Tag: Sunday rest and reflection
Sunday Rest and Reflection:Hometown Prophets!
Dear Friends of God,
Greetings in the wonderful name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the world! We have enjoyed our first week reading the New Testament and the story of Jesus! He is a wonderful Savior and worker of miracles! I pray that you are gathering today with God’s people to worship Him and celebrate your life in Him! In Him we live and move and have our being!
As I look back on this past week’s reading, I find the story of Jesus visiting his hometown of Nazareth and visiting the synagogue to teach there. His relatives and the people of the town were amazed at His teaching and wondered at where Jesus got His miraculous power since he was a simple carpenter’s son. They knew his father and mother and brothers and sisters. As they thought about his earthly family, they took offense at him! How could someone with such a common family have such miraculous power?
“But Jesus said to them, “Only in His hometown and in His own house is a prophet without honor.” And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.” (Matthew 13:57b-58) Sometimes, familiarity is a stumbling block to faith. We have a hard time becoming like a little child and believing. Our perceptions from our senses block the reception of the word of God. Our faith comes by hearing and receiving the word of God. We have to take the word into our hearts and place our trust in God’s ability to perform His word. When we get our eyes on the messenger and begin to reason, we often miss out on the miraculous!
Take a moment today to reflect on your own life. Are you giving honor to Jesus Christ as the Son of God? Do you find yourself critiquing the preacher or messenger and failing to put your faith in God and His word? Is your own unbelief a hindrance to receiving what you need from God? Confess if necessary and choose to believe!
“People brought all their sick to Him and begged Him to let the sick just touch the edge of His cloak, and all who touched Him were healed.” (Matthew 14:35b-36) Crossing the Sea of Galilee, Jesus came to a land where people believed! Miracles came with faith!
In His Love, Pastor John
Sunday Rest and Reflection:Not by Might!
Dear Spirit-filled Friends,
Greetings on another day of rest and reflection! We have covered most of the Old Testament and many of the minor prophets. Their message has been one of coming judgment and hope for God’s people. They spoke of the coming King who would rule to the ends of the earth and destroy the wicked. They called God’s people to seek Him humbly and to walk by faith, encouraging them with the promise of eternal rewards and a time of everlasting peace. The ‘day of the Lord’ was a common theme in many of these prophet’s ministries.
As I reflect back on the past week, a scripture from Zechariah comes quickly to my mind! “So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.”” (Zechariah 4:4) As we think of all the happenings of the coming end times and the day of the Lord, we can become overwhelmed by how we are going to make it and be ready. We see the work yet to be done in reaching this world with the Gospel and think how difficult it is. Zechariah was given a word of God by an angel who spoke to him. This angel relayed God’s encouragement to His people of all generations. We are not to rely on our own strength or power to accomplish the work of building the temple any more than Zechariah and his people were told not to! God, Himself, by His Spirit will empower His people.
This is good news for us today! We need to be reminded that God has everything under his control. He is bringing about His plans and His purposes are established forever! (Psalm 33:9-10) Those things that look like mountains will become level by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is building His Temple and by His Spirit it will be accomplished! We must be filled with the Holy Spirit and walk in the Spirit and we will have nothing to be concerned about! God bless you and your family!
In His Love, Pastor John
Sunday Rest and Reflection:Reluctant Prophets
Dear Friends,
Greetings on a day of rest and reflection! Jesus Christ is Lord! He is coming soon! Are you ready to meet Him? Will He commend you for a job well done? Do you know your purpose here in His plan? Worship focuses us on God and His purposes and enables us to see our purpose! It opens us to hear His voice through the preaching and gifts of the Spirit. Don’t neglect corporate worship with God’s people today!
This past week we have read in the minor prophets and covered Amos, Obadiah, and Jonah. These prophets were simple men chosen by God to be his mouthpiece. Amos was a shepherd and fig farmer. He was obedient to the Lord, but did not consider himself to be anything special. (Amos 7:12-14) He took abuse from the people God sent him to. Obadiah’s only recorded message is his short prophesy against Edom. Edom hated Israel and probably did not welcome this word from Obadiah! We know he was obedient and that his word came to pass as predicted!
Jonah was the last prophet mentioned this week. He was reluctant to go where God sent him. We sometimes feel that God’s directions are too hard or too dangerous. Human nature doesn’t like conflict and carrying a message that will certainly bring conflict can make anyone reluctant! However, trying to hide from God is not rational or possible!
What can we learn from these prophets? First, it is always best to obey the Lord and go where He sends us and say what He says. Obedience blesses God’s heart and further promotes His plan. Second, not everyone will like our message, but some may repent. God cares for the few or many that will repent! In fact, He wants none to perish! The third observation concerns our own motives and prejudice. Our underlying judgment of the people God sends us to will be exposed. We must take time and line our hearts with God’s heart. He has compassion on all and wants none to perish!
Take time today to examine your heart and motives. Are you going where God has directed? Are you preaching a straight message? Do you truly love those you minister too? God loves a cheerful giver!
In His Love,
Pastor John
Sunday Rest and Reflection:Dreams and Visions!
Dear Friends,
We are living in the exciting times of the last days mentioned often in Scripture. These are days of great trials and troubles. Earthquakes and wars are common news. There are signs of the coming of the Lord in the news and we can feel an urgency in our hearts to be ready and help others get prepared. The greatest event of history is the coming of Jesus Christ as King of Kings and it could happen any day!
In the last week’s readings, the prophet Joel had much to say in his short book. He initially saw the destruction of the land by a swarm of locusts that represented the army of Assyria. Later, he was given a vision of the restoration of Israel after its destruction and judgment. The autumn rains would come and abundant showers would restore the parched and barren land. God would repay His people for the years that the locusts had eaten! (Joel 2:23-25)
This rain was really a picture of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Last days! (Joel 2:28-32) (Acts 2:16-21) God was planning a Holy Spirit outpouring that would cause men and women, young and old, Jew and Gentile to be filled with the Holy Spirit. They would prophesy, dream dreams and see visions. God would do miracles, signs and wonders and everyone who called on the name of the Lord would be saved! There would be a great deliverance for Jerusalem and Mount Zion.
We are living in these very days! There is deliverance for all who will call on the Name of Jesus Christ! We who know Him are filled with the Holy Spirit and have power to share the Gospel; the Lord can use us to bring healing and miraculous acts of His grace to those who are being witnessed to. Let’s allow the Lord to use us daily and expect Him to confirm His word with supernatural signs! We serve an awesome God! The best is yet to come!
In His Love,
Pastor John
Sunday Rest and Reflection:Handwriting on the Wall!
Dear Friends,
Greetings on another day of resurrection rest! We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from death and the grave on the first day of the week! In Him, we have assurance of our own resurrection and eternal life. He is the first fruit from death’s grip and all who have put their trust in Him will enjoy resurrection life. This Blessed Hope could come at any time since we are living in the last days and the time of the end is near! (Revelation 22:10, 20)
As I look back on Daniel, I remembered the incident that was recorded of the fall of Babylon. King Belshazzar was having a party and celebrating with the golden goblets of God’s house, which his father had taken from the temple some 70 years earlier. (Daniel 5:1-6) Suddenly a hand appeared and wrote some simple words on the wall of the banquet hall. No one could interpret the words, but the Queen remembered Daniel who had been used in the past to interpret.
Daniel came before the king and humbly gave the king the difficult message written on the wall. He recounted how Belshazzar’s father Nebuchadnezzar had humbled himself, but that this king had not done so. “But you did not honor the God who holds in His hand your life and all your ways.” (Daniel 5:23b) For this reason, God had weighed Belshazzar and found him wanting. He would be removed from power and his kingdom divided between the Medes and Persians!
God held this king to accountability because of the knowledge of God revealed to him through God’s dealings with his father. When we don’t act on the knowledge of God we have, we are in danger of judgment and removal from the earth! I believe that this scene speaks to us in America today. Many, like this pagan king, are partying and misusing their own vessels (bodies) when judgment is right at the door. The handwriting is on the wall! God will judge and only two classes of people will emerge! One group will go into eternal life and glory. The other group will go into everlasting shame and contempt! (Daniel 12:1-4) (Revelation 20:11-14)
We have enjoyed much blessing because of the Gospel in our land. Knowledge of God abounds and we are accountable. The end will come suddenly and quickly! Are you ready?
In His Love,
Pastor John
Sunday Rest and Reflection:Personal Responsibility!
Dear Friends,
Greetings in the Wonderful Name of Jesus Christ! Jesus is Lord and He desires that all would know Him and receive His Father’s love and gift of eternal life. He has promised eternal life to all who believe in Him. (John 3:16) Because of this wonderful love, we who believe respond by gathering on this first day of the week to celebrate our life in Him. We gather to study and hear the word of God that brings us life and renewal. Please don’t neglect gathering together today in a fellowship of believers!
Reflecting on the past week’s readings, I recalled Ezekiel’s instructions to be a watchman over God’s people. God told him to warn the wicked man and try to dissuade him from his wicked ways. (Ezekiel 33:7-9) If Ezekiel failed to warn the wicked person, God would hold him responsible for that man’s blood. But if Ezekiel warned that man and the man failed to turn, then the man will die for his sin and Ezekiel would be free from responsibility.
Sin brings death. We have the remedy and are called by God to share the Gospel with sinners. If they listen and turn away from sin to Christ, they will be saved. If they fail to listen, persist in sin, and die in it, they will die not once, but twice! They will be separated from God at the Great White Throne judgment of Revelation 20:11-14. If we fail to share with those who are sinners when we know the Gospel and enjoy it’s benefits, we are responsible!
As you gather today with God’s people, pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to be a strong witness to this generation. Take responsibility to repent of your sins as exposed by the preaching of the Word. Take responsibility to share the Gospel with sinners in the coming week! We have such good news; we can joyously share it!
In His Love,
Pastor John
Sunday Rest and Reflection:Glory Restored!
Dear Friends of Jesus,
Greetings in the Glorious Name of Jesus Christ! In Him is the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form. He is the final word from God for man. His life and teachings are revelation of the heart of God and bring life and immortality to light through the Gospel. He is the reason we gather this first day of a new week to study and worship with others of like-precious faith. He is the express image of God’s Glory, upholding all things by His powerful Word! (Hebrews 1:3)
As I reflect on the past week’s readings from Ezekiel, I am again remembering this Sunday morning the vision of God’s glory that Ezekiel was given after a “hair-raising” journey of over 600 miles! He saw the temple being defiled by the leaders of Jerusalem and those over the temple. He saw God’s glory being escorted out of the Temple and the holy city of Jerusalem. The Glory paused at the temple entrance. (Ezekiel 10:3-4) It stopped briefly over the East Gate of the Lord’s house. (Ezekiel 10:18-20) The final place where this appearance of glory was seen was on the mountain east of the city, the Mount of Olives. (Ezekiel 10:22-23)
As I meditate on this departure of God’s glory, I think of Jesus Christ coming again to the city and temple to reveal God’s glory to His own people. Jesus taught in the temple and worshiped there. Jesus drove the money changers from the temple, cleansing it with a whip. Jesus prayed in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives as He prepared to offer His body as the final sacrifice for our sins. He died outside the city, hanging on a cross for us! The ultimate sacrifice representing the glorious mercy of God for all mankind!
Jesus rose again in glory and appeared to His own. He ascended in Glory from the Mount of Olives and promised to come back in the same manner He left, on clouds of power and great glory! (Matthew 24:30-31) (Acts 1:11-12) In Solomon’s porch of the temple, on the Day of Pentecost, fiery tongues rested on the 120 disciples gathered there and they were filled with a deposit of God’s glory to empower them to reach the world with the message of Jesus Christ! What a glorious God and Savior we have! May you enjoy His glory as you worship today!
In His Love,
Pastor John
Sunday Rest and Reflection:Recabites!
Dear Friends of Jesus,
Greetings in the Wonderful Name of Jesus Christ! No other name offers salvation and eternal life! No other person has shown such great love to all of mankind and is now alive praying that we might enjoy this love forever! It’s time to worship Him and gather to celebrate our life in Him! It’s time to worship and bow down in honor and thanksgiving to the King of Kings!
I want to reflect today on a very obscure passage of scripture, Jeremiah 35. In this passage, God instructed Jeremiah to tempt a family to drink wine. They refused because of a command of their forefather, Jonadab. They chose to fully obey their forefather and enjoyed blessing for doing so. This was a simple command, but one not easy to obey in the culture of the Middle East of that day. The Recabites went against the culture and customs of the land to obey, and continued to do so even when tempted to do otherwise!
This is the lesson God was and is still teaching us through these simple people, “Therefore, this is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on Judah and on everyone living in Jerusalem every disaster I pronounced against them. I spoke to them, but they did not listen; I called to them, but they did not answer.” (Jeremiah 35:17) We must listen to God and heed His word, just like the Recabites of old listened to their father and obeyed. They were rewarded for this simple obedience by God. He longs to reward us as well, as He is no respecter of persons!
Are you a good example like the Recabites, that God could use to call others to obedience? Why not make the changes you need today as you attend worship and hear the word of the Lord? God will reward you too!
In His Love,
Pastor John
Sunday Rest and Reflection:Fear Not!
Dear Friends,
Greetings and good tidings of courage and hope from Jesus Christ! His perfect love drives out all fear and gives us peace and rest. Sunday’s are great days to stop doing the ordinary and to gather with God’s people to contemplate the Almighty and worship Him.
What are some of the reasons people give for staying away from church? In an article for On Mission, author Diane Butts sites ten reasons why people skip church. The number one reason was that people in the church are hypocrites and being afraid to become one themselves. The second sited reason was that it was the only morning that they could sleep in! I guess they were afraid of falling asleep in church since that was their day to sleep! Another reason was having no good clothes to wear and being afraid people would look at them if they weren’t dressed properly. For others it was a fear of not knowing anyone and not knowing what to expect.
It is interesting that these reasons all have an element of fear in them. God only honors faith and in fact tells us not to fear over three hundred and sixty times in the Bible. “Fear not” is mentioned numbers of times in the last 27 chapters of Isaiah. God knows that sin has caused us to have fears and succumb to them at times. He calls us to courage and faith. If you are making silly excuses for not gathering with God’s people, begin a new week by resolving to walk in courage and attend church! You’ll be blessed!
“But now, this is what the Lord says–He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name and you are mine.” (Isaiah 43:1-2)
In His Love, Pastor John