prophets

All of it

/ EllieJ / Leave a comment

Read: Genesis 42-43, Matthew 13:33-58

When asked if she was aware that Jesus loves her, my four-year-old niece matter-of-factly responded, “Yes, I know that,” as though it were a silly question that didn’t even need to be asked in the first place.

The love of God toward His children—us—is something we should be reminded of every day. But there are many other things from the Word of God that we, like my niece, scoff at. Of course we know that. Do we really have to go over it again?

Matthew 13:52

We often make the mistake of throwing out the old in favour of the new. We do it with almost everything we have. When something is of no use to us, it gets tossed rather than repaired or renewed. Many Christians have done the same with what we may view as old ideas. We accept Jesus’ teaching, but nothing else. Yet, Jesus himself told his disciples that the old is just as important as the new. Maybe even more so since the old is the foundation on which the new has been built.

An argument may be made that Jesus came to free us from the law. He did. He came to free us from the bondage of it. There was no way that any human being could fulfill every letter of the law. Another way had to be made to access God.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Matthew 5:17 (NIV)

If we view the Old Testament—the Law and the Prophets—as obsolete, how then can we fully understand Jesus who is the fulfillment of it?

Matthew Henry said that, old experiences and new observations all have their use. Our place is at Christ’s feet, and we must daily learn old lessons over again, and new ones also.

I have never met a person who reads through their Bible over and over again and says that they discovered nothing new. If God’s mercies are new every morning, surely there is revelation to follow. And we should seek it with all that we are. God wants to reveal Himself to us through His Word—all of it.

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask of God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

James 1:5 (NIV)

Carefully protect

/ EllieJ / Leave a comment

I can’t say for sure whether what follows is what Paul meant when he was talking about all the parts of the body of Christ, but as I was reading 1 Corinthians 12, this is what came to mind.

And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect from the eyes of others those parts that should not be seen, while other parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together in such a way that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity.

1 Corinthians 12:23-24 (NLT)

Here’s how I came to see it: the outward parts of the body, the parts that are seen, are the five-fold ministers. The prophets, preachers, teacher, apostles, and evangelists. They are the most visible part of the church and, as such, actually protect the rest of the church from a lot of potential harm. Since they are the visible ones, they will take the brunt of an attack against the body.

Many people strive to be an outward part of the body. They want to be up front and centre, but they aren’t always prepared or even called to deal with the fallout of being the face of ministry. There are some that are called to be essentially faceless and nameless.

To be a nameless, faceless part of the body is not a slight against anyone. It is, if you look at it, a place of honour. There are those that God has put in front of you who will protect you. So long as you have no face and no name, you are more likely to have no enemy. And, any truthful minister will tell you, they can’t do their jobs without the nameless people working tirelessly behind them. The Church as a whole would not survive if it were made up entirely of public speakers.

Today I worked at the church and cleaned eleven toilets and five urinals. Tomorrow, I will step up onto the stage and lead worship. Today’s work, though far less glamorous, is no less important than tomorrow’s so long as they are both done unto the Lord with the purpose of strengthening the body of Christ.

Now all of you together are Christ’s body, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it. Here is a list of some of the members that God has places in the body of Christ:

first are apostles,
second are prophets,
third are teachers,
then those who do miracles,
those who have the gift of healing,
those who can help others,
those who can get others to work together,
those who speak in unknown languages.

1 Corinthians 12:27-28 (NLT)

Paul goes on to say that you should desire the most helpful gifts. Sometimes the greatest and most honoured gifts in the body of Christ have nothing to do with standing on a stage. They are the ones done silently in the background under the careful protection of our leaders.

Our greatest position as believers in the body: helpers.

Daily Bible reading: Proverbs 1-2, 1 Corinthians 12

 

 

Truth

/ EllieJ / Leave a comment

People are generally willing to give advice. Good advice. Bad advice. It doesn’t matter. We all want to get our two cents in whenever we can.

As much as we are willing to give advice, we also take it. But who do we take it from? I’ve known those who will keep asking for advice until someone tells them what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear. For the sake of affirmation of their own opinion, they cast away the good advice that would have, eventually, proven to be more beneficial.

And the king said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imla, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.”

1 Kings 22:8 (ESV)

As it turns out Micaiah, for all his gloom and doom toward King Ahab, was the right one. All four hundred of the other prophets brought to speak over the situation had been filled with a lying spirit speaking what the king wanted to hear rather than what he needed to hear.

Micaiah was strong enough to speak truth even though he knew it wasn’t what the king wanted to hear. In the end, the king followed the advice of the lying spirits and lost his life as was previously prophesied. Micaiah could walk away with a clear conscience having offered the true word of the Lord.

When you offer advice, do you offer truth? In love, of course. When truth is offered in the spirit of love, it is easier to receive.

When you accept advice, do you accept truth? Sometimes the truth isn’t easy to take. A lot of times truth isn’t easy to take.

What would you rather have: pretty words and death or truth and life?

Daily Bible reading: 1 Kings 21-22; John 3:1-21

Moses and the Prophets

/ EllieJ / Leave a comment

If you’ve paid any attention to the news at all lately, it would seem that the world is going to hell in a hand basket in a hurry. Morals a quickly fading. Beliefs are fragile at best. Direction is lacking and all sense of responsibility has gone out the window.

How are we, the Church, supposed to make these people believe again?

The simple answer, we’re not.

In the book of Luke, Jesus tells the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. Lazarus is a beggar and the rich man is a man of great indulgence. The rich man paid no attention to Lazarus. Both men die and Lazarus is taken up to Abraham’s side while the rich man goes down to the fiery depths. The rich man soon learns that there is no help for him, so he asks for help for his five brothers. Surely, if someone came back from the dead, they would believe.

He [Jesus] said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should arise from the dead.”

Luke 16:31 (ESV)

Just as a man in Heaven cannot help a man in Hell, there is nothing you or I can do to force a person to believe. We can and should share the Gospel in a way that is comprehensible by all, but the believing part is out of our hands. It is up to the Holy Spirit to take the seeds we spread and help it to grow.

Once a seed is in the ground there is little one can do aside from watering to help it along. If the ground is good, the seed will take root and grow, but if the ground is bad and does not receive the seed, there is precious little we can do to make a difference.

Daily Bible reading: 1 Samuel 25-26; Luke 16:19-31