Reflections on faith, life, the Bible, ministry and more…
I read these figures recently while preparing a message…
The Gospels recorded 132 contacts Jesus had with people. They can be divided in to three areas…
1. Six were in the Temple
2. Four were in Synagogues
3. 122 were with people in their daily walks of life
It just goes to show the importance of going to where the people are.
Today in my devotions I looked at Philippians 1:12-19. The title of this section in
the NLT is “Paul’s joy that Christ is preached”.
Verses 12-14 read, “And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear”.
Two things really jumped out at me from these verses.
Paul is pleased being in prison
The first is that Paul is glad to be in prison. He tells us that the whole palace guard knows he is there for the Gospel. Paul came in contact with people he would not normally be able to share Christ with. As we see from Acts 16 Paul got to share his faith with the jailer and his family.
Paul’s continued boldness encourages others
The second things is from verse 14. Paul says that, “most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear”. Paul’s boldness despite being in prison gave other courage to continue to talk about Jesus. Acts 16 said they prayed and sang hymns while in chains!
Paul’s boldness to preach the message of Christ landed him in prison. However this did not stop him and everyone knew why he was there. We see the jailer and his family came to Christ. And the other believers were greatly encouraged in their efforts.
Paul’s commitment to preaching the Gospel inspires me nearly 2000 years later.
I heard this saying today afresh. I know I have heard it before, but this time it struck a chord in my heart…
“The Books of Acts would not have been written if the Apostles did not go and act”.
Imagine if after Pentecost came and the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers, that they decided to just stay home. Imagine how different our world would be?
We would not have a Book of Acts as an example and a teaching. We would not have heard about the amazing miracles. We would not have heard about the growth of the early church.
This simple saying emphasised to me afresh the importance of going and acting. Of taking the truth of the Gospel message out in to the world and sharing it with others.
When we go and act people are saved. When we go and act miracles happen and lives are changed. When we go and act eternal destinies are changed.
Prayer
Dear God, please help me to go and act. Your Word says the harvest fields are ripe. Send me to the people who need You today. Amen.
(Image: https://www.freebibleimages.org)
Thirty five years ago today I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I always celebrate this day like it was my birthday because it was the day that changed my life forever.
I am very lucky in a sense as I know the day and time I came to faith in Jesus. I know because I read a tract called, “A journey in to life” and I wrote the date and time on it.
I would love to say that I still had it, but being evangelistically inclined I gave it to someone who I was sharing my faith with. I said this pamphlet changed my life, I hope it will change yours too.
Usually on this day I look back and remember what my life was like before Jesus and how it has changed for the better. I reflect on how I felt before I prayed the prayer above and how I felt afterwards.
It is my hope and prayer that as you read this post that you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. If not I would encourage you to visit my finding salvation page here.
Galatians 1:10 TPT – I’m obviously not trying to flatter you or water down my message to be popular with men, but my supreme passion is to please God. For if all I attempt to do is please people, I would not be the true servant of the Messiah.
In today’s world we can be tempted to water down the Gospel to make it palatable to more people. But the truth of the Gospel is Jesus came to earth to save sinners. He came to die on the cross for our sin. This opened the way back to the Father in heaven from whom we were separated. He took our punishment, so we could find peace with God.
If our Gospel message does not talk about sin and the need to find peace with God, is it really the Gospel of the Bible?
Reflection passage – Romans 5:8-11 NLT
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. [9] And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. [10] For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. [11] So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
In Matthew 9:32-37 we see Jesus has been preaching, teaching about the Kingdom and healing the sick. In verse 36 He looks upon the crowd of people and it says compassion welled up within Him. He said the people looked like lost sheep without a shepherd.
Then Jesus makes an interesting request. He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields” (v37-38).
Up until this point Jesus has done all the ministry work. He had been preaching, teaching, healing, driving out demons, raising the dead and calming storms. The disciples were following along and just watching and taking it all in.
Now the disciples were getting asked to be involved in His work. How? By praying. Jesus asked them to pray for workers to go out in to the harvest. As I reflected on this request a couple of things came to mind.
1. Prayer should always precede ministry outreach.
2. When I pray God often softens my heart and calls me to be involved.
In the start of the next chapter we see Jesus sends out the 12 disciples. We do not know how long after it was when He asked them to pray, but I suspect it was fairly soon.
Matthew 10:5-8 NLT says, “Jesus sent out the twelve apostles with these instructions: “Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, [6] but only to the people of Israel-God’s lost sheep. [7] Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. [8] Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!”
In this sending out we see Jesus gave them strict instructions. Go to these people, preach the Kingdom, heal the sick and caste out demons. It was a set of clear instructions with defined boundaries.
As I dwell on these passages from Matthew 9&10. I am reminded on our early days at PASSION Australia. Our board would have a meal together and then spend an hour or two in prayer asking God what He wanted us to do.
We would simply pray, “Lord You said the harvest field is ripe, but the workers were few. Please send us out. Let us know where to go and what to do. Lead us to the people whose hearts you have been preparing, we want to lead them to You. Amen”. Then we would wait on the Lord.
Often over the next few days God would speak to us separately and when we came together again, we would share what God had been saying to us. Most times it was exactly the same and it confirmed what we needed to do.
At first we were surprised, like the disciples when they came back from their first mission. But in time we realised that if we pray first, then God would lead us to the people who needed Him and were ready to receive.
We learned a simple lesson in the early days of PASSION. The Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20 is given to us, but ultimately it is God’s mission. He wants to whole world to come to know Jesus and He uses us. But it always works best when we seek Him and pray, “What do You want us to do and where do You want us to go?”
What are you passionate about?
This is an easy one to answer. The things I am passionate about are always not far from the surface and easy to see. I have many passions, but one stands above it all.
My faith in Jesus is my number one passion. Since I came to Jesus in July of 1989, my life has never been the same. He changed everything for the better. My heart is to walk with Him all the days of my life.
Walking closely with the Lord drives everything else I do in my life. He is the reason I get up early to pray and read my Bible. He is why I want to be the best husband and father I can be. He is why I am a Chaplain. He is why I have my PASSION websites to reach out with His love.
If it was not for Jesus I do not know where I would be. Jesus has given my life meaning, purpose, strength, hope and a future. He loved me and died on the cross for me. My response is to give my life back to Him each day and to take up my cross as it says in Matthew 16:24.
What am I passionate about? Jesus!