Compassion like Christ

Matthew 9:35-38   “³⁵Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.    ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. ³⁸ Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

As a believer it's important to keep in mind that we have a mission, a purpose for and from Christ. 

One of the things that stand out to me clearly from the scriptures is that Christ had compassion for others before he had compassion on himself.  This compassion led him to meet the needs of others.

Christ met the physical needs of those around him the Scripture says he went through town after town village after village. As he went through these towns and villages he met people who had great needs, and he met them right where they were. Often being interrupted he took the time to lovingly minister to those he met.

The compassion of Christ led him to meet the spiritual needs of those people he met. He went teaching and preaching to those towns and villages thereby meeting the  greater needs of the people.   His world needed the good news and guess what? 

The generation we live in today still needs the good news!  Christ compassion caused him to have concern over their spiritual eternity. He was concerned for their condition, he prayed for them, he challenged them to forsake their former lives and follow him.

Here is something else that stands out to me as I reflect upon this passage:  Christ compassion caused him to petition his father in prayer.  He asked for things to change and He repeatedly taught his disciples, even the Pharisees and Sadducees, and those around him to ask God. He talked about praying in the smallest amounts of faith and producing the greatest results imaginable.  On one occasion  He gave a model to pray, but most impressive He lived before them as an example of what prayer was to be like. 

This may seem simple but I think it is a truth we often forget or overlook: Without asking there can be no answer!   What is it we have failed to ask God to do?  In our lives, our family, our community?   Is there an area we simply need to asked God to work in and then trust him to answer?  We should learn to pray and understand that without God nothing is or can be accomplished.  Yet when we get up from our knees and leave our prayer closet we should expect God to use us to meet those needs.    I cannot tell you how many times I have prayed for something and then God gave me an opportunity to be the one to meet that need.     

You'd do well to realize the one we asked wants to bless more than we know, think or can imagine. 

As you pilgrimage through this world remember that we are sent out and we are not the sender!  We are sent out we are not sent in that is an important distinction. It's also important for us to realize this is His field and not ours.  Therefore,  if it's His harvest and not ours why wouldn't the Lord of the harvest grant the request of the one who's praying? 

Do Not Despise Thy Weakness

Most of the people that I meet in ministry assume that they minister most effectively from their strengths.    After all,  when a pulpit committee begins to question a perspective pastor the committee will often focus on that pastor’s strengths,  glancing over the weaknesses,  but primarily focusing on the strengths that that pastor brings to the table.   Strengths that will benefit the church, and help  whatever situation they just gone through.

 much of what we read in the past oral training field has to do with our strengths.   The focus is on becoming a better leader,  presenting polished sermons,  leading effective evangelism and prayer ministries.  None of which I necessarily disagree with.  So, please do not misunderstand my intentions on posting this blog.   

However, that’s a wrong assumption and a perverted vision of “spiritual gifts.”   Contrary to popular thought,   What we find throughout the Scriptures  is that we minister most effectively from our weakness. 

Paul was writing to the church of Corinth and he relayed this truth to that church from Christ himself.   Listen to what Jesus told Paul:  “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9)

You see beloved the power of God is not made perfect in our strengths,  but rather in our weaknesses. I realize that this goes against the grain of everything we read and are taught,  but I wholly believe it is a  spiritual, scriptural  teaching.

This understanding led Paul to minister differently.   He operated from a different perspective, maybe just maybe that is why he was so powerful.   The words of Christ gave him strength so much so Paul declared to that  Corinthian church:

“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 
(2 Cor. 12:10)

How many of us  have truly learned to delight in weakness?  How many of us truly embrace insults as that which makes a strong?   How many of us go through a hardship understanding that God is at work to produce something of eternal value in our lives?   Do we prize persecutions as a gift from God?   Or do we pray,  that God would quickly removes these things that He’s placed in our lives to produce his glory?  

 If we have the wrong attitude in our weakness is quite possible in ministry we will not bless the church but we will burden it.

 As I write this blog am reminded of the apostle Peter and his words in his first  letter:

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  (1 Peter 1:6-7)

Death: A Real Reality

Death - it is real, it is really hard, and it really stinks. 

The last several weeks I have watch a friend loose the battle to Cancer.   I have stood and watched this precious family in my church morn, ask questions and battle their own warfare.  The reality hits you like a mac truck pushing down the highway of life.

You see, death was not apart of God’s plan in the beginning.  When God created, He created us for life and to live!  He created us for relationships, and companionships.  God said, “It was good, very good.”  But something changed all, of that.  Something within each one of us.

Today,  death is a classroom we do not ask for, a teacher we despise.  Why?  Death tears us apart from those we love, admire, and relate to.   In death we experience the  consequence of sin and rebellion.   I am reminded today that there are two kinds of death:   spiritual death and physical death.   

But you say I noticed that Adam did not die in Genesis chapter 3.  He went on and he lived several more years.   So if death is a part of the  consequence why didn’t he die immediately?  

It is here we learn a valuable lesson:  Death in the Bible is not termination, rather it is  separation.     The day that you die, the day your body quits breathing you do not cease to exist. It is true your body is gone.  But, you are still very much alive.  

You, meaning the soul of man?   Yes.  A man’s soul is still alive and lives on long past you draw your last breath.  As I reflect on watching my friend take his last breath, I only find comfort today in knowing that he has made a great transition, he has not stopped existing but now he exist in a different manner, for now he is spirit in the presence of  God's spirit, and one day he like many others before him will find a promised glorious Resurrection.  In this I hope for, confidently expecting God to redeem this sad moment.  You see the simple truth is this: every person is going to live forever somewhere.  

Statement of truth:
The Bible does not speak of death as termination it speaks of it as separation.

Today, Tim is separated from us, but he is not lost from us, he is only a breath away! 

Still there is not only a physical death, but the Bible teaches that there is an eternal death and a spiritual death.  This is an eternal separation, not a temporary one.   In Christ we experience a temporary separation, and in Christ we have the promised hope of an eternal reunion that will be grand and glorious.

Yet without Christ,  one will experience eternal separation from God.  The word of God is clear: One day this individual will spend forever separated from God and place called hell.   The reality today is this:  You will continue to exist, death is not the end of life but a transition in life. 
Where we live forever depends on what we do with Jesus!

In his dying days Tim told me he wanted his life and death to be an expression of the Gospel... 

I just happen to think it was.

Death - it is real, it is really hard, and it really stinks.  At least on this side of things.  Because we who are left experience the pain of separation.  So I hold on to a wonderful promise that God can work all things to his good, even when I think it stinks.

When the master meets us

NIV Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”

Make no mistake about it Christ is not inviting us to leisure or laziness, however,  He goes on to say: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, from gentle and humble in heart; shall find rest for your souls.”

He encourages us by telling us that his yoke is easy and his burden is light.   The writer of Hebrews picks up on this in Chapter 4 when he talks about a high priest who has passed through the heavens his name is Jesus, the Son of God.

As I read the text,  I wonder if the writer of Hebrews isn’t thinking about the invitation of Jesus in Matthew when he writes “let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.”  {See Hebrews 4:14 through 16}

As I work and serve the kingdom of God through the local church I see people and yes I myself at times in life have needed rest, grace, and help in times of distress and need.  It is wonderful and comforting to know that we have a Master who meets us where we are, when we need him the most.

Prayers for Revival

Before God comes in Revival the people of God are found praying.  When God brought revival to Wales, God’s people had been praying.  When God came in Revival to Brownwood Texas in a spiritual wave that touched more than 100 college campuses it was the confession of the students that they had a lack of prayer in their life.  They began to pray and confess sin and God showed up. 

Before Charles Finney went to a city to preach, he would send Father Nash ahead of him to pray for the upcoming meetings.  Charles Spurgeon was known to have large groups of people who prayed during every service he preached.    The testimony is clear:  Churches who have witnessed the mighty working of God are engaging prayer.  Prayer plays a key role in the foundational component of Revival.

Jesus Himself declared that His Father’s house was to be a house of prayer.  (See Matthew 21:13)

Here is the reality today that we must face and accept:  A church that pleases God is a church that routinely and sincerely bombards heavens doors. 

THE NOW

Do you live in the here and now?   Jesus emphasized "today" many times.  For instance,  in Matthew chapter 6 verse 34 he tells us not to be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will  care for self. He tells us that each day has enough trouble of its own.    The emphasis is that we should  live in the here and now.

Statement of Truth:
He who commands us not to be concerned about tomorrow will not burden our mind with concern about the future.

When your thoughts are filled with worries and cares about tomorrow you can be sure that you’re not hearing God’s voice.  Jesus commands you to be concerned about today and his promise is that he will guide us in the present.

I think the fundamental reason for discarding our future oriented concerns is that God has an abiding presence in his desire is for a set of continual fellowship with him. He promises us that he will never desert us or forsake us.

Our Lord knows the most important period of time is always “the now.” He knows that are "Now’s will soon become our yesterdays and that if you live each “now” well you will have no regrets tomorrow. I believe that the Lord also knows that our “now’s will determine our future.

“The Now” is the precious present.   The precious present is the secret to a full life. How many times do we get caught in the trap of focusing on the big events of the future?   A family Christmas celebration, the coming conference, a high school graduation?   But I think God wants each of us, you and me, to focus on what’s happening today. In the relevance of the Lords voice regarding time is one of the ways to know the shepherd's voice because God is focused on “the now”.

GOD is God of  “THE NOW”

Words Are Important

Words are important.  Yes they are, very important.

If you don’t think so just misspell one word on your smart phone and hit send before you read it.   I was on the receiving end of such a conversation not long ago.   In the individuals trying to spell shut,  but instead this person spelt something entirely different.   Let’s just say we had some fun that day back and forth.

In the church today people often say, “I don’t like the word lost.” Does it matter what we like?  I mean really?  Why are we afraid of the word lost?

The words saved and lost are very biblical words that communicate the all important life change that needs to happen!  These words are in the Bible and that’s the word the Christian community should use.   I do not think we should redefine what the Bible teaches.   Words are important.

When we redefine what the Bible teaches,  we lose our power,  our purpose,  and our voice.   That is what’s wrong with America today.   I tell you one thing:  If I’m lost at sea,  and the Coast Guard comes to me with those big orange life preservers that float I am not going to say, “  I want to make sure that you understand the condition that I am in."  I am not going to say, "I want you to understand the deliverance that I need.   And I know that these terms are described in many different ways...”   No, not at all!   I’m going to say, “ save me!”

When Simon Peter was sinking on the water, what did he say?  He said,  “Lord save me!”   The reality today is that lost people need to get saved!   The words we use are important!    These words communicate life change that needs to occur in everyone, everywhere!   In Romans chapter 10 versus 1 through 4 Paul has some amazing important words to say.

Romans 10:1-4

New International Version (NIV)

10 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. ² For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. ³ Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. ⁴ Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

Paul used his writings {WORDS} to reach out to the lost,  he used his writings {words} to reach out to the churches.   He wrote these letters to churches and he was telling these churches about the Christian life, and he was telling them the need to engage in evangelism.   He explained many times over the gospel message and the shared responsibility of the church community to share the faith with words to those around them.    Keep in mind that Paul had bad eyes,  and many times he had to use a scribe in order to convert the thoughts in his mind to words on a page.   When he did write himself he had parchments and crude writing pens and he wrote HUGE WORDS with his own hand.  Here is the point:  Paul took what he had and he reached HIS world for Jesus Christ.

 I want you to be challenged today to use what you have touch the world – your world with the gospel in words and ways that are real!   How about texting someone a word from the word?    This is right were I need to challenge you today.  Every day we are passing up great tools for the Gospel.  Paul used letters  - he did not have text messages  - if he had technology at his finger tips I can imagine Paul would have used it for the gospel.   

What I cannot imagine is Paul using modern technology to say that “burrito was awesome.”    I think he would’ve sent a text message saying, “the Lord loves you and I’ve been praying for you thinking about you and just wanted to remind you that God gave his best for you in Jesus Christ.”

 I think Paul would have used e-mails for God’s glory!   We send e-mails to everyone, how might we use our e-mail for the glory of God to reach this world with the gospel?   What about Facebook?  Twitter, or other social media?  Have you ever thought about using your Facebook for Jesus?   Now some of you may have to change a little bit of what you’re putting on there.  

Think about it would you?  I mean if you arer going to put the plan of salvation on there one-day,  please do us all a huge favor and don’t be talking about going to the casinos the next! 

I want to challenge you to put in your bio the fact that you were lost and this is how you came to know Jesus Christ,  and then to say this is how you can know Jesus Christ yourself!  Please say this with all the love of Christ.    At the end of the day, it is more important for you to put the gospel of Jesus Christ on your Facebook page then a picture of you of that tacky bathing suit and sombrero! 

Here’s what I want you to do today.  I want you to take out your phone.  I want you to send someone a text message,  or an e-mail -  right now.   I want you to make a contact send someone a heartfelt message that they are loved and missed and that you are praying for them.  Why not text a verse of scripture to someone today?