We know from John 1:9 that Jesus is “the true light which gives light to everyone.” Without that light, people will remain in darkness, and those who do not come to the light “love darkness rather than light because their works [are] evil” (3:19). Those who want to do “what is true, come to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God” (3:21).
It is the light of God in the gospel that “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13). Paul also reminds us that “at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8). We constantly need to be reminded of this transformation. Where the truth and light of the gospel is not being held up in its purity, weakness and spiritual immaturity exists. Paul’s conclusion to Ephesians 5:8 is, “Walk as children of light.” In other words, now that the gospel light has “transferred” from darkness to light, there should be an evidence of that change in our outward walk in this world. Spiritual maturity comes from constant exposure to divine light. I believe that one feature of hell that will be so unbearable is the absence of light. How important it is that we as light-bearers make sure it is shining clearly and brightly so we attract others. Jesus makes it very clear in Matthew 5:14-16 that we who have the light of the gospel are not to hide it, but “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Th gospel light really makes a difference for yourself and others. LET IT SHINE!
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In Jakarta, Indonesia, I (Randy) met some wonderful believers who desire to see church planting movements in their country. It is a joy to fellowship with brothers and sisters in other nations, and in our sharing find we have like-minded passions for the gospel to spread to all people.
The day I flew out of Indonesia, there were three church bombings in the city of Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city about which is a little over 490 miles east of Jakarta. BBC reported: “Indonesia, the most populous Muslim-majority country, has seen a resurgence of Islamist militancy in recent months. More than 90% of Indonesians are Muslim…The attack is the deadliest since 2005…” Please pray for these who live in such difficult places and let us pray for opportunities to join with them this coming fall. The picture below is the group I taught at STM (Seminari Theoloji Malaysia), a group of hungry and faithful pastors and ministry leaders. For one full week, morning to night, we spent time in God’s Word, recovering the powerful ministry of the ancient church. These were all given assignments to find ways to implement God’s Plan for His Church in their ministries. Please lift them in prayer for the Holy Spirit’s power to impact Malaysia and beyond. Also below is a map of Malaysia where I met a leadership team of “my home away from home,” Acts Generation Church. By God’s grace, I spoke at the Friday prayer meeting, led their leadership development meeting, preached in both the English-speaking and Chinese-speaking services, and taught their adult Sunday school on the evangelism of Philip and Paul in Acts. Please pray for this church’s impact as they desire to be more involved among the Unreached People Groups of Asia. As I reflect on this trip, I am once again amazed at how simple fruitful ministry and life really is. Jesus said, “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). This is what Hudson Taylor discovered was his great “Spiritual Secret.” When I abide (and rest) in Jesus, He does the ministry. This is the best way to bring Him glory with our lives. We are simply the earthly vessel, filled with His power for His work. (Randy) Tim left today for Yangon, Myanmar and will return July 6th. This is for a 4-week training with various ethnic groups in Burma (Myanmar) using God’s Plan for His Church. Jonathan will join Tim June 13 through June 28. He will help with the GTP training and will also travel to Mandalay to visit with the Chin People and to Hmawbi to follow-up previous training with a group of church planters. When the 4-week training is completed at GTP, the disciples share for their final project a 10-year strategy of how they want to put into practice what they have learned from the Early Church and the Apostle Paul about church planting. Sometimes in a culture like this, it means persecution as the picture below shows. Some of our disciples who went out and applied principles learned from God’s Plan for His Church have started churches in their villages. Often, they are faced with radial Buddhists, Muslims or Hindus. They came to our second training and went right back and started where they had left off. Praise our Lord for devoted followers of Christ who forsake ALL! Pray the Holy Spirit will be in control of all we do and say and the Lord will grant them grace or favor in all they do and say. Pray for unity. Pray for travel mercies and health and that God would watch over their families back home. Until all the nations (ethnic) or people groups are glad and sing for joy (Psalm 67:4). Paul has a wonderful way of making it very clear what our moral condition was before God’s grace intervened in our lives and transformed the old self into the new man in Christ. Ephesians 2 is a clear description of this transformation. I have summarized this chapter into the two side of this issue (below) so the difference between what “we were” and what we “now are” becomes better understood (hopefully) by all of us.
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins… following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air…disobedient…living in the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the body, mind…by nature children of wrath…at that time separated from Christ, alienated…strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, without God far off…hostile” (Eph. 2:1-3, 12-14, 17) But now in Christ Jesus “you…are loved with great love…made alive together with Christ…saved, raised with Him, seated with Him in the heavenly places… received immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness…as a gift…His workmanship…have been brought near by the blood of Christ…we have peace , reconciled in one body, we have access in one Spirit to the Father…fellow citizens, saints, members of God’s household…joined together…built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph. 2:6-7, 10, 13-22). One of the challenges each of us face is honestly accessing what we were. I was brought up in a ‘church culture’ that was very proud of itself. Because this distinction was not made in the heart, neither did we have an accurate understanding of who we were in Christ. This meant that there was an absence of joyful gratitude regarding what God did for us in Jesus Christ. More than that, the greater vision of “being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” was missing. We thought our church was the only church that God recognized. What pride! This distinction has critical implications for the way we live, our attitudes and passion for others to hear, receive and understand the same message. I am convinced that when the truth of these verses grips your soul, the Holy Spirit will drive that passion in directions you did not expect. Are you ready for what HE wants to do in and through you? One of our sons and his wife adopted a little boy from China. Over the past year and a half, it has been so special to watch him accept his place in our family, and for each of us to experience a deep love for him, and he for us.
For those of us who have never experienced ‘human adoption,’ it is hard to grasp the concept of being received into another family when we had no title or reason to be adopted. Yet, Paul captures the idea for all of us because we were slaves to sin (Romans 6:17,20). The law revealed our sin. Thus, the necessity of Jesus coming as He did to set us free from this slavery by His death and give us a new life in Himself. “When we were children, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world” (Gal. 4:3). “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5). That was not all. In redeeming us from the curse of the law, He also gave us a totally new relationship with God – sonship. This is not just a new title. It is so real to God that He sent His Spirit into our hearts as a seal, a guarantee of our sonship (Romans 8:12-17; Ephesians 1:13-14). The Spirit in us is a constant reminder of this new relationship. Do you see yourself as adopted? Are you living as a son of God? We cannot live as a slave any longer. Sons are free (Galatians 5:11)! Almost every culture around the world is affected by trends that openly flaunt sin as defined by God. Even those in the Church make allowances, circumvent and oppose the Word of God as being ‘old fashioned and out of date.’ Standing by the Word of God may be rare, but it is a must.
Paul dealt with the same conditions in the Early Church as we do today. He was not afraid to list sins that were current and which “some” of the believers had practiced. After naming the sins, he says, “such were some of you.” At the same time, He is quick to point out what the gospel of grace had accomplished in them. When they received the gospel, the work of Jesus at the cross immediately became effective IN THEM; “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified.” The blood of Jesus removed the filth of sin, began a life-long work of making them holy like Jesus, and presented them righteous before God. “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you” (1 Corinthians 6:9–10). “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). How do you see sin in your life, marriage, family and church? Is the Word of God applied to them in love and truth so you and others can say “we were…BUT NOW WE ARE”? The greatest blessing for any comes through openly using God’s Word in view of repentance, reconciliation and restoration, and may I add, joyful fellowship. When we think of slavery, most of us look back at a practice that happened a long time ago. Sadly, there is a type of slavery that still entraps people today; SIN! As we see from the verses below, those who have identified with Christ as Savior, are set free from the slavery of sin.
“You who were once slaves to sin…” (Ro. 6:17) We “Have become obedient from the heart” (Ro. 6:17) “You were slaves to sin…” (Ro. 6:20) “Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God” (Ro. 6:22) In this freedom that Paul is describing (see also Galatians 5:1), there is a totally different kind of slavery that gives joy and delight, not bondage and judgment. In the introduction to Romans, Philippians and Titus, Paul calls himself a “servant” or “slave’ of Jesus Christ. The old master “sin”, that brought death and judgment, has been replaced by the new Master who brings true freedom. In this “freedom” there is a new “obedience” generated and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Paul describes this new obedience this way; “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being” (Romans 7:22). As Romans 8:1-17 teaches, it is the Spirit who enables us to “put to death the deeds of the body” (13) and be led by Him. This comparison forces us to examine whether we are living in this freedom by the Spirit and whether we are allowing Him to generate in us a “delight in our inner being”. If this is true in us, we will not live in defeat, but victory in Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul has an amazing way of drawing pictures with words. Often the spiritual concepts we find in Scripture need to be unpacked for us to grasp. There are many of these comparisons in Paul’s letters, but I have chosen to start with these three (below) because they clearly show that our condition before salvation was totally incapable of understanding our deep spiritual need.
The point of amazement in this contrast is that, in the face of man’s rejection of God, He moves independent of our moral condition or attitude toward Him and provided a solution in His Son, Jesus Christ, both for our sin and helpless, hopeless state. As we will see in future blogs, God provided a powerful answer to our condition that was not based on anything we could do, but completely founded on God’s love, grace and rich mercy. Let these three bring clarity to your soul and mind about what you were, and what God has done. “For while we were still weak” (Ro. 5:6). - - “At the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Ro. 5:6). “While we were still sinners” (Ro. 5:8). - - “God shows his love for us in that…Christ died for us” (Ro. 5:8). “For if while we were enemies” (Ro. 5:10). - - “We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Ro. 5:10). Will you tell someone today what God has done for you in spite of your condition before salvation? Also, will you open your heart in worship and praise to God for His everlasting plan and purpose? After David has reviewed the glorious history of God with His people in the beginning of Psalm 68, he calls on all the “Kingdoms of the earth [to] sing to God; sing praises to the Lord.” David had this conviction because of his close relationship with the Lord. He knew He is the “Awesome God…he is the one who gives power and strength to His people” (68:32-35). David knew that God at some point would receive universal worship.
That same perspective needs to be recaptured by the Church today. The fact that there are still unreached people groups in the world is a sad testimony that the Church has not embraced the plan of God. We have become mired in self-made programs that leave out a Spirit-filled vision of God’s plan. His plan will not fail! Every kingdom, every nation and people group will bring praise and worship to our Awesome God. I want to be part of those who push the gospel out to the unreached, through people and churches that are renewed in fervor for accomplishing God’s plan. As I close this blog, here is a quote from the Sons of Korah who had the same outlook as David. “I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore, nations will praise you forever and ever” (Psalm 45:17). This comes from those who personally knew the mercy of God. They had been rescued from death to live the purpose of God. Have you? |
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