Posts

Compassion in the Harvest

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Matthew 8-10 “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’” Matthew 9:36-38 Our motive for praying our workers into the harvest can be need for personnel; but Jesus’ heart was moved by compassion for people. The harvest metaphor focuses our attention on the urgency of the task. Jesus was moved by a love for people. As we ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field, the Lord will be looking for workers who share his heart of compassion. Even the task-oriented, goal-directed personalities can be daily filled with the love of Christ. When we are filled with Christ’s love, we see crowds and the individuals in those crowds for who they are, people created in the image of God, seeking the life only their Creator can provide
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Kingdom Prayers

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  Matthew 5-7   “’This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” Matthew 6:9, 10 Reorienting our focus in prayer around our Father in heaven, his kingdom-coming here on earth, and his will being done here as it is in heaven, completely changes how we typically pray. Our prayers are often focused on how we are doing, what we need, and our struggles. Can we discipline our prayers as Christ taught us, with the focus on our Father? Our needs for daily bread and deliverance from evil follow, but don’t lead. Praying “kingdom prayers” lifts us to another perspective and focuses our prayers on the priorities of the Father’s kingdom-mission to reach and transform people and nations. What adjustments is Jesus inviting us to make in how we pray today? “Lord Jesus, teach me to pray, for your glory.”
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Gospel of the Kingdom

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Matthew 1-4   “…the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor…’Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.’ Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” Matthew 4:8, 17, 23 If our vision is not captured by the kingdom of heaven, we will be vulnerable to the seduction of this world’s kingdoms - even building our own. The gospel, or good news, of the kingdom is different than the gospel of sin-management or self-improvement. The gospel of the kingdom teaches us that God created us to be fruitful and multiply. We were created to experience his life in all its fullness. Adam’s and Eve’s rebellion against God broke relationship with God and gave sin/death authority on earth. Christ’s life, death, and resurrection purchased our freedom from sin and all its destructive influences. The good news is that we can be restored
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A Little Off

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Psalms 124; 2 Corinthians 11-13   “If someone comes to you and preaches Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” 2 Corinthians 11:4 There is only one genuine Lord Jesus Christ, one Holy Spirit, and one gospel; yet Paul was concerned that the church he planted was being deceived by a counterfeit gospel with a false Jesus and religious spirits. He was concerned that the Corinthian church lacked discernment and spiritual maturity. What about us? What about our self-improvement gospel which ignores the surrender of our will and the self-life to Christ? What about the way we ignore Christ’s call to love and forgive our enemies? We need Jesus for his blood, but ignore his authority in our lives and the life of the Church. In our experience-driven culture we run after fresh experiences of spiritual renewal without discerning the spirit we are embra
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Wage War

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2 Corinthians 7-10   “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 Are we aware of our spiritual weapons and how to use them? Are we aware of the spiritual warfare we find ourselves in as those following Jesus in his mission? Paul described Satan’s deception as coming as an “angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14) with servants masquerading as “servants of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 11:15), but who serve Satan. Has this level of spiritual warfare against the Church ceased, or are we naïve? However, the primary battlefront is in the mind as we identify and resist thoughts and thought- constructs which oppose the truth of Christ. Our authority is in Christ to re
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What Compels us?

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  2 Corinthians 3-6   “Since then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men…For Christ’s love compels us…We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us...” 2 Corinthians 5:11, 14, 20 Paul’s encounter with the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ totally transformed his life. Jesus called and commissioned Paul to live and share his gospel to the nations, regardless of the cost. Paul fell to the ground, blinded by the glory of Christ. His fear of the Lord was not theological, it was visceral! In the subsequent vision Paul received, he experienced the grace and mercy of Christ through the infilling love of the Holy Spirit. This mixture of the fear of the Lord and an awareness that everyone would one day stand before Christ’s throne and be accountable for how they responded to his gospel, combined with the compelling love of Christ for all people, motivated Paul to live as Christ’s ambassador. What motivates us in life? What motivates us
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What Do We Smell Like?

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Job 41-42; 2 Corinthians 1-2   “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life…” 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 The presence of Jesus in our lives gives off a distinctive odor to all those around us. To some, the fragrance of Christ smells like life; to others, it smells like death. If there is no reaction to our lives, it begs the question: Are we carrying Christ, or just living for ourselves?   Do people smell Christ, or just us? To those who are perishing without Christ, Jesus smells like death, both our humiliating death-to-self, and their future destiny apart from Christ. Paul later said that outwardly “We are wasting away”. In a success-driven world, the price of knowing and following Jesus is too high. Death stinks! H
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