A friend sent me the following passed on email.
In the American South they have a proverb: “If you call a dog a bad name, he’ll live up to it.” It’s probably true that if you call a dog a good name, he’ll live up to that too.
I think this proverb can also be applied to people. It’s amazing that with people you often get what you expect.
During an experiment several years ago all the brown-eyed students in a class were asked to sit in the front and all the blue-eyed students were asked to sit in the back. The teacher told the brown-eyed ones, “Brown-eyed children are more intelligent than blue-eyed.” The teacher kept this up for a week and found that the brown-eyed students did better in their homework. They got better grades. They were better behaved in class. The blue-eyed kids began to decline.
The following week the teacher came to class and said, “I’ve made a terrible mistake. The research shows it was the blue-eyed kids that are better.” She moved them to the front of the class, telling them they were more intelligent, and soon their scores soared.
Thankfully such experiments are no longer allowed. But they remind us that love is willing to trust, to give people the benefit of the doubt.
I wrote her back this reply and thought it deserved a larger audience.
So its all about who we listen to.
First of all the events the writer tells about are questionable if they ever actually happened. Human nature being what it is we would like to believe such things. They seem to answer the question of human nature in very simple ways.
But even if it were true our tendency is to hear only those voices that say what we already believe about ourselves. We can have a myriad of people saying wonderful things about us but our ears can't hear them if we don't already believe what they are saying.
Ultimately this dilemna is solved when we trust in God. God knows who we actually are.
As long as we listen to others alone.... either good or bad reports... we will have an erroneous understanding of who we are. And we will be under their power.
When we listen to ourselves we will have a better understanding of the truth in one way since we do really know in most cases who we are but we will not know who we were created to be or how to become that.
When we listen to God, He knows the truth about us without the color of self hatred or pride that hinders us from seeing the truth about ourselves. He also knows what he destined us to be and the path for us to follow to get there.
I once had a position in the university as a teacher of computers. In the last class I taught that year there were two students who took it upon themselves to destroy me as a teacher. I am not sure why but it was obvious from the moment they sat in their chairs. They did in fact accomplish their goal. By the end of my teaching that class I was finished.
However, years later after the shame, sense of failure and regret subsided long enough for me to ask God what went wrong. When I finally let him speak he showed me the destruction of my chance to teach university computer classes was one of the most helpful things that happened in my teaching career.
First of all I would have certainly followed the path of teaching adults in the university setting. I know for sure now that nothing could have been further from the plan of God for my vocational life. I am so glad I did not pursue that path.
Second of all it helped me to understand the nature of teaching and to understand my limits.
God has made me a certain way. I am not talking about sin I am talking about the limitations he has placed in me in my very creation. I need not see those as bad. They are just what they are. I can work with them and seek to improve but they will always present a challenge to me. This is good. It limits me. It helps me understand that I can only do certain things and that is a part of his plan.
I also learned that instead of continually putting myself in situations that were not my strengths I needed to purposely seek out those situations that were my strengths.
To continually try to do things we were not made to do only ends in feelings of failure. I know my strengths and I know my weaknesses. I can work on my weaknesses for sure and God wants me to do so. But I need to spend most of my time living in my strengths. This is what he made me to do.
You tend to focus on your weaknesses. You need to see them as simply things you cannot do well. Accepting this helps you to know that God does not expect you to jump through hoops higher than you can -- even if you or others or do.
I will never run a four minute mile. I once wanted to see how fast I could run a mile and trained for it for months. The best time I ever ran was six minutes twenty seven seconds. That's it for me. I have never done better and will never do better.
For me to continue to think I should somehow be able to run a four minute mile would be futile, exhaust the energy God gave me to do other things and in the end serve to leave me felling my life had not reached the potential God intended. But those thoughts would all have been based on the lie that I should be able to run a four minute mile...... even though I always wanted to I can't. I was never meant for me to do.
I am happy that I have spent years running but I am just an average slow runner. There is far more to my running than how fast I can do it. For most people my running would be a joke. But I plod along like the turtle and feel God's pleasure that I can do what I can. I love running no matter how slow I am. I am happy with who God made me even if it is not as good as the next person.
I have found that I need to find God's perspective on who I am and follow the plan He has. That plan will primarily involve the strengths He put in me. I don't constantly look at what I am not and wish I were something else. I love who He made me to be and rejoice in those things He put in me, including my limitations.
Today I am so happy that I was not able to teach the adult computer class at Western because I would have missed so much. When I found my "place" based on my strengths in teaching I have enjoyed every moment of it.
Blessings,
Monday, February 25, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
FACING THE FUTURE
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14 (NASB)
The title ―Facing the Future has already given us an image which Paul the Apostle uses to describe a core value in his life. He faces the future not the past.
His direction and purpose is found not in revisiting those things which have already been. They are found in the next minute, hour, day, month, year to the moment of his death – The Future.
I am sure that Paul was not saying he never looked back to the past. He did. Several times in scripture he told about his persecution of Christians and his conversion.
The purpose of this revisiting was to give testimony to God‘s power and grace. It was not to live there. It was to bring the past to the future. It was to give others a picture of God‘s redemption.
Paul shows us in this passage that we must purposefully and assertively turn our gaze away from the past and purposefully and assertively turn our gaze to the future.
This is a very important word for those of us who are, as the Bible says, ―full of years.‖
I have watched as I have grown older and seen what this period of our lives can look like.
I have seen others slowly lose their future perspective and surely begin looking back to the days of old.
Sometimes those days are days of joy and wonderful memories. Sometimes they etched a place of pain so deep that to reflect on them brings forth torment in our souls.
With sadness I saw one of my wife‘s dear relatives turn from facing the future to looking back to the past. She began to remember the wrongs others had done to her. As she did, the memory of those wrongs began to torment her.
Eventually it so obsessed her that she felt that even those of us who loved her and were taking care of her were colored with the same hues as those who had wronged her. She began to accuse us of doing things to her we would never dream of.
Thankfully as we prayed for her and spoke with her about the goodness of her present life and the promise of the future she began to let those memories go. She once again looked at life as it was unfolding now and the good things the future held for her.
I believe it can be even worse for us to become stuck in a good period of our past. To hold on to a time when things were wonderful and continually relive them can become a roadblock to the things God has for us today and tomorrow.
How many times have I heard people say, ―I wish I were back then. Things were so different – so good.‖ The importance of seeing days that were different in the past is to seek that same difference today.
Again I am not saying that to reflect on wonderful times in the past is wrong. We are to let those memories speak to us of the continuing grace God gives us today. Just as we look back on those times and see the glow of God‘s presence, so one day, if we respond correctly today, we can look back on today and see the same.
It is not wrong to look with joy on significant milestones of the past – when you first met Jesus. When you first fell in love. Your first kiss. When you graduated from school. Your successes in your work or passions. The memories of wonderful days can be such a precious treasure….. As long as they don‘t assault the future with hopelessness.
This was the condition Solomon found himself in at the end of his days. He had lost the joy of life due to his wrong behavior. In seeing his own path to despair he counsels us to:
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, ―I have no delight in them‖;
Ecclesiastes 12:1 (NASB)
No matter what time of life we are in we can have ―delight in them.‖ Solomon gives us the key to facing the future. If we follow what he says we will not face a past of regret. We need to remember our creator today.
To remember God right now – in this moment -- is to be prepared to move into the future with confidence and joy.
One obvious things that comes out of remembering God in this moment is to put the past to rest. If our past is one of pain we must forgive, see that God was with us in every moment and like Joseph came to understand, God was intending to bring forth a good future.
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.
Genesis 50:20 (NASB)
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28
In understanding this we see that everything in our lives to this very day has been preparing us for our future.
The days of pain and the days of glory alike were to bring us to this moment. Because of this today is the greatest day of our lives and tomorrow will be even better.
Paul understood these two traps well. He made a purposeful choice to turn from facing the past with its sins, pain, wrongs against him, failures and especially successes.
He would never stop facing the future with determination to more fully follow Jesus in the next moment.
It has often been said that there is no retirement in the work of the kingdom. While God intends it to be so many not only retire they die to God.
The tragic statement, ―I have put in my time now let the younger generation take their turn‖ sets us up for living our final days in defeat when they should be our days of greatest victory.
If we are to be true followers of Jesus we must see every moment of our lives as the greatest moment yet. We must believe that the God who has brought us to this day is not through with us until he walks us over the valley of the shadow of death.
I have seen many glorious days in God in my life. But today I am living in the most glorious yet. And I intend for tomorrow to be more glorious. I forget the past and press on today into my future which is as Adoniram Judson said,
The future is as bright as the promises of God.
My great biblical hero and example of this is Caleb.
Before Israel was going to enter into the promised land, Moses had sent out twelve men to spy it out for forty days. Caleb was one of them. When they came back ten of the men put fear in the hearts of everyone.
But Caleb did what Solomon told us to do. He remembered his creator when he was young.
He and Joshua believed in the power of God to take them into the land of inheritance when no one else did.
When his fellow spies were telling of the greatness of their enemies and the danger of the land, Caleb told of the greatness and protection of his and our God.
Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, ―We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.‖
Numbers 13:30 (NASB)
Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. 2 All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, ―Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!
Numbers 14:1-3 (NASB)
Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; 7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, ―The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the LORD is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us—a land which flows with milk and honey.
Numbers 14:6-8 (NASB)
Only do not rebel against the LORD; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.‖ 10 But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the glory of the LORD appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel.
Numbers 14:9-10 (NASB)
Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, 23 shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. 24 But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.
Numbers 14:9-10 (NASB)
So for forty years Israel wandered in the wilderness until all the men who did not remember God in their youth died. Just ad God said, only Joshua and Caleb remained alive of the whole generation.
They led the people into the land when they were both well advanced in years. But the best days for Caleb were far from over. When he was eighty five he decided to take God up on a promise He had made to Him when he was young.
Then the sons of Judah drew near to Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, ―You know the word which the LORD spoke to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadeshbarnea. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadeshbarnea to spy out the land, and I brought word back to him as it was in my heart. 8 Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear; but I followed the LORD my God fully.
Joshua 14:6-8 (NASB)
So Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land on which your foot has trodden will be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God fully.‘ 10 Now behold, the LORD has let me live, just as He spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked in the wilderness; and now behold, I am eighty-five years old today.
Joshua 14:9-10 (NASB)
I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in. 12 Now then, give me this hill country about which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the LORD will be with me, and I will drive them out as the LORD has spoken.‖
Joshua 14:11-12 (NASB)
So Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. 14 Therefore, Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite until this day, because he followed the LORD God of Israel fully.
Joshua 14:13-14 (NASB)
Caleb fought giants at eighty five and won! He understood that until he was dead God would fulfill his purposes in his life by the strength of His power and not by Caleb‘s. That is what I want to be like. I want to face the future with the expectation of God using me to my final breath. I want to be doing the exploits that only young men are thought to be able to do and do them as a testimony that God is real.
Many here are in a time where they are no longer bound to a job to provide for their families. Sadly many feel that the end of their working career is the beginning of the end of their life. Statistics show that most people, especially men, will die sooner if they do not find a meaningful task to continue doing after they retire. God created us to be active for our whole lives.
For a Christian facing the future means knowing that there is always a purpose in our lives no matter what. And for those who would give themselves fully to that purpose there is much to do.
Take, for instance, our hosts tonight. George is 89 and Lillian is 82. They are still pressing into the future and taking ground for God. They are not going to quit until they cross the valley of the shadow of death. They epitomize for me this scripture:
He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. 13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. 15 And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Luke 19:12-15 (KJV)
Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. 17 And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. 18 And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. 19 And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities.
Luke 19:16-19 (KJV)
20 And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin:
Luke 19:20 (KJV)
Think of what it would feel like to stand before the Lord who gave his all for us to have nothing to give Him back….. To hear ourselves speaking these words….. I took what you gave me and hid it…….
My mother-in-law has been dying for many years – at least according to the doctor! But she refuses to accept the diagnosis! At 91 She knows God has a purpose for her life and actively seeks it.
I know that even if she were bedridden she would take up even more fully her ministry of prayer. Some of the greatest exploits for God have been done by people who could only pray.
She does have a vital ministry of prayer for her family, friends and ministries she loves. She also hosts a weekly Bible study, has her family and guests into her house to share the love God has placed in her heart, visits others bringing gifts and especially those that are not well in her apartment building often feel her love as she prays with them for healing.
As if that were enough she returns to her native land – Holland – yearly. Her desire in these visits is not self centered but in order to share the love of Jesus with her family there. Thanks to her grandson Ariel some of her testimony of God‘s grace for her is on the World Wide Web!
She is one of my great heroes because she is living the life I desire and intend to live. She has given each next moment – her future to live in an intentional way fro God. It started when she was young when a possible long future lay ahead of her. She faced the future. Today she is still facing the future and finding that it is as bright as the promises of God. And that is what is what the future will be for us if we follow Caleb, George, Lillian and Rebecca‘s path.
Facing the future means something for me today that it did not mean forty years ago. In those days I rarely thought about the wonders of heaven. Those thoughts now overtake me quite often. There will be a day not to far in the distance that we will cross that valley and be with Jesus forever. As the songsmith has said, ―What a day, glorious day that will be.‖ As we face the future we can face it with joy looking to that day.
Philippians 3:13-14 (NASB)
The title ―Facing the Future has already given us an image which Paul the Apostle uses to describe a core value in his life. He faces the future not the past.
His direction and purpose is found not in revisiting those things which have already been. They are found in the next minute, hour, day, month, year to the moment of his death – The Future.
I am sure that Paul was not saying he never looked back to the past. He did. Several times in scripture he told about his persecution of Christians and his conversion.
The purpose of this revisiting was to give testimony to God‘s power and grace. It was not to live there. It was to bring the past to the future. It was to give others a picture of God‘s redemption.
Paul shows us in this passage that we must purposefully and assertively turn our gaze away from the past and purposefully and assertively turn our gaze to the future.
This is a very important word for those of us who are, as the Bible says, ―full of years.‖
I have watched as I have grown older and seen what this period of our lives can look like.
I have seen others slowly lose their future perspective and surely begin looking back to the days of old.
Sometimes those days are days of joy and wonderful memories. Sometimes they etched a place of pain so deep that to reflect on them brings forth torment in our souls.
With sadness I saw one of my wife‘s dear relatives turn from facing the future to looking back to the past. She began to remember the wrongs others had done to her. As she did, the memory of those wrongs began to torment her.
Eventually it so obsessed her that she felt that even those of us who loved her and were taking care of her were colored with the same hues as those who had wronged her. She began to accuse us of doing things to her we would never dream of.
Thankfully as we prayed for her and spoke with her about the goodness of her present life and the promise of the future she began to let those memories go. She once again looked at life as it was unfolding now and the good things the future held for her.
I believe it can be even worse for us to become stuck in a good period of our past. To hold on to a time when things were wonderful and continually relive them can become a roadblock to the things God has for us today and tomorrow.
How many times have I heard people say, ―I wish I were back then. Things were so different – so good.‖ The importance of seeing days that were different in the past is to seek that same difference today.
Again I am not saying that to reflect on wonderful times in the past is wrong. We are to let those memories speak to us of the continuing grace God gives us today. Just as we look back on those times and see the glow of God‘s presence, so one day, if we respond correctly today, we can look back on today and see the same.
It is not wrong to look with joy on significant milestones of the past – when you first met Jesus. When you first fell in love. Your first kiss. When you graduated from school. Your successes in your work or passions. The memories of wonderful days can be such a precious treasure….. As long as they don‘t assault the future with hopelessness.
This was the condition Solomon found himself in at the end of his days. He had lost the joy of life due to his wrong behavior. In seeing his own path to despair he counsels us to:
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, ―I have no delight in them‖;
Ecclesiastes 12:1 (NASB)
No matter what time of life we are in we can have ―delight in them.‖ Solomon gives us the key to facing the future. If we follow what he says we will not face a past of regret. We need to remember our creator today.
To remember God right now – in this moment -- is to be prepared to move into the future with confidence and joy.
One obvious things that comes out of remembering God in this moment is to put the past to rest. If our past is one of pain we must forgive, see that God was with us in every moment and like Joseph came to understand, God was intending to bring forth a good future.
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.
Genesis 50:20 (NASB)
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28
In understanding this we see that everything in our lives to this very day has been preparing us for our future.
The days of pain and the days of glory alike were to bring us to this moment. Because of this today is the greatest day of our lives and tomorrow will be even better.
Paul understood these two traps well. He made a purposeful choice to turn from facing the past with its sins, pain, wrongs against him, failures and especially successes.
He would never stop facing the future with determination to more fully follow Jesus in the next moment.
It has often been said that there is no retirement in the work of the kingdom. While God intends it to be so many not only retire they die to God.
The tragic statement, ―I have put in my time now let the younger generation take their turn‖ sets us up for living our final days in defeat when they should be our days of greatest victory.
If we are to be true followers of Jesus we must see every moment of our lives as the greatest moment yet. We must believe that the God who has brought us to this day is not through with us until he walks us over the valley of the shadow of death.
I have seen many glorious days in God in my life. But today I am living in the most glorious yet. And I intend for tomorrow to be more glorious. I forget the past and press on today into my future which is as Adoniram Judson said,
The future is as bright as the promises of God.
My great biblical hero and example of this is Caleb.
Before Israel was going to enter into the promised land, Moses had sent out twelve men to spy it out for forty days. Caleb was one of them. When they came back ten of the men put fear in the hearts of everyone.
But Caleb did what Solomon told us to do. He remembered his creator when he was young.
He and Joshua believed in the power of God to take them into the land of inheritance when no one else did.
When his fellow spies were telling of the greatness of their enemies and the danger of the land, Caleb told of the greatness and protection of his and our God.
Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, ―We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.‖
Numbers 13:30 (NASB)
Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. 2 All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, ―Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!
Numbers 14:1-3 (NASB)
Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; 7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, ―The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the LORD is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us—a land which flows with milk and honey.
Numbers 14:6-8 (NASB)
Only do not rebel against the LORD; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.‖ 10 But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the glory of the LORD appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel.
Numbers 14:9-10 (NASB)
Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice, 23 shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it. 24 But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.
Numbers 14:9-10 (NASB)
So for forty years Israel wandered in the wilderness until all the men who did not remember God in their youth died. Just ad God said, only Joshua and Caleb remained alive of the whole generation.
They led the people into the land when they were both well advanced in years. But the best days for Caleb were far from over. When he was eighty five he decided to take God up on a promise He had made to Him when he was young.
Then the sons of Judah drew near to Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, ―You know the word which the LORD spoke to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadeshbarnea. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadeshbarnea to spy out the land, and I brought word back to him as it was in my heart. 8 Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear; but I followed the LORD my God fully.
Joshua 14:6-8 (NASB)
So Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land on which your foot has trodden will be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God fully.‘ 10 Now behold, the LORD has let me live, just as He spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked in the wilderness; and now behold, I am eighty-five years old today.
Joshua 14:9-10 (NASB)
I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in. 12 Now then, give me this hill country about which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the LORD will be with me, and I will drive them out as the LORD has spoken.‖
Joshua 14:11-12 (NASB)
So Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. 14 Therefore, Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite until this day, because he followed the LORD God of Israel fully.
Joshua 14:13-14 (NASB)
Caleb fought giants at eighty five and won! He understood that until he was dead God would fulfill his purposes in his life by the strength of His power and not by Caleb‘s. That is what I want to be like. I want to face the future with the expectation of God using me to my final breath. I want to be doing the exploits that only young men are thought to be able to do and do them as a testimony that God is real.
Many here are in a time where they are no longer bound to a job to provide for their families. Sadly many feel that the end of their working career is the beginning of the end of their life. Statistics show that most people, especially men, will die sooner if they do not find a meaningful task to continue doing after they retire. God created us to be active for our whole lives.
For a Christian facing the future means knowing that there is always a purpose in our lives no matter what. And for those who would give themselves fully to that purpose there is much to do.
Take, for instance, our hosts tonight. George is 89 and Lillian is 82. They are still pressing into the future and taking ground for God. They are not going to quit until they cross the valley of the shadow of death. They epitomize for me this scripture:
He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. 13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. 15 And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Luke 19:12-15 (KJV)
Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. 17 And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. 18 And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. 19 And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities.
Luke 19:16-19 (KJV)
20 And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin:
Luke 19:20 (KJV)
Think of what it would feel like to stand before the Lord who gave his all for us to have nothing to give Him back….. To hear ourselves speaking these words….. I took what you gave me and hid it…….
My mother-in-law has been dying for many years – at least according to the doctor! But she refuses to accept the diagnosis! At 91 She knows God has a purpose for her life and actively seeks it.
I know that even if she were bedridden she would take up even more fully her ministry of prayer. Some of the greatest exploits for God have been done by people who could only pray.
She does have a vital ministry of prayer for her family, friends and ministries she loves. She also hosts a weekly Bible study, has her family and guests into her house to share the love God has placed in her heart, visits others bringing gifts and especially those that are not well in her apartment building often feel her love as she prays with them for healing.
As if that were enough she returns to her native land – Holland – yearly. Her desire in these visits is not self centered but in order to share the love of Jesus with her family there. Thanks to her grandson Ariel some of her testimony of God‘s grace for her is on the World Wide Web!
She is one of my great heroes because she is living the life I desire and intend to live. She has given each next moment – her future to live in an intentional way fro God. It started when she was young when a possible long future lay ahead of her. She faced the future. Today she is still facing the future and finding that it is as bright as the promises of God. And that is what is what the future will be for us if we follow Caleb, George, Lillian and Rebecca‘s path.
Facing the future means something for me today that it did not mean forty years ago. In those days I rarely thought about the wonders of heaven. Those thoughts now overtake me quite often. There will be a day not to far in the distance that we will cross that valley and be with Jesus forever. As the songsmith has said, ―What a day, glorious day that will be.‖ As we face the future we can face it with joy looking to that day.
Friday, February 1, 2013
The Church’s Responsibility Toward Israel.
And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 2 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Genesis 12:3
The first and most important thing God wants the Church to do for Israel is to believe the Bible.
When the Church has believed what God says about Israel they have responded properly and blessed God’s ancient people.
When the Church has not believed what God says about Israel she has ended up joining herself to Israel’s enemies in cursing the nation.
So the most important thing we, as the Church, can do for Israel is to believe God’s Word about His promise, plan and provision for the apple of his eye.
he who touches you (Israel), touches the apple of His eye.
Zechariah 2:8b
According to the scripture we read at the first, the Church is to Bless Israel. The ministry that has offered this gathering has as its primary goal to bless Israel. To bless Israel should be a stated, taught, internalized and acted upon goal of every church. It should inform every act they do.
And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Genesis 12:3
While the following is not an exhaustive list, it does represent what I believe the central attitudes and actions we as the Church are to have and do to bless Israel.
#1 The Church has a responsibility to bless Israel by:
Believing, Teaching and Publically Declaring the Everlasting Covenant of Love God entered into with Abraham and the nation that came from him – Israel.
Now when Abram was ninety nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless." 2 I will establish My covenant between Me and you, And I will multiply you exceedingly.“ 3 Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, 4 "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, And you will be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 "No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 "I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you. 7 “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.”
Genesis 17:1-7
This scripture marks the beginning of the revelation of God’s eternal heart of love for and His covenant with Abraham and His Sons and Daughters.
It is an everlasting – eternal covenant. It has never been, nor will it ever be revoked or broken. It will continue as long as the sun shines in the day. It will be upheld as long as the stars glitter and moon beams fall on the Earth in the night.
Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is His name: . 36 “If this fixed order departs From before Me,” declares the LORD, “Then the offspring of Israel also will cease From being a nation before Me forever.”
Jeremiah 31:35-36 (NASB)
The love that motivated God to make this covenant is an everlasting – eternal – love. As He promised to Abraham He will continue to love Israel throughout all Ages – forever – no matter what their response to Him is.
Blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you to set you on the throne of Israel; because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness.”
1 Kings 10:9
Thus says the LORD, “If the heavens above can be measured And the foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel For all that they have done,” declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 31:37 (NASB)
#2 If she is to bless Israel the Church must repent from her consistent hatred of the Jewish Nation throughout history and turn to love her.
If God loves Israel the Church must love her too.
In my talk last year we saw that the greatest crime the church has committed against the Jewish Nation has been to believe that we have taken her place. Beginning in the late first century most of the church has taught this anti – Bible and anti – Semitic doctrine.
It has resulted in horrendous suffering in Jewish people ever since. Even after seeing the church’s theology as a direct cause of the Holocaust this theology continues to spread its hatred toward the Jewish Nation Israel today.
used with permission from original poster.
More than words, we must act in ways that demonstrate our repentance.
#3 The Church blesses Israel when she serves her in repentance.
In 1976 I was given one of the greatest privileges in my life. I had a chance to join a group of young people to go as a team to Israel and work for a year on Kibbutz Kiryat Anavim 11 kilometers outside of Jerusalem.
We went there in a spirit of repentance for what the church had done through the centuries to serve the nation of Israel and her people.
For me the desire to serve Israel as a first intention came from the influence a group of women I had spent time with when I first visited Israel in 1973.
They were German nuns with the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary. They were living out their repentance for the deeds of their forebears by serving the survivors of the concentration camps living in Israel.
The founder of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, M. Basilea Schlink’s writings helped me immensely in the early days of developing a heart to serve the nation as an act of repentance. I would highly recommend her writings for those who want to understand how to minister to Israel through serving them.
On their website the Sisters of Mary write: Considering the atrocities committed against the Jews in the name of Christ throughout much of Christianity's 2000-year history, how can we celebrate the millennium without first expressing our deep sorrow over the past in a spirit of repentance?
By our unchristian attitude and behavior we have brought shame upon the name of Jesus, making it offensive to His own people, the Jews …
Every Church needs to find ways to directly serve Israel in a spirit of repentance.
A fourth way the Church should bless Israel is a specific way to serve her. We should SUPPORT her with our finances.
Most churches give some of their finances to missions.
A Christ centered Church will give a significant portion of their income for this purpose.
Also the impulse to give for helping the poor grows out of the heart of the gospel.
Every church should have the nation of Israel as a part of this giving.
As the Gentile Church served Israel by sending relief for the saints in Jerusalem in the Bible period in the same way the Church today needs to support Israel.
but now, I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints. 26 For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. 27 Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things.
Romans 15:27 (NASB)
As the church in the first century supported the needy in Israel so we should in this century.
Where we give our money demonstrates where our priorities lie.
Individual members of churches and the corporate church can find many ways to bless Israel by supporting her directly or supporting ministries that support her.
#5 The Church has a responsibility to Bless Israel by:
STANDING WITH HER
Corrie Tenboom in her book, “The Hiding Place” tells how after the Nazi occupation the Jewish people of Holland were required to wear a yellow star of David with the word Jew in the centre.
Corrie’s father loved his Jewish friends and decided that he would stand with them. He began to wear the yellow star as well.
This clip cannot be embeded so you can watch it by clicking on the link below.
http://www.awesomestories.com/assets/jewish-yellow-star
I believe, as Mr. Tenboom did, if every member of the church in Germany and the nations they occupied had followed his example and stood with the Jewish people there would not have been a holocaust.
Even if there were a holocaust the church would have not been in the complicity of silence with those who sought to destroy the Jewish Nation.
We cannot be passive and stand with Israel. Her enemies will not allow us to. God will not allow us to. We will either take a clearly communicated stand or we will be complicit in the hatred toward the nation that is now being expressed and will grow stronger as the end draws near.
The Bible tells us that what we have seen in the past regarding the persecution of the Jewish Nation is a warning of what we will see in the future of Israel. The Bible says that one day all nations will forsake Israel. All nations will take up arms is demonic hatred against God’s beloved city - Jerusalem.
I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. 3 Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle.
Zechariah 14:2-3 (NIV)
As hard as it is for me to imagine that my nation, the United States, would ever turn her back on Israel I am watching it happen with my own eyes. Every day as I read, hear or see what my government is doing I can see clearly where the path is leading.
As the true goals of the Arab Spring are being seen, the hesitation to stand firmly with Israel in the leaders of my country makes it clear that they are weakening in their resolve.
This last week the news media reported the USA agreed to send over 450 million dollars worth of military aid to Egypt. The expressed goal of the Muslim Brotherhood, which today have a virtual monopoly of power in Egypt, is to wipe Israel off the map --to drive her people into the sea. How can any nation stand with Israel and send millions of dollars worth of weapons into the hands of those who want to use them for this very purpose?
Two years before he came into power as the prime minister of Egypt Mohamed Morsi said that “Jews were
descendants of apes and pigs……”
In light of Mr. Morsi’s words think of what Hitler said, “The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.”
Dehumanization has always been the means by which genocide has been legitimized throughout the centuries.
When people begin to say that other humans are not human genocidal evil against them is purposed.
People believed the words of Hitler in the beginning were only rhetoric. How sad it is that they failed to see from the beginning they were not.
We must not think the words of those who say they want to destroy Israel are not purposeful and intentional. If they have an opportunity they will do it.
We also must not think that only God’s Ancient people will suffer. True gentile believers have always shared in the sufferings of Israel and will do so in the future. When evil is pronounced against Israel, make no mistake, that evil is pronounced against the Church as well.
In 1972 I visited a Jewish family in Chicago whose son I had led to Jesus. I thought that they would be angry with me but they were not. They showed exceptional love towards me and felt their son’s new faith was saving him from the lifestyle he had formerly been engaged in.
One evening as the father and I were speaking he said words I will never forget.
“True Christians always have and always will suffer with us. I know in the future we will once again suffer with each other.”
The impulse to destroy the Jewish Nation in Hitler did not stop with them. Six million Jewish people were killed but sixteen million gentiles were also killed -the majority of whom were believers in Jesus. A great tragedy occurred not only for Israel but also for the Church.
Edmund Burke - "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
It will not be enough to wait until all nations turn against Israel to stand with her. It was not enough for the church to make pronouncements of their support for the Jewish Nation after six million had been killed in the Holocaust. The time to stand with her was when Papa Tenboom did -- At the first sign of the coming storm. The Church must stand now.
Every church needs to teach the truths contained in the Bible about Israel. Every Church needs to make a clear statement of their intent to stand with Israel no matter what the cost to them may be. Every Church must be prophetically active to remind their culture of God’s decree that those who bless the children of Abraham will be blessed and everyone who curses her will be cursed.
The Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper has been in this moment of history very much like Caspar Tenboom was in his day. Of all nations on the Earth only Canada has stood so radically with Israel. It is Mr. Harper who has led this standing. We should honor him greatly for his courageous stand and let him and others know we stand with him.
A sixth way the Church should bless Israel is to SEEK GOD for her.
Perhaps the most important act for the Church to do concerning Israel is to pray for her.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you. 7 “May peace be within your walls, And prosperity within your palaces.” 8 For the sake of my brothers and my friends, I will now say, “May peace be within you.” 9 For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good.
Psalm 122:6-9 (NASB)
The call for prayer for Israel is depicted in the Old Testament as Watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem who cry out continually to make Israel a praise in the Earth.
On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves; 7 And give Him no rest until He establishes And makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Isaiah 62:6-7 (NASB)
Every Church and every member of the Church is called to be a watchman or watchwoman. There are no elite groups of people called to be intercessors. In reality there is only one who can intercede for us it is Jesus. Yet all of us can cry out to Him. And one of those cries is to be for the Peace of Jerusalem.
It may seem that we should respond to those who hate Israel with an opposing vengeance. But that is not the way of the Saviour. When we pray for the peace of Jerusalem we intentionally pray for her enemies to turn from their hatred and to love the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We pray that they will find the Saviour and be transformed by His love.
We also pray for ourselves. We pray that our hearts will beat with His love for everyone…… Jew, Gentile, Man, Woman, Slave, Free….. All are loved by God and all can know Him. We are praying that not only would we bless Israel but that we would be a blessing to everyone for His Name and For His sake.
The video of this talk is here:
The Power Point is here:
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