Month: July 2024

The need for workers

July 9, 2024

In Matthew 9:32-37 we see Jesus has been preaching, teaching about the Kingdom and healing the sick. In verse 36 He looks upon the crowd of people and it says compassion welled up within Him. He said the people looked like lost sheep without a shepherd.

Then Jesus makes an interesting request. He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields” (v37-38).

Up until this point Jesus has done all the ministry work. He had been preaching, teaching, healing, driving out demons, raising the dead and calming storms. The disciples were following along and just watching and taking it all in.

Now the disciples were getting asked to be involved in His work. How? By praying. Jesus asked them to pray for workers to go out in to the harvest. As I reflected on this request a couple of things came to mind.

1. Prayer should always precede ministry outreach.

2. When I pray God often softens my heart and calls me to be involved.

In the start of the next chapter we see Jesus sends out the 12 disciples. We do not know how long after it was when He asked them to pray, but I suspect it was fairly soon.

Matthew 10:5-8 NLT says, “Jesus sent out the twelve apostles with these instructions: “Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, [6] but only to the people of Israel-God’s lost sheep. [7] Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. [8] Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!”

In this sending out we see Jesus gave them strict instructions. Go to these people, preach the Kingdom, heal the sick and caste out demons. It was a set of clear instructions with defined boundaries.

As I dwell on these passages from Matthew 9&10. I am reminded on our early days at PASSION Australia. Our board would have a meal together and then spend an hour or two in prayer asking God what He wanted us to do.

We would simply pray, “Lord You said the harvest field is ripe, but the workers were few. Please send us out. Let us know where to go and what to do. Lead us to the people whose hearts you have been preparing, we want to lead them to You. Amen”. Then we would wait on the Lord.

Often over the next few days God would speak to us separately and when we came together again, we would share what God had been saying to us. Most times it was exactly the same and it confirmed what we needed to do.

At first we were surprised, like the disciples when they came back from their first mission. But in time we realised that if we pray first, then God would lead us to the people who needed Him and were ready to receive.

We learned a simple lesson in the early days of PASSION. The Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20 is given to us, but ultimately it is God’s mission. He wants to whole world to come to know Jesus and He uses us. But it always works best when we seek Him and pray, “What do You want us to do and where do You want us to go?”

A prayer for sleep

July 7, 2024

Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings sleep to my eyes, slumber to my eyelids. Let my sleep be undisturbed by troubling thoughts, bad dreams, and wicked schemes. May I have a night of tranquil slumber and wake feeling truly refreshed. I ask in Jesus name, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Apostle Paul’s suffering and commitment

July 7, 2024

I was looking at the suffering of the Apostle Paul recently. I was amazed how much he went through in his years of ministry. I was also amazed by his commitment to preach the Gospel in the midst of his suffering.

In 2 Corinthians 6:3-10 we see some of Paul’s hardships. On a number of occasions he was beaten by mobs, put in jail, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights and gone without food.

Also in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 we read he was also whipped nearly 200 times, beaten with rods, faced death again and again, was shipwrecked three times, was stoned, faced danger from fake Christians and nearly drowned from swollen rivers.

This does not even mentioned the “thorn in Paul’s flesh from Satan” mentioned in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. A thorn that he was able to bear by God’s grace.

Bible scholars tell us that Paul was converted about 36 AD and he died in Rome in 68 AD. So this means he was in Christian ministry for about 32 years. As 2 Corinthians was written about 57 AD these listed sufferings only record about two thirds of his ministry time!

So how was Paul able to stand firm and keep going in his ministry mission in light of all this suffering? Here are some of the reasons I think.

  1. His amazing conversion on the road to Damascus where he spoke with Jesus (Acts 9:3-19)
  2. He knew he was called by God to reach the Gentiles for Christ (Galatians 1:15-16, Acts 13:2-3)
  3. He knew he could do all things through Christ who was his strength (Philippians 4:13)
  4. Paul saw his mission as a race he needed to run with endurance (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Hebrews 12:1)
  5. He knew he had to keep his eyes fixed on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2)
  6. Paul saw that he was no longer living, but Christ living in and through him (Galatians 2:20)
  7. Paul knew he would receive a crown of righteousness from the Lord (2 Timothy 4:8)
  8. Paul saw his life as a drink offering being poured out to the Lord (2 Timothy 4:6)

I am really inspired by the life of Paul. I have been through a lot of suffering and it has made me stronger, but it is nothing compared to what Paul suffered for the Gospel.

If you are suffering for the Gospel today I hope you can draw strength from God and the example of the Apostle Paul.

My favourite chapter of the Bible

July 6, 2024
(Image: From www.LumoProject.com)

A friend asked me the other day what my favourite chapter of the Bible was. We were talking about our favourite memory verses and it flowed from there.

I found this quite hard as I love the Bible so much and I have so many favourites. In the end I had to choose Matthew 8 & 9 as a tie. Matthew 8 comes right after the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus had taught some amazing truths and the people were amazed by His teaching and authority.

Jesus comes down the mountain has a number of amazing interactions with people. He heals a number of people, drives out demons, calms a storm, raises a dead girl and finishes with a call to pray for workers to enter the harvest field.

I just love the way Jesus interacts with people as He moves around in these chapters. He meets people where they are at and at their point of need. He listens, responds and then He moves powerfully. Nothing is too great for Him to handle.

A few years ago I did a sermon of these two chapters. It was titled, “Bring your problem to Jesus”. It looked at each of Jesus’ interactions and the results of them. At the end we prayed for people who issues they wanted to bring to Jesus.

If you are interested you can find the notes of the sermon here.

Tax collectors and sinners

July 5, 2024

I was reading Matthew 9:9-13 just now. It is the call of Matthew and how Jesus goes to eat at his house with “tax collectors and other sinners”.

The Pharisees found out and could not believe Jesus associated with such people. When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor-sick people do” (v12).

As I dwelt upon the idea of spending time with outcastes I prayed and asked God to help me with this. He then reminded me of something we did many years ago fairly as new Christians.

Some friends and I were at the Australia Day fire works in Kings Park Perth. After it ended we decided to hang around as there were lots of people and cars trying to go home.

As we sat and talked we noticed a homeless man lying under the bushes near us. We heard him moaning and groaning. My friends and I looked at each other and without a word went over to see if we could help.

At first the man yelled at us and told us to go away. But we said we were Christians and we were worried about him. He rolled over and began to talk to us. We talked about his life, his troubles and his battle with alcohol.

The sadness of his story made us want to bless him right at that moment. My friends looked at each other again, and without a word, we said can we help you get you home. He had a place in a mens shelter he could stay at, He agreed as he could not get home by himself.

Once the crowd had cleared we got him up and took him to my car. He looked and smelled like he had not showered in months, but we got him in the car and headed towards his temporary home.

As we drove and talked we asked if he had eaten. He said no. So we took him to a local drive through that was still open. We got him whatever he wanted from the menu. And we sat and ate in my car. We talked for more than an hour.

After this we drove around the city some more and we eventually took him home. He was feeling better after haven eaten and was able to walk more by himself. We took him to his room and got him settled in bed.

As we were about to go he got up and looked us in the eye and thanked us for treating him so well. We sensed it had been a while for him. He then stood very upright gave us a military salute. Without thinking we did it back, even though none of us had been in the military.

As we drove away we did not say much to each other. But we knew we had made a real difference to him. And the truth is he made a real difference to us. We got to experience what it is like to see someone through the eyes of Jesus and just helping because he needed us to help.

As I type I have tears in my eyes thinking about this. I have not thought about this homeless man for many years. I do not know what happened to him or even if he is still alive. But I know Jesus does. He was with us that night giving us the love and compassion needed to do that task for Him.

Right now I am reminded of the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:40, “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

As I reflect on this night way back. I think this is the night Jesus turned on compassion in me for people who were really struggling. I am so glad we stepped out to help this man and not just walked on by. It turned on a compassion that moved me to action and still moves me today.