There’s probably somebody that you know who is feeling lonely, unappreciated and unloved. Today would be a good day to change that.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God… 1 John 4:7a
Love one another
Month: November 2020
Discrimination conquered by Christ
Acts 8:5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.
After the northern kingdom of Israel was carried off into captivity to Assyria in approximately 722 BC, people of other captive nations were brought in to occupy the land along with the impoverished Jews who were left behind. They mingled and married and became a mixed breed of people known as Samaritans. A Jewish priest was brought back to teach them to worship the God of the Jews. (2 Kings 17) But they accepted only the Pentateuch as scripture and the Jews considered them inferior. The hostility was such that strict Pharisees would not go through Samaria, but would cross the Jordan to avoid walking through that land.
When the Jews wanted to insult Jesus, they called Him a Samaritan (John 8:48)
In John 4, Jesus took His disciples into Samaria where He transformed the life of the woman at the well, and consequently the entire city. But we read no more about the Samaritans during the earthly ministry of Jesus.
On the day of Pentecost when the church was born and for some time afterwards the gospel was preached to the Jews. But with persecution came the scattering of the church. Most of the disciples had to find another place to go. Philip chose Samaria.
He wasn’t forced to go there. He went of his own accord and preached Christ to them. These despised and rejected people embraced the message of the One who was despised and rejected for them.
Since that time the message of the gospel has been preached all over the earth as the Spirit of God has stirred the hearts of men and women to leave everything to bring this gospel to people of different races, languages and customs.
Discrimination and racism were defeated on the cross. If you are a follower of Jesus and those things still live in you, draw a little closer to Jesus and hear His heart yearning for every nation, tribe, people and tongue. Let Him teach you to yearn and to love likewise.
Need Prayer?
I would love the privilege of praying for you over the weekend. if you have a need and would like prayer, please leave a request in the comments.
You…not your money
James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
I had always thought of this verse as referring to the physical need the widow and orphan would be in because of not having a husband/father in the household. But the verse doesn’t tell us to give them money or even any type of physical thing. It says to visit them. Not just throw our money at them (like we can be so accustomed to doing because it’s easy) but giving some of our life to them.
Visit (Strongs #1980) means to look upon or after, to inspect, examine with the eyes in order to see how he is, i.e. to visit, go to see one; to look upon in order to help or to benefit
This verse doesn’t exclude helping in physical ways, but it involves so much more. Go see them, care for them, be with them. Give them the most valuable thing you possess – your time.
Oh brethren, I fear that we have become content with demonstrations of love that are far below that which Christ intended.
Spirit driven life
Acts 27:40 And they let go the anchors and left them in the sea, meanwhile loosing the rudder ropes; and they hoisted the mainsail to the wind and made for shore.
Paul and all the people were on a ship that had been in a terrible storm for some time but land was finally in sight. Nothing mattered except getting to shore. The anchors (those heavy weights that kept them from moving) weren’t retrieved and brought into the boat for later. They were cast off and left behind. They didn’t put oars in the water to try and control the pace of the boat, they raised the sails and let the wind take control.
It made me think about times when my life has been in a storm, tossed around…up, then down. Feeling out of control, I have been tempted to grab the oars, start rowing and controlling things. But should I? Is it not better to just take my hands off everything and let it all be in His control…..raising the sails of my life that I might be driven by the Spirit of God where He wants me to go?
Yes. Yes it is!
Absent God
Jeremiah 2:6 Neither did they say, ‘Where is the LORD, Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, Who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, through a land of drought and the shadow of death, through a land that no one crossed and where no one dwelt?’
Jeremiah 2:8 The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ and those who handle the law did not know Me; the rulers also transgressed against Me; the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.
Israel had seen the works of God like no other people in history. He was intimately involved with them. From their exodus from Egypt, to their possession of the promised land and establishment of a kingdom and king, God was in their midst, making Himself known. The stories of God’s mighty works for His people were passed down from generation to generation. But at some point the stories were no longer a reminder of their inheritance as the people of God but were merely tales of the adventures of people from many years past. Perhaps God became to them like a character from a story book. Distant. Fictional. And here at hand were these idols, so seeable and touchable and convenient. Why spend all that time and effort seeking after a God they couldn’t see when there were already so many to choose from right in front of them? They had never personally known God’s presence so His absence really was of no consequence to them.
As God rebuked the people for their idolatry and reminded them of His works, He didn’t say “these are the things I did for your fathers”. He said “I did these things for you”. The things He did for the generation of Moses and the generation of Joshua, He did with the current generation in mind. He wasn’t just the deliverer of one generation that was in Egypt. He was the deliverer of every generation. Everything He was to those in years past, He longed to be for those in the present.
When Jesus stood up in the synagogue He read from the scrolls that the people heard every Sabbath. They were historical. Familiar. But He wanted them to know that they were a present reality:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18-19
Sadly, many preferred the familiarity and comfort of the empty religion at hand rather than the cost of knowing a present God.
We too live in a day when our New Testament history has been relegated to the status of story. The power of God and the presence of God are mostly extinct among the people of God. And we have not recognized its absence because we have never truly known its presence. Rather than asking “where is the Lord?”, we too have found it more convenient to embrace methods of worship that are at hand and convenient – our religious activities, our spiritual disciplines, and our moral uprightness, and to live without the His power and presence in our midst.
The God of miracles from the book of Acts has not changed nor lost His desire to move in miraculous power through His people and appear in supernatural presence among His people. He is just wanting for us to realize what we’ve neglected for so long and to care that we’ve lost it.
God help us.
He is my Delight 