This Sunday I (David) will preach in the 10:15 service with Bro. Brandon Boswell and the Praise Team leading music. Bro. Max Grizzard will be baptizing. Sunday School is at 9:00.
Due to the Independence Day holiday, we will not have any Wednesday night services on July 5.
While the Bible is a single volume, it is composed of sixty six individual books. And those books can be categorized into different genres: law, history/narrative, poetry, wisdom literature, prophecy, gospels, epistles, and apocalyptic. Don’t let this overwhelm or confuse you! It’s actually a beautiful depiction of God’s creativity and care for his people. Each genre reveals something unique about God in both style and substance. Each genre draws readers to truth and the person of God in a distinct way, and we need them all.
We must also approach each genre differently. We can’t read poetry like history or wisdom literature like epistles. We need to read them in their intended style so we can really see what God is revealing of Himself.
Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and Job comprise the wisdom literature genre. The aim of wisdom literature is to help us grow in biblical wisdom (obviously). What is that? In short, it is living life with godly skill, thinking with the mind of God, and prioritizing or judging with godly priorities. These books deal in the stuff and substance of everyday life, and our goal in reading and studying them is to learn how to faithfully walk with the Lord in all of life.
Here are a few pointers for reading wisdom literature well so you can get the most out of it
This is an excerpt from Ecclesiastes: Finding Meaning in a World of passing Pursuits, a study I wrote for individuals and small groups. It is available through Amazon or Lifeway.com (the better option if you are ordering for groups).
I'm not an expert on the benefits of sleep nor the "deep" sleep patterns creating renewed cell repair at the surface level, releasing toxins from our brain, and how "deep sleep" deposits what you have learned in long-term memory.
I don't understand how that all works. But let me share a few things I know as a believer concerning sleep and rest.
When I sleep, neither my mind nor spirit sleeps or is "turned off." So, a Christian can go to sleep filled with the Holy Spirit and with his mind meditating on the Word of God, and those two dynamic elements can continue to work together through your sleep.
I neither understand visions nor dreams, but I know they are real and possible. God can speak to His children giving them these "night visitations" as He wills. It happened to Joseph (Genesis 40:5), Isaac (Genesis 26:24), twice to Daniel (2:19, 7:2), and three times to Paul (Acts 16:9; 18:9; 23:11). All of this in light of the promise of Pentecost "Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams" (Acts 2: 17).
The point here is not to give you how visions and dreams occur, but rather to declare both the brain and the spirit are fully alert during the night making them totally available for a God "who neither sleeps nor slumbers" to work in His people.
God can only work with what we deposited through the request to be filled with His Spirit and the Scriptures we have read and studied. But when we are faithful, God will work even when we rest. That is the point.
After we wake, we should give our "first" and best to the Lord; but more importantly, approach Him from a position of rest. Dr. Jack Taylor use to say, "God speaks best to me in the early morning when my defenses are down."
I'm not a legalist about only reading, praying and approaching God in the morning. Later in the day may be a better time for detailed and in-depth study, but at least in the morning give God an opportunity to speak through His Word and Spirit to your life. You are most "at rest" in those early hours.
God is our Father who has left us an inheritance at the death of His Son. This inheritance is not given through warfare, but rest. When a will is read and inheritance received, the recipient sits quietly in a resting posture to hear it and receive it. Jesus lived His entire life in a "resting" position. (That means spiritually, not physically because He even got tired and weary in body).
I believe that is why the Scriptures (Mark 1:35) record Jesus rising early to be along with God. As children of God, we receive best when we are not fighting, debating, or disobeying - but simply receiving by faith. And I do remind you "while it was still dark" (John 20:1) the women discovered the empty tomb.
So I wish for you spiritual dreams and sweet moments of rest receiving from our Father's good and blissful hand. Next week, I will conclude this series on "Rest" and how this is what the Gospel is all about.
Also this Sunday, Bro. Max will baptize, and Ed and Leasa Culpepper will dedicate two of their adopted children to the Lord.
Bro. Brandon Boswell and the Praise Team will be leading in music.
Join us in person or online at rfbc.sermon.net.
(Occasionally on these Wednesday blogs designed for the local church, I wish to remind us of the persecuted church. Here is a blog from Gerald Bray laying the foundation for understanding today's persecuted church. You can view the original blog here).
When the emperor Nero blamed Christians for starting the fire that destroyed much of Rome in AD 64, persecution became official policy for the first time. Though it remained sporadic, many early Christians never knew when they might be forced to pay the ultimate price for their faith.
Pictures of such Christians facing lions in the Colosseum or being burnt at the stake are familiar to many of us. Those who lost their lives in this way are venerated as martyrs, a term that originally meant witnesses but that is now reserved for those who died for their beliefs. To be sure, some of the stories told about the early martyrs have been exaggerated. (We need not believe the legend of Dionysius, for example, which says he was put to death in Paris about but managed to walk ten miles or so with his severed head!)
Nevertheless, there were certainly many people who went to their deaths because they refused to renounce their devotion to Christ. Why was this? The church father Tertullian (c. 155–c. 220) offers a fascinating window into early Christian martyrdom — and how God used it to build his church.
The idea that someone might be put to death for his or her beliefs was not entirely unknown in the ancient world, but such deaths were uncommon and generally disapproved of. The classic case is that of Socrates, the Athenian philosopher who was executed in 399 BC by his fellow citizens because they thought he was an atheist who was leading young people astray. The scandal caused by that injustice was so great that nothing like it ever happened again in Athens.
Though some have compared Jesus to Socrates, the early Christians saw him differently. They knew Jesus had suffered because Jewish leaders had accused him of blasphemy, and the Roman authorities in Palestine were too cowardly to resist their calls for the death sentence. Jesus was no mere philosopher. He didn’t die as a victim in the cause of free speech. His death was a sacrifice that God had foreordained as the fulfillment of his promise to the Jews that he would save them from their sins. The men who condemned him were certainly guilty of shedding innocent blood, but they were also unwitting agents of a divine plan that they did not understand (Acts 4:24–28).
Jesus died to pay the price for our sins, but he did not stay in the grave. Three days later, he rose again from the dead — and forty days after that, he ascended into heaven. He was a victim of human injustice, but subsequent events revealed him as the Savior of the world, and it was that salvation that his disciples proclaimed.
The disciples of Jesus were unpopular, particularly with the Jewish establishment, which thought they were destroying Judaism by claiming that Old Testament sacrifices were no longer valid. Many of the earliest Christians were arrested and subjected to severe beatings. Some even lost their lives at the hands of their Jewish persecutors (Acts 7:58–60; 12:1–2), though these occurrences were rare. And then, after fire consumed Rome, persecution became a matter of imperial policy.
Curiously, neither the Christians nor their persecutors could explain what the crimes were. Christians were typically model subjects of the Roman Empire and did nothing to offend anyone beyond refusing to worship the pagan gods. The Romans disapproved of that, of course, but Jews did not worship the gods either, nor did many of the philosophers who regarded all religion as superstition, and nobody tried to put them to death.
Educated Christians did not hesitate to write defenses of their faith in which they pointed out how wrong it was for pagans to persecute them. Among them was Tertullian, a North African convert to Christianity. Tertullian, who seems to have escaped execution, wrote a number of books in which he expounded his faith to unbelievers and encouraged martyrs to stand firm as witnesses to Christ, even regarding their martyrdom as proof that what they believed was true.
Tertullian was the first Christian to write specifically about martyrdom and persecution, though there is no sign that he suffered either himself. He wrote a couple of short books to other Christians who were facing martyrdom themselves or who were tempted to run away from persecution and save their lives. In To the Martyrs and On Flight in Persecution, he told them to stand firm and sacrifice themselves for the spiritual truth that they cherished more than life itself. As he put it, Jesus had died for them, so it was a privilege to be able to die for him. It was also a sign to unbelievers that Christians meant business. Just as Jesus came back from the dead, so too they would rise again to a higher life with him in heaven.
Tertullian’s most important treatment of the subject, however, was in his Apology, a lengthy argument addressed to the pagans who were putting Christians to death. Many pagans were blaming Christians for causing earthquakes and floods, an absurd charge that was easy to refute. Natural disasters had been occurring long before the coming of Christ, so how could his followers be responsible for them? On the contrary, Christians prayed for the welfare of all people, and when disasters occurred, it was they who helped the victims, not the pagans.
Moreover, people who saw Christians going to their deaths, often praying and singing as they went, were moved by their courage and tempted to examine their beliefs more carefully, which was the exact opposite of what the persecutors wanted. In fact, it was often the martyrs’ witness that persuaded others to believe in Christ. The world was against them, but Christians had nothing to fear, and they demonstrated their faith by being willing to die for it.
Tertullian was grieved by the injustice inflicted on his fellow believers, but he was able to see beyond the horrors of persecution to the purposes of God that lay behind it. As he explained to his pagan contemporaries, the more they persecuted Christians, the more their blood bore witness to the truth of their faith. As modern writers have paraphrased his words, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.”
Many people who saw what was happening were not indifferent to the wrongdoing they witnessed. The martyrs who went to their deaths willingly, often joyfully singing hymns, were sending a more powerful message to bystanders than even the Christian preachers they may have heard. That believers acted this way led many to think there must be something to this faith. Imperceptibly and incrementally, the church began to grow. One by one, people who were hostile or indifferent began to ask questions and, as they got answers, became convinced of the truth of what they were seeing and being told.
Tertullian did not hesitate to remind his readers of the legendary heroes of early Rome, who had stood up against the city’s enemies and rescued it from destruction. Centuries later, their devotion had produced a worldwide empire. The church, he was convinced, would one day achieve such a worldwide scope. Though he did not live to see it, he was not wrong. Suffering and martyrdom were not sought by Christians, but God used such persecution to build his church. The witness of the martyrs bore fruit that they did not live to see.
As Christians today, we naturally do not want to suffer for our faith any more than they did, but we can see from their example that our sufferings have a purpose in the mind of God that will be revealed in his good time, to the honor and glory of his holy name. Like the martyrs of old, we walk by faith, knowing that death in this world is but the gateway to eternal life in the world to come.
Many gurus have written about time. They have spent countless hours on how precious and fleeting time really is in a person's life. Growing up, I remember The Steve Miller Band and their song, Fly Like an Eagle. The memorable line was “time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’, into the future.” The older I get. I do believe it seems as time speeds up to supersonic speed. It does not slow down.
Read the following quotes by leaders of our time:
“Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time."
Jim Rohn"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot."
Michael Altshuler"Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time,' is like saying, 'I don't want to.'"
Lao Tzu"Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going."
Sam Levenson"The future is promised to no one. So, seize the day, embrace the present moment, and make the most of the time you have."
Unknown"The greatest gift you can give someone is your time because when you give your time, you are giving a portion of your life that you will never get back."
John Maxwell
In contrast, read the following by the early church fathers:
"Do not allow the days to pass by in vain and unprofitable pursuits, but let every hour be dedicated to good and virtuous actions. For time, if used wisely, can bring us closer to God and lead us to salvation."
St. John Chrysostom (349-407 AD)"Let us be vigilant and wise in our use of time, for the days are fleeting and the opportunities for growth and righteousness are limited. May we discern God's will and live according to His purposes, redeeming every moment for His glory."
St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD)"Understand that the time we are given is a precious gift from God. It is our responsibility to use it wisely, seeking His guidance and following His will. Let us not waste the opportunities He presents to us but rather make the best use of every moment."
Origen of Alexandria (184-253 AD)"Walk in the light of Christ, and let His wisdom guide your steps. Do not be deceived by the distractions of this world, but rather understand the will of the Lord and devote yourself to fulfilling it. Redeem the time, for it is a precious gift entrusted to us."
St. Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD)"As followers of Christ, we are called to be wise and discerning in our use of time. Let us not be careless or foolish, but rather understand the importance of every moment. May we dedicate ourselves to seeking God's will and making the most of the opportunities He grants us."
St. Jerome (347-420 AD)
In our fast-paced world, time is a precious commodity that often slips through our fingers. Both Christians and non-Christians alike grapple with the challenge of making the most of their days. In Ephesians 5:15-17, the Apostle Paul offers invaluable guidance on the significance of time and how followers of Jesus should live in light of its fleeting nature.
Time is a gift from God, a limited resource that should not be squandered. As Paul exhorts in Ephesians 5:15, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise." This command emphasizes the need for believers to value their time and conduct their lives with wisdom. By recognizing the importance of time, we can live our lives in light of its value, or its gift, to us. The Apostle Paul encourages us to be a discerning people regarding how we live. If we live with discernment, it helps us become more aware of potential pitfalls and temptations that would hinder us in our journey with Christ.
Paul continues in Ephesians 5:16, "Making the best use of the time because the days are evil." Here, the Greek word for "time," kairos, highlights the significance of seizing opportune moments. As followers of Jesus, we are called to be intentional in how we use our time, making the most of the opportunities God presents to us. Each day carries the potential for divine encounters, acts of love, and Kingdom impact.
In verse 17, Paul urges believers, "Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." The pursuit of godly wisdom allows us to discern and understand God's will for our lives. By aligning our choices with his purposes, we can avoid the trap of foolishness that often leads to wasted time and missed opportunities.
Living in a time-valued manner requires intentional effort. Here are some practical steps for followers of Jesus to embrace a time-redeeming lifestyle:
Seek God's guidance by regularly spending time in prayer and seek God's direction for how to prioritize your days. Invite the Holy Spirit to lead you in making decisions that align with His will.
Set kingdom-centered priorities by evaluating your commitments and activities in light of God's kingdom. Prioritize actions that reflect his love, justice, and compassion. Invest time in building relationships, serving others, and pursuing spiritual growth.
Practice being present by building margin in your schedule and establishing boundaries. How about this? Put your phone down, silence the notifications on your watch (or even take it off), and have an enriching conversation face-to-face with another human being. Be intentional about eliminating those things in your life that distract and hinder your spiritual growth.
Embrace Sabbath rest by incorporating regular times of rest and reflection in your routine. Observing a day of Sabbath provides an opportunity to recharge, refocus, and realign your priorities with God's purposes. Remind yourself that Jesus went away to a deserted place to be with his Father. We should do as he did.
Develop margin by remaining open to divine interruptions and unexpected opportunities to serve and bless others. Allow God to redirect your plans, trusting that his timing is perfect.
Living as faithful stewards of time not only benefits our personal lives, but also serves as a powerful witness to those around us. Embrace the commands and encouragement outlined in Ephesians 5:15-17. May we demonstrate to the world the transformative impact of following Jesus.
As followers of Jesus, we read time after time how he was interrupted, tired, and pulled into so many different directions. Whether it was a blind beggar beside the road, or a woman at the well, he made the most of his time being present in their lives to give them what mattered most. Jesus modeled for us kingdom living, kingdom presence, kingdom priorities, kingdom values and gave himself for us to let us know how we should value our time.
Time does keep on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future.
How are you making the most of the gift of time in your life?
Let us live in light of St. Cyril of Alexandria, "Walk in the light of Christ, and let His wisdom guide your steps. Do not be deceived by the distractions of this world, but rather understand the will of the Lord and devote yourself to fulfilling it. Redeem the time, for it is a precious gift entrusted to us."
But even a commanded "rest" does not deliver the results because of our minds. What we are thinking about. The only way to stop a thought is to replace it with another.
In Scripture, there is a "Selah" - a command to rest and think.
In the Old Testament, this word used to do just that - rest and think. Selah is a Hebrew word used 74 times in the Old Testament with 71 of those times in the book of Psalms. The other three are in Habakkuk chapter 3. Scholars can't agree whether it comes from a word meaning "to lift up" or "to be silent." If the first, then it might be a signal for louder voices or the lifting and blowing the trumpets, perhaps even the lifting of hands to the Lord. If the second, it could signal a pause, a moment of silence, rest, pause, and meditation. Either way, we know it is a technical term used in a musical score. Thus, it is used primarily in the hymn book of the Bible.
A renowned Bible teacher once preaching from Psalm 24 came to the end of his message and the text and said, "Selah" implying - think about it. I like that. Selah is a time to pause, stop, rest, and think about it.
We need desperately in our Christian life to nourish our souls with Selah. We may daily read the Scriptures, faithfully listen to the Sunday sermon, and even read other inspiring writings to put solid food into our life. But do we stop, rest, and pause to think about it?
I would suggest this word carries closely the idea of meditation. In our culture, meditation has taken on the Hindu concept of yoga. But there is a Biblical connection to meditation causing us to ask "What are you thinking about?"
With yoga, where there is no belief in God, they seek for you to find self-realization. But that well is shallow and often poisoned. As believers, we have the truth about God and ourselves found in the Word of God. That should be our source of meditation.
Psalm 1:2 "His delight in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night."
Psalm 4:4 "...meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah"
I Timothy 4:15 "Mediate on these things, give yourself entirely to them..."
What things? The Scriptures. Doctrine. The Word of God. Now that is a deep, pure, well of water that continually springs up into everlasting life. And it is a well that will never run dry. When we read the Scriptures or hear that sermon, Selah, take a rest and think about it. What is God saying to you? What in your life do you need to change due to what you have read/heard? What aspect of God's character or the glorious finished work of Jesus do you need to dig deeper and come up shouting, "Hallelujah! What a Savior!"
So, Selah could mean both..raising of our voices and a pause. When we "let the word of Christ dwell in us richly," by meditating on His Word, His glory, and His work, then it will create a raised voice of praise.
One of my all-time favorite quotes reveals the link between revealed truth and praise: "Truth without emotion produces death orthodoxy and a church full of artificial admirers (like people who write generic anniversary cards for a living). On the other hand, emotion without truth produces an empty frenzy and cultivates shallow people who refuse the discipline of rigorous thought. But true worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine. Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of Biblical worship." - John Piper.
Selah
We will examine that connection as we preach from Luke 14: 34-35 "The Choice Between Two Paths."
Also this Sunday we will pray over our Boston Mission Team as they prepare to leave on Saturday, June 24 to work in New England. There are a total of 61 people going.
Speakers include
*Judge Shaunathan Bell, Circuit Judge for Cherokee and DeKalb Counties
*Amber McPherson, Interim Director of the Child Advocacy Center
* Beth Knicely, Therapy Counselor, Child Advocacy Center
* Josh York, Investigator, Fort Payne Police Department
* Denise Rains, Director, Department of Human Resources of DeKalb County
After the panel speaks, there will be a Q & A session.
Your brain is different than it was 10 years ago. If you’ve spent much time online, especially on your phone, this has affected how you think, feel, and act in ways you probably don’t recognize.
I started noticing it a few years ago. I’ve always been a very avid reader, but in recent years I’ve been reading a lot less. For a couple years my book reading was in single digits. And even then I wasn’t enjoying or comprehending the little I was reading.
Busyness was the problem. That’s what I told myself. But that was only some of the problem. The biggest issue, by far, was my online consumption. It wasn’t just taking the majority of my time, it was changing the way I thought and processed everything when I wasn’t online.
My attention span was shorter, my patience was thin, and my ability to sit for extended periods of time to read, pray, ponder, or think had been drastically reduced.
This is a problem. A dramatically reduced attention span is a problem for everyone, of course, but it’s especially problematic for a pastor. Our calling requires us to slow down for long periods of time to read, study, think, plan, pray, counsel, and so much more. But the amount of time we spend online not only reduces the time we have available for that, it reduces our ability to do it.
We need a reset.
No, I’m not suggesting we abandon our online lives. I wrote these words in a laptop on which I also do research, answer emails, connect with people on social media, and send you this article.
We don’t need to abandon technology. We need to be less attached and reactive to it, and more proactive about how and when we use it.
It’s time to take our digital lives back. To use the devices instead of them using us. To get the benefits from them without being overwhelmed with the negative side effects.
Yes, that may sound optimistic to the point of idealism or even naïveté, but I think we can do it. I know we can do it. Because I’ve done it. No, I’m not perfect at it. It’s a daily struggle. But with a handful of purposeful, proactive strategies, we can reorganize our time, reset our brains, and reclaim vast chunks of our lives for the service of others, the health of ourselves, the delight of our families, and the glory of God.
Here are 11 starter strategies that have worked for me.
Take an audit of your screen time for a week. You’ll be surprised. Or maybe you won’t be, and that’s why you may be afraid to look at it.
It’s been said that the first job of the leader is to define reality. So, the first job of leading your digital self is to define your digital reality. It’s like getting on the scale when you start a weight-loss regimen. The truth may be hard to look at, but it’s essential for setting future goals.
After the audit, decide what screen time is essential, and what is habit. For most people, the habitual far outweighs the necessary.
What’s necessary? Whatever is required for work and communication. And even a lot of that can be reduced. Do you really need to check your emails several times an hour? Likely once or twice a day is enough. Everything else is probably habit.
Once you’ve identified the nonessential screen time, decide what you’ll replace it with. Reading, walking, family fun, gardening, whatever builds up your mind, body, and spirit in ways that you enjoy.
If you only decide to spend less time online without having a proactive plan to do something you love as a replacement for it, you’ll fail. Rewarding yourself with enjoyable tasks makes it easier.
Whether it’s social media, games, or online shopping, if it steals your time, remove it from your phone and decide you’ll only engage in it at predetermined times on a device that you don’t carry with you – like your laptop.
We don’t need to know everything at the moment it happens. This was such a freeing thing for me when I did it a few years ago. Instead of my phone telling me when to look at it, I decide when that will be.
Recent studies have shown that you remember far more from paper than from digital. Whether it’s reading a print book or taking notes in a paper journal, the act of recording or reading offline engages our memory on a far deeper level. This is true for fiction and nonfiction, journaling and calendars, brainstorming and problem-solving.
Yes, you can use your device to reduce the time on your device.
When you start this, you’ll find yourself wanting to grab your device, even getting nervous when you don’t. Set an alarm for a predetermined time when you give yourself permission to check your messages, emails, and social media. This should also have a predetermined end time. Then you can go about your other activities, knowing the next opportunity won’t be missed.
Start with the alarms fairly close together – maybe every hour – then gradually lengthen the time over a period of days until you get comfortable with once or twice a day.
When you’re engaged in important offline activities, leave your phone somewhere else. For family dinners, time with your spouse, gatherings with friends, and church, if the phone isn’t with you you’re more likely to give those people and activities the attention they deserve.
If you’re not at home and can’t leave your phone in another room, here’s an alternative…
A few years ago I was at a restaurant for a large gathering. There were a lot of youth at the table. After ordering, one of them yelled “phones!” Immediately, every teenager took their phone out of their pocket and placed it in the center, stacked in two piles.
I asked what was going on and was told “if anyone grabs their phone before the end of dinner they have to pay for everyone’s dessert.”
We spent the entire meal in conversation, without a single usage of a phone. Not a bad idea.
The phone is the first thing many of us touch in the morning, and the last thing we touch at night. This affects our entire day.
Make a pledge that you won’t use your phone in bed. You’ll be amazed at the positive effect this one decision will have on your day, your habits, and your sleep.
You’re not in this alone. Your time matters to God. If you go to him in prayer, Jesus will strengthen you to reset your brain, renew your spirit, and reestablish healthier, God-honoring habits.
What has our attention is what forms us. This is proven by both the Bible and neuroscience. Right now, our devices have more of our attention than anything – maybe more than everything else combined.
We need to give that attention back where it belongs – on Jesus and on those who are made in God’s image, including our own spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical health.
We live with such stress and tension that "rest" has almost escaped our vocabulary. It is a treasure hidden, a goal not attainable, a win just beyond our ability. It is certainly not a normal part of our life. But it should be.
It should be. Genesis 1:5 "So the evening and the morning were the first day." In God's account of creation, each day God introduces something new into our world and ends the narrative by announcing "so the evening and the morning were the (blank) day." How do you view a day? There is not one percent of the readers of these words view a day like Genesis 1, but all Jews, even to this day, still observe the beginning of a new day at dusk. Instead, we say, a day begins in the morning and ends in the evening.
Perspective is our problem which results in an ongoing conclusion normally beyond our reach. As long as we see the morning beginning our day, we will never see rest as the beginning of our life. God says you begin your day with rest (the evening). You do not go into your day with work, instead with rest.
We rest so we can recalibrate our life, thoughts, values, strength, and priorities. Things happen in a state of rest that cannot happen anywhere else, We need rest. We must have rest. We must value rest. We must receive rest.
Psalm 127:2 "Don't you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves?" (The Message)
Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (CSB)
Do you believe that? God loves to give us rest? Why? Everything begins with the evening - the time of rest. God created the entire world in six days (yes, I believe it) but He did it from a posture of rest.
We function best after rest. So, what would happen if 1) we actually believed God wanted to give us rest; 2) we started seeing our day beginning with rest and not work? Try it...well, what about tonight. As you approach sleep, thank God for the gift of rest and receive the gift from our loving Father's good hands. Go ahead and do it. And have a good night of rest. It can be a reality.
Also, Eli Reyonlds will be leading the music with our Praise Team in the absence of Brandon.
Then Sunday night Vacation Bible School begins at 5:30 until 8:00 and will continue through Thursday night.
I have been preaching through the Gospel of Luke and we have been in Luke 14 since mid-March. These last verses (25-35) have been demanding to preach and to follow. You can listen to these messages from our webpage here.
I have one more message in this series I have entitled "The Path." I am calling it that because the setting of these verses is with a crowd following Jesus and He turns to tell them about the real path of following Him.
Sometimes I encounter things in my study that I can't incorporate into a message, which was the case last week. So, I've chosen this vehicle to share with you in light of the demands of discipleship.
One of the arguments made is if you share this, it will reduce the number of people who wish to follow Christ. Mike McKinley wrote the commentary "Luke 12-24 For You." He is the Pastor of Sterling Park Baptist Church, in Sterling, Virginia. This is the quote:
"Will this mean that fewer people will start down the path of discipleship? Perhaps, but no fewer people will make it all the way to the end. It seems that Jesus would rather you not follow him than follow him on your terms and with your agenda. We see crowds of people as a sign of success for a church, and it may be so. But Jesus saw the crowds in verse 25 and immediately began to clarify the parameters of discipleship so that people would follow him for the right reasons and with the proper understanding of what they would be forfeiting to do so." (Page 54)
That statement has taken my breath away. Especially the second sentence. If I interpret McKinley correctly, what he is saying is speaking these hard messages will not lessen the true disciples of the Lord - those who make it to the end. My oh my. I'm still wrestling with that statement. May God help me to be a true preacher of the Gospel.
Its story begins when Protestant refugees from the Catholic country of Moravia, the legacy of reformer John Hus, came to Germany and settled on the land of Count Zinzendorf. The community was soon attacked by division and disagreement, and the 27-year-old Zinzendorf cried out to God for reconciliation and revival. God spoke to him Leviticus 6:13:
“Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.”
(Leviticus 6:13)
Days later, on August 13, 1727, a wave of repentance and revival swept through the community. The Holy Spirit was dramatically poured out with signs and wonders and supernatural love for each other, for the Scriptures, and most supremely for Jesus. His glory became their urgent desire. The community adopted a radical new model for community life, which included a perpetual corporate prayer assembly in the spirit of Leviticus 6:13. They all committed to hourly “prayer watches” by which they arranged the community to cover the entire 24 hours in a day.
Let me say that again: as a result of this dramatic move of the Holy Spirit, this small refugee community started 24/7 prayer that lasted over 100 years.
The impact of this 100-year prayer meeting reached far beyond the small settlement of Herrnhut. The radical love for Jesus and fire of the Spirit that was rooted in them during those 24/7 prayer meetings gave birth to one of the most prolific missionary movements of history and became an inspiration and challenge to the modern missions movement that would soon be born. They sent out hundreds of missionaries to every corner of the globe and saw dramatic success. Their methods are not unlike the best of modern missionary strategies: they focussed pointedly on preaching the simple gospel of “Christ and Him crucified,” they learned the local language, won the respect of the people, and contextualized their preaching, they didn’t expect their converts to become Westernized, and they made prayer their foundation and relied on the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. (This is an incredible article about the Moravian mission strategy.)
William Carey, who is known as the father of modern missions, was deeply inspired by the example of the Moravians and took their prolific missions activity as a personal challenge: “See what the Moravians have done! Cannot we follow their example and in obedience to our Heavenly Master go out into the world, and preach the Gospel to the heathen?”
The Moravians had a powerful influence on the birth of the Great Awakening, too. John Wesley, one of the leaders of this revival that hit the UK and the American colonies in the 1730s and 40s, was shocked and marked by witnessing the faith of the Moravians amid a storm at sea, and went on to fully trust Christ for salvation under their preaching (when his heart was “strangely warmed,” if you’ve heard that story). He had already been a priest, but until his encounter with the genuine, personal faith of the Moravians, Wesley didn’t have his own personal relationship with Jesus. Wesley lived with the Moravians at Herrnhut for several months, and the impact they had on him was carried over into his leadership of the Methodist Revival and the Great Awakening alongside Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, in which tens of thousands were powerfully convicted of sin and surrendered to Jesus.
What conviction had gripped their hearts? In a nutshell, it can be found in the story of the first two Moravian missionaries who were sent out from the Herrnhut community.
In 1732, five years after the initial outpouring of the Spirit, two Moravian tradesmen, 36-year-old David Nitschmann and 26-year-old Johann Leonhard Dober, became the first missionaries to leave Herrnhut. They heard of the plight of African slaves on the island of St. Thomas in the Caribbean, and how there was a spiritual hunger but they had no one to share the gospel with them. They determined to go by any means necessary, even when they were told they would have to sell themselves into slavery in order to minister among the slaves. (As it turns out, when they offered themselves as slaves in Copenhagen, they were laughed at because no one would buy white men as slaves, so they traveled to St. Thomas by working their trades.)
According to the story that has stirred missionary zeal the world over for the past near-300 years, as they stood on the ship departing from the wharf, looking for what they believed to be the last time of the faces of their loved ones, they raised their fists and cried, “MAY THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN RECEIVE THE REWARD OF HIS SUFFERING.”
This is it. They were deeply in love with the slain Lamb, cherished the love He showed on the cross, thunderously affirmed His infinite worth, and passionately desired that He would have what He deserved– the reward of His suffering.
That cry, that burning desire for Jesus to have the full inheritance of everything He died for, has captivated me for a decade.
What does He deserve for His sacrifice on the cross?
He deserves the nations to the ends of the earth as His inheritance.
“You are my Son…Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” Psalm 2:7-8
He deserves the saints as His glorious inheritance.
“that you may know…what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” Ephesians 1:18
He deserves to be preeminent (in first place) in everything.
“…He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.” Colossians 1:18
He deserves exaltation and the homage of every person.
“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…” Philippians 2:8-11
He deserves power, authority, glory, and worship.
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” Revelation 5:12
He deserves ultimate exaltation and glory. He deserves every person everywhere singing highest praises from hearts in love. He deserves to fully rule and reign over every single aspect of life.
The truth is, there is NO LIMIT to how much He deserves. Isaiah 9:7 says that His kingdom will continue to increase forever and ever.
In light of the biblical testimony of the great worth of the Lamb, in light of the historical testimony of the saints and martyrs who laid down everything for Him, is there any limit to how much He deserves in our lives?
Is there any passion too extreme?
Is there any offering too extravagant?
Is there any commitment too radical?
Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians at Herrnhut, like King David and thousands of others throughout history, determined that 24/7 prayer and worship was not too much to respond to His glory.
Nitschmann and Dober determined that selling themselves into slavery was not too high a price to pay so that the Lamb would have His reward in the slaves of St. Thomas.
May we be driven by their example. May their cry be the great echoing anthem of the Church across the earth as we strive to lay down everything to see His glory have its full due:
If you’re hungry for more, I highly recommend the book Moravian Miracle by Dr. Jason Hubbard, director of International Prayer Connect, with forward by Dick Eastman. It was also endorsed by Mike Bickle and Rick Warren, if you know those names. Fantastic book- so encouraging and stirring!
(This blog was originally posted here).
