Praise the Lord for this new day. The Lord has blessed us with some spectacular and stunning summer days. He has blessed us with a humongous garden. The diverse vegetable plants and flowers are growing sturdy and strong. Last night the Lord decided to water the garden - praise Him! Some of the fruit trees that He has blessed us with are looking luxuriant. I spent one day this week sharing lunch with some friends. We have known each other since 1983. They were married 40 years ago just one week after Alice and I were married. This dear couple loves the Lord and they love to go on short term mission trips all over the world. It was great time sharing and reminiscing the wonders of His love.
Sunita and her little daughter Asha are currently in Jerusalem. They arrived there safely, and they will be traveling from there to Armenia in a few days. Thank you for praying for them. Praise the Lord for all the countless summer missionaries all over the globe and around the corner serving Jesus. It is an exciting time to be alive and to be involved serving Jesus in His Kingdom.
Our church hosted a community wide summer dinner yesterday afternoon. They served the seasonal menu consisting of BBQ chicken and all the salads, as well as a plethora if desserts. It was a magnificent afternoon of great fellowship and sharing.
I am reflecting from Philippians 4:4 , "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice." Paul’s words seem peculiar, as he wrote them from jail. Paul instructed the church at Philippi to find joy in all things and to not worry. In light of current events these words from the Apostle Paul can feel vapid or void, words simply read on a page and not fully taken to heart. How can we find joy in the midst of deep suffering, in the presence of evil in our world. Turning on the news can be a rather depressing. From the massacre in Orlando to the murders in Paris, to the refugees flooding into Europe, our world has been confronted with rather sobering statistics of our human frailty. The world has been confronted with a reality many of us are not willing to accept. As Paul addressed the church in Philippi, he wrote with a clear sense of fellowship and affection from a very desolate place, sitting in a prison cell. His desire was for the church to know and understand that in this world there would be suffering and to accept suffering with joy. Paul was not off his rocker! Rather, he understood that as Christians we are not exempt from the world’s suffering, which is inherent to human existence—but our faith and hope in God gives us an unusual perspective. Christ entered a world wrought with human disparity and offered us hope.
When Paul asked the church to be considerate in all they were to do, the words are to serve as a reminder to be aware of those both inside and outside of the church. As Christians we are called to respond to the brokenness we experience in our world. “Remember, the Lord is coming soon.” These words can often take on an end times revelation, interpreted as an expectant event, not yet occurred. Paul was not asking the church in Philippi (and therefore us as well) to simply bide our time and wait for Christ to come. He was challenging Christians to be present in the world, to be mindful of all things, and to answer in a way that acknowledges Christ to all.
As a Christian, we are called to respond to the world’s question of “Where is God? Where is your God when bad things happen? Where is your God when people die and terror grips the heart of a nation? Where is God when we suffer?” In a world of uncertainty, we do not know the events that are coming, we cannot anticipate what tomorrow will bring, we can simply respond to the now, and find contentment and peace in knowing Christ is near.
Anywhere a Christian is, then God’s presence should be evident as well. Difficult situations yield an opportunity for Christians to step into the brokenness of the world and offer the declaration of hope, not simply to those who are easy to embrace or those who are in need but to our adversaries as well. “When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You? The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’” (1)
Matthew’s gospel sheds a renewed sense of “Christ is coming soon” to a world shrouded in darkness. The strength and ability to walk into a distraught world cannot come from our own abilities, rather we must fully accept our weaknesses and propensities, allowing God to be the stabilizing denominator of our lives. If we tried in our own might to meet all of the needs of our world, we would end up worrying ourselves to a point of incapacity. Instead our response should be to love our enemies, to pray for the persecutors, to offer compassion, to bring about a distinctive narrative of grace, mercy, and hope, which in turn develops a deeper reliance on God’s promise. His promise to always be with us.
His promise to be all we require. We need to be a people, as Christians, who pray for the Kingdom of God to be ushered in, and live like it already is.
In Christ,
Brown
https://youtu.be/cxa2ZDDyRlI
No comments:
Post a Comment