Monthly Archives: February 2010
Friday’s Links
Johnathan Leeman at 9Marks talks about “Radical Discipleship” and how when he realized who God was it caused him to stop being an ordinary Christian.
Thabiti Anyabwile talks about Jesus’ look of Love from Luke 22:61
40,127 Haitians have made professions of faith since the January Earthquake according to CMBH. “People were in the streets, literally begging God for forgiveness and mercy,”
Jim Shaddix delivered an awesome sermon on “The Essence Of Discipleship” from Matthew 16 at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Go their website and listen to the February 18 Chapel Service. I’m adding a direct link to this wonderful sermon.
Greg Stier shows us how a five year old hears the voice of God.
Painting Pictures of Egypt
It’s been two years since the Israelites have left Egypt. They have wondered through the wilderness following the cloud that God puts over the tabernacle(Numbers 9:15-23). God provides manna for them to eat and then they complain. In Numbers 11:1-3 They complain and God sets fire to the camp. Moses prays for them and then and God stops the fire.
That should be the end of the story, but its not. Keep in mind God just set there camp on fire due to their complaining. Now they start complaining again(Numbers 11:4-6). God has graced them with food everyday. they wake up and it’s there. All they have to do is gather it up and cook it. No slaving away at the ground trying to make it grow. It’s almost as if God is saying I give you a second chance I’ll take my curse back and we will go back to the way it was in Eden.
Yet the very thing they complain about is the blessing God has provided them with. It’s as if they completely forgot the hardships they suffered in Egypt and now all they can think of is the food and how “good “things were back in the days of slavery.
How often do we think back longingly to the days of slavery. The days that we were ruled by the taskmasters of our sin. We think back to the days before we were truly following Christ and think, but that was so fun. We forget that at the time we were constantly being beaten down by our sin and how it was slowly destroying us. Lets not believe that lie of Satan’s. Sin was never fun. Let’s look to the cross of Jesus Christ and not complain about the blessings he has given us.
After all God did give the Israelites what they wanted and a plague came with it.
Just as a bonus I’m embedding the Sara Groves video Painting Pictures of Egypt Which was the inspiration for the title of this post
Grasshoppers in our Midst
In Numbers 13 we have the story of the twelve spies. God told Moses to send a spy from each of the twelve ancestral tribes to go and scout out the land. In verse 2 it is made clear that God is giving the land to the Israelites. So Moses sends the twelve men out and they are gone for forty days. What an incredible adventure it must have been. The come across the Anakites, giants of people and they come to the valley of Eschol and see all kinds of fruits.
They return to Moses and the Israelites and tell them it’s everything God promised. it truly is a land flowing with milk and honey. BUT, The people there are strong. The cities are well built for defense. Plus there are giants there. The giants are so big we are as grasshoppers to them. What an uproar there must have been. It was everything God promised , but how could they take it with such a powerful military there.
Then a young man named Caleb speaks up. Let’s go and take this land. He speaks as a man who truly trust in God for his strength. Ten of the other men speak up though. We can’t do this they are stronger than us. Then these men lay it on thick. Remember a few minutes ago it was the land of milk and honey now it is a land that devours its inhabitants who all just so happen to be giants. (Numbers 13:25-33)
In Numbers 14:1-3 The Israelites are weeping and wailing about how they would have been better off in Egypt. Jesus promises us if we will follow Him he will take up our burdens but when the going gets tough we seem to want to start whining about how he should make us go through what ever trial we are facing. We are quick to remind Jesus that his burden is supposed to be light and right now it feels like he has a bag with a ton of bricks strapped on our backs. So how is our burden supposed to be light when what we are going through puts such a heavy weight on us?(Matthew 11:29-30)
Because we are supposed to look at whatever trial is there and say Jesus you take care of this one. When we realize that God is in control and that everything that happens is to his will (Romans 8:28) and our good the weight will be lifted. We just have to realize entering a land full of giants and a military more powerful than us is just God’s way of showing that He is more powerful than all.
The Gospel of John 1:4-5
I’m going to look at verses 4 and 5 today. I’ll skip down to verse 19 in my next section since 6-18 just give us the relationship of John and the evidence that the Word is Jesus as we talked about last time.
In Him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
In Him was life is talking about the eternal life we can only receive by accepting Jesus as our Lord and savior. John 14:6 tells us that Jesus is the way the truth and the life. He is the only way to the Father It is in Jesus that all of our hope lies. Through His death and resurrection we are able to receive this eternal life.
A man lost will look for light to see where he needs to go as we wander through our life as fallen creatures we are searching for that light and it is in Jesus. The Pharisees and Sadducees could not see that light. Despite there looking, waiting and studying they did not understand that Jesus was the light they were looking for.
So many in this day and time have that same problem. Young people claim to be spiritual and searching for the answer to life. They don’t see that it is there shining in the name of Jesus. They walk through the darkness seeing the light but unable and not willing to embrace it.
To Live is Christ
On Sunday February 14, 2010 three young men walked down the aisles of New Gethsemane Church of God in Christ in Richmond, California. They searched the pews as parishoners prayed and then opened fire sending two brothers to the hospital.
On January 30, 2010 three men in Boynton Beach, Florida walked up to a young man and started preaching to him. As they were walking off the man called to them and shot and killed two of them.
On May 31, 2009 A man walked into Reformation Lutheran Chruch in Witchita, Kansas And shot an usher.
On March 08, 2009 Fred Winters was standing in the pulpit of First Baptist Marysville, Illinois when a man walked in and shot him three times in the chest. The gunman then pulled a knife and started to stab himself and two other parishoners.
So why am I writing about these tragedys that happened in churches? I live in the south. I was born in Mississippi and then moved as far north as Tenneessee. This is the heart of the bible belt where you are a Christian because your pappy and gran pappy were. Too many times I see people that say they are Christians and there is no evidence or fruit to show for it.
When you tell someone about one of these church shootings, they look down, nod their head and ask, “What is this world coming to when someone would shoot someone in church?” The point is that in my area, and I believe most of America we see the church as a safe place we can go to hear the message of Jesus. When something bad happens, we can’t understand why.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad we live in a country where we can safely worship Jesus without fear of persecution, but I think it has made us soft to what Jesus actually told us would be required of us. The bible tells us we will be persecuted because they do not know God. (John 15:9-21) It says we will be blessed because of persecution. (Matthew 5:10-12) Persecution is to be expected.
The early Christians suffered for their beliefs. Nero actually dipped Christians in wax and used them to as human candles to light his garden. All the apostles were murdered except John and it is recorded that he was dipped in boiling oil before being sent to Patmos. As you read through Foxes book of Martyrs you see that throuhout the church age men and women have given their lives because they would not deny Jesus.
Today it still happpens in other countries. Subscribe to Voice of the Martyr’s Persecution blog and weekly you will hear stories of murder and abuse because someone refuses to deny Christ. So why is it that in America it surprises us.
The bigger question I have is, would you still go to church Sunday morning if you knew that if the government found out about the church everyone in it would die? Would you be willing to go out and tell a lost person about Jesus if you knew they may turn you in and you would be executed? If you said yes, are you doing it now?
Click on the read more and you can access Fox’s book of Martyrs through scribed
Church in Haiti
Pignon, Haiti courtesy of Gateway Freewill Baptist Church, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Great to hear from you man. Haiti was Haiti. If you have ever been you would understand that. The trip was unlike our normal trips we take. We are normally going to a place to do outreach and preach. This time our goal was to check on our national missionaries, check our churches, and obtain and deliver food to all of them. The trip was very successful. We ended up getting in touch wit almost every pastor. Some of our church buildings suffered damage but praise the Lord none of them were completely destroyed. We will have to do a lot of repair work on some of them and one school building will have to be completely rebuilt. We were able to make some connections with some of the groups over there that are bringing in food and goods and we ended up getting between 12 and 15000 lbs of food. That was a great blessing!! Our missionaries and their church families definitely needed that . I was very saddened to see so many people who lost their homes. Many of the businesses where the Haitians worked are now closed so they cant make any income and this is making the situation that much worse. A lot of the people lost loved ones, and now there are many more orphans in the country. A lot of the people from Port Au Prince are migrating to the other cities and villages which will prove to be challenging to the areas economies and supplies. One city where we have a work is PIGNON. They have had somewhere between 15-20000 people come there recently. We have a lot of work ahead of us but God has been good thus far and He will continue to be. I hope this is helpful and you are welcome to post it. our web address is www.gatewayfwbchurch.com thanks man and have a great day.
Tim McCreight
Friday’s Links
Out of Ur talks about an interview in Leadership magazine with Rob Bell. It discusses the use of Video churches. It’s interesting to see someone who embraces technology and video disagree with web and video churches. He states the same fears I have that it is bypassing the biblical mandate of fellowship and family of believers.
Timothy Brister has 21 questions every Church needs to ask
Chaplain Mike’s post at imonk about the r rated bible and how it shows us our true brokeness.
Jon Acuff cracked me up with his suggestions on how to handle someone that swears around you.I would love to see the look on someone’s face after trying no. 4
If We All Were Prophets
In Numbers 11 God has told Moses to gather 70 elders and take them to the tent of meeting. The purpose of this was so that God could put some of His spirit on them and relieve Moses of some of his burden. Moses gathered them together but two men that were appointed elders stayed behind in the camp.
When God placed His spirit on the elders the two men in camp began to prophecy. Someone ran to Moses and told him what was going on. His assistant Joshua responded by questioning Moses if he was going to stop them. Moses looked at Joshua and said , “Are you Jealous for my sake? I wish all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his spirit on them.”
Joshua didn’t get it. He was thinking it’s all about Moses. If these people start prophesying, people will start turning to them and not Moses. Moses realized that it wasn’t about him it was about bringing Glory to God and it did not matter if God used him or someone else. Moses wanted everyone to have the same relationship with the Lord that he had. That should be our wish. We shouldn’t be jealous or angry when someone is succeeding in their ministry or spiritual walk we should be happy and wish that everyone could have the same success.
Fires of Sin
I was planning on writing about The Israelites repeatedly complained to God during their time in the wilderness. As I started reading and praying I noticed that in Numbers 11:1-3 there is something else going on at the same time. They are complaining and it angers God and He sets their camp on fire. The thing that jumped out at me though was verse 2. It says the people called out to Moses. Moses prayed for them and God stopped the fire. This is what Jesus does for us. In John 14:11 Jesus tells the disciples that the Father is in Him and He is in the Father. Then in John 14:13 Jesus tells them whatever they ask in His name He will do. Then for emphasis he says it again in verse 14.
When we have let the fires of sin start to destroy us and we call out to Jesus, His spirit that leaves inside us will go to the Father and ask that He relents. Then through the power of Christ we can stop the fire of sin that tries to consume us.
The Gospel of John 1:1-3
The opening prologue to the Gospel of John are some of the most beautiful and inspiring words in scripture to me. Some believe this was a Hymn added later to the Gospel, but it is so similar to the beginning of 1 John (That which was from the beginning) that it makes sense that the opening prologue was written by John to introduce his subject.
In the begining was the Word and the Word was with God and the word was God. How beautiful that sounds and how reassuring. So much is introduced to us in that on sentence. The first statement, in the begining takes us back to Genesis and reminds us that God had all this planned and that the old covenant was just there to prepare the way for the new covenant.
We quickly can see that the word is Jesus because in John 1:14 it states that the Word came in human flesh and was the son of God. We also see that Jesus was with God in the beginning. Look at Genesis 1:26 “Let Us make man in our Image.” We can now see that Jesus was there when God created everything. Then we see that the Word was God. There is no way a person can read the Gospel of John and deny the doctrine of the trinity. John states it matter of factly right here in his opening and goes on to back it up in several other places. (see John 6:46, John 20:28, John 14:9, 1 John 5:20)
So in the first sentence we have seen that Jesus was in the beginning with God and was God but in verse 2 John wants to make sure we realize that while Jesus is fully God he is also separate. He states this in reminding us He was with God. In verse three we see that everything was made through Jesus. If you are reading a KJV it says by; but the word dia (dee-ah’) here means through and is just there to help us try and grasp how Jesus is God yet also a separate presence of God.
So in simplified terms the first three verses of John are there to help us realize that Jesus has been around with God since the begining and to get us started on understanding the first two persons of the trinity.
President’s Day
It’s president’s day and the kids are out of school and banks closed in honor of our presidents. We are truly blessed to live in a country were we can worship Jesus as our savior freely. I normally try to stay a way from political issues and I’m not intending on getting involved in one now, but I did want to write something today about what the bible says about Christians and there relationship to our leaders. Romans 13:1 tells us to be subject to our governing authorities. because they get their authority from God. No matter who you voted for in the last election God chose to put Obama in office. So we need to look at president Obama as the man that fit into God’s will at the moment.
The bible also tells us to pray for Obama. (First of all, then, I urge that requests, prayers, intercessions, and thanks be offered on behalf of all people, even for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. Such prayer for all is good and welcomed before God our Savior, since he wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one intermediary between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as a ransom for all, revealing God’s purpose at his appointed time. 1 Timothy 2:1-6 ESV) So in light of that we need to pray today and thank God that he is in control. We also need to pray that God will guide our country, protect us and call us to repentance. Our Country has turned from being a country based on a belief in God to one that denies we ever did believe.
We also should pray for Obama and that he will learn who Jesus truly is and that He died on a cross and rose so that we may rise from death to an eternal life with the Father. I’m going to link to an article from Cathleen Falsani. I recommend you read it. She was the religion editor for the Chicago Sun Times and several years back she interviewed the then Senator Obama. Remember that this is a man who has been “saved” for sixteen years and developed a friendship with the pastor, believes that he is saved and still does not understand that Jesus is the only way we can gain salvation.
He states immediately that He is a Christian. That he has deep faith and he believes there are many ways to the same place. He even explains that when Jesus said that “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me,” can be heard wrong. He says that all faiths; Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, everyone know the same God. Obama believes that he nor anyone else will go to Hell.
My point is not so much in what Obama believes but that he had a had two pastors and a friend that feel he understands the gospel. How many people in our churches have this same understanding of the gospel. I’ve heard that around 49 % of evangelical Christians believe that Jesus is not the only way to salvation. If the church is going to succeed in the great commission we must first educate our members on what the bible truly says. This requires hard preaching. Yes people will get offended. People will threaten to quit coming. Some of them may stop coming and you may even be asked to resign, but we must be able to answer before God that we did everything we could to make sure not one sheep was lost. Remember as you pray that God wants everyone to come to acknowledge of the truth. That includes the church.
Friday’s Links
Some of the blogs that caught my attention in the last week.
Devotional Christian covers the history of God’s Holy Tabernacle.
I never get tired of the story how Charle’s Spurgeon was saved. Puritan Fellowship has it on their blog this week.
Michael Patton talks about how some days he wants to call in “Spiritually Sick“.
Walker Moore has an article in the Baptist Messenger of Oklahoma about how missionary work can sometimes be dangerous but not near as dangerous as being out of God’s Will.
Google maps runs in to hostile frogmen in Norway. Relevant magazine pointed to the article in the Register
The Glory of Self
Nadab and Abihu were sons of Aaron and called by God to be Priest. Imagine how these two men were looked up too. These two young men were right behind Moses and Aaron in Priestly order. They were with Moses, Aaron and the seventy elders that approached the base of Mt Sinai to worship God(Exodus 24:9-11). The Israelites probably looked up to these two men as examples to all. In their youth God is using them.They have seen the amazing things God does when Moses and Aaron are offering the sacrifices. So They go in to offer incense to the Lord. And the bible tells us that they offered strange fire. Then the Lord consumed them in fire.( Leviticus 10:1-2)
Many commentators offer different explanations for what is meant by strange fire. But regardless of what exactly strange fire was, these men died because they did not give God proper reverence and fear. They decided that they needed to use God for their glory. That is what led to their death.
How often have you turned to God and prayed for something because it would bring you glory. How often have you seen another church doing good and wondered, “Why are You not doing that here God?” In our sinful nature we automatically put ourselves first. It is hard for us to truly show that God is first. When we stop trying to glorify God with our lives and we start using God to bring us glory then we set ourselves up for destruction. Jesus allowed Himself to be shamed, humiliated and cursed so that we could be brought together with the father. Let’s not be like Nadab and Abihu.
Stepping Into Sin
As Moses was on Mt. Sinai receiving the Lord’s law, The Israelites were at the base making a golden calf to worship. God tells Moses in Exodus 32:7-8 that the people have corrupted themselves. They have made a golden calf and even claimed that it delivered them from Egypt. Moses doesn’t seem to believe that it could possibly be as bad as God has made it seem and in Exodus 32:11-13 Moses defends the Israelites and talks God out of destroying them.Moses heads down the mountain carrying the stone tablets. He is probably thinking to himself that when he gets down there he will have to tell the Israelites that they really had God angry and that they had better watch it. He gets closer and he hears a sound. It is a low singing. As he nears the camp Moses sees the calf God was referring to. The people are drunk and dancing nakedly around it. Moses realizes God was right. These people that had forty days before said they will do all that the Lord has said (Exodus 24:3) have completely forsaken God. They are giving credit for the blessings God has given them to an idol.
So Moses approaches Aaron and asks, “What in the world is going on?” Aaron owning up to his part says, “I don’t know I just threw some gold in the fire and out jumped this calf.” I can just see Moses staring at Aaron and saying “It jumped out did it?”
Here is Aaron, like us standing accused in his sin. He says I just fell into sin. I didn’t plan on it or mean to. It just happened. But let’s look back up to Exodus 32:4 and see what really happened. Aaron took the gold and fashioned it with a graving tool. Aaron hand carved this idol. He made a decision I want to do this and he did it. We do not fall into sin, we step into it. We make a decision. Yes Lord, I see this sin and while Your word tells me to flee, I’m going to go right into it. When we excuse our sin by saying we just fell into it, we are trying to make ourselves to be not as sinful as God tells us we are. We must turn and flee when Satan tempts us and not give him an inch. Because when we do he will take a whole yard.
Business as Usual
I want to talk about a successful business man today. His name was Matt and he had built quite a fortune for himself. He had moved up to the ladder to a point that he was highly successful. He often had large banquet style meals at his house in which many government officials would come to. Matt was living what is often called the American dream.
But there was a dark side to his success. Much of his wealth had come from corrupt deals. Much of his wealth he had taken from the poor. Matt had it all but something was missing. There was something that he needed that he just hadn’t found yet.
Then one day he was sitting at his desk and he saw a crowd going by. He looked up and they appeared to be following a man. A homeless man on top of that. This crowd they seemed to be worshipping this poor wretched homeless man. And then the unexpected happened. The man looked at him and said two words. “Follow me.”
Two simple words that had so much power and meaning behind them. This man wasn’t calling Matt to just follow him down the street. He was calling him to something much bigger than that. Matt sat there and many thoughts raced through his head. I’d have to give up everything; My money, my house, my parties, and my lifestyle. All of that would be gone and I’d be homeless. I’d go from all this to nothing.
Matt looked into the man’s eyes and realized this is what he had been missing. This was that something that he needed but hadn’t found yet. Here it was. It had found him. Now all he had to do was believe that this homeless man was going to change his life. Matt stood up and followed the man.
Matt went on to become a great preacher proclaiming the good news that Jesus Christ had come and died for the sins of man and defeated death once and for all when he arose three days later. Matt spent the rest of his life in service to Jesus and eventually he died for that service.
Are you ready to make that same decision as Matthew did and give your life to Jesus. Matthew realized that following Jesus was more than saying I believe. It was saying I give everything to you. If you look at Matthew’s account of these events He doesn’t even refer to his house as his house he refers to it as the house. He realized that it was part of an old life that he had put to death and that now he was a new person. Let us all be as successful as Matthew was.
Matthew 9:9-10; Luke 5:27-29; Mark2:14-15
Friday’s Links
Albert Mohler’s post Adopted for Life… and in Death tells of a family that had been trying to adopt a Haitian boy named Arno. This post is both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.
Voice of the Martyr’s Persecution Blog had a post linking to an article in the Palm Beach Post showing that even in America you could die for your faith in Jesus.
David Murray has placed the ten chapters of his ebook How Sermons Work on his Head Heart Hand blog
Mark Driscoll has done a piece called 32 Hours the Church in Haiti that is definitely worth a listen or watch. He has also posted a page that has statistics on Haiti.
Passing the Garden
13 we have the account of Abraham and Lot separating. Abraham and Lot have both grown exceedingly wealthy. They have built up large flocks and have many workers to care for them. The workers have begun to fight over grazing lands and water. Abraham sees this and calls to Lot. Notice what happens here in vs. 9, Abraham is the elder and has the right to decide who gets which piece of land, but he asks Lot which one he wants. It is more than likely that Abraham has raised Lot as if he was his own son. He has taught him about God and took him away from the land of Haran so that he could grow closer to God. Lot looks out over the valley. It is so beautiful that it’s compared to Eden. The water flows into the streams and the grass is green and fertile. This is the place Lot wants. Lot heads down and he goes past the valleys and sets up his home in Sodom. There were several cities Lot could have chosen from, but he chose Sodom. Moving into Sodom it was obvious of the sin and wickedness that prevailed there. Yet here is where Lot chose to raise his family. He paid dearly for that choice later in his life when the city was destroyed along with his wife and Sons-in-law.
Often we face this choice. We look at all the beautiful blessings God has given us. We marvel over them and say that is what we want. Yet we skip over it and head straight for the sin that separates us from God. We walk through the garden to the other side and embrace the wickedness that will eventually lead to our downfall. All we have to do is stop and embrace the blessings God has given us.
Sarah Laughs At Me
In Genesis 18 God tells Abraham that when he returns in a year, Sarah will have had a child. Sarah is listening in the background and when she hears this, she laughs. The Lord asks her why she laughed and she say’s that she didn’t. The Lord asks’ “Is anything to hard for the Lord?”
It’s easy to see why Sarah laughed. She was almost ninety years old and had been praying for a child all her life. Now when it is physically impossible, she is told she will have a child. We have the advantage of reading this knowing that yes Sarah will have a child. We also know that Elizabeth had a child in her old age and Mary was able to have a child while still a virgin. It’s easy for us to see that this was not hard for God. But poor foolish Sarah.
Then Sarah goes on to lie to the Lord. As if He will not know what she really said. It’s easy for us to look at this and think how foolish Sarah is for not believing God and then lying about it to God. Poor, poor Sarah! If she only had the faith of a mustard seed, she would see that this is nothing to God.
But how often do you and I act just like Sarah? Think about it for a minute. How many times have you been unable to trust God? Think about the small things God has asked you to do and you didn’t, because you were afraid. When I feel the Holy Spirit pushing me to walk up to a complete stranger and ask them, “Do you know Jesus?” Why does my heart start beating fast and I worry about them getting angry and embarrassing me? Do I trust God with the big stuff if I doubt him with the small stuff?
Ask yourself, do I truly trust God with my money? If the Holy Spirit suddenly told me to sign my paycheck over to somebody else, would I truly believe that God would take care of my monetary needs for the next week? When God calls us to preach, or go on a mission trip, or do anything radical for him, why do we make excuses on why we can’t? Why do we worry that this might be more than God can handle? Is that not what we are doing?
As I read about Sarah laughing, I wonder is she laughing at me and saying, “Oh foolish Scott is anything too hard for the Lord?”
Power of Prayer
As I was reading the other day, I noticed something. In Genesis 6:13 God tells Noah that all the world is violent and that He is going to destroy it. Then God gives Noah instructions on what to do to save himself and his family. Noah follows God’s instruction and all the world perishes except for Noah and his family. This made me think about Abraham. In Genesis 18 God tells Abraham that Sodom and Gomorrah is so wicked that He must destroy it. Abraham begs and pleads for God not to destroy the righteous with the wicked. God relents and allows Lot and his family to escape. Now I jumped ahead to Moses (Exodus 32) Moses was on Mt. Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments when God tells him that the Israelites have made a gold calf and our worshipping it. God makes the same promise He made to Noah. He will destroy them and then build the Israelites back using Moses. Moses pleads with God not to do this and to forgive them. God listens and the people are saved.
So now I’m thinking of James 5:16 (The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.) Paul also believed in the power of prayers look at Philippians 1:19, (for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance) 1 Timothy 2:1-4 (I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. his is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.) and Philemon 1:22 (Prepare a guest room for me, because I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers.)
The point I’m getting to is that when we do like Abraham and Moses God hears our prayers and will answer them. So pray for those who need help, encouragement, strength, but most of all pray for those that need to know Jesus.
Matt Chandler article
Calling out to God
I love Genesis 4:26 where it says, and men began to call upon the name of the Lord. Let’s put ourselves there for a minute. Adam and Eve have been kicked out of the Garden of Eden. They have two sons and then one day Cain kills Abel. Then Cain is sent away by God. Picture it. Adam and Eve have lost their two sons. They still have daughters, grandchildren and possibly several more generations of Grandchildren. But their two sons are gone.
Imagine how Adam felt as he looked at all that had been done. His sin had separated him from God. His sin had led to the death of his son and sentencing of his other son. Just imagine the burden Adam carried.
And Eve knowing she was the one that allowed the serpent to deceive her. Her husband is no longer able to be at her side enjoying all the blessings God has given them. He must work in the hot sun. He must slave all day because she wanted to be like God. Her son dead buried in a shallow grave because she bit into the forbidden fruit and encouraged her husband to do the same. Her other son sent away, no longer allowed to be in the presence of God. She blames herself as the tears fall down.
But now in verse 25 God grants her another son. There is that first glimmer of hope. The world seems to be forgetting about God, but know she has a son. Then Seth has a child named Enosh. Then they see the greatest thing. Men are calling out to God. The people are worshiping God again. Revival has broken out. Imagine Adam and Eve looking out at the generations that have come from them, and seeing every bow down to the Lord.
The serpent, that old devil watching and wondering what happened. This wasn’t his plan. Why are they worshiping God? He cast them out. He cursed the land so they would have to work. Why are they worshiping Him?
Because God still loves us and blesses us even when we don’t deserve it. I pray that we can see a revival like this. One that makes the devil angry that man will call out to God despite the evil and murder in the world. That throughout it all man will see that there is a God and He loves us.
