“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (I John 2:15).

A continuous battle rages in the heart of every believer. A continuous battle rages for the heart of every believer.  The battle is over which love reigns supreme in the believer’s heart.   Is it the love of the world or the love of the Father?

This boils down to how we are inwardly sustained in our everyday lives.  As we go through the day are we sustained by the clinging to and cherishing the “world,” or are we sustained by clinging to and cherishing the Father?  The two loves cannot exist alongside each other.  At any given moment we are either finding life in the world or we are finding it in the Father.  If we strive to fill our thirsty souls through the love of the world, the love of the Father is not filling us.

So what exactly does it mean to “love the world”?  Don’t misunderstand this to say that we are not to love the people of the world.  God loves the people of the world (John 3:16), and so should we.  What John is describing here is loving the ways of the world.  The world, then, is the system of values and goals which excludes God and appeals to the sinful nature.

John goes on to explain:  “For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world” (1 John 2:16).

The “cravings of sinful man” are the sinful desires that seethe within our sin nature.  The “lust of the eyes” describes our covetous tendency to acquire more and more.  The “boasting of what he has and does” points to pridefully seeking the notice of others for what we have accumulated and accomplished.

These three manifestations of the love of the world are very powerful in the human soul.  They are deceiving in that they entice us to find our sense of inner well-being from these worldly passions and desires.  And at least for a season, these passions and desires make us think we are happy.  But it doesn’t last long.  Our hearts are restless and will never be satisfied by the things of the world.

The opposite of this is being sustained and finding our inner sense of well-being from the “love of the Father.”  Our heavenly Father’s love is the only thing that will quench the thirsting of our souls.  The Father’s love is unconditional, all-encompassing and altogether satisfying.  His love is steadfast and never ceasing.

The love of the Father is very real and experiential.  We feel it.  We are strengthened by it. It fills our innermost beings with eternal delight.  This love flows from obedience to the will of the Father.  As we live each day committed to following His commands we are acknowledging that it is His love, not the things of the world, that ultimately sustains us.

The love of the world will never satisfy us because it is transitory.  John says, “The world and its desires pass away…” (v.17). We know this instinctively when we sense the shallow, fleeting nature of the pleasures of the world … how they don’t really satisfy deeply or in a lasting way.

However, “the man who does the will of God lives forever” (v.17).  In faithfully obeying the will of God we are expressing our complete dependence upon the Lord.  Doing his will means we value His pleasure more than we value the pleasures of this world.  And as we do there is something eternal about the joy this brings.  “Living forever” means really living.

The “love of the world” may provide momentary pleasure but it always runs down and leaves with only a cheap, hollow thrill.  The “love of the Father” is never-ending and intensifies right up to the time when we are ushered into the presence of unimaginable joy in the presence of God for eternity.

“Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you” (Nehemiah 1:6).

In our National Day of Prayer service on May 3 I invited a number of our church members to lead in prayer and the reading of Scripture.  We met at the Gladney Center, one of America’s leading adoption agencies, located next door to the construction site of a new Planned Parenthood abortion clinic.  It was an appropriate setting for us to pour out our brokenness over the evil of abortion that is so prevalent in our land.

On that day one of our men, Larry Thompson, poured out a most earnest prayer of confession.  Larry graciously granted permission to print the content of his prayer.  I encourage you to read it and preserve it as a guide for your own times of confession before the Lord.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

SELF

Father, I come before you today to confess sin, for myself and on behalf of the church and the nation.  I stand before you in distress today for how we have sinned against you and can only stand before you because the work of Christ allows us to approach the throne of grace boldly so that we may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need.

This, oh Lord, is our time of need.

I confess, Lord, that I am a sinner.  I have no illusions about myself.  You have stripped me of pretensions and shown me who I am.  I have broken your commandments.  I have dishonored my savior.

I have been greedy and ambitious.  I have inflicted pain on those who love me when I was angry.  I have been selfish, seeking my satisfaction rather than serving those around me.

I have been a hypocrite.  I have pretended to be a godly man when I was not.  I have pretended to be a good family man when I was not.

I have refused to give to the poor when I knew they needed it.

I confess that I have failed to speak the gospel to someone who needed to hear it.

I have neglected your word and prayer for long periods of time.

I have sought worldly success by worldly means rather than rely on you.

I am ashamed that, while all my sins were placed on Christ at his crucifixion, many of those were sins I committed after being saved.

Although it was painful, I am thankful you pulled the rug out from under me and let me fall far enough to see the truth: that living for your glory is the only satisfying thing in life, both here and in eternity.

CHURCH

On behalf of the church, I confess we have not done many of the things you commanded us to do, and have spent much time on things you did not tell us to do.

You told us to love you with all of our heart, soul and mind.  But we confess that we have loved ourselves, seeking our comfort and our self-esteem rather than your glory.

You told us to have no gods before you. We confess we have placed our desire for wealth, status and entertainment before you.

You told us to go to the nations and make disciples.  We confess we have built and hidden behind huge expensive fortresses.

When you brought people from all the nations to us, we treated them badly and did not share the gospel with them because they were poor or dirty or different.

You told us to give without reservation to the person who asks; in fact to give more than he asked.  We confess we questioned his motives and closed our hands.

You told us to help “the least of these”.  We confess we preferred to party with our friends.

You told us to continue in your word.  We confessed we watched television, went to movies and sporting events, and read frivolous books and magazines.

You told us to seek wisdom. We confess that we sought entertainment.

You told us to flee sexual immorality.  We confess that many are addicted to pornography, even among our clergy.

You told us to honor marriage.  We confess we have dishonored marriage by divorcing as much or more than the non-believers. We dishonored it by failing to love and serve each other as you told us to even when we stayed married.

You told us to do all things for your glory.  We confess we have glorified ourselves whenever possible, sometimes while pretending to glorify you.

NATION

Father, we realize, as the body of Christ, we have no land as Israel had land.  We, like Abraham, look forward to the city with foundations , whose architect and builder is God.  Yet you placed us here and we care for this nation and its people as we know you do.

On behalf of our nation, I confess we are in moral and spiritual decline.  More than 2 million Americans are in prison.  Many more crimes have gone unpunished.

We confess we have given power to an entertainment business that seeks in large part to tear down the moral fiber of society and see how debased it can get before someone reigns it in.  We confess we have done this by giving them huge sums of money to entertain us.

We confess that our education system teaches our children destructive values and anti-Christian philosophy.

We confess that our government and many of our people conduct a full time assault on the institutions of marriage and family.

We confess that our culture has glorified men and women who put their careers above their families.  We have created two generations of young men that have not had fathers and do not know how to be a father or husband or even simply an adult.

We confess that we have devalued life.  We have treated pets better than people.  We have treated murderers better than their victims. We have warehoused children in day care centers.  We have made adopting a child so difficult it is often easier to go into another country to do it.

And, Lord, while we stand in this place whose mission is to place children in loving homes, we know that next door vast sums of money are being spent to construct a killing field for infants made in your image.  We confess this is to our shame and we know that you call to us to account for the life of every human being that is killed.  You have made that plain in your Word.

We confess that while the majority of Americans say they are Christians, we have denied the power of God and godliness.  We as a nation have become darkened in our thinking.  We have lost our way.

PLEA FOR MERCY

I am afraid, O Lord.  I fear you.

I am afraid you will pour out your wrath on our nation in judgment of our sin.

I am afraid you will purify your church with the fire of persecution.  Even more, I am afraid you will slip quietly away to work in Africa or Asia and no one will notice until we turn out the lights on the last church.

So, what can we do?  What can take away this stain of sin?  What can deliver us from judgment?

Only your grace and mercy can deliver us.  And so, oh merciful Father, we plead today for forgiveness.  We plead for mercy.  We plead for grace.

Gracious God, our sins are too heavy to carry, too real to hide and too deep to undo.  Forgive what our lips tremble to name, what our hearts can no longer bear and what for us has become a consuming fire of judgment.

Fulfill in every contrite heart the promise of redeeming grace. Forgive our sins.  Cleanse us from an evil conscience through the perfect sacrifice of Christ Jesus our Lord.

And all the people said: Amen.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).

I read a sermon by Mark Dever recently in which he recounted a situation that occurred in the life of the famous 18^th century preacher Jonathan Edwards.  Having led his church in Massachusetts through a time of great revival Edwards was suddenly dismissed from the church over a theological disagreement.  We can readily imagine the grief and sadness this must have caused in his life.

Some of you reading this will empathize even more deeply having been through a similar experience of losing a job.  Or it might be some other kind of loss … the loss of a spouse to death or divorce, the loss of trusted friend, or the loss of huge chunk of your savings.  It’s these kinds of losses that have the potential of shaking the foundation of our very lives.

Jesus knew this when He braced His disciples with the words, “In this world you will have trouble…” (John 16:33).  An evitable part of life is the trouble that comes to us from just about every angle we can imagine.  The word Jesus uses for “trouble” means the pressure and pain that result from various kinds of suffering or persecution.  This happens to us in the “world,” or in this current order of things.

But Jesus only said that after He had assured them that, “in me you may have peace.”  So Jesus is saying that trouble in the world is inevitable, but in the midst of that His peace is available.  The peace that Jesus offers is possible when we listen to His voice … “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.”

Jesus goes on to challenge His disciples to face their troubles in this way: “Take heart! I have overcome the world.”  In essence Jesus tells them, “Be courageous.  Boldly face what you have to face, knowing that I am victorious over the current order of things.”  So the peace that sustained Jesus in His persecution and sufferings is the same peace that is available to us.

Just how deep does this peace go?  For Jesus it went deeper than any blows that this world’s troubles could inflict upon Him.  And that same peace is available to us through Christ.  No matter how deeply we are cut by the wounds of this world, the peace of Christ is deeper still.

Jonathan Edwards knew this peace as he went through the suffering of being fired from his church.  An eye-witness observed Edwards’ response when he was informed by the church council of their action.  The observer said, “That faithful witness received the shock, unshaken.  I never saw the least symptom of displeasure in his countenance the whole week, but he appeared like a man of God, whose happiness was out of the reach of his enemies.”  I reckon that the “happiness” the observer mentions is actually the peace about which Jesus spoke.

So how about you?  What happens when the troubles of this world land their crushing blows?  Is the peace of Jesus running so deeply in your life that it is out of reach of the troubles of this world?

Louie Giglio in his book The Air I Breathe defines worship in this way: “Worship is our response, both personal and corporate, to God for who He is and what He has done, expressed in and by the things we say and the way we live.”  In my opinion that definition hits really close to what we read in the Bible about authentic worship.

Focus for a moment on some of the phrases in that definition.

“Worship is our response … to God”

Worship is a verb as well as a noun.  It is something we do.  It is not a spectator activity, but one in which the whole person is engaged in responding to God’s revelation of Himself. Worship doesn’t start with us.  It’s a response to something that started with God.  He reveals Himself; we respond. He shows us amazing things about Himself and we respond, “God, you’re awesome.”

“Both personal and corporate”

Worship starts out as something personal and private.  If it doesn’t start there then corporate worship is hypocritical.  But if our personal worship is not regularly blended with the worship of other believers, our worship is incomplete.

“To God for who He is”

This is about a relationship.  Worship is one person responding to another Person.  When we understand by the Scriptures or by creation something about God we are to offer praise to Him.  The Bible repeatedly calls upon us to “praise His name.”  To praise the name of the Lord is to praise His person and His attributes.

“To God … what He has done”

God reveals Himself through His powerful deeds.  We, the witnesses and recipients of those deeds, are to respond with thanksgiving.  As the psalmist says, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name” (Psalm 100:4).  Our thanksgiving to God must be continuous; every breath we take is a gift from Him.

“Expressed in and by the things we say”

Unexpressed gratitude is ingratitude.  Unexpressed praise is indifference.  We have not reached authentic worship until our praise and thanksgiving move from our heart to our lips.  The psalmist said, “My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day long” (Psalm 35:28).

“Expressed in and by … the way we live”

Our worship flows from our hearts to our lips … and then to our lives.  Every act of life is to be offered to the Lord as worship to Him.  This means that worship is not just something that happens on Sundays; it’s a 24/7 experience.  The Apostle Paul exhorts us: “I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12:1).  Our home life, our work life, our recreational life, our financial life, indeed, our entire life is to be an offering of worship to our great God and King.

Worshipfully,

Michael Dean

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20).

On April 1, 2009 at the halftime show of the NBA game between the Toronto Raptors and the Orlando Magic, a fan by the name of Dan thought he had become a wealthy man overnight. He had been picked out of the tens of thousands in attendance to get one shot at a $100,000 prize. All he had to do was to make a shot from half-court. But it would be difficult. He had to do it blind-folded. So at half-time Dan was ushered out to mid-court. He was blind-folded and a basketball was placed in his hand. He turned toward the basket and let the ball fly. Suddenly the crowd erupted into deafening cheers. Dan ripped off his blind-fold and began to jump around the court celebrating. But everything changed when the promoter came out on the court put his arm around Dan and said, “April Fools.” You see the whole thing was a joke. The crowd had been instructed, in Dan’s absence, that whether he made the shot or not, they were to cheer and applaud. Actually, Dan had missed the shot; in fact, he missed the whole basket. Instead of $100,000, they gave Dan a 100 Grand candy bar. And while everyone was getting a real kick out of the prank, Dan was not laughing when he walked off the court.

That must have been the way it was for two followers of Jesus who were walking back home from Jerusalem after the crucifixion of Jesus when they had an unexpected encounter with the Risen Christ.   The incident is recorded in Luke 24.  As they walked along the road they were rehashing the terrible turn of events of the previous days.  Suddenly a Stranger is walking beside them.  He quizzes them about what they were discussing.  With downcast faces they were curious why the Stranger didn’t know what had happened in Jerusalem; surely everyone knew.

They recited the details: One named Jesus of Nazareth, who was a mighty man of God and whom they thought was to be the Messiah, was arrested and sentenced to death.  Three days before he was executed. Their hopes were dashed then renewed by the word that after three days Jesus’ tomb was found to be empty.

Was it a joke?  A cruel prank?  Seriously?  Obviously it was, since there had been no further word.  Apparently it was all over.  Jesus was dead.

The Gospel record goes on to explain how the Stranger Jesus put all the details together for them.  He helped them remember the words He had spoken about the necessity of His death and the certainty of His resurrection after three days.  Seriously?  Seriously!

By now Jesus is sharing a meal in the home of the two disciples.  Suddenly their eyes were opened and allowed to see that the Stranger was none other than their risen Savior Jesus.  As He departed the two agreed, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

Jesus is alive … seriously.  For two thousand years now He has been opening eyes and burning hearts to that life-changing, history-shaping reality.  Rejoice!

In His amazing Sermon on the Mount the Lord Jesus clearly laid out the radical lifestyle to which He called His followers.  None of Jesus’ teachings were radical than this:

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy,” (Matthew 5:7).

These are radical words because they reflected the opposite values of those found in the religion of Jesus’ day.  Jewish religionists were not inclined to be merciful.  In fact, to many of them, it wasn’t seen as a virtue.  In their mind you show mercy to the people who were merciful to you (see Matt.5:43-47).

Obviously mercy was not seen as a virtue in the ancient Roman culture, dominant in Jesus’ day.  There was a Roman philosopher who said that mercy was “the disease of the soul.”  It was the supreme sign of weakness.

But not so for Jesus.  To look in the face of Jesus was to look into the face of pure mercy.  He reached out to hurting people.  He made time for the sick, crippled, blind, lame, deaf and the sinners.  Simply put, mercy means to show genuine compassion for others.  And it flowed freely out of the life of Jesus.

According to Romans 12:8 some have the spiritual gift of showing mercy.  God has graced certain individuals in the Body to exercise mercy in a way that most cannot.  And if we have that gift we are to use it cheerfully.  But the Bible teaches us that mercy is to be resident the life of every Christ-follower.

Mercy is not just pretending to care; we should act with mercy.  It’s not just feeling compassion; it’s showing compassion.  But perhaps a little more defining would be helpful.  What does mercy look like?

• Mercy looks like a shed tear.

The Scriptures teach us: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn,” (Romans 12:15).  Only a heart of mercy can feel so deeply for and with others that we share their joy and their pain.

• Mercy looks like a helping hand.

On one occasion some parents approached Jesus for help with their son who was tormented by a demon.  They begged, “But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us,” (Mark 9:22).  Of course, Jesus can and Jesus cares.  He extended a helping, healing hand in mercy.

• Mercy sounds like a kind word.

We are admonished to “Encourage one another and build each other up…” (I Thessalonians 5:11).  Who of us doesn’t appreciate a kind word when we have failed?  Like most US presidents, Richard Nixon made it a habit to call the championship teams (NFL, NBA, MLB, etc.).  But Nixon went beyond that common practice; he would call the losing team.  His reasoning? “Everyone calls you when you’re a winner; only your friends call when you fail.”

• Mercy looks like a zipped lip.

Sometimes mercy is shown by what we say; sometimes it is shown be what we don’t say.  I have been shown mercy many times when people rightfully could have pointed out a flaw in my life … but they didn’t.

• Mercy looks feels like a forgiving spirit.

It has been observed that grace is God giving us what we do not deserve in the way of blessings.  Mercy is God withholding from us what we actually deserve in the way of judgment.  We see this in Lamentations 3:22: “Because of the Lord’s great love (mercy) we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.”  When we experience God’s merciful forgiveness we are obligated to show it to others who have wronged us.  “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you,” (Colossians 3:13).

• Mercy looks like a bowed knee.

The Lord in His Word invites us:  “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need,” (Hebrews 4:16).  Mercy from the Lord is accessed through prayer.  I think of the contrite worshipper who simply cried, “Lord have mercy on me the sinner” (Luke 18:13).

And the Lord will generously hear and heed our prayer for mercy … but only if we have shown mercy.  Remember, Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy,” (Matthew 5:7).

There is a law of reciprocity at work here.  Jesus will address this later on in the Sermon on the Mount when He said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you,” (Matthew 7:1-2).

What you give is what you get back. I don’t know about you, but I need a lot of mercy.

“The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water’” (John 4:15).

Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well is an inspiring story of Christ’s power to reach the thirsty soul.  We marvel that Jesus related to the woman with the divine balance of grace and truth.  He made time to talk with her and took interest in the details of her life.  He was prepared to cut through all of her objections and misunderstandings on the way to pointing her to the rich life found only in Himself.  Ultimately her life was dramatically changed and the Gospel came to an entire village because of her witness.

In the traffic pattern of our everyday lives God brings us into divine appointments such as Jesus had with the Samaritan woman.  It often happens in the routine details of life.  Jesus met the woman at the ancient equivalent of a Starbucks or a convenience store.  The woman’s search for physical water became the point where she acquired the spiritual water found in Jesus Christ.

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).

And it all happened because Jesus was alert to what His Father was doing all around Him.  The Father was seeking a new worshipper (John 4:23), and Jesus brought her that new way of life.

Recently Nan and I were walking across the parking lot at a shopping mall when we were stopped by a young woman.  She asked us for directions to a particular department store she had heard about.  She was new to Fort Worth and didn’t know her way around.  Nan was able to tell her exactly how to get to the store.

During the course of the conversation I could tell there was something troubling this young lady.  I asked, “So you’re new to Fort Worth?  What brings you here?”  She replied that her father and mother had recently passed away and she just wanted to start over someplace new.  I introduced myself to her, and she teared up as she said, “My dad’s name was Mike.”

As we talked with the young lady it became apparent that she had been drinking and was somewhat intoxicated.  It was clear that she was troubled in more ways than one.  Though she tried to walk away a couple of times I kept pulling her back with questions.  My last question was, “Do you like to go to church?”  She said, “Oh yes, I love Jesus and I went to church back home.”  We invited her to Travis and learned that she lives near our church.  She promised to visit us soon.  As the young lady walked away my heart ached for her.  Deep down in her soul she needed the life that only Jesus can bring to her.

I wish I could say that I’m always alert to such opportunities.   Far too many times I’m so busy with my agenda and my stuff that I miss those souls that Jesus brings across my path. I pray most every day that the Lord will enable me to speak His Word with great boldness (Acts 4:29).  Sometimes I get it … other times I miss it.

Jesus was open to the woman at the well.  This past weekend I was open to the woman at the parking lot.  Will I be open to the man on the running trail … or the guy in the board room … or the student in the classroom?

Note: The following blog was written as a devotional by my friend Dr. David Earley. David and his wife have started a house church in Forest, Virginia that will eventually relocate to Las Vegas, Nevada. I love his perspective on following Christ.

Some time back my wife, Cathy, asked me, “What do you think is the best discipleship curriculum on the market?” Understand that for a time I served as the Director of Discipleship for a large Christian university and prided myself on having read every book on discipleship and disciple-making available at the time. Also understand that Cathy is a very smart lady with a Masters degree in theological studies and Christian Counseling and is a collegiate counseling professor.

“Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, with the book of Acts added in,” I said. “…with a special emphasis on the words written in red ink.”

“Is that it? She said rather unimpressed. “Why?”

“Because,” I said, “if I can get a person living the Gospels and applying the commands of Jesus like the disciples applied them in Acts, I believe I will have made a disciple. And I believe that type of disciple will change the world.”

Obeying Everything Jesus Commanded is Impossible … Without God

Not long ago, I posted this question on Facebook: “What would happen if we began to obey everything Jesus commanded?”

I received many interesting comments. One rebuke came from a former pastor and retired theology professor. He said, “Are you crazy? Obeying everything Jesus commanded is impossible.”

John Piper agrees with that former professor yet, he notes that Jesus left us with hope:

“’With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God’ (Mark 10:25-27). Therefore, the person who sets himself to obey Jesus’ final commission— for example, to teach a rich man to observe the command to “renounce all that he has” (Luke 14:33)—attempts the impossible. But Jesus said it was not impossible. ‘All things are possible with God.’”

Are you depending upon God to give you the grace to fully obey everything Jesus commanded?

Everything Jesus Commanded

About ten years ago I started a practice of reading through the Gospels at least once a year while listing everything Jesus commanded.  I found over 200 imperatives.  I quickly noticed that some of the commands were specific to person and time – “Go into the village ahead of you. At once you will find a donkey tied there, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to Me” (Mt. 21:2). Obviously those are not the commands we all are to obey and teach others. So I dropped them and came up with a list of 100 universal commands that are applicable to all of us who want to be followers of Jesus.

Peter Wittstock lists 125 commands given by Jesus. He combines them into 70 major themes. John Piper states that by including implied commands, (for example, “Blessed are the merciful” implies “Be merciful”) and counting the multiple restatements among the Gospels, he came up with a list of over five hundred commands of Jesus. For the contents of his book he lumped them into categories to come up with 50 chapters.

If that sounds overwhelming to you, start by obeying the three biggies: 1.) The Great Commandment – love God with everything you’ve got and love your neighbor as much as you love yourself (Matthew 22:37-40); 2.) The New Commandment – love one another (John 13:34-35), and 3.) The Great Commission – make disciples who make disciples.

Note: David Earley and his team have felt the call of God to plant a church in heart of Las Vegas. His approach is refreshingly biblical.  Perhaps God will call you to join them in some way in the grand venture.

Note:  In the morning services on Sunday, February 19, the Travis Avenue Baptist Church will be sharing together in the Lord’s Supper. I thought it would be helpful to remind us of its powerful significance.

I recall my days as a boy playing with my buddies in the neighborhood.  Typically about dark I could hear my mom or dad calling out, “Mike, time to come in. Supper’s ready.”  As I ran in the door I knew the first stop was to be the bathroom sink where I washed off the layers of dirt and germs that had accumulated through the day.  Before I sat down to the meal with my family I would be thoroughly examined to see if I had really scrubbed up, or if I had merely waved my hand under the faucet.  Only when the scrutinizing eye of my mom or dad was satisfied did I get to sit down to eat.

From time to time Christ-followers are called together for a “supper” with their forever family, the Church.  It is called by various names … the Lord’s Supper, Communion, the Eucharist.  You can’t read the New Testament without knowing that Christ takes this matter very seriously.  The Lord instituted the ordinance on the eve of His crucifixion when He forged new meaning into the Jewish Passover meal.  When He broke the bread with His disciples Jesus said, “This is my body” (I Corinthians 11:24). When Jesus passed the cup among them He said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (v.25).

Far from being a one-time observance for the disciples, the Lord’s Supper was to be embedded into the life of every New Testament congregation.  Some churches share the Lord’s Supper each Sunday.  Others do it less frequently.  The New Testament seems to leave that issue open for debate.  It does, however, prescribe how followers of Jesus are to gather together to meet Him for this spiritual meal.

Look upward. The Lord’s Supper is a means by which we commune with the Lord (thus the name “communion”).  The observance is called “the Lord’s table” (I Corinthians 10:21).  He is the Host.  It’s all about Him. Jesus said to His disciples, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you…” (Luke 22:15).  Before participating in the Lord’s Supper we should prepare ourselves to experience the presence of the Risen Christ.

Look inward. Do you know that it is actually possible to sin while taking the Lord’s Supper?  1 Corinthians 11:27 says, “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.”  The Corinthian church meetings were filled with selfishness and gluttony.  There was an absence of love for one another in the fellowship, which is evidence of an absence of genuine love for the Lord.  So in this attitude they came to the Lord’s Table in an unworthy manner.  How do we avoid this?  “A man ought to examine himself…” (I Corinthians 11:28).  In preparation for the Lord’s Supper we should each bring our lives before the Lord to ask, “Lord is there any sinful attitude or action in me that will cause me to enter your presence in an unworthy manner?”  When God puts His finger on something in your life confess it and repent before the Lord.  If it involves another person, go and make it right with them before sharing in the Lord’s Supper.

Look outward. The Lord’s Supper is called “communion” because we have fellowship with the Lord, but it is also because we have fellowship with one another around the observance.  The Corinthians completely missed this.  As they came together for what was sometimes called the Agape Feast, it was supposed to be a fellowship meal where they shared food with one another.  Some in the church, however, ignored this and jumped to the front of the potluck line and filled their plates and cups so full there was not enough for those who came after them.  This was the height of selfishness, and it carried over into the observance of the Lord’s Supper.  Paul warns, “For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Corinthians 11:29).  Why?  In sinning against the Body of Christ (the church) they were sinning against Christ Himself.  Let the passing of the bread and cup among ourselves remind us of our responsibility to selflessly love each other.

Look forward. “Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).  As we share together in the Lord’s Supper we are proclaiming the Lord’s death.  In the bread we remember the body of Christ that, on the Cross, absorbed the wrath of God against our sin.  In the juice we remember the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin.  Our mission as a church is to proclaim the Gospel, symbolized dramatically in the observance of the Lord’s Supper.  And we do so “until he comes.”  We look forward to the day when Christ will come and usher us into the great heavenly feast described in Revelation as the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

So as you prepare for the Lord’s Day, prepare to come before the Lord and your fellow Christ-followers with your life clean before the Lord.  As we all do this we can expect the Lord to meet us at the Table.

Blessings!

Michael Dean

They were an odd bunch of guys, by and large.  We might call their behavior at times bizarre; their communications sometimes leave us scratching our heads.  They came from varied backgrounds.  Some of them moved in elite circles of high influence; others came from more common walks of life, like farming.  Most of them were fiercely faithful to God though some struggled with obeying God’s call upon their lives.  But they were all mightily used by God at strategic times in the history of His people.

I’m speaking, of course, of the Old Testament prophets of God. Not all of them left written Scripture behind; but those who did fill roughly one-third of the pages of our Old Testament.  Their writings have been grouped in a broad category of Old Testament books simply called “The Prophets.”  We cannot have any real grasp of God’s dealings with ancient Israel and the surrounding nations without some understanding of the messages of the Prophets. 

Quotations of and references to the messages of the Prophets are peppered generously throughout the New Testament, particularly in the life and teachings of Jesus.  So to fathom the message of the New Testament requires that we understand what God was saying in ancient times through the prophetic writings.

Sometimes the messages of the prophets took the form of “foretelling.”  Often their prophecies had multiple fulfillments regarding the immediate circumstances, as well as the first and second comings of Messiah Jesus.  More often, the prophet’s message was more in the line of “forth-telling.”  That is, they delivered straight-forward, powerful messages of truth to God’s people in a variety of different situations.

Humanly speaking it was typically not a good sign when one of the prophets showed up.  It generally meant that God was about to get in the face of His people through the rebukes and corrections of the prophets.  Divinely speaking the appearance of a prophet on the scene was a statement of God’s redeeming love for His people.  God’s messages through the Prophets were a sign that He was graciously and mercifully involved in the lives of His people.  

On one occasion Jesus raised a dead man to life again.  The Gospel account tells us that the people who witnessed this miracle were filled with awe and praise.  They said, “A great prophet has appeared among us.  God has come to help his people,” (Luke 7:16).  The arrival of a prophet was an encouragement to the people that God had come to their aid.

We live in an age of biblical illiteracy, sadly even among believers.  I’m convinced that the average believer is vastly uninformed of the scope of God’s activity among His people through Old Testament events and personalities.  As a result we have missed out on an opportunity to understand the character of God and the ways in which He deals with us.

In light of that I feel compelled to embark on one of the most challenging preaching experiences I have ever attempted … to preach a series of messages through the seventeen books of the Major and Minor Prophets of the Old Testament.  My plan is to preach each week from a different prophet in the Bible.  (I don’t recall ever preaching a message from Obadiah!)

In doing this my prayer is three-fold:

• That we will get a better grasp of the historical events that form the context of much of the Old Testament
• That we will grow from the examples of men of God who obeyed Him in difficult times and in the face of great opposition
• That we will see our glorious Savior Jesus as the ultimate fulfillment of all the prophets wrote

I look forward to standing before God’s people this Sunday at Travis Avenue Baptist Church with God’s Word in my hand and His love in my heart.