Growing old is part of life, and it comes sooner than you think. The only problem is that some of the younger generation adopt the idea that when one becomes a senior citizen that they are living on borrowed time. This is far from the truth, one needs to take into consideration that there was a time when some of the older folk were also young and serving the Lord, and many times took risks during the trial of their faith. I have learnt to take time to listen to what the elderly have to share of their experiences in life and have become more the wiser for it. The question that comes to mind is that when Christians enter the autumn years of their life, can God still use them? Why not? Let us refer to how God used some of His senior citizens. God waited until Noah was 600 years old before He called him to be the preserver of the human race; God made Abraham and Sarah wait until the age of 100 and 90, respectively, before the birth of Isaac was allowed.
Moses was not ready to deliver Israel from Egypt until the age of 80 when God appeared to him in the “burning bush”. In fact many servants of God were at their best in their old age. History has confirmed that many artists, inventors, composers, poets, writers and statesmen either began or were at the apex when they were in their 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and even 90’s. Many preachers and elders are in their prime of service for the Lord and His church when they bear wrinkles and grey hairs of age! Dear older and wiser brother and sister, please do not “retire” from teaching, counselling, preaching, shepherding, helping, advising. Do not give in to the “rocking chair syndrome” and simply wait to breathe your last. In your old age you are a candidate for serving the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Category Archives: Christian life
Men’s Weekend Camp
Title: Men’s Weekend Camp
Location: Glen Muir
Description: Join the men for a weekend away.
Start Date: 2013-10-11
End Date: 2013-10-13
One!
ONE
“We saw that we weren’t making even a dent in his resolve, and gave up. ’It’s in God’s hands now,’ we said. ‘Master, you handle it.’
“It wasn’t long before we had our luggage together and were on our way to Jerusalem. Some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us and took us to the home of Mnason, who received us warmly as his guests. A native of Cyprus, he had been among the earliest disciples.
“In Jerusalem, our friends, glad to see us, received us with open arms. The first thing next morning, we took Paul to see James. All the church leaders were there. After a time of greeting and small talk, Paul told the story, detail by detail, of what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. They listened with delight and gave God the glory.” Acts 21:14-19 (The Message).
Jesus’ first words to would-be disciples on the brink of His public ministry were, ‘Follow me,’ and His final instruction to them on His return to the Father was, ‘Go, and make disciples.’ In the intervening years, the apostles carried out His mandate faithfully. Now, as they met together in Jerusalem many years after that day, they were sharing the stories of their obedience.
Not only were there pockets of disciples in many cities and towns across the Roman Empire, but they were also all disciples — followers of Jesus. The apostles were careful to attach people to Jesus and not to themselves, and they also ensured that God’s Word was their source book, not human reason or personal interpretation.
The result was that the church was one body made up of cells all over the empire. There is no evidence of conflicting denominations or fragmentations based on human leaders pulling people away from Jesus. The potential was there; the writers of the New Testament letters were careful and diligent to put out the fires of division and conflict that were constantly being lit by unscrupulous counterfeit disciples.
But among the true believers and the church leaders there was unity based on their loyalty to and love of one Master. When Paul told his story to the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, they could celebrate and rejoice with him because they shared the joy of what God had done through him. It was not Paul’s work. It was God’s work and Paul happened to be one of the vessels God had used.
But Paul was only one among many who were sowing the seeds of God’s Word wherever they went. He blazed the trail for others to follow. He wrote letters to churches that other faithful evangelists had founded and he was not slow to acknowledge their ministry. This was not a competition but a partnership because the kingdom they represented was not theirs but God’s and their mandate was not to build the church — Jesus said He would do that — but to make disciples, and that’s what they were bent on doing.
There is a feeling of camaraderie and oneness among these people as we read the account of Paul’s reunion with the church in Jerusalem. They were all in it together and Paul’s success was their success.
What went wrong that the church is so fragmented and that there are so many different streams of thought and practice in the church today? Jesus made it very simple:
1. He said, ‘Follow me; learn of me; obey me.’ His intention was that we be bound to Him as our model and our mentor, not any human being who thinks he can be a substitute for the Master. We are heading off in the wrong direction if we let go of Jesus.
2. He gave us His written word as our source book. We have access to everything about Him in His Word. When we choose to ignore His Word and substitute human words for His Word, we are on the wrong track.
3. He gave us His Spirit as His indwelling representative — another just like Himself — whose role is to teach us about Him and make Him real to us so that we can follow Him.
When we ignore the Holy Spirit or try to squeeze Him into who we think He is or what we think He ought to do, we lose the one person who can make unity possible.
Jesus’ impassioned plea to the Father was “That they may be one, Father, just as we are one.” That can never happen until we return to the simple basics of following Jesus, listening to the Holy Spirit and sticking to His Word.
An Invitation
My, my, my, how time has flown by and when we look back, we see that another day, another week, another month has passed swiftly by and our yesterdays have just become memories. There is a constant battle going on between good and evil. The prince of darkness is busy corrupting the minds of people, causing some to commit suicide through various reasons. Babies are aborted before they are unable to utter their first words “Mama or Dada” or suck from their mother’s breast. Numerous diseases are ravaging young and old, leaving families devastated. In spite of all this negativity, hope comes to us through the Word. God is like a light house piercing the darkness, bringing hope to the weary and broken hearted. According to God’s Word a day is about to dawn, Luke 12:35-38 tells us about a great feast that is going to take place, and the host is going to be Jesus. The R.S.V.P. requires that we, the redeemed of the Lord, must be ready for His return with great expectancy. The day is not stated nor the time, He may come in the middle of the night or just before dawn. But whenever He comes, there will be special favour for His servants who are ready. I would like to imagine that this occasion is going be a great reunion with loved ones who have gone on before us, but most all Jesus will be the centre of the feast, the King Himself, the Angels, all the saints who acknowledged Jesus as Lord. Jesus has sent out His invitation for this great occasion, the onus on us to receive it.
A Strategic Encounter
A STRATEGIC ENCOUNTER
“After spending a considerable time with the Antioch Christians, Paul set off again for Galatia and Phrygia, retracing his old tracks, one town after another, putting fresh heart into the disciples.
“A man named Apollos came to Ephesus. He was a Jew, born in Alexandria, Egypt, and a terrific speaker, eloquent and powerful in his preaching of the Scriptures. He was well-educated in the way of the Master and fiery in his enthusiasm. Apollos was accurate in everything he taught about Jesus up to a point, but only went as far as the baptism of John. He preached with power in the meeting place. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and told him the rest of the story.” Acts 18:23-26 (The Message).
How clever of God to set Priscilla and Aquila up for their encounter with Apollos in Ephesus! They had accompanied Paul on his return journey from Corinth to Antioch but remained in Ephesus while he continued on his journey home. No explanation was given, but God knew that there was to be a meeting with Apollos in Ephesus.
What a treasure Apollos turned out to be! How he came to be a believer from Alexandria is not recorded either. No doubt believers moved about in the empire, taking the message of Messiah wherever they went. Apollos was well trained in the Old Testament Scriptures and a native of Alexandria, a port city in Egypt where he would have grown up in a cosmopolitan culture, meeting people from all over the empire as they brought their goods to trade.
An introduction to the Messiah put a match to the Word, and Apollos was alight with the truth and comfortable in the company of Jew and Gentile alike. His passion and enthusiasm to spread the message took him to Ephesus where he “accidentally” ran into Priscilla and Aquila. They had been in Paul’s company long enough to have an accurate understanding of the gospel. Who better to take him under their wing and bring him up to speed with the things of the Lord?
Apollos was humble enough to be taught by these two “lay” people, sharpening his knowledge and skill as a preacher which he used to great effect in the synagogue in Ephesus, The fact that he was also, like Paul, a Jew who had recognised that Jesus was their Messiah, must have enhanced Paul’s credibility among the Ephesian Jews.
Why was it so important that Apollos be corrected regarding the baptism of John? After all, baptism is baptism, isn’t it? Does it matter into whose name it is done?
Yes, it matters a whole lot because baptism was an initiation into an office or movement, identifying the baptismal candidate with the leader of the movement and what he stood for and practised. John’s ministry was a preparation and introduction to Jesus as Messiah. His baptism was an initiation into and identification with him in what he was preaching. It was a baptism of repentance, preparing his hearers to receive the kingdom of God which Jesus had come to usher in.
The baptism of Jesus was an initiation into and identification with Him and His completed work of atonement for sin and reconciliation with the Father. To be baptised into Jesus meant being identified with the three-in-one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in what they had done to restore God’s rule in the people’s hearts.
Once Apollos had got that right, he became a fully-equipped and powerful ally of the apostles and the church, using his gift to bring encouragement to the church and enlightenment to his fellow Jews who, in the main, had rejected the gospel and become enemies of God.