Where is that Church today?

Last week, I went to the residential children’s home to visit the nine year old child I am mentoring. I was shocked to discover that she is unable to read. She tries to mask her illiteracy with her eloquent speech, but it is obvious that the child cannot read!

Ephesians 6 starts off with instruction to various groups of people. Children are instructed to obey their parents in the Lord. Parents are encouraged to teach their children godly discipline without provoking them to anger. Slaves are instructed to obey their masters , and masters to treat their slaves with dignity for all are servants of Christ the Judge.

Ephesians 6:12 then states: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood , but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” The Bible makes it very clear that we are not to squabble amongst ourselves. Our enemy is not the people around us, Christian or not. The prince of darkness and his host are our enemy.  We do nothing but weaken our resolve when we fight among ourselves. When we let disharmony and discord infiltrate our ranks, the enemy rejoices. (1 Pet 5:8)

As much as the battle is a spiritual one, it also affects the physical realm in which we find our current existence. The enemy has thrown poverty against us. He afflicts the minds of our youth with boredom, violence and the scourge of illiteracy. It is our duty to extend compassion to those who find themselves his captives. Christ’s mission did not keep Him in the synagogue. His mission extended to all the world. He mingled among the people as one who desired their highest good, extending to them the right arm of fellowship and compassion. His ministry was a practical one.  The Bible tells us that He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil for God was with Him.  (Acts 10:38)

Christ has given us the same mission. What have we done with His command to go into all the world? We are living in the time of the end. We say it over and over, yet our actions and the way we live does not reflect this reality. Time is of the essence, yet we find ourselves unable to re-group and strategise an effective onslaught against the enemy. We are like King David who, in the time when kings were meant to go to war, was sitting in his palace daydreaming, thus giving the enemy the foothold in his life (2 Sam 11:1-4). Outreach is not about singing beautiful songs about Christ to people ravaged by poverty, alcohol and abuse. A song does nothing for them except perplex them more. Where is the God who supposedly loves them when they suffer day and night? How can you show them His love?

While Satan is on a rampage because his time is running out, while he threatens to destroy our children and families, the Church slumbers on and has potluck. Spiritual warfare is about the Church reclaiming territory. This is the Church of whom Christ spoke when He said that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. Where is that Church today? 

Main Scripture refs:  Eph 6:1-12, Matt 16:18-19, Rev 12:12

God's Grace in the Old Testament-Part 6

We have finally  come to the last instalment of our series on Genesis, yet this is only the beginning of God’s unfathomable Grace! Today, we will examine Joseph’s understanding of God’s Grace, how the inward working of God’s Grace in his life revealed itself through his actions and conduct.

There are many times in our lives when we think that we have been dealt the short end of the stick, a raw deal or an unfavourable hand. It is in times like these that we can relate to someone like Joseph. Joseph experienced some of the worst things that life in all its unfairness could deal a person, and he experienced it from the tender age of 17. Sold into slavery by his own brothers, uprooted from his family and culture,  condemned to a strange land, then cast into prison when he had done nothing wrong, he had every reason to be angry and resentful. However, he did not allow himself the luxury of self-pity. He did not languish in the dungeon, although it seemed that both God and man had forgotten him. Instead, he chose to busy himself doing whatever work his hands found to do and God honoured his positive attitude and willingness to serve.

He never once cursed God, neither did he blame others for his situation. He used the talents God gave him and gave all credit to God. Joseph’s deep experiental and living understanding of God’s Grace is revealed through his conduct after being reunited with his brothers. He did not exact revenge on them in their helpless state, when they came to him with no bargaining power in his position of authority.  He sought only to test them to see if their characters had changed, if they remembered what they had done to him and showed any remorse (Gen 42:18-24, Gen 44:16-34). Once convinced that they realized that what they had done was wrong, he immediately embraced them and forgave them, explaining that it was God’s design to send him ahead of them so that their whole family would be preserved!  What they had meant for evil, God had used for their good. (Gen 43:30, Gen 45)

How often do we see our circumstances, difficult as they may be, as another way that God is showing His Grace to someone else? Or do we mostly view opposition and adversity from the standpoint of selfishness, of how it affects just us? I think the latter is more often the case than the former. Only one who has a real, deep and true understanding of God’s Grace can look outside himself and see how God is using even his adverse circumstances for the good of others and his own long-term benefit.

Joseph’s brothers thought that his graceful conduct would end with the death of his father, Jacob. They thought that he was reserving judgment for them and would visit it upon them after their father died. When Jacob died, they were terrified! Joseph was an example of God’s Grace at work in a human life (Gen 50:16-21). He spoke kindly to his brothers, promising to look after them and their families. God preserved the nation of Israel through Joseph and fulfilled His Promise to Abraham.

Joseph’s life had many parallels to Christ, confirming that same Grace that worked in Christ’s life was at work in him.

God's Grace in the Old Testament-Part 5

As we continue our journey of  exploration into God’s Grace, we learn some important truths. The book of Genesis is a book of beginnings, but also a book of revelation. It is a revelation of God’s Grace at work, how He meets with us in the depths  of sin, makes us a Promise, keeps His Promise and forever changes us.

Jacob was the first Patriarch to verbally affirm the effectual working of God’s Grace in His life. Joseph took this a step further. He was able to live out God’s Grace, despite the adverse circumstances that manifested through most of his youth.

As a young boy in the house of his father and a son of Jacob’s most loved wife, Rachel, it was a well-known fact that he was his father’s favourite son. His honest disposition did not help the situation as it created a clear distinction between him and his brothers. At 17 years of age, he was sold into slavery by his brothers and found himself in the household of  Potiphar, a high ranking official in Egypt.  (Gen 37)

Throughout his experience, God was always with him and Joseph never doubted or questioned God. Despite the hard times and afflictions of slavery, he honoured God first and foremost.  When Potiphar’s wife sought to commit adultery with Joseph, Joseph’s first regard was to God. He realized that by complying with her wishes, he would be sinning against God. He did not use his difficult circumstances as an excuse to engage in sinful practices, but rose above them thus maintaining a clean conscience. (Gen 39:1-9)

Sometimes doing the right thing comes at a price, however honourable our actions may be. Joseph’s situation seemed to get progressively worse. For refusing to sin against God in adultery, he was cast into prison yet even in prison, he refused to renounce his God. God rewarded his faithfulness not with freedom, which he must have desired with all his heart. God rewarded him with His Presence. God was with Joseph and so he prospered despite his circumstances and blossomed like a tender root sprouting out of dry ground. He was soon promoted to manager of the prison. Yes, no matter how terrible the place, you can be a manager there too! (Gen 39:18-23)

Just when it seemed that things couldn’t get any worse, Joseph experienced the pain of being forgotten. One of the prisoners whose dream he had interpreted promised to remember him and bring his case before Pharoah should his dream of being reinstated to office come true. However, once he was reinstated, he forgot all about Joseph! The Lord gave Joseph the interpretation of dreams. Many people having such a gift would have used  it to their advantage, taking credit for themselves but Joseph always gave credit to God.

He did the same even when eventually called upon to interpret Pharoah’s dream. God honoured Joseph and gave him his freedom, making him prime minister of Egypt and second in charge to Pharoah. (Gen 40-41, Phil 2:4-14)

Looking Back, Pressing Forward

So many times, I thought all was lost,

That all was for naught

But you always led me home…

Looking back, pressing forward;

My life’s like a puzzle,

But I know You’re leading me…

I can count on You!

Heaven’s fiery Lion,

My eternal Champion!

Jesus, Lord of All…

Looking back, pressing forward;

I know You’re watching over me!

I’m no longer chasing the wind

And life’s no longer an impossible dream…

The flower of Your Grace opens wide before me!

The power of Your Love totally surrounds me!

Like a brilliant torch, a new day is dawning;

Your Grace is at work, and Your Grace is enough…

Looking back, pressing forward,

Your Word opens the way for me;

Like a star, Your Grace shines free

And I know I’m not alone…

Anchored in the strength of Your Grace,

Waiting for the Day when we’ll meet face to face;

I’m looking back, always pressing forward… (this line x2)

The message that inspired this song: “Looking back” in this song doesn’t refer to looking back in doubt or nostalgia for the past. No, it’s not looking back in the sense that Lot’s wife did, for she turned into a pillar of salt. “Looking back” refers to the sense you get that when you review the events of your life and take stock of your past, you can see God in it…always waiting, always watching, always with you. It’s like He is making the whole Universe conspire to ensure your success. God is rooting for you. He is on your side, and that makes you UNSTOPPABLE…This is a song of encouragement to those who have seen God lead in the past; He will take care of your future! To those who can’t seem to see Him in your past, look more carefully…because He is there!

The Scriptures behind this song: Phil 3:10-14, Rom 8:28-31, 2 Cor 12:9-10

NOTE: The last instalment of the series on Grace in Genesis will continue next week.

God's Grace in the Old Testament-Part 4

Genesis is a book which shows us that God is, and always has been, a God of Grace. We have a distinct advantage over Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the other Patriarchs in Genesis. They were journeying with God, discovering His Grace one day at a time in a period when no written record of His Grace yet existed. Today, although we still journey through life experiencing God’s Grace one day at a time, we can also look back into the pages of history as recorded for us in the Bible and see God’s gracious dealings with people in bygone eras.

As we journeyed through the pages of Genesis the last three weeks, we have observed that God’s Grace is unconditional. Abraham did not do anything that made him worthy of God’s Grace, yet God nevertheless showered His unconditional, unlimited Grace upon him and not just him, but his whole family! In fact, it is recorded that through Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed!  (Gen 12:1-3)

Abraham’s son Isaac, did nothing to merit the extension of God’s Grace to him but he received it because God made a promise to his father which He intended to keep, for God is not a man that he should lie. Isaac made the very same mistakes his father made in trying to preserve his life by lying that Rebekah, his wife, was his sister yet God still blessed him and extended the covenant promise to him too. (Gen 26:3-4, 6-13)

Jacob was worse than his father and grandfather! His very name meant “deceiver”. He was a self-absorbed character who stole his brother’s birthright and deceived his uncle Laban by  using selective breeding and attributing his gains to the blessing of the Lord! He was a “wheeler and dealer” by nature. Everything to Jacob was a business deal. He was so used to haggling that he even tried to bargain with God, making vows that God would only be his God if He would feed him, clothe him, preserve and protect him and bring him safely to his father’s house. If anyone was audacious, it was Jacob! After all, who would dare bargain with the Almighty? (Gen 25:28-34, Gen 27:1-36, Gen 30:31-43,  Gen 31:7-12, Gen 28:20-22)

Jacob made mistakes and some of them were premeditated, yet we see no dimunition in God’s grace to him. God sent angels to protect him and allowed him to see them! In Bethel, he was given a vision of a ladder that reached to Heaven and angels ascending and descending on it. The more Jacob sinned and let God down, the more it seemed God’s Grace increased! Sin could not overcome Grace. (Gen 28:12-15, Gen 32:1-2)

In Genesis 32:10-11 and 33:5 and 11, we see the result of God’s Grace. Jacob was the first Patriarch to verbally affirm God’s Grace. After wrestling with God and with men, his name was changed to “Israel” which in Hebrew means “a prince who prevails with God and men.” God showed Jacob that he could get away with bargaining and deceiving men, but he couldn’t do the same with God. Jacob saw the face of God and his life was spared (Gen 32:30). His day of reckoning happened to be his greatest experience of God’s Grace, which changed him forever. (New Testament ref: Romans  5)