Ethiopia

We have 2 of our church members in Ethiopia this week working with preachers from throughout Ethiopia.  These are Bob Owen and Steve Patton.  It is amazing how the gospel of Christ has been accepted in that country.  It seems much more readily accepted and growing there than in many other countries of the world, perhaps even in the U.S.  We were once a Christian nation, but more and more we are getting away from that.  Unless that changes it will likely be the downfall of our nation--just my prediction.  I digress.

The point of this lesson is that it was the command of Jesus to His disciples just before He left them that they were to spread the Word.  Note this teaching at the very end of Matthew:

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been to given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Then in the first chapter of the book of Acts, just before Jesus ascends to heaven, He gives this statement to His apostles:

"...you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

At the beginning of Acts 8 we read that this spread of the gospel begins:  On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria."

The book of Acts chronicles the growth of the church throughout the known world at that time.  And speaking of Ethiopia, there is an interesting story at the end of chapter 8 of Acts that tells of a Jewish man who came up from Ethiopia and was converted to Christ.  I will let you read that one on your own if you wish, but it is an interesting read of a conversion.

The charge of Jesus was made primarily to His apostles.  But we know that He expected this effort to continue long after the apostles were dead and gone.  It is up to us now to see that the Word is spread throughout the world.  We can do this at home and abroad.

Let's do our part.  Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Maturity

The Bible talks a lot about the importance of God's people being mature.  This was the subject of the apostle Paul's comments in Hebrews 5 & 6.  The following are excerpts from that:

"We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn.  In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again.  You need milk, not solid food!  Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.  But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."

The teaching here is clear: We need to first get the learning of the basics, then move on to matters of Righteousness.  That is where the real meat of the Word lies.  Continuing:

"Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment."

In this latter passage, Paul gives some examples of what he would consider elementary.  But the only detailed matter of maturity given here is "righteousness."  He is looking for us to be righteous people.  But note that we first should give some consideration, show some understanding of the basics, the basic beliefs of Christianity.  Having that, we are to move on to a higher calling, a calling to seek perfection, holiness, as God is Holy.  I am certainly not saying that we can be perfect, that we can reach the level of holiness that our Lord has; but this is to be our goal.

Let us all think about maturity.....and the need to seek that.  May God bless you this week!

"It is Finished"

The last words of Jesus, "It is finished," ring in our ears.  It is true that His life is finished at that moment.  One account says that He made a loud cry, then it was over.  But there is something special about the final words that go much deeper than the obvious.

This moment in time, the giving of the life of the Messiah, had been planned from the beginning.  We could go all the way back to the 3rd chapter of Genesis, right at the beginning of the Bible, to see that there would come a time when Jesus would have to die on this earth.  Note Genesis 3 beginning in verse 14 where the Lord was speaking to the Serpent and concludes with "And you shall bruise His heel", speaking of Jesus being bruised by Satan.  But we know that Satan would never win that battle, a point that is made more than clear in the book of Revelation. 

All through the Bible we find that there are references to the coming of the Lord Jesus, and eventually to His death.  It was always God's plan to offer His Son in order to redeem the sins of man, of you and me. 

So when Jesus made His final statement, "It is finished", He was not only saying that His life was over, He was saying that His ministry was over, that this was the end of all that had been prophesied about Him.  He had fulfilled all that had been spoken by the prophets about the coming Savior, the coming Kingdom, and the redemption of man. 

But perhaps we shouldn't overlook the fact that it was the end of all the suffering that He went through for us.  For sure, we never want to minimize the severity of that.....and the wonderful sacrifice that was made....allowing us to have the beauty of heaven forever. 

And so, it was finished, but it was also a great beginning.  It represented the beginning of a new era, a new Way, the Way of Jesus.  We see this come to fruition in the book of Acts as the apostles go forth to develop the church.

What a great plan that our God had for us!  Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Grace

Maybe there is no more beautiful word in all of the English language than "grace."  For the Christian it is the free gift of God, the giving of favor to us that is not deserved.  We don't deserve the benefits, the salvation, that He offers.  We haven't earned it, aren't entitled to it; but we get it.

Oh, there are some qualifications: We have to be Christians, believers, followers.  We have to dedicate our lives to Him.  We have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.  And we have to try to live as He lived when He was here on this earth.

I think of the Prodigal Son as recorded in Luke 15.  He was a bad son.  He left home and took his inheritance with him.  He wasted his life in partying....and nothing good.  One day he realized that he had lost it all and followed the wrong path.  He decided that he should go home and ask his father to just let him work as a servant, not as a son but as one of the lowly workers around the place.  But his father gave him grace, letting him come back as a son...and with a great celebration for his return. 

This is how our father extends grace to us.  We haven't lived a perfect life; have turned away from God many times, ignoring what was right and doing what we wanted.  But God loves us and accepts us back.  We could use the term "mercy,"  but grace goes even further than mercy.  God's grace is everything to us, salvation to us who cannot save ourselves. 

Paul, in 2 Corinthians 12, asked God to relieve him of his "thorn in the flesh,"  some ailment that was a severe bother to him.  The Lord answered by saying, "My grace is sufficient for you."  All else pales in comparison to His grace.

"But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:4-10

Praise God for His wonderful grace.  Thanks for reading again.  God bless you with His grace!