Acts 15:39-40 "And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus; And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God."
God knows what was going on. Paul had his reasons why Mark should not go with them on the second missionary journey, which eventually took Paul and his company into Greece. Mark had let him down and perhaps Paul had taken this personally. In any case, it caused Paul to not take Mark, but instead to take Silas with him. Silas operated in the gift of prophecy, and it is noteworthy that during this journey we read a lot about the Holy Spirit's direction, including the famous Macedonian Call. So it seems God used this seemingly negative event, to stretch and to grow Paul's experience of the prophetic gift.
But God did not forget about Mark in this process. Barnabas took Mark, his nephew, under his wing. This took forgiveness, and Barnabas, the Son of Encouragement (a name given him by fellow church members) gave Mark a fresh opportunity for ministry. Tradition says that Mark later became the personal assistant to Peter, the apostle to the Jews. There he learned much about the events of Jesus' ministry, which Mark then wrote down in the Gospel according to Mark, which is considered to be the first of the four gospels to be written.
So God used this seemingly negative event, to develop and grow two people, and countless others through them.
God knows the things we are going through, personally. I am sure Paul felt badly about this conflict with Barnabas, may have wished he could do it over. But in God's hands, all things work together for good for those called according to His purpose. Turn the situation over to God, and allow Him to use it for His purposes. He knows what He is doing. He promised never to leave or forsake us.
"Lord, help me to be an instrument of Your grace, and I ask you to work out the situations of my life, for Your glory. Amen"
Monday, October 22, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
Personal Revival - Prov 24:16
The life of the Christian has its ups and downs. We start on our walk with Jesus and the Holy Spirit, with great enthusiasm, we love the new closeness we have with God! It is awesome! We may have met Jesus at a revival meeting, or perhaps it was a "chance" encounter with someone on the street, perhaps it was some relative or friend who introduced us. But we were excited, and we were going to tell the world about it!
The natural way of things, is that life starts to encroach on this relationship. Busy-ness is one of these things. Early in life we have less responsibilities, and more time to maintain the freshness of this relationship. As time goes on, though, more things crowd in to devour our time, meaning there is less time to feed our relationship with Jesus. Gradually, Jesus can be allowed to drift to the periphery of our life, while other more urgent things take center stage.
The church in Ephesus had this happen to them. They started with a bang, people had to decide rapidly on which side they stood, when a riot threatened to kill off the initial attempts to start a church (Acts 19). They persevered though, and Paul was able to write one of his most profound letters to this church - the epistle to the Ephesians. As time goes on, we can become weary in well-doing (2 Thes 3:13), but this was not the case in Ephesus. They maintained their spiritual walk, and are commended for this (Rev 2:1-3)
But Jesus also, besides the commendation, has something to say to this church. "Yet I hold this against you. You have forsaken your first love." He says, "Repent, and do the things you did at first". This church was obedient and resistant to false teaching, they persevered. But they had lost the freshness of their first love, that first contact with Jesus! Relationship may have become religion to them. Jesus urges them to recapture that initial zeal, and get back to the urgency of their early days as God's children.
Proverbs tells us: "for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again". We can regain that closeness with Jesus. He says to do the first works, what worked before will work again! We devoured the Bible, our prayer time was precious to us. Yes, we may have lost our habit of doing these things, but we can get up again! Restarting certain disciplines may feel uncomfortable for a while, but as we regain that lost fervor, we will once again feel the hunger for a closer walk with the Lord!
"Lord, we surrender ourselves to you, and ask you to lead us into a closer relationship with you. We long for your touch! In Jesus' name, amen"
The natural way of things, is that life starts to encroach on this relationship. Busy-ness is one of these things. Early in life we have less responsibilities, and more time to maintain the freshness of this relationship. As time goes on, though, more things crowd in to devour our time, meaning there is less time to feed our relationship with Jesus. Gradually, Jesus can be allowed to drift to the periphery of our life, while other more urgent things take center stage.
The church in Ephesus had this happen to them. They started with a bang, people had to decide rapidly on which side they stood, when a riot threatened to kill off the initial attempts to start a church (Acts 19). They persevered though, and Paul was able to write one of his most profound letters to this church - the epistle to the Ephesians. As time goes on, we can become weary in well-doing (2 Thes 3:13), but this was not the case in Ephesus. They maintained their spiritual walk, and are commended for this (Rev 2:1-3)
But Jesus also, besides the commendation, has something to say to this church. "Yet I hold this against you. You have forsaken your first love." He says, "Repent, and do the things you did at first". This church was obedient and resistant to false teaching, they persevered. But they had lost the freshness of their first love, that first contact with Jesus! Relationship may have become religion to them. Jesus urges them to recapture that initial zeal, and get back to the urgency of their early days as God's children.
Proverbs tells us: "for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again". We can regain that closeness with Jesus. He says to do the first works, what worked before will work again! We devoured the Bible, our prayer time was precious to us. Yes, we may have lost our habit of doing these things, but we can get up again! Restarting certain disciplines may feel uncomfortable for a while, but as we regain that lost fervor, we will once again feel the hunger for a closer walk with the Lord!
"Lord, we surrender ourselves to you, and ask you to lead us into a closer relationship with you. We long for your touch! In Jesus' name, amen"
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Suddenly!
Luke 17:28-29 "It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulphur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all".
In this passage, Jesus gives some information about the coming of the Kingdom of God, and Jesus' return to this earth. He first of all tells that the kingdom is inside of us (v. 21), and that we can't find it by looking in this place or that place. He also tells that when he returns, all people will see him (v. 24), like the lightning that lights up the sky. And then he tells us that when this event happens, people will not be expecting it. Things will happen suddenly!
Things sometimes creep up on us and suddenly they are there. Things may seem quiet and normal, just as in the days of Lot. They were carrying on their daily business and everything seemed peaceful to them. They did not expect something horrendous to happen. Yet it came! Suddenly! In our own lives we may let down and take it easy and we don't even notice how we are slipping away in our relationship with God. But he will return, suddenly! "Two women will be grinding grain together, one will be taken and the other left" (v.35). Here, Jesus seems to be speaking of the rapture, described in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. It will happen suddenly! And the day we meet Jesus may be even closer than we think - each of us is only a breath away from meeting our Maker!
This is why Jesus tells us to watch and pray! We ought always to be ready to meet Jesus! Be awake. Be in relationship with him. Be ready so he will be able to say to us, "Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your Lord!" Don't let that day come upon us, unawares.
"Lord, I pray that you would keep me awake and alert and on the ball, and that my relationship with you would stay hot and fervent! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!"
In this passage, Jesus gives some information about the coming of the Kingdom of God, and Jesus' return to this earth. He first of all tells that the kingdom is inside of us (v. 21), and that we can't find it by looking in this place or that place. He also tells that when he returns, all people will see him (v. 24), like the lightning that lights up the sky. And then he tells us that when this event happens, people will not be expecting it. Things will happen suddenly!
Things sometimes creep up on us and suddenly they are there. Things may seem quiet and normal, just as in the days of Lot. They were carrying on their daily business and everything seemed peaceful to them. They did not expect something horrendous to happen. Yet it came! Suddenly! In our own lives we may let down and take it easy and we don't even notice how we are slipping away in our relationship with God. But he will return, suddenly! "Two women will be grinding grain together, one will be taken and the other left" (v.35). Here, Jesus seems to be speaking of the rapture, described in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. It will happen suddenly! And the day we meet Jesus may be even closer than we think - each of us is only a breath away from meeting our Maker!
This is why Jesus tells us to watch and pray! We ought always to be ready to meet Jesus! Be awake. Be in relationship with him. Be ready so he will be able to say to us, "Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your Lord!" Don't let that day come upon us, unawares.
"Lord, I pray that you would keep me awake and alert and on the ball, and that my relationship with you would stay hot and fervent! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!"
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