The Word became Flesh to Contradict False Words

John 1:10-13   He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

God understood that at the very heart of living life on this earth is using words to convey thoughts.  He designed us to be social creatures that thrive in community.  He created us and made us with the ability to learn—especially to learn about each other.

Can you imagine that moment when Adam and Eve first met? A brand new world sparkles and vibrates with color and movement.  God’s anesthetic has just worn off from the first surgical procedure and Adam has just awakened and looked into the face of God, wondering what had just happened.   God simply re-directs Adam’s gaze over at Eve and for the first time they see each other.  God speaks an introduction.  “Adam, this is Eve.  I have made her to be a companion for you.  Eve, this is Adam.  You’re just going to love this guy! I’ve have made you and he to be perfect companions.  I’ve already told him what needs to be done.  Help him do it, would you?” Adam and Eve both nod, but are too lost in the wonder of the gift of each other.  

Adventist Artist, Nathan Greene captured what it must have been like in his painting “The Introduction”.  I love that painting. You may have seen it.  It is a stunning portrayal of that first moment of man's special blessing from God.  Adam and Eve gaze with a wonder and tenderness to set the standard for all time.  And from that moment on, they spend hours getting to know one another.  They form their thoughts into words and share what is in their minds.  They converse and exchange ideas.  And love grows.  They thought they were in love to begin with, but they find that as they express their thoughts and feelings, love deepens.  Then it begins to be seen in their actions towards each other.  This was the perfect marriage.  A match truly made in heaven.  And the actions and words and emotions converge to bring them back to gratitude for a God so loving that He would provide so abundantly for the two of them by giving them a perfect world and each other.  Words were never cruel, never harsh, never impatient or demanding.  Nor were they ever unkind.  And they were never, ever false.

Which is why the words of a serpent in the tree were so easy to believe. Eve had never heard a lie before.  Only truthful words had ever been spoken.  And she suddenly finds herself in conflict, because here is a beautiful snake contradicting God himself.  Unfortunately, she bit on the lie and we were cut off from face to face contact with the Word.

That’s why it was necessary for the Word to come to earth in the form of a Baby.  When man first sinned, they could remember what it was like in the Garden, and could communicate that to generations before the flood.  Adam and Even lived over 900 years, so they told and retold the story of their introduction and what life was like in the garden.  They told of the fateful day when a serpent had deceived them, and how they had been removed from their garden home so that they could not eat any longer of the tree of life and thus perpetuate sin.  They told of how Abel had already died and that each of them was doomed to death, but that there was a Savior coming to redeem them.  The Word Himself. 

But the longer man was out of the Garden, the more man forgot the Word of God.  The farther man got from the Word, the more man’s words were harsh and cruel and untrue. Lies abounded. And the more lies that were told, the less God was recognizable in our world.  And as God became so obscure in the lives of men, He knew that if He were to redeem us, He would have to speak a Word so powerfully that it would resonate down through the corridors of time to all future generations.

And so the Word became flesh. John 1:14   The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

That’s exactly what we needed from the Father.  One who came full of grace and truth.  We needed to once again see God and to sense His presence among us.  So the Word came and He lived a vibrant and passionate life in the midst of the grayness of our existence.  Where we saw shadows, He brought light.  Where we felt pain, He brought healing.  Where we found ourselves mired in the endless cycle of toil, pain and death, He brought joy, hope and life.

Deck the Halls...with Grace!

Luke 2:4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.

5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,  7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

No fanfare.  No Santa’s.  No blinking lights and tinsel.  Here we arrive at just a quiet stable cave and a feedbox—the original Christmas.  No wish lists. No blaring music or irritating advertising.  Just peace at the end of the labor of childbirth, as Grace Himself, came into the world.  No decorations. No icicle lights on their cave or lighted deer in the front yard.  No ringing bells. No trumpets. Nothing.  Except Grace.  The Grace of a God who would leave the treasures of heaven for the filth of this earth.  Grace that would step out of eternity into time in order to allow us to step out of time into eternity with Him.  Grace that loved His creation so much that He would rather die than live without us.  He would rather risk having us reject Him for eternity, than know that He could have done something to rescue us, but didn’t.

You see, when Jesus came, He decked the halls of this world with nothing more and nothing less than Grace.  He splashed grace around as He decorated lives with it.  The colors of grace brightened the crowds after He had passed by. The touch of grace was felt on the hand of a little dead girl and she lived once again.   The sounds of grace filled the ears of those who heard, “Neither do I condemn you.”  Or “Go in peace, your faith has made you well.”  The smell of grace was in the air as the rotting, oozing flesh of lepers was suddenly fresh and clean.  And the taste of grace filled the stomachs of at least 5,000, not to mention the 12 at the last supper.  Everywhere Jesus went, he decorated lives with grace.  And there is nothing more beautiful than a grace-filled life.

There is nothing so amazing as seeing one who has been caked with the filth of sin suddenly clean.  Nothing so lovely as seeing one who has suffered unimaginable abuse suddenly free to sing.  Nothing quite so attractive as a once-harsh life, now softened and considerate of others.  There is nothing so appealing as a grace-filled, gracious person.

And that’s why He came.  That’s what gets lost in the celebration of our times.  That’s what the ads cover up and the commercialism smothers.  That’s what the frenetic pace causes us to forget.  That God decorated our lives with grace, and wants us to extend that same grace to others.  He wants us to realize each Christmas that He is actually calling  us to help Him decorate for the season!  He wants us to actually be a seasoning for the season.  To be people who have been changed by grace, and can joyfully splash his grace around a graceless world.  To be so changed by his grace that your very being is different from those in the world around you, and you can’t help decking the halls with His grace.

Why Did God Pick the Wrong Place?

Can you hear Mary?  We often try to deify her, but come on, she was a teenager.  Even the most spiritual teens I know will gripe.  I can hear her on that last day, as the labor pains begin saying, “ I didn’t know when I said yes that it would mean I would have to do this.  It’s too hard God!  I can’t make it.  I can see Bethlehem off in the distance but this pain is too great.  I can’t make it.  And as they seek lodging, she is to the point where she is having to stick her sleeve in her mouth so it muffles her screams of pain from the labor.  And now she’s stuck in a barn, with the smell of animal poop filling it.  She knows it is time and I’m sure between contractions she must have wondered about the irony of it all.  I’m sure she must have said, “No God, not here!  Your Son deserves better than this.  Please find us a better place!  Get us out of this dump!”  Pretty hard to say at a time like this, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be done to me as you have said.”

So why did God pick the wrong place?  Why didn’t he just whip up an ultra-modern hospital out on the plain with a giant rotating beacon to guide them in?  His Son of course would be the sole occupant and then the beacon could forever guide the faithful on their pilgrimage to the hospital shrine.  The birthplace of Jesus.  But the barn?  Wrong place!

You may feel you are in the wrong place in your life.  You may have committed your life to Jesus and then feel He abandoned you.  Take a lesson from Mary.  Such is not the case.

The message of Christmas is that God intrudes upon the weak and the vulnerable, and this is precisely the message that we so often miss. God does not come to that part of us that swaggers through life, confident in our self-sufficiency. God leaves his treasure in the broken fragmented places of our life. God comes to us in those rare moments when we are able to transcend our own selfishness long enough to really care about another human being.

He must necessarily lead us through those dark places, not to burden us or to scare us, but to change us.  We look at our circumstances and say “I don’t like that.”  God isn’t concerned about our circumstances.  He is interested in our heart.  I like how Rev John Schmidt put it.

Maybe where we are right now in life feels like the wrong place.

Either looking back to what was or looking forward to what might be. 
-- Just not here and now!

We assume that we are going to have to leave this place to get to the right place.

But God is present in all our "wrong" places. God is at work there.

Our circumstances are not the most important thing in life. God is, and our response to Him.  God uses the wrong places of life to make the right changes in us.

Our focus is on making things right for us.  God's focus is making things right in us.

We need to do what God has given us to do.  Right now, right here.

On the wall of the museum of the concentration camp at Dachau is a large and moving photograph of a mother and her little girl standing in line of a gas chamber. The child, who is walking in front of her mother, does not know where she is going. The mother, who walks behind, does know, but is helpless to stop the tragedy. In her helplessness she performs the only act of love left to her. She places her hands over he child's eyes so she will at least not see the horror to come. When people come into the museum they do not whisk by this photo hurriedly. They pause. They almost feel the pain. And deep inside I think that they are all saying: "O God, don't let that be all that there is."

 (from Sermon Illustrations.com)

God's hears those prayers and it is in just such situations of hopelessness and helplessness that his almighty power is born. It is there that God leaves his treasure. As for Mary, so it is with you and I that it is there, right in the middle of the brokenness, right in the middle of the stench, right in the middle of the darkness, when you feel you are lost or in the wrong place,  that’s when Christ is born anew within.
 

Don’t miss it.  Let it happen in you once again and you will find the Hope of the world will restore your hope and give you strength to go on.

But Why? Why Do We Celebrate Christmas?

When was the last time you really thought about why you celebrate Christmas? Oh, we celebrate… buy why do we? In this season where it seems the whole world jumps on board to decorate and sing songs of cheer and give gifts, doesn’t it seem a bit odd that though many can mouth the words, “to celebrate the birth of Christ”, they have no idea what they are really saying?

Doesn’t it strike you as a bit curious that when you ask people on the street what the true meaning of Christmas is they respond: revenue to get the end of the year sales up. Or, a time to celebrate with family and friends. Or, it’s where you get a lot of stuff in one day. And if you were to push that idea and ask why we get lots of stuff in one day, you would get, “because that’s what Christmas is all about.” Yeah, but why?

When was the last time you slowed down to really reflect on the why of Christmas?

There is a one verse in scripture that puts it rather succinctly: For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

There it is. Wrapped up in a single line. For God so loved the world that He gave….

Ponder that. God loved…He gave… Not just a little love… He so loved… One version says: God loved the world so much that He sent His only Son

God was way before Hallmark…but He cared enough to send the very best!!!

That’s good news in itself. God loved us enough to send the very best. Himself. That would be enough to celebrate right there. God comes to town!

Just His coming would be reason enough to celebrate!  But that’s not the end of the verse.  God had a purpose in coming.  He was on a mission.  He loved…and that prompted action.  He saw His newest planet go awry.  He watched as His youngest creation walked away from Him, following another of His wayward children into outright rebellion.

He cried as he heard the words, “We heard your voice and we were afraid…”

He knew, as every parent of a defiant teen knows, that unless drastic action was taken, this young world would be forever lost.  And so He came…  why?

…that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Ponder that.  I know you’ve heard the words a million times, but slow down a minute and reflect on what that means. Stop your conversation with your neighbor.  Stop trying to impress her.  Stop worrying about lunch. Stop your racing mind.  Just stop. //  And ponder the words that are as familiar as Christmas commercialism.

…that whoever believes in Him, should not perish…  What?  Perish from what?  What do you mean perish?  That’s such an ugly word…perish.  According to the dictionary it means to die, for example, because of harsh conditions or accident.  To come to an end or cease to exist.  Perish.

It is both of these definitions that John was trying to encapsulate with that one word.  Without help, you and I will die because of harsh conditions.  Sin created such harsh conditions, that you and I cannot endure it.  We will perish.  Which means that we will come to an end and cease to exist.  Bottom line…there was no hope of getting out alive.

But God wanted us to live.  In the middle of that cold hard reality, stop.  Stop and listen to what God says. 

God is saying—I LOVE YOU!!!  Ponder that.  I LOVE you.  I love YOU!

Let’s look at that whole verse:  For God (the greatest good) so loved (the greatest action) the world (the greatest need) that He gave (the greatest example) His only Son (the greatest sacrifice) that whoever (the greatest invitation) believes in Him (the greatest response) should not perish (the greatest fate) but have everlasting life (the greatest gift).

That’s the reality of the Christmas season.  To find the Christmas you’ve always longed for, you have to slow down for reflection.  Stop in the middle of the madness and reflect.  Ponder the love behind the greatest gift.  Think about the meaning of God coming down to this little speck in the universe.  Reflect on His invitation to you.  Step out of the rush and do some unhurried contemplation.   Reread the story.  Put yourself there.  Look and see the baby.  Smell the smells.  Hear the sounds.  Feel God’s love surround you.  Slow down for reflection.

And celebrate. Celebrate the Christ in Christmas.

And KNOW

In my last post, Breathe, we looked at the first part of a verse in Psalm 46.  "Be Still..."  Today, I would like to finish that verse..."and know that I am God."

We come to trust things and people in our lives only after they have been shown to be reliable.  Our lawnmowers, our computers, our cars, our appliances, even the pews you are sitting on, have all shown themselves to one degree or another, to be reliable.  How does that happen? We put our trust in them and use them until they prove themselves to be unreliable.  And as soon as we find them to be unreliable, we replace them.  Our 12 year old refrigerator had to be replaced because it became unreliable.  We didn’t know from one day to the next if it would be ice cold or toasty warm when we opened the door.  Ice cold, was freezing our food and toasty warm was ruining it. Eventually, it got to where it was more on the warm side and almost never cold. Cleaning the coils, replacing the thermostat and more didn’t solve the problem, so we decided it was time for a new one.  It is keeping things reliably cold.  We trust in the new one again…and we will continue to do so until it proves itself unreliable.

So what does a refrigerator have to do with being still and knowing He is God?  Great question.  I’m glad you asked.  First, many have come to view God as unreliable.  He didn’t answer my prayer.  He didn’t heal my dad.  He isn’t feeding the hungry.  He doesn’t protect the innocent from being killed and stuffed into a suitcase.  And on and on we go attempting to show how unreliable God is.  But if we were able to sweep back a curtain in order to view the supernatural realm, I bet we would be amazed that in every instance, the devil would look up surprised to find us looking at him as he seeks to maim, kill and destroy and then would point at God, blaming Him for not stopping the carnage.  And I bet if we could look closer, we would see a God who is always working to protect, yet within the bounds of respecting human freedom of choice, which the devil never respects.  He continues to push and cajole and tempt and pressure and persuade and lead us ever farther away from God…sometimes against our own free will, using our natural inclinations  toward sin against us.  God has always been reliable, even when the devil tries to make Him look otherwise.  God is ever-present.  Ever watching.  Ever-loving.

To truly understand this command of God to be still and know that He is God, as well as understand how to weather life’s storms, we must see this passage in it’s complete context.  

Psa. 46:0   For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth. A song.  1   God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,  3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.  5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.  6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.  7 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah 8 Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth.  9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire.  10 “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”  11 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

 

Do  you see it?  Do you see the main reason He wants us to learn to be still?  When life is uncertain, when everything in your world is going wrong, when we come to the end of time, when we don’t know which way to turn, when things are crumbling all around us and it seems like we are totally going down, God says…don’t panic.  Don’t freak out.  Don’t go running around spewing forth a stream of hopelessness as if all is lost and freaking everyone else out.  He says: Be still, and KNOW that I…Am…GOD.  Not you.  Me.  You don’t have to control this, He says, I’ve got it.  You  be still!  You rest in me.  You don’t lose hope and grow discouraged.  Be still.  Breathe.  Pray. Inhale. Obey Exhale.  And I will bring a renewed sense of hope, courage and peace into the chaos.  Breathe.  Pray. Inhale.  Obey. Exhale.  Don’t worry about anyone else and how they are doing with me.  Worry about you.  And if I ask you to share with someone…obey.  Be still. Pray. Obey.

We may not know what will happen, but we can be at peace because we know that no matter what happens,  God is still God and has all things under His control.  Be still and know that He is God.

Breathe!!!

Have you noticed that not being able to breathe stirs up panic feelings in us? I’m a lifelong asthmatic and I know what it feels like not to breathe.  It’s scary.  It can create a lot of anxiety.  But the worst and most frantic time I remember was the swim meet my Senior year of academy. 

I was entered in the long-distance race.  The year before, since no one else had signed up for it, I had volunteered and much to everyone’s surprise, including my own, I had won it by almost a pool length.   So this year, I was favored to win.  It was 4 laps or 8 lengths of the pool.  The whistle blew and we all dove in.  I took the lead very early, and continued to hold the lead through the first three laps.  I made the turn to start my last lap and pushed off of the wall, and was over halfway down the pool,  when suddenly my whole body seized up.  Just froze in mid-stroke.  One arm was locked above my head and the other was down at my waist and nothing would move.  I remember looking up at my classmates lining the pool and hearing them scream, “Swim.  Swim!” 

But I couldn’t move.  And then, I began to sink.  I couldn’t even breathe in or scream out.  Just quietly began to sink with my muscles rigid and locked.  I remember my feet going down, then my head just silently slipping under the water.  My eyes wouldn’t even close as the pool water stung them.  I felt myself going farther and farther down in the deep end of the pool and could do absolutely nothing to help myself. I felt both anxious and overwhelmed.  I desperately wanted to breathe, but could not get back to the surface to save my own life.

Finally, after what seem like minutes, though I’m sure it was only seconds, one of my classmates dove in, came to the bottom and pulled me up to the surface.  As I broke the surface, my lungs inhaled sharply and it broke the muscle spasm which had gripped my whole body.  They pulled me out of the pool, and I just lay there on the sidewalk and gasped for air.  Let me tell you, not breathing creates a lot of anxiety.

We talk a lot about our need for prayer, about how good prayer is, about how necessary it is to our spiritual walk, yet we seldom seem to take the time to pray.  It has been said that prayer is the breath of the soul.  If this is so, then perhaps the reason we so often feel anxious or overwhelmed in life is because we are not breathing! 

In order to do away with the anxiety and panic in our lives, we must allow our souls to breathe deeply.  And one of the primary reasons we are not breathing deeply enough is because we are not still long enough to do so.  “Be still”, God says.  Being still is the first requisite to breathing well. 

When difficulties come; breathe.  When it feels like life is going to run you over; breathe.  When you feel uncertain or scared or anxious; breathe.

Ellen White, in her book Desire of Ages, page 667, says,  “The path of sincerity and integrity is not a path free from obstruction, but in every difficulty we are to see a call to prayer. There is no one living who has any power that he has not received from God, and the source whence it comes is open to the weakest human being. {DA 667.4}

Thankfulness as a way of Life

When bad things happen, we rarely challenge our own thoughts as to their rightness or wrongness.  We simply assume that if we thought them, they must be right.  We have the arrogance to believe that we are the final authority on what we see and we have little room for a change in perspective. We hold to our own opinions so tightly that we refuse to see any possibility that we just might be wrong.

A life of ingratitude is the result.  Nothing that happens around us can then be good enough to suit us.  Nothing is worthy of our lofty heights, and it is easy to dismiss it all with a sweep of the hand as being beneath us.  Then, when trouble comes, it is also very easy to fall into a victim’s role rather than a student’s role.

We complain and cry that life isn’t fair and that we don’t deserve all of this pain and often conclude that if there is a God, He must hate us to put us through all of this misery.  In short, our perspective has become our god.  And our perspective is what causes us to either make thankfulness a way of life or miss out on it.

Either we see things from a perspective of being grateful, or from a perspective that leaves us wanting more and feeling like we not only deserve it, but that we are getting ripped off it we don’t get it.

Many of us are growing past the material side of things.  That is, we’ve seen that more material possessions won’t make us any happier, but we still want more.  We never seem to be satisfied.  A new computer. A new car.  A new sofa. A new job.  A new house.  You may say, “Nope…I’m satisfied.  Don’t want any of that.”

What about more power?  More influence?  More skill?  More money for the job you are being asked to do?  Nope…not me.  I’m happy.  Well…maybe a little more money.  But really, I’m good.

More intimacy in my marriage.  More time for doing what I want.  More respect.  More love.  More appreciation from others.  Are we getting closer to home?

We spend our lives thinking if only we had more of something then we’d be happy.  And while we know that’s not necessarily true, the fact is, we are right.  We do need more of something.  The catch is having more… of the right stuff.

If we only had more of Jesus in our lives, we would be.  If we had more trust in Divine power and less trust in ourselves, we would be more settled.  If we had more belief that God really did love us and has our best interest in mind and less doubt, we could learn to relax in His care.  Again, it’s a matter of perspective.  And where do we get that perspective?  Let’s go to the Word.

Phil 4:6-7 NIV  6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Phil. 4:6-7 NLT    Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

I like the way that reads, don’t you?  It makes it readily understandable. Look at verse 6 again.   Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. This is the part we looked at a few weeks ago when we were talking about worry.  Don’t worry, instead pray.  Now let’s look a little more closely at this last part of verse 6.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 

It is not wrong to have needs.  God knows what you need—but He wants to hear from you.  He wants you to articulate what you need.  Not just what you want, but what your needs are.  See—we so often tell God what we want that we’ve often confused the two.  And there is nothing wrong with telling God what you want—but remember that He has only promised to supply what you need, though often He will go far beyond that to supply some of the wants as well.

Tell God what you need.  Do you really know what you need?  Is it truly more money?  Or is it a more trusting heart in God and a willingness to watch His provision?

Is it for your loved one to be healed?  Or is it for you to learn to yield yourself to the will of God?  Which do you want and which do you really need?

Is it for your kids to be kept safe physically or spiritually?  Sure we want our kids to be kept safe physically—but we need our kids to be kept safe spiritually.

The very act of determining our wants from our real needs can help change our perspective. Tell God what you NEED.  Not worrying—praying.  Tell Him what you need, and then look at the last statement of the verse: and thank Him for all He has done.  Go back and recount what God has already done for you.  Not just a blanket, generic, “Thank you for all your many blessings”, but where you begin to realize that He has provided for so many of your needs and wants, starting with your greatest need—salvation, and working from there.  The perspective of gratitude gives you purpose.

 You and I can live our days with that purpose because there was One who took our diseases upon Himself, and our worst disease, sin, was enough to do Him in—not because He had to die.  He was perfectly healthy in every way.  It was we who were sick and doomed to die.  But when He began to do a character transplant, our sickness required so much of Him that it cost His very life.   With that realization should come gratitude that changes the way we live our lives.

Phil. 4:6-7 NLT    Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  (Then notice the by-product.) 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Those four statements can change your world. Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything.  Tell God what you need.  And thank Him for all He has done.

That’s how you develop thankfulness as a way of life.  And the thing you are looking for becomes reality.  Peace.  You can have God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  And it is His peace that will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Don’t worry.   Pray. Tell God what you need.  Thank him for what He has done.  That will change your perspective.  And that will bring you peace in your life.

Look Again, For the Very First Time

I wish you had never heard the story of Jesus.  I wish you were hearing it for the first time.   I really wish that you hadn’t heard the story before,  simply because many of us have heard it so many times before that we have lost the wonder of the story.   We have grown so familiar with the details of the story, that we have lost our sense of awe.  It has grown to be common place, and we end up thinking, “Oh, yeah…I’ve heard this all before!”  And in so doing, we lose a chance at being amazed once again by the incredible story of Jesus.   I want you to be amazed again.  I want you to have that sense of awe and wonder.  I want you to stand with eyes wide and mouth open as you hear the story of Jesus and salvation.  So today, let’s play that old game of pretend.  Let’s pretend that you have never heard the story before.  Let’s put ourselves into parts of the story.   Let’s look again, for the very first time at the story of Jesus.  Are you ready to pretend?  Here we go…

Your name is Peter.  You’re a sanguine.  You enter a room mouth first.  You’re big, strong and foul-mouthed.  You can cuss any sailor under the table, because you are a sailor.  A fishing sailor.  Everyone knows who you are because at the tavern, you can tell the crustiest jokes.  At the docks, as you sort fish, you can make most other fishermen blush with your language.  Your wife is forever getting mad at you for being so crude, but she can’t help but love you since you are so big-hearted and caring. Honest too.  Perhaps it is these last characteristics that were the ones Jesus was looking at when He called you to follow Him, but unlikely, with all of your other character flaws.   Certainly everyone else is shocked.  A wharfman and a rabbi hanging out together?   Definitely not a rabbi from around here.  He wouldn’t want someone like you making his class of pupils look bad.  You stick out like a bad apple.  But, look again.   There He is motioning to you saying, Follow me.

Your name is Mary.  You’re a hooker.  A street-walker.  A prostitute.  Nobody at the church wants you hanging out in front of the entrance, and you assume that if the church people don’t want you, their God doesn’t want you either.  You watch from your corner as the people leave the evening service, giving you cold glares as they walk by or drive off.  Not a problem for you.  You’re not wanting what they have to give anyway.  You’re waiting for a certain someone to come out of the church.  Here he comes now.  One of the Pastoral staff.   He shakes hands with the last of the parishioners and watches as they disappear around the corner.  He locks the building and then looks your way.  You’ve seen that look hundreds of times before.  The look of a man hungry with lust.   He looks around to make sure that no one is watching and then gives you the signal.   You leave your corner and head for your previously arranged meeting place a few blocks away.  By the time you get there, he is already inside and waiting.  You are barely undressed when the door comes smashing in.  It’s the rest of the pastoral team.  Grabbing you, dragging you from the bed as you clutch at sheets and try to cover yourself, they half-lift, half-drag you out into the streets.

Your mind is swirling.  This is it. This time you lose. Set up by the pastors. You know the rules.  You mess around and get caught, you die. You’ve played the odds and this time you lose.  You’ve been in and out of a hundred beds, and so you figure it must be your time to go.

Inwardly  you cry for a God to save you.  But why would He?  His people know you’re scum.  His Word says that an unfaithful woman should be stoned.  No.  No use crying out to Him.  Take the punishment with as much dignity as you can muster.   Suddenly you are flung in front of the Teacher, your sheet being ripped away as you hit the dusty street.  Curling up you try to cover yourself from all of the laughter and leering eyes as the pastors say, “Teacher, Moses and the law say that we should stone this woman.  What do you say?”

You know what any holy man will be forced to say and you brace yourself for the rocks.  Abruptly, you realize that all has grown quiet and then you hear the question.  “Woman, where are your accusers?”  Looking up slowly from your curled up position, you realize no one else is around. It is just you and Jesus.  He is taking His outer cloak and covering you.  You respond, “I don’t see anyone, Lord.”   And then His response takes you totally by surprise, “Neither do I condemn you.  Go and leave your life of sin.”  You look again.  And you see for the very first time that He is smiling.

Your name is Jairus.  You’ve come a long way to find Jesus.  Your only daughter is dying.  The doctors have all given up and you’ve taken her home to die.  But somehow, you just can’t give up without trying everything.  One of your servants has seen Jesus heal and suggests that if you could just find Jesus and have him come, your daughter might not die.  You search frantically, from one town to the next.  The reports are all the same.  “You just missed Him.  He was here about 2 days ago and healed most of the people in the town.”  Hope grows stronger, while on the other side of the emotional roller coaster, you become frantic as you realize that you are a few days behind him.  You redouble your efforts, trying to reach Him and get Him home before it is too late.   Finally, you come racing in to a town and discover a large crowd of people gathered around.  This must be Jesus.    Pushing your way through the crowd, you come face to face with Him.   “Master, you must come now!”  The urgency is in your voice as you try to get Jesus to follow you back through the crowd.   He motions for you to lead and begins to follow.  You look back and realize that He has stopped and is asking who touched Him.  You turn back to urge Him to hurry when one of your servants rides up to the edge of the crowd on horseback and motions for you.

You can tell by the look on his face that it’s too late.   “Don’t trouble the Master any further,” he says,  “She’s dead.”   Grief wrenches your soul and you slump to the ground. The If only’s come. If only you had found Him quicker.  If only He had been closer to your home.  If only she had held on for a little while longer.  If only there were no crowds to slow Him down.”

A hand on your shoulder jars you  back to reality.  “Don’t worry, just believe.”   Jesus helps you to your feet and begins walking towards your town, He and his disciples helping you as you stumble along in a haze of grief.  You sleep little that night, and the next day is a blur as you head home.  As you come near your house, the mourner’s are there in full force.  It really hits home.  She’s dead.  Jesus simpy quiets them and says, “Don’t mourn.  She’s sleeping.”  Laughter meets His statement.   How can Jesus mock your pain with such a statement.   You enter to find  your wife weeping and lying across the bed holding the lifeless form of your daughter.   Jesus gently lifts her and you rush to hold her, to hold each other, as Jesus now looks at the little body on the bed.

Gently, yet with authority he says, “Little girl, I say to you arise!”  Her eyes flutter open as you heart beats wildly.  Your wife screams with joy and leaps toward the bed as your beloved daughter sits up.  Suddenly the three of you are laughing, crying, talking, hugging, kissing, and marveling at what just happened.  You look again…and He is gone.

Do any of these stories get your attention?  Do any of them make you say, “Wow, so that’s what God is like?”  Do they amaze you?  Do they warm your heart? Time and time again in scripture, we see Him healing the sick, opening blind eyes, giving legs to the lame, and raising the dead.  Stuff that would knock our socks off if we saw it today, but we have grown so used to the stories that we can barely muster a “ho-hum” as we stifle a yawn.  Look again, for the very first time.  Jesus is simply amazing.

Where’s the wonder?  Where’s the awe?  He chose a loud, foul-mouthed fisherman to be one of His main mouthpiece to share the good news of the Gospel.  He had no back up plan.  If Peter and the others failed, the story would not be shared.  Doesn’t that blow you away?  Look again and remember; if He can use Peter, He will use you.

He restored a broken-down woman, caught in the middle of her sin.  A sin worthy of stoning, and turned back her accusers with a line, “he that is without sin, let him cast the first stone.”  And then wrote their sins in the dirt to remind them that there is not one righteous.  Doesn’t that bring you hope?  If He can forgive Mary, he can forgive you.

And this one absolutely blows my mind.  He took a lifeless form and gave it life.  How many funerals have you seen that one happen at?  One minute you have a corpse, the next minute a dancing little girl. One minute you have parents mourning the loss of their only child, and the next minute they are weeping for joy and laughing all at the same time.  Which really pumps me.  If He can raise Jairus’s daughter, He can raise my dad!  And He can raise your loved ones that have fallen asleep in Jesus.  

But those are only three stories.  Jesus always does the amazing thing.  He puts aside Divinity to take on the form of a baby.  He works for 30 years as a carpenter.  God. A carpenter.  He feeds 20,000 with a few loaves and fish.  He walks on water.  He calms storms with a word.  He meets demon-possessed people and leaves them demon-free, sending the demons into pigs.  He called the most unlikely people to do the most unbelievable.  He loves. He forgives.  He laughs with people.  That’s amazing.  A God that not only loves us, but one that likes us and is willing to sit down to supper with the worst of us.  And enjoy our company.  Look again.  When was the last time you saw this Jesus?  When was the last time you were amazed?

The Overflow of the Heart

A friend will treat you with respect. 

M. Scott Peck, The Different Drum , tells an interesting story that illustrates this point.

There was once an old monastery that had fallen upon hard times. Centuries earlier, it had been a thriving center where many dedicated monks lived and worked and had great influence on the realm. But now only five monks lived there, and they were all over seventy years old. This was clearly a dying order.

A few miles from the monastery lived an old hermit who many thought was a prophet. One day as the monks agonized over the impending demise of their order, they decided to visit the hermit to see if he might have some advice for them. Perhaps he would be able to see the future and show them what they could do to save the monastery.

The hermit welcomed the five monks to his hut, but when they explained the purpose of their visit, the hermit could only commiserate with them. “Yes, I understand how it is,” said the hermit. “The spirit has gone out of the people. Hardly anyone cares much for the old things anymore.”

“Is there anything you can tell us,” the abbot inquired of the hermit, “that would help us save the monastery?”

“No, I’m sorry,” said the hermit. “I don’t know how your monastery can be saved. The only thing that I can tell you is that one of you is an apostle of God.”

The monks were both disappointed and confused by the hermit’s cryptic statement. They returned to the monastery, wondering what the hermit could have meant by the statement, “One of you is an apostle of God.” For months after their visit, the monks pondered the significance of the hermit’s words.

“One of us is an apostle of God,” they mused. “Did he actually mean one of us monks here at the monastery? That’s impossible. We are all too old. We are too insignificant. On the other hand, what if it’s true? And if it is true, then which one of us is it?”

One monks’s contemplation was similar to the four others’: “Do you suppose he meant the abbot? Yes, if he meant anyone, he probably meant the abbot. He has been our leader for more than a generation. On the other hand, he might have meant Brother Thomas. Certainly Brother Thomas is a holy man—a man of wisdom and light. He couldn’t have meant Brother Elred. Elred gets crotchety at times and is difficult to reason with. On the other hand, he is almost always right. Maybe the hermit did mean Brother Elred. But surely he could not have meant Brother Phillip. Phillip is so passive, so shy—a real nobody. Still, he’s always there when you need him. He’s loyal and trustworthy. Yes, he could have meant Phillip. Of course, the hermit didn’t mean me. He couldn’t possibly have meant me. I’m just an ordinary person. Yet, suppose he did? Suppose I am an apostle of God? Oh God, not me. I couldn’t be that much for you. Or could I?”

As they continued to mull the hermit’s words, the old monks began to treat each other with extraordinary respect on the off chance that one of them might actually be an apostle of God. And on the off-off chance that he himself might be the apostle spoken of by the hermit, each monk began to treat himself with extraordinary respect.

Because the monastery was situated in a beautiful forest, many people came there to picnic on its tiny lawn and to walk on its paths, and even now and then to go into the tiny chapel to meditate. As they did so, without even being conscious of it, they sensed the aura of extraordinary respect that now began to surround the five old monks and seemed to radiate out of them, permeating the atmosphere of the place. There was something strangely attractive, even compelling, about it. Hardly knowing why, people began to come back to the monastery more frequently to picnic, to play, to pray. They began to bring their friends to show them this special place. And their friends brought their friends.

As more and more visitors came, some of the younger men started to talk with the old monks. After a while one asked if he could join them. Then another. And another. Within a few years the monastery had once again become a thriving order and, thanks to the hermit’s gift, a vibrant center of light and spirituality throughout the realm.

Sometimes, just like the old monks, we ask, “How can we train kids to become people of character? Or perhaps you’re just asking,  "How can we get some new life in our marriage and grow, both emotionally and spiritually?” Perhaps the answer has to do with how we regard each other. How do we treat each other? Are we always putting each other down and creating an atmosphere of criticism and negativism? Or are we treating each other with extraordinary dignity and respect?

Jesus said in Matt. 12:33-35     “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 

What is your mouth telling others about what is in your heart?

Go

What are you passionate about?  What is it that you just can’t live without?  What is it that you love doing so much that you would let everything else go because of it?  Pretty strong question, isn’t it?  As a Christian, we think we know what our answer is supposed to be.  We’re like the little boy in Sabbath School who, when the teacher asked, “Boys and girls, what is gray and has a bushy tail and scampers everywhere?”  said, “Well, I know the answer is Jesus, but it sure sounds like a squirrel to me.”

We’ve done the same thing in the church.  When we ask the question, “what does it mean to Go?” we often find ourselves giving the answer we think we should give, rather than what we really think.  We give the answer we’ve been given for years because it fits into our personal Theological framework and many of us have already written this posting off, because we think we’ve heard this one before.  Don’t write me off too quickly.  You might want to read all the way to the end and see if your concept doesn’t change at least a little bit.

Matthew 28:18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

I have heard and believed that text all of my life.  But somewhere in my growing up years, I got a bit warped…(what? Let me finish) I got a bit warped in my thinking about what it meant to Go and preach the gospel or to go and witness.  When I look back at those years, there were a lot of people who tried to tell me or show me…but I’m not sure they had it all right.

In my earliest years, I remember being handed a can that said “Ingathering” on it.  Those of you who are older Seventh-day Adventist will remember this.  And to really help me out, someone would put a dollar in the can that would just stick out of the top so that it was like a subliminal suggestion to give dollars rather than just your change.  So they would put this can in my hands with the “bait” money sticking up and they would walk with me to the door and ring the doorbell and when someone answered, I was supposed to say, “Hi, I’m a little missionary out working for Jesus. We are collecting money to help those who are less fortunate. Would you be kind enough to help us?”  Of course, implying that if they were indeed a kind person, they would help…and likewise, if they didn’t help, they must not be kind.  Then we would go back to the church to drink hot chocolate and count the evenings haul.  And we could say that we had obeyed Jesus command to Go.

When I was a bit older, I joined that wonderful organization that just about anyone growing up Adventist has been a part of at one time or another: Pathfinders.  I loved Pathfinders.   What do you do with a group of 9-12 year olds on a Sabbath afternoon that will keep them out of trouble, and perhaps even advance the gospel?  I don’t know who thought of this, but at the time I thought it was sheer genius.  Literature bombing.  You read that right.  Literature bombing.  I think it came out of World War II, but I can’t be sure.  We would spend the first hour or so in the Pathfinder room taking all the stacks of leftover Little Friends, Primary Treasures, Junior Guides, and back then—here’s my age showing—The Youth Instructor, which predated Insight Magazine—we would take all of those stacks and start rolling them into well designed missiles, suitable for throwing.  We would have a younger kids box—Little Friends, Primary Treasures and maybe a Jr. Guide rolled together.  And an older kids box.  Jr. Guide and Youth Instructors rolled together.  Then we also would take some old people’s literature, like the Signs of the Times or Liberty Magazines that had been laying around the church for awhile and roll those together for any adults we might happen upon.

This first step was very important, so we took it seriously, knowing that the fun was about to begin, if we prepared carefully.  Once all of our missives were rolled into missiles, we would pile into staff members cars—always wearing our Class A uniform, of course—to give the proper impression and show that we were an official organization—and, I think, to let our parents know that the money spent on uniforms was well worth it.  So we would pile into cars with a staff member who had worked with the other staff members to divide up the territory—and then we would drive through the neighborhoods, hanging out the windows of the car, spotting hapless victims…er potential church members, size up their age, ask the munitions officer for the proper payload, and then prepare to unleash a missile, trying, of course not to hit them…but to get it close enough to them that their natural curiosity would cause them to go over and pick it up.  Ok…we tried to hit them…though we were told not to.  That was part of the fun for a 10 year-old boy.

So the idea was that they would get this literature, read it, be converted, find the nearest  Adventist church, which would be ours, of course, and come begging to join.  I can’t remember that ever happening, but I remember going home being praised for going out and “spreading the gospel like the leaves of autumn.”  Boy did we ever.  No bombing crew in a B-51 could have taken more pride and joy in unloading their bombs than we.  And back at the Pathfinder room, we would share our stories with joy of how we had “accidentally hit that one guy mowing his grass while shouting God loves you.”  We had truly witnessed.

As I grew older, it was Park Evangelism, where we stood by a booth covered with psychedelic posters and sang, “They will know we are Christians by our love”—All the while hating being out there…but doing our duty.  No one ever came to ask us why we were so happy.  Imagine.

In Sabbath School, they always took a few moments at the beginning of class to see how your personal witnessing was going as they went through a checklist of good things you might have done.  And of course you didn’t brag about it…you just held up the appropriate number of fingers so that the recording secretary could write it down and  hope the totals from your class beat the totals from the other classes.

Person’s Helped.  Number of items of food given away.  Articles of clothing distributed.  Literature distributed. That’s where I would rack up on the Sabbath after literature bombing…I didn’t have enough fingers so would have to politely say 57 or some such number, as the adults would nod approvingly.  Hours spent laboring for others.  And the biggie: Number of Bible Studies given.   And we could go home feeling like we were spiritual because of all of the things we had done.

No where in my growing up years was I introduced to the idea that Jesus called us to BE a witness, not just DO witnessing activities.  No where did the church really tell me that it was more about who I was than what I did.  As long as I looked good, I must be good.  Never mind that my heart was rotten to the core.  Never mind that my thoughts were impure or filled with anger and hate.  If I presented well, I was labeled a good Christian.  And believe me, I learned to wear the mask well.

I could go out and witness with the best of them.  I could help when the evangelist came to town by passing out Bibles and then collecting them again at the end of the meeting until someone came so many nights and then they would be given that Bible.  Never mind the fact that the whole time the evangelist was preaching, I was trying out my moves on Linda or Holly or Rhonda or whoever happened to be forced to come by their parents.  My thinking was warped.  I thought you could do whatever you wanted to do, as long as you told people about Jesus when it was on the schedule.

I never got the connection between the head and the heart.  I just learned to play the game and I did whatever it was we were supposed to do—most of the time hating every minute of it.  I had no passion for witnessing.  I had no passion for Jesus.  I didn’t even have a passion for the church.  I just had a fear of it and of a God who could send me to hell if I didn’t have my act together.

And then I met Jesus.  I had heard all about Him, but never really met Him.  And I fell in love with a Savior who could take the worst in me, wrap it in love and dissolve it, leaving me forgiven and free.  I began to understand that He already knew me to my core and He loved me anyway.  He really wanted to save me.  And when I began to understand that, I began to get a passion for sharing.

When Sandy and I began dating, I was real wary, because I had been dumped 6 times in a row by 6 different young ladies that I thought loved me.  That’s another blog for another time.  But I was wary.  I wanted to take it really slow.  Those of you who know Sandy know that she has an infectious smile and you can get lost in the warmth of her eyes.  You know that she is compassionate to a fault.  She really cares about people.  She genuinely loves from the depth of her being.  That’s who she is.  And I fell in love.  I couldn’t help it.  And let me tell you—it was easy to talk about her to just about anyone who would listen.  It’s still easy to talk about her.  

I love Sandy for who she is so I don’t mind sharing.  It’s not a hardship.  It grows out of our relationship.  I love Jesus for who He is—and it gives me joy to share Him with people.  Especially struggling people.  Because I have a love relationship with Jesus, it has changed who I am as a person.  Witnessing comes AFTER I know Him and love Him.  It comes from who I am…it’s not just something I do.  I do those things because He loves me and I love Him…not in order to gain points in hopes that something might click and suddenly I’ll feel like witnessing.

The disciples had spent 3 and a half years with Jesus.  Jesus wanted them to know what He was like.  To learn to trust Him.  To learn to love Him as well as His ways.  Jesus knew that if they were ever to share the story about the love the Father has for this world, they would have to experience it first-hand.  But He also knew they needed more than that.  And so do we, if we are going to go out successfully.

 Acts 1:4-8 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.  5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”  6   So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”  7   He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.  8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Jesus said, “Go back to Jerusalem and wait.”  Why?  So they could receive the Holy Spirit.  Was it time spent in idle waiting?  No.  It was a time of repentance,  confession, finding forgiveness and continuing to seek what the Lord would have each of them do.  Then the Holy Spirit came.

Notice vs 8 again. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you AND you will BE my witnesses.  Did you catch that?  Holy Spirit first—brings you power AND you will BE.  Holy Spirit—you will BE.  Nice Pastor Don, but what does that mean?  It means that if you haven’t waited for the Holy Spirit to empower your life and your work, you are just DOING rather than being!  It means that you are not really being His witness, but instead are just doing witnessing events.  Doing without Being will burn you out faster than anything else in the spiritual life.  If you haven’t become a witness through the power of the Holy Spirit, and you are just doing things for the sake of witnessing—stop.

You heard me right.  Stop.  Because you and I can do more damage to the cause of God than help it if we are trying to do God’s work in our own strength.  These two—waiting on the power of the Holy Spirit and then being a witness…or a channel of hope for God to work through, are interlinked.  They must go hand in hand.  It is a cycle that is the pattern for holiness.  Be filled with the Holy Spirit—BE a witness.  Witnessing is not something you DO—it’s who you are!  And either you are taking the time to wait on the Lord for His Holy Spirit or you aren’t.  Either you are becoming a witness through His strength or you’re not.  They go hand in hand.

Wait-Go.  Wait-Go.  Wait on the Holy Spirit, Go out in His power.  It has to be a daily cycle.  If you go out before you wait, you risk misrepresenting God to the world around you.  Have you ever heard someone say, “Well, if that’s what a Christian is, then I want no part of it!”?  That’s because they are looking at a Christian who has gone out before he/she has waited.  They are looking at a Christian trying to make it on their own power instead of God’s.  That should be our weekly cycle as well. Come and fellowship, find renewal and new strength in the power of the Spirit—and then go.  Go out to the world and live as one who can bring hope and light to your workplace, to your home and to your neighbors. 

When you go out in the power of the Holy Spirit, you won’t have to work at witnessing.  It will come naturally.  The Holy Spirit will give you the right words to speak at the right time.  Luke 12:11-12 11   “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say,  12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.” 

If He’ll do it at those times, why wouldn’t He do it when you are seeking to share Him with someone else?  If you have taken the time to wait on the Holy Spirit, then of course He will.  But you have to wait before you go out.  You have to be filled before you try to work.  Think about it: You can’t give something you don’t have. 

The disciples understood this.  Though they were still tempted by their old sins and habits, they daily waited for the Holy Spirit and then moved out.  Author Ellen White,  in her book, Acts of the Apostles, pg 49, 50 says this:  Those who at Pentecost were endued with power from on high, were not thereby freed from further temptation and trial. As they witnessed for truth and righteousness they were repeatedly assailed by the enemy of all truth, who sought to rob them of their Christian experience. They were compelled to strive with all their God-given powers to reach the measure of the stature of men and women in Christ Jesus.

Daily they prayed for fresh supplies of grace, that they might reach higher and still higher toward perfection. Under the Holy Spirit's working even the weakest, by exercising faith in God, learned to improve their entrusted powers and to become sanctified, refined, and ennobled. As in humility they submitted to the molding influence of the Holy Spirit, they received of the fullness of the Godhead and were fashioned in the likeness of the divine.

Yeah, but Pastor Don, that was then…this is now.  Take a look at the next paragraph.

The lapse of time has wrought no change in Christ's parting promise to send the Holy Spirit as His representative. It is not because of any restriction on the part of God that the riches of His grace do not flow earthward to men. If the fulfillment of the promise is not seen as it might be, it is because the promise is not appreciated as it should be. If all were willing, all would be filled with the Spirit. Wherever the need of the Holy Spirit is a matter little thought of, there is seen spiritual drought, spiritual darkness, spiritual declension and death. Whenever minor matters occupy the attention, the divine power which is necessary for the growth and prosperity of the church, and which would bring all other blessings in its train, is lacking, though offered in infinite plenitude.

So there it is.  If you want to go forth to be a witness with power, you must ask for the Holy Spirit.  If you find your spiritual walk dry or dying…you need to go back to waiting.  Once you’ve been renewed by the Spirit, then move from that position of power out into a dying world.  Then they will listen.  Then they will drawn to Jesus.  Then they will accept.  Then they will be saved.  Go…but go in the power of the Spirit.  If you try to go out any other way…you are not moving forward.  You are simply asking for defeat.  It's like a car revving its engine while in neutral.  A whole lot of noise, but no forward momentum.

Are you putting God’s power to work…or just sitting in neutral? Go.  Not from a guilty conscience, but from an overflowing heart.  Go.  Not because you have to, but because you want to. Go. But only after you Wait.  Go…but make sure you are going in the power of the Lord. Go, Jesus said, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”