I heard this saying today afresh. I know I have heard it before, but this time it struck a chord in my heart…
“The Books of Acts would not have been written if the Apostles did not go and act”.
Imagine if after Pentecost came and the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers, that they decided to just stay home. Imagine how different our world would be?
We would not have a Book of Acts as an example and a teaching. We would not have heard about the amazing miracles. We would not have heard about the growth of the early church.
This simple saying emphasised to me afresh the importance of going and acting. Of taking the truth of the Gospel message out in to the world and sharing it with others.
When we go and act people are saved. When we go and act miracles happen and lives are changed. When we go and act eternal destinies are changed.
Prayer
Dear God, please help me to go and act. Your Word says the harvest fields are ripe. Send me to the people who need You today. Amen.
Galatians 1:10 TPT – I’m obviously not trying to flatter you or water down my message to be popular with men, but my supreme passion is to please God. For if all I attempt to do is please people, I would not be the true servant of the Messiah.
In today’s world we can be tempted to water down the Gospel to make it palatable to more people. But the truth of the Gospel is Jesus came to earth to save sinners. He came to die on the cross for our sin. This opened the way back to the Father in heaven from whom we were separated. He took our punishment, so we could find peace with God.
If our Gospel message does not talk about sin and the need to find peace with God, is it really the Gospel of the Bible?
Reflection passage – Romans 5:8-11 NLT
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. [9] And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. [10] For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. [11] So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
I was asked recently, “What is the best Bible for a new Christian”. This is a really good question as it is important to start off right.
I believe the best Bible for new Christians is the Life Application Study Bible (LASB). The reason I believe this is because it has a book introduction for each book, maps of key locations, profiles of the authors and most importantly a commentary in the margins.
The commentary in the margins is a great feature. Some Bible verses do not make sense at first reading. They might have a cultural or historical meaning that we find hard to understand in today’s world. Having these notes can help us understand how it applies to us today.
As far as a Bible translation goes I think it is important to find one that you find easy to read and understand. With the LASB it has a number of English translations that range from a simple plain English versions, right through to the older King James style of writing.
For my personal Bible reading and preaching I mostly use the New Living Translation. I find this simple to read as it paraphrases the original text (Hebrew or Greek) in a way I find easy to read and understand. I have a large print paper version and I also have copies on my iPad and iPhone…so it goes with me everywhere!
If you are interested you can find more information on the LASB website here.
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?”
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.
His amazing conversion on the road to Damascus where he spoke with Jesus (Acts 9:3-19)
He knew he had to keep his eyes fixed on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2)
Paul saw that he was no longer living, but Christ living in and through him (Galatians 2:20)
Paul knew he would receive a crown of righteousness from the Lord (2 Timothy 4:8)
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.
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