Not on my watch!

I Thessalonians 2:7 - For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.

Did you know that the church has the power to change things in our world? That's right we have the power to hold back things and allow things to be as long as it is according to the will of God. I know that there are many things prophesied  in the scripture that will come to pass. But the scripture is very vague about when some of the things will happen. I believe the reason that it is so is because some things are not set in stone. Although God has established a day of reckoning and judgment for the world things do not have to be as bad as they could have been if the church had not prayed.

Unconvinced? Let's look at some examples from the Old Testament. In I Kings chapter 21 we are told that God was about to judge Israel. When the prophet went to warn Ahab, he jumbled himself. The exact words of scripture are that "he walked softly before God." God sent the prophet to Ahab again to tell him that these things would not happen in his days but in the days of his son. Hezekiah was another king of Israel with a death penalty on him. He prayed and cried out to God and God gave him 15 more years to live.

As I contemplated these things this morning I had  this thought: NOT ON MY WATCH. What do I mean? It's like this. God has put me in 2013 with a purpose. Just as Peter was responsible to his generation and Paul to his so we are responsible to ours. It is the job of the church to pray for our nation. We are the only good in this world and we are the reason that judgment is being held back. With that said, we should be interceding for our nation now like never before. We know that things look bad but they don't have to be as bad as they could be.

When God's judgment came on Egypt the land of Goshen was spared. Not only was Goshen spared but the people of Israel prospered. Several years ago I heard a man of God say this: "I refuse to participate in the downward economy." God sent manna from heaven and fed his people and he could do it again if need be. He will take care of us. But more than him taking care of me, I want him to take care of my loved ones, friends, neighbours, and my nation.

The greatest need of our nation now is for the church to pray. Pray for God to have mercy on us. Pray for God to spare us of any intended evil. Remember Moses when he stood between God and the people? God spared Israel because of Moses. No doubt this country that we love has set itself against God in a multitude of ways. But there is still a church in the earth that can stand between God and the ones that we love. I believe God wants us to intercede. Who knows but that God will have mercy, not only on me and mine, but one my government as well.

The Apostle Paul told us to pray for "all that are in authority". Why? so that we could live a quiet and peaceable life. All of us want peace. Our world is in desperate need of peace. We as Christian are filled with the Spirit of Peace. Jesus is our Prince of Peace. So I believe we need to cry out to our Lord and ask him to intervene with peace.

Would you join me today? Let's cry out to God for our nation. Ask Him to give our government officials peace between themselves and wisdom to decide what is right. Ask him to give the church favor in the sight of the government that it make no laws that would restrict our ability to worship freely. Ask Him to have mercy on us. If the government is going to fall in and our economy is going to crash it doesn't have to happen today. It doesn't have to happen on my watch. If we pray, who knows what God may do!

I don't wish evil on any future generation. But I am not responsible for the future any more than I am the past. I am responsible for today. And right now I see trouble in my land. So I cry out to my brothers and sisters, would you help me pray? It's not too late. It's never too late for God to work. Ask Him to work for us today and see what He will do, not only for us but for our country as well.

Prayerfully,

Sullivan Jones

A Good Report

Proverbs 15:20 - A good report makes the bones fat.

The Bible is so scientifically sound that it is amazing. Deuteronomy 17:11 tells us that "the life of the flesh is in the blood." Today we understand just how true this is. The blood is needed to carry nutrients toward and impurities away from every cell in our bodies. There was no way to know this for many years and yet the Bible recorded this thousands of years ago.

I recently learned something else in my biology class that made me think of the above scripture in Proverbs. There are two types of bone marrow in our bodies, red and yellow. Red is where the blood cells are produced and yellow marrow is where the fat cells are. Without going into a long scientific explanation which I am not qualified to give, let me say this. We have known for a long time, though we still don't completely understand how, that our physical health is tied to our mental health. We know that a person who laughs and can release stress easily is much less likely to suffer from a myriad of diseases. It makes me wonder exactly what the connection is between "a good report" and strong, healthy bones.

Now as a theologian instead of a scientist let me explain what I believe. When someone receives good news it is truly like an injection of medicine, not only to the spirit but to the body as well. Words of encouragement are like fat to our bones. Somehow God designed our bodies so that good thoughts and encouraging words can literally give us physical strength. I don't' understand it but I believe and have seen that it works.

So what can we do with that information? We know that people all around us are nervous about the future? There is much uncertainty in our world. Instead of passing on the bad news let's tell others how good God is. Let's remind each other that God has never let us down and His word says that he never will. I'm not talking about denying reality but speaking life. No matter what the economy or our government does our God has promised to take care of us.

There may be someone around you today that needs to hear those very words. Let's encourage each other today with words of life. After all, a good report makes the bones fat.

 

Time and Chance

Solomon, recognized by many as the wisest man that ever lived, made this statement: Time and chance happen to us all (Ecclesiastes 9:11). It seems a rather bleak diagnosis. He seems to be telling us that our lives are guided, not by the choices we make, but by pure luck or the lack of it. Many would agree with his stance and say life is controlled by forces unseen and there is little we can do about it but hope for the best. Is this true? Do we really have so little control over our own destinies?

I would like to remind us that Solomon wrote these words as a frustrated man who had walked away from His God to serve the idols that his wives enticed him to serve. In fact, I believe the book of Ecclesiastes is in the Bible to show us how far a man can go from truth.  He went so far as to build temples to pagan Gods right in the middle of Jerusalem and allowed people to worship there. This same king had experienced such closeness with God that the Bible tells us that God appeared to him and allowed him to choose anything he could wish for. We know what he chose, wisdom. Yet it was this wisdom that was Solomon's downfall. He was lifted up in pride and, forgetting about the God who gave him the wisdom,  relied on his own intellect to lead Israel. When later in life he pondered how he could have fallen so far from God in so short a time he blamed it on "time and chance."

Yet it was not "chance" that caused Solomon to walk away from the God of his fathers. It was choice. It was his choice to marry princesses from other nations for the sake of peace. It was his choice to allow them to bring their pagan practices of child sacrifice and other unspeakable evils into Israel. Later on, instead of writing about chance, Solomon should have written about choice.

I see a similarity with our own country in the story of Solomon. Like many of us I am concerned about my country and the direction it is heading in. We can blame it on all sorts of things but it comes down to this: choice. No one can deny that our country is in financial, political, and moral crisis. Yet it is not by happenstance that we find ourselves here. We are here because of a long history of bad choices. Democrat, republican, and independent alike, we are all guilty. We as a nation have chosen to look the other way when our politicians have committed sins against God and others. We have chosen to believe that we can borrow money endlessly, both on a personal and at a government level, without our economy collapsing. We have chosen to believe that we can disobey God's most basic commandments without suffering the consequences. We have preached "don't judge" to the point where almost everyone is afraid to say anything is wrong for fear of being labeled a bigot. We are truly in a mess of our own making that has nothing to do with "chance" and everything to do with "choice."

Am I condemning us all? No, of course not. Truly our God is a God of mercy and grace. If it were not for His grace none of us would be here. Yet we can not preach grace to the detriment of judgment. For surely judgment will always eventually come. Naturally there are things in life that I can't control; but I can control how I respond to things around me. I can choose to seek God more in times of crisis. I can choose to keep a right spirit when confronted with evil on every side. I can choose to base my life on God's word when everyone else has changed the rules. Then when I'm wondering how things will work out, I can know that God will  take care of me.

To the Christian I issue a challenge today. Stand for what is right and Holy. Don't be afraid to speak against what God's word calls evil. Be bold enough to warn someone when you see them going astray. Take a stand for what is right even when it's not popular to do so. Yet do it all with love. And when we do, we can be assured that our lives are not guided by mere chance but by the hand of a God who sees all, knows all, can do all, and loves us very much. In the words of Betsie ten Boom, "There are no 'ifs' in God's kingdom." He is in control of all!

Respectfully Yours,

Sullivan Jones