Too Tired to Find Rest.....

   Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it...... For we who have believed do enter that rest. ........ There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. (excerpted from Hebrews 4:1-10 NKJV) 

 

   Rest? What's that? 

 We Christians today often lead a haggard, anxiety filled existence while quietly reassuring ourselves that we can rely on Christ -- if we can just find time to get around to it.  We conceive that rest is an inactivity only to be engaged when no possible activity can replace it. Even church activity can overwhelm our capacity. Do we really think this is what Jesus meant when He said, Come to me all of you who are weak and heavy burdened and I will give you rest?

   John Owen, bible commentator, cited five attributes of resting in Christ:

1-  Rest means peace with God.

         

      We should find great rest when the Lord lifts our sin burden. Knowing the eternality of our peace with God should be a fountain of daily peace.

2-  Rest means freedom from a servile, bondage-like spirit in the worship and service of God.

       Paul often repeated that he was a bond servant to Christ, but meant an indenture induced by his love for his Savior rather than at the hand of a tyrant God.  

3-   Rest means deliverance from the burden of Mosaic observance.

      This should be a no-brainer for every Christian, but it is not. It is very easy to drift into a mindset of law abiding works, where our service becomes erroneously a pleasing payment that tries to earn the gift that Jesus has already given us.

4-  Rest means the freedom of worship according to the gospel.

      How often have we stood in worship on the brink of exuberance, only to tamp it down out of concern what some other Christian might think of us? Oh, if we would only worship with childlike abandon!

5-   Rest means the rest that God Himself enjoys.

    

      God never experiences anxiety or worry. Ever. As animators of Christ's attributes in and to a hurting world, we need only to receive His rest to animate it visibly in our lives. This takes first a restructuring of our priorities. There will be no peace without sufficient daily prayer and time spent in the Word. While seemingly obvious Christian solutions, these are often supplanted by human busyness. We need to relive ourselves of the mistaken view of Christianity as a state of constant doing, and replace it with a view of our constant awareness of our eternal peace with, in, and from the Lord. 

        We have submitted to His authority. Why do we find it so hard to submit to His rest?

Psalm 116  -- Return to your rest, O my soul,For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

Copyright 2014 Mission of the Master Ministries, Inc. May be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission if a link is provided to http://wordworkswednesday.blogspot.com 

Revealing the Cross of Christ

Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,  explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ." (Acts 17:2-3 NKJV)

    I intended to begin writing about 1 Thessalonians today, but realized that to do so I needed to begin in Acts, Chapter 17, where the contentious planting of the church in Thessalonika is fully described. If you Google "missionary" you’ll find more resources, ideas and information than you can possibly sift through in a lifetime. What endless Google results make seem complicated is really very simple. I often describe myself to people as a missionary. They typically ask, Missionary to where? I usually just name the place where I am standing. Missionaries are missionaries wherever they are. Paul had three mission centric resources when he entered the capital city of Macedonia, and these resources remain available to all missionaries today. 

   Verse 1 says -- Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica… In any work we begin for God, it is critical to remain sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. God often pre-softens stony hearts to be receptive to the Gospel as He did for Paul’s work here. Paul’s discernment carried him through many places before he arrived at the specific place where God had a plan in place. It is easy to convince ourselves we can decide what God wants done and where He wants it done without ever asking Him for input, and  thereby miss the blessing He has planned. When we do this we end up with our ministry to which we attach His name. Paul wisely kept walking until the Lord revealed the spot where He wanted to establish a new church.  

   

   Paul reasoned with them from the scriptures. Paul’s scriptures weren’t  our scriptures. He had only what we call the Old Testament. For him it was the Only Testament. Could you sit and reason with someone, could you make reasonable representations that Jesus was the Messiah from the Old Testament alone? Many people we encounter have no idea that the Old Testament is about Jesus. From shadows and types like Boaz in the Book of Ruth who was Ruth’s kinsman redeemer as a type for Christ, our Kinsman redeemer, to the specific details of the birth, life, death and resurrection found in the Psalms and Isaiah, the Old Testament points to Jesus. We are equipped with the Old Testament scriptures Paul had, plus so much more. Have you equipped yourself to reason with others from the scriptures?

   In Philippians 4:16 we read -- For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities. Paul didn’t just go, He was sent - both by God and by the church in Philippi. The success of any missionary is greatly increased with sufficient funding and prayer support from sending believers. Many are called to Christ’s Gospel mission, but more are called to support with prayers and funding. Do you support missionaries with prayers and funding? Ask God to reveal a missionary for you to support and begin sending monthly financial help. Even small support can produce huge Gospel results in the distant reaches of the Earth. If you can’t be a go-er, become a sender.

  If you are following the leading of the Holy Spirit, you have been strategically placed by God in a Gospel opportunity. Paul got busy in Thessalonica -- explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ." Today, to whom are you explaining and demonstrating that Jesus is the Christ? Or, have you abandoned God’s mission for one more of your own design and liking? 

    

Copyright 2014 Mission of the Master Ministries, Inc. May be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission if a link is provided to  http://wordworkswednesday.blogspot.com 

Honey Boo Boo, iPhone5, Competing Ideas and the Thoughts of a Galilean Fisherman

    ...His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (most of 2 Peter 1:2-4 NKJV)

    My high school English teacher would have told Peter that this verse was a run-on sentence, and I'll admit it includes a lot of words (108). It also includes multiple ideas. Several of them are very important. Every day I find competing new ideas vying for my attention. Some come attended by massive advertisement or intense buzz. Either of these can delude me into thinking they are important when they really aren't. The yeast of digital noise in all its many forms has often made the the unimportant swell into my view, inflated by nothing more than its own hot air. The words and ideas in this verse come to us by the inspiration of God and although we often have to slog trough a swampland of unimportant secular noise to get to them, its worth the effort. Some days I feel like I've received so much information that I've got ideas growing out of my head. How can I prioritize all of this information?

   (Oh yeah, His thoughts are higher than my thoughts...)

   His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him...  If I already have all things that pertain to life and godliness, what can an IPhone5 gain me?  Or a half an hour watching Honey Boo Boo? Siri is cool, but she can't give me anything that pertains to life. If these aren't included in the all things that pertain to life and godliness, I can be assured I don't need them (no matter how long the line is at the Apple Store). In the past I've been willing to try anything except knowing Him. I've been willing to follow every new trend instead of following Him, I've been willing to worship at every alter except His. In all that willingness I was pursuing an illusion. It all left me empty. I found not one single thing that pertained to life.

 

   ...having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. The Greek word translated here as lust is epithumia. It means desire, longing, wanting the forbidden. If the corruption is found in the world through desiring what is forbidden, what can set me free from those desires? How can I be lifted above my most base nature? Or in Paul's questioning words, -- O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Followed by his answer -- I thank God-- through Jesus Christ our Lord!  Romans 7:24,25 NKJV

   When corrupt ideas try to penetrate my  spiritual defenses how can I sort them out, mark them as useless and delete them from my memoric hard drive? God's mercy is fresh every morning. So also must be my submission to Him. My daily submission will lead to daily reconnection through prayer. My daily prayer will refresh my hunger for His Word. Consumption of His Word will stoke my spirit. Submitted, reconnected, refreshed, and stoked by His Word, I'll be a partaker of the (His) divine nature and I'll have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust for one more day. 

    And if I fail today and am captivated by useless noise into following the corruption that is in the world through lust, tomorrow the sun will rise and so will heaven's fresh mercy. So will forgiveness. So  will Holy Spirit, speaking in my heart, offering again exceedingly great and precious promises....

   Its a new day. Will you follow Siri? Honey Boo Boo? Whose ideas will captivate your attention today?