be prepared to change is always there. Part of the challenge of discipleship is being prepared to change.
What sort of “changes” might God be asking you to make for the sake of His kingdom?
Lord, May we never become so inflexible as to be unusable in the work of Your kingdom. Amen.
Joseph finally revealed himself to his brothers. Terror streaked up their spines when he did. Throats got dry. Nobody could talk. Eventually, Joseph was able to convince them that he wasn’t going to annihilate them, and arrangements were made to bring their father, Jacob, and all the family and possessions to Egypt.
When Jacob got the word that Joseph was alive came through a time of being stunned, the reality revived his spirit, and he was excited for the first time in a long time. He wanted to go see his son before he died.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, however, Jacob knew that where he was in Canaan was the land God had promised to him and his descendants. He had to have wondered where Egypt fit into all this. He may have had some misgivings about going to Egypt, but still he boarded one of the wagons Pharoah had sent for him and his family.
The entourage spent the night at Beersheba, and Jacob gave a sacrifice to the Lord. That very night the Lord spoke to him in a vision and gave Jacob reassurance that he was doing the right thing, and that He would bring Jacob back to Canaan in the future.
By this time Jacob was very elderly, so this move represented another sudden change in direction and lifestyle for him and his entire family. He may have thought that he had made his last move in life when he returned to Canaan. But when someone is committed to the will of God and is willing to follow the Lord whenever, wherever, the need to be prepared to change is always there. Part of the challenge of discipleship is being prepared to change.
What sort of “changes” might God be asking you to make for the sake of His kingdom?
Lord, May we never become so inflexible as to be unusable in the work of Your kingdom. Amen.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Trust
“My heart and flesh cry out for the living God. … Lord of Hosts, happy is the person who trusts in You!” (Psalm 84:2b, 12)
Trust is a decision founded on positive relationships, and positive relationships develop through experience over time. The psalmist said he longed and yearned for the courts of the Lord, and he remarked how even a sparrow finds a place to build her nest in the house of God. The sparrow knows something: the house of the Lord is a place of peace and safety where praise rises. Someone who resides or abides in the house of the Lord is someone who is happy, says the psalmist. He speaking of the temple, but what if your house actually became the Lord’s house? If you decided to give your house to the Lord and then resided there with Him, would that be a blessing for you and your family? That would be only a decision away.
Those who trust the Lord find their strength in Him. They avoid the temptation to build only on self-reliance and discover instead that trusting God actually strengthens them, even though it may appear to be weakness to those who don’t know Him. Our world says, “Pull yourself up in your own strength,” but believers say, “Only the strength of the Lord is true strength, and that’s where I put my trust.”
Trusting in God is a truly satisfying experience and place to be.
Lord, May we walk through this day and every day trusting You and knowing the peace and fulfillment that comes from that. Amen.
Trust is a decision founded on positive relationships, and positive relationships develop through experience over time. The psalmist said he longed and yearned for the courts of the Lord, and he remarked how even a sparrow finds a place to build her nest in the house of God. The sparrow knows something: the house of the Lord is a place of peace and safety where praise rises. Someone who resides or abides in the house of the Lord is someone who is happy, says the psalmist. He speaking of the temple, but what if your house actually became the Lord’s house? If you decided to give your house to the Lord and then resided there with Him, would that be a blessing for you and your family? That would be only a decision away.
Those who trust the Lord find their strength in Him. They avoid the temptation to build only on self-reliance and discover instead that trusting God actually strengthens them, even though it may appear to be weakness to those who don’t know Him. Our world says, “Pull yourself up in your own strength,” but believers say, “Only the strength of the Lord is true strength, and that’s where I put my trust.”
Trusting in God is a truly satisfying experience and place to be.
Lord, May we walk through this day and every day trusting You and knowing the peace and fulfillment that comes from that. Amen.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Time to Think
“So 10 of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.” (Genesis 42:3)
Famine devastated Canaan as much as it did all the other regions around it. Year by year it intensified. Jacob heard there was food in Egypt, so he gathered his sons and told them to go to Egypt to buy food. He sent 10 of them, all but Benjamin, for fear something might happen to him, since he was the youngest and only remaining son of his wife Rachel.
The journey to Egypt was about 150 miles. Each brother likely led two donkeys each to help transport grain back to Canaan. So likely they made 15 miles a day. This means it took them about 10 days to get there.
Ten days of walking all day long gave them a lot of time to think. Can you imagine what some of their thoughts were about? We aren’t told specifically, but what would you think about? They were going to Egypt. Years earlier they sold their brother Joseph to Ishmaelite traders who intended to sell him in Egypt as a slave. Joseph was basically “dead” to them, for all they knew, but they had to have known that he could still be alive as a slave in Egypt. Surely they wondered. For at least some of them there may have been some remorse for what they did.
These 10 men had no idea what was coming.
The dream they had hated was about to come true. A young, brash Joseph had told them of his dream that his sheaf of grain stood upright, and all their sheaves bowed down to his. When they stood before Joseph, they did not know it was Joseph, and they all bowed down to him. They never saw it coming.
This reality points us to an important truth. These brothers did not know that God was at work redemptively and sovereignly in all this. We may at times see how God is working, but we don’t always. The fact is that God is at work in the background accomplishing His purposes whether we see it or not, whether we know it or not. Our inability to see it or know it does not nullify that truth. Thus, we can be confident that God is at work achieving His purposes, and thus we can trust Him.
Lord, We thank You that You are working to achieve Your purposes, whether we see it or not. Help us to walk before You in trust. Amen.
Famine devastated Canaan as much as it did all the other regions around it. Year by year it intensified. Jacob heard there was food in Egypt, so he gathered his sons and told them to go to Egypt to buy food. He sent 10 of them, all but Benjamin, for fear something might happen to him, since he was the youngest and only remaining son of his wife Rachel.
The journey to Egypt was about 150 miles. Each brother likely led two donkeys each to help transport grain back to Canaan. So likely they made 15 miles a day. This means it took them about 10 days to get there.
Ten days of walking all day long gave them a lot of time to think. Can you imagine what some of their thoughts were about? We aren’t told specifically, but what would you think about? They were going to Egypt. Years earlier they sold their brother Joseph to Ishmaelite traders who intended to sell him in Egypt as a slave. Joseph was basically “dead” to them, for all they knew, but they had to have known that he could still be alive as a slave in Egypt. Surely they wondered. For at least some of them there may have been some remorse for what they did.
These 10 men had no idea what was coming.
The dream they had hated was about to come true. A young, brash Joseph had told them of his dream that his sheaf of grain stood upright, and all their sheaves bowed down to his. When they stood before Joseph, they did not know it was Joseph, and they all bowed down to him. They never saw it coming.
This reality points us to an important truth. These brothers did not know that God was at work redemptively and sovereignly in all this. We may at times see how God is working, but we don’t always. The fact is that God is at work in the background accomplishing His purposes whether we see it or not, whether we know it or not. Our inability to see it or know it does not nullify that truth. Thus, we can be confident that God is at work achieving His purposes, and thus we can trust Him.
Lord, We thank You that You are working to achieve Your purposes, whether we see it or not. Help us to walk before You in trust. Amen.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Worship
“Jesus told her, ‘Believe Me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. … God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’” (John 4:21, 24)
The woman at the well wanted to argue with Jesus about worship. She was a Samaritan, who believed God was to be worshiped on the mountain of Samaria. She recognized that the Jews believed God was to be worshiped on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Jesus avoided the argument and went straight to the truth: the place of worship is not as relevant as the fact that worship takes place. The manner of worship – in spirit and truth – trumps the matter of where God is worshiped. That means worship can take place anywhere, anytime.
Worshiping the God who created us is the single most fulfilling experience any human being can have. It is an event that makes us feel complete. When real worship takes place, when we genuinely connect with the God who loves us and created us, something wonderful happens within us that defies description. We can only describe it as feeling full. Worship is the most fundamental human experience of all.
Sometimes folks come to a “worship service” and just go through the motions, hoping something significant will happen. Just going through the motions of worship, however, is nowhere near what we need. We need to enter fully into worship. So, how do we do that?
We prepare through the week, of course, just as the Israelites prepared to worship God at Mount Sinai. As we come to worship, though, we begin by first giving our hearts and our minds totally to God. This is an act of worship. Then, we humble ourselves before God and submit our hearts to Him and ask the Holy Spirit to lead us into this “spirit” of worship. This is a spiritual event, accomplished by the Holy Spirit. We then keep our hearts and minds focused on listening for what God wants to say to us.
Lord, Help us today and each day to experience this kind of genuine worship, for that is the greatest need of our hearts. May You be glorified in that. Amen.
The woman at the well wanted to argue with Jesus about worship. She was a Samaritan, who believed God was to be worshiped on the mountain of Samaria. She recognized that the Jews believed God was to be worshiped on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Jesus avoided the argument and went straight to the truth: the place of worship is not as relevant as the fact that worship takes place. The manner of worship – in spirit and truth – trumps the matter of where God is worshiped. That means worship can take place anywhere, anytime.
Worshiping the God who created us is the single most fulfilling experience any human being can have. It is an event that makes us feel complete. When real worship takes place, when we genuinely connect with the God who loves us and created us, something wonderful happens within us that defies description. We can only describe it as feeling full. Worship is the most fundamental human experience of all.
Sometimes folks come to a “worship service” and just go through the motions, hoping something significant will happen. Just going through the motions of worship, however, is nowhere near what we need. We need to enter fully into worship. So, how do we do that?
We prepare through the week, of course, just as the Israelites prepared to worship God at Mount Sinai. As we come to worship, though, we begin by first giving our hearts and our minds totally to God. This is an act of worship. Then, we humble ourselves before God and submit our hearts to Him and ask the Holy Spirit to lead us into this “spirit” of worship. This is a spiritual event, accomplished by the Holy Spirit. We then keep our hearts and minds focused on listening for what God wants to say to us.
Lord, Help us today and each day to experience this kind of genuine worship, for that is the greatest need of our hearts. May You be glorified in that. Amen.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Ministry Mantra
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)
The Scripture quote above from John the Baptist could almost serve as a kind of “ministry mantra,” a slogan. John was very much in touch with his ministry. He had no identity issues and no authority issues. He was a prophet sent from God to carry out a mission to herald the arrival of the Messiah. His message was a simple, powerful call to repentance in preparation for the Messiah, and a demonstration of that repentance and commitment by baptism.
By its very nature, John’s ministry was temporary. When Jesus arrived, the decline of John’s ministry would be natural. John knew this and eloquently expressed it: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
In a sense, this is the way it is for all ministry of any kind. The task of all Christian ministry is to point people to Jesus. The only justification for making much of our ministries, as Paul put it, is so that we can point people to Jesus and thus glorify Him. Jesus taught His disciples that if He were to be lifted up, He would draw people to Himself.
Ministry must focus on exalting Christ. That is the work of the Holy Spirit, and both within and through us, that is what the Spirit wants to achieve. Thus we must decrease so that He may increase.
Lord, Help us today to make much of the ministries You have given us, to the end that we will exalt and glorify You. Amen.
The Scripture quote above from John the Baptist could almost serve as a kind of “ministry mantra,” a slogan. John was very much in touch with his ministry. He had no identity issues and no authority issues. He was a prophet sent from God to carry out a mission to herald the arrival of the Messiah. His message was a simple, powerful call to repentance in preparation for the Messiah, and a demonstration of that repentance and commitment by baptism.
By its very nature, John’s ministry was temporary. When Jesus arrived, the decline of John’s ministry would be natural. John knew this and eloquently expressed it: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
In a sense, this is the way it is for all ministry of any kind. The task of all Christian ministry is to point people to Jesus. The only justification for making much of our ministries, as Paul put it, is so that we can point people to Jesus and thus glorify Him. Jesus taught His disciples that if He were to be lifted up, He would draw people to Himself.
Ministry must focus on exalting Christ. That is the work of the Holy Spirit, and both within and through us, that is what the Spirit wants to achieve. Thus we must decrease so that He may increase.
Lord, Help us today to make much of the ministries You have given us, to the end that we will exalt and glorify You. Amen.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Situational Despair
“Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharoah and the captain of the guard.” (Genesis 37:36) “The following night, the Lord stood by him [Paul] and said, ‘Have courage! For as you have testified about Me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.’” (Acts 23:11)
Joseph’s brothers beat him bloody and threw him into a waterless pit in the wilderness of Dothan. Then they sold him into slavery to Midianite traders headed for Egypt. Things got much worse before he exited that dark tunnel.
Paul went to Jerusalem with the best of intentions, only to be mobbed and beaten and then arrested and imprisoned. His freedom was mostly gone, along with the fellowship with other believers in the Jerusalem church. The Lord appeared to Paul. Jesus only does something like that when there is an urgent need. He spoke to Paul of courage, probably because Paul was not feeling much of it at the time. Then He spoke to Paul of what was to come eventually – witness in Rome. In the meantime, Paul had some writing to do.
Joseph and Paul had a kind of “situational despair” in common in these life events recorded in the Bible. This is not the kind of despair that makes people feel like there is no more hope. A situational despair is a sustained “down” feeling produced by a circumstance that seems to be totally incongruous with what we thought was God’s will and direction for us. Joseph had to have felt it. Clearly Paul did. These sorts of situations raise the question “why” or “why me” or “why this,” and they lead to a feeling of “I don’t understand why God is allowing this to happen to me.” This comes because we cannot see our way through the situation to where everything is clear. To put it another way, we are too close to the situation to be able to see beyond it.
If you find yourself facing a situational despair, you need to respond in several ways. First, understand that, even though it may not seem like it, it is temporary. Second, determine that you will endure the situation and trust God for His direction and fulfillment of His purposes. Third, put your trust into action and just keep moving ahead, watching for God to bring His purposes to fruition.
Lord, May we apply patience and trust to those situational despair times, understanding that You will achieve Your purposes in Your timing. Amen.
Joseph’s brothers beat him bloody and threw him into a waterless pit in the wilderness of Dothan. Then they sold him into slavery to Midianite traders headed for Egypt. Things got much worse before he exited that dark tunnel.
Paul went to Jerusalem with the best of intentions, only to be mobbed and beaten and then arrested and imprisoned. His freedom was mostly gone, along with the fellowship with other believers in the Jerusalem church. The Lord appeared to Paul. Jesus only does something like that when there is an urgent need. He spoke to Paul of courage, probably because Paul was not feeling much of it at the time. Then He spoke to Paul of what was to come eventually – witness in Rome. In the meantime, Paul had some writing to do.
Joseph and Paul had a kind of “situational despair” in common in these life events recorded in the Bible. This is not the kind of despair that makes people feel like there is no more hope. A situational despair is a sustained “down” feeling produced by a circumstance that seems to be totally incongruous with what we thought was God’s will and direction for us. Joseph had to have felt it. Clearly Paul did. These sorts of situations raise the question “why” or “why me” or “why this,” and they lead to a feeling of “I don’t understand why God is allowing this to happen to me.” This comes because we cannot see our way through the situation to where everything is clear. To put it another way, we are too close to the situation to be able to see beyond it.
If you find yourself facing a situational despair, you need to respond in several ways. First, understand that, even though it may not seem like it, it is temporary. Second, determine that you will endure the situation and trust God for His direction and fulfillment of His purposes. Third, put your trust into action and just keep moving ahead, watching for God to bring His purposes to fruition.
Lord, May we apply patience and trust to those situational despair times, understanding that You will achieve Your purposes in Your timing. Amen.
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