Struggling with God; April 21, 2021

Posted on April 24, 2021 by jgarrott

Genesis 32:28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”

When you look at Jewish history, Israel is an enormously appropriate name. As many Bibles have footnotes to tell you, “Israel” means, “he struggles with God.” They have certainly been argumentative, at least, toward their Creator, who chose them as His agents anyway. It has always struck me as interesting that the angel toyed with Jacob, rather than crushing him, because there is no comparison between divine strength and human strength. I think the lesson he was teaching Jacob was not to give up. As came out in yesterday’s reading, Jacob had a revelation that he had been greatly blessed by God, but there was more he needed to learn. This verse says he “overcame” in the struggle, but I think the lesson is the exact opposite, that he couldn’t overcome God. The injury to his hip was a reminder, just as was Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.” (2 Corinthians 12:7) Like Paul, he needed to learn that his scheming and his tricks couldn’t save him, but God could. The sooner we learn that lesson and turn from rebellion to grateful obedience, the better off we are.

I have certainly had my moments of thinking I knew better than God, about any of a number of things! It wasn’t a concrete, “I know better than God,” but rather one of ignoring Him, or even downright disobeying Him, because I liked the way I was choosing. God has shown me the stupidity of that in various ways, always more graciously than I deserved. As I have commented several times, if I had been God, I would have squashed me a long time ago! I don’t want to struggle with God, I want to walk with Him. That He would allow me to do that is truly amazing grace. I have less excuse for rebellion and disobedience than most, having been taught about God from infancy, so I have no “bragging rights” about where I am now. After all, I still don’t obey Him perfectly! I certainly agree and identify with Paul in this area. (Philippians 3:12-14) That should give me insight and patience in dealing with those around me who are likewise struggling with trusting God enough to obey Him fully.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You again for Your incredible patience with me. Help me respond consistently, in full obedience rather than in fits of repentance and devotion, so that all the lies of the enemy may be defeated and Your will be accomplished in and through me, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Humility; April 20, 2021

Posted on April 23, 2021 by jgarrott

Genesis 32:10 “I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups.”

This was something of a pivotal moment for Jacob. The humility and gratitude he expresses here were certainly not characteristic of him to this point! He was used to getting by on the strength of his wits, taking advantage of the weaknesses of others, but here it dawns on him just how gracious God has been to him. We are so often like him! As I tell people in my premarital counseling sessions, one of the things I like about the Bible is that it presents people as they are, not covering over their faults. The record of the Patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – is in stark contrast to the “historical” records of other cultures, because they are presented as real, fallible people, rather than idealized heroes. Here, God used Esau to give Jacob a reality check, so to speak. Jacob knew that he had “done dirt” to his brother. The Bible records that “Esau despised his birthright,” (Genesis 25:34) but Jacob despised his twin brother! As 12-step programs and the like emphasize, the first step to recovery is acknowledging you have a problem. Here, Jacob is forced to realize that he could not have gotten to where he was without the grace of God. God wasn’t through breaking his pride, but this was an important first step. We can avoid a lot of breaking if we acknowledge our dependence on God from the outset!

As I am frequently reminded, pride has always been a snare for me. I don’t think I’ve ever done to anyone the way Jacob did to Esau, but I’ve done more than my share of despising others in my heart, placing them in my mind on a lower level than me. Jesus said that was equivalent to murder! (Matthew 5:22) I have been enormously blessed, but very little if any of it was by my own doing. In the first place, I certainly didn’t select my genetics or my home background! Many things have come easily to me that I have seen others struggle at, but instead of gratitude, I have been prone to conceit. There are certainly things I am NOT good at, like running, but I have set those aside in my mind as unimportant. I don’t want to be “a legend in my own mind” and fail to bless others by fulfilling the tasks God has for me. As I am frequently reminded, from God’s viewpoint, differences between human abilities are like “acorns comparing height,” to use the Japanese proverb. Absolutely nothing I have was generated by me, so I am to use it all in grateful obedience to the One who gave it to me.

Father, thank You indeed for Your amazing grace toward me. May I be the servant, the son, that You want me to be, doing Your will faithfully, drawing others to You in true discipleship – on my part and theirs – for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Maturity; April 19, 2021

Posted on April 23, 2021 by jgarrott

Genesis 25:23 The Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.”

It strikes me that Rebekah’s twins were God’s plan. God used Ishmael, Abraham’s mistake, in tempering and training Isaac and his descendants, and He used Esau the same way, to train Jacob and his descendants. You can’t blame Esau on human error! Actually, parenting was a real issue, as verses 27-28 indicate, but as Paul expressed clearly, God uses even our mistakes to bless us in the long run. (Romans 8:28) Jacob would never have become Israel without Esau to teach him some painful lessons. That doesn’t justify either man’s actions, but it does teach us that we aren’t to despair when we blow it. God knows how stupid we are! The whole point is to keep learning from our mistakes. Current society tries to insulate children from the consequences of their actions, or from any pain at all. That is a tragic mistake, as a quick look around will tell you. We have created a generation of snowflakes, who melt at the slightest heat. One young man I know was recently accepted onto a professional sports team, and he’s broken out in hives from the stresses of expectation and performance. Fortunately, his parents recognize that they probably coddled him too much, and he needs to buck up and “grow a pair,” as the saying is. Another young man is in an excellent job, but is reacting to mean things some of his coworkers are saying to and about him, tending to accept what they say of him as true instead of standing up for himself in his own thinking. God allows these things to grow and mature us, to teach us to rely on Him and the gifts He has placed in us. We aren’t to be lazy, much less give up. As Jesus said, in this world we will have trouble. (John 16:33) We aren’t to complain about it, but rejoice that God loves us enough to mature and polish us as He knows we need.

This is easy for me to see, from the viewpoint of 72 years, but I also need to remember that God isn’t finished with me yet, either! I too tend to complain at difficulties, and I have less excuse to complain than young people, because I can see how difficulties have benefited me. I am continuing to grow, however. Yesterday we had just four people in the service, counting Cathy and me, which was not only a drastic reduction from the week before, I also had high expectations of how God was going to move. It’s entirely possible that He did move, since I have very little feedback from those who participate in our services electronically, but it didn’t match my hopeful scenario. However, God gave me complete peace about it, and it ended up being a very good day. Like Paul said, I need to “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for [me] in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Father, thank You both for this reminder and for Your patience with me. I’ve been pretty slow to grow and mature at times! Help me indeed “press forward to win the prize,” just like Paul said, (Philippians 3:12-14) so that I may be and become all that You intend, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Bold Prayer; April 18, 2021

Posted on April 19, 2021 by jgarrott

Genesis 24:12 Then he prayed, “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.”

This is a very interesting story. We don’t even know the name of this servant/slave, though it’s not unreasonable to guess that he was Eliezer of Damascus, mentioned as a potential heir for Abraham. (Genesis 15:2) In any case, his loyalty is unquestionable. Abraham had given him a very clear, simple, and actually easy “escape clause” to his oath, so he was not under pressure personally, but he knew that what Abraham had asked was improbable, to put it mildly. Here he prays, and it is interesting how he does it. I doubt very much that he was monotheistic in his personal theology, but he had seen that his master’s God was both real and personal, so he prayed to Him. I would guess that his faith in the Lord was greatly strengthened by the outcome of his prayer! He wasn’t praying for himself, but rather that the Lord would be gracious to Abraham who had sent him on this “fool’s journey.” He had no way of knowing who was who among the girls who came to the well, so he asked for a very specific indicator, and was blown out of the water when it was granted exactly. It was no small matter to draw water for ten camels! He knew that God had led him to a girl who was not only beautiful, she was a very hard worker. We sometimes fail to ask God for things He wants to give us, thinking that they are too extreme or too individual, but God is more than able to do anything at all. The story of Gideon and the fleece is famous. (Judges 6:36-40) We aren’t to run around thinking up tests for God, but in this instance it was meeting a very specific need. We generally pray too small. If we are genuinely seeking God’s kingdom and His righteousness, we can trust the Holy Spirit to guide our prayers according to the Father’s will.

My personal association with this story is strongest from the fact that I was asked to read the entire chapter at my sister’s wedding, by my soon-to-be brother-in-law. (Afterward, he conceded that he should have asked for an edited version!) He felt that he had been led to my sister as surely as this servant was led to Rebekah, and that’s a beautiful thing. I myself was led very clearly and surely to my wife, to the surprise of quite a few people who knew us. Of more importance at the moment is my willingness to pray for what God wants to do here and now. I am very hesitant to ask God for specific signs, which probably indicates a lack of faith on my part that He will grant them! I need to trust that I am in the flow of God’s plan and that He has things for me to do. I don’t want to demand that He use me, but I do have assurance that He’s not through with me. Just in the past few days I have felt a renewal of anticipation at what God is going to do, and it’s exciting. Today I’m going to be preaching on the baptism in the Holy Spirit, as I have done several times before. The fact that we haven’t had a massive outpouring any previous time doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen today! I am painfully aware that I can’t make it happen, but I have this growing conviction that God wants to do it, and I’m not to stand in His way by my inaction coming from lack of faith. After all, the servant in this story made the long journey and showed up where he was supposed to be when He was supposed to be there. I have even more reason to be loyal to my Lord than he did!

Father, I do ask You to pour Your Spirit out on this congregation, even today. We’re expecting a small turnout, particularly compared to last week. I ask You to bring those who are hungry for more of You, and to meet their hunger abundantly, for the sake of Your kingdom and for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Sin and Grace; April 17, 2021

Posted on April 19, 2021 by jgarrott

Genesis 20:3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.”

This whole story seems very weird to us today, but it actually gives us some real cultural insight into what things were like 4000 years ago. In the first place, Sarah was evidently a very good-looking woman, or this would never have come up. In the second place, the idea that a man of power could indicate a woman and say, “I’ll have that one,” seems very offensive to us today, but it was obviously a social norm back then. (Incidentally, I was very struck by the fact that the Japanese language has a specific phrase to indicate this sort of thing, which I had not been aware of before now. It must have been common in Japan much more recently than 4000 years ago!) The second thing that strikes me is that regardless of their specific religion, people were very aware of the spirit world. That Abimelech would have responded so strongly to a dream seems odd to most people today. It must have been a very clear dream! Another thing that is shocking to us today is that our great ancestor in faith was involved in incest! That Sarah was Abraham’s half-sister makes it genetically a little better, but not much. Actually, it was a legal requirement for Egyptian Pharaohs to marry their sister, to “maintain the purity of the line.” The resulting genetic inbreeding created a real mess over time! And finally, that Abraham would have asked such a thing of Sarah so as to save his own skin seems rather despicable to us today. God works with imperfect, fallible people. It actually strikes me as odd that God allowed Abraham to profit so handsomely from his ploy! (verses 14-16) We aren’t to presume that God will always do that sort of thing for us. However, we do need to remember that God heard the prayers of even such an imperfect man as Abraham, and not hesitate to pray.

I can think of a few instances in my life when sin has produced blessing, but not many. I can think of many more when God has blessed me in spite of my sin. It’s like Paul wrote: “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2) He said that because he had just noted that “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” (Romans 5:20) It is dangerous to look at anyone, in the Bible or out of it, and say, “They got away with it, so I don’t have to worry.” Each of us is personally accountable to God, and He knows the details of our hearts. James’ statement is actually pretty scary: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” (James 4:17) I am to walk in full obedience to all that God shows me, and not worry about anything else.

Father, thank You for this story to remind me that even in this mixed-up world we live in, You are still working. Help me be quick to repent of anything You show me I’ve failed to do or have done wrong, but not be neurotic about it. Help me rejoice in Your grace and extend it to those around me, so that all the lies of the devil may be defeated, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Prayer; April 16, 2021

Posted on April 17, 2021 by jgarrott

Matthew 6:7-8 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Living in a nominally Buddhist country, this is very clear, since there are groups that believe that saying, “The name of the Lotus Sutra, the name of the Lotus Sutra” over and over constitutes effective prayer. For that matter, even Catholics are taught that how many times they say specific set prayers gains them favor with God. That’s not the kind of prayer Jesus taught at all, so it’s very ironic that the prayer He taught right after this is one of the ones that gets assigned for repetition! There have been several excellent expositions of that prayer, showing how it covers various categories of prayer that should be characteristic of our prayers, but how many times you say it certainly isn’t the issue. One thing that stands out to me about all the Biblical teaching about prayer is that it assumes that God is intelligent and He is listening. Here, Jesus is cautioning us not to think we are telling God anything He doesn’t already know. I think all human beings instinctively cry out to a “Higher Power” when they are in trouble, but who and how we see Him to be makes all the difference. When we really understand that He is our loving Creator who chooses to be called Father, and is the ultimate example of what a father should be, then our prayers are forever impacted. What father would want his children repeating the same things over and over? And what father would be pleased if his children fail to trust that He desires the best for them? Sometimes we might hide things from our human fathers, or at least try to, but that certainly doesn’t work with our heavenly Father. Knowing that, we need to be totally open before Him, not for His sake but for ours. When that is our attitude, then our prayers will have real weight before Him.

I was incredibly blessed to be raised in a home where prayer was as natural as breathing. I can’t remember ever hesitating to pray, which makes me less than the best prayer coach, because I haven’t had to overcome barriers to prayer, so I’m not sure how to help those who feel them. What I can do is set an example. I have found that I am often called on to pray publicly in Christian settings, and people seem to be blessed by hearing me pray. I need to be very careful not to be like the hypocrites Jesus mentioned in verse five! We are starting a series of readings on prayer today, going to Genesis tomorrow and working through the Bible. My desire is that everyone in this church would have the same freedom in prayer that I experience, and would delight to pray even more that I do, if possible. I feel that God really is about to pour His Spirit out on us like we haven’t experienced to this point, and that is certainly inseparable from prayer, since He helps us in our praying. (Romans 8:26-27) If we are to be the church God wants us to be, then we will certainly be a people of prayer and a people of praise, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Father, thank You for this strong encouragement. I ask for Your anointing as I speak on Resurrection Power, that is, the Holy Spirit, this Sunday and then prayer the next Sunday. May Your Word through me penetrate all barriers and set people free to be the children You want them to be, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Revival; April 15, 2021

Posted on April 17, 2021 by jgarrott

Acts 2:38-39 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off–for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

This whole sermon by Peter is something of the antithesis of political correctness. In verse 36 he has just said that his hearers had crucified the Son of God, and that bald truth penetrated just as it was supposed to. That brought his hearers to the sharp awareness of their own sin, causing them to seek the remedy, and here Peter provides it. It is important to remember that this was an audience prepared by God for exactly this occasion. In the first place, they were Jews who cared enough about their faith to travel to Jerusalem, some of them for long distances over several days. In other words, they knew the foundation of who God is, and they sought to be in right relationship to Him. In the second place, ritual bathing was a common feature of the religious customs of the day, as the recent discovery of a pool for exactly that purpose in the area of the Garden of Gethsemane points up. With that preparation, Peter’s words here were all that were needed. However, we’ve got to remember, again, that all of this was the work of the Holy Spirit, who had just been poured out. A similar thing is happening right now in Iran. It has been said that Ayatollah Khomeini was Iran’s greatest Christian evangelist, because he exposed so completely the spiritually bankrupt nature of Islam. As a result, people are turning to Christ in droves, despite all the persecution, and the government is getting increasingly desperate about it. Similarly, the political and moral situation in the US is causing more and more people to open their eyes, preparing the nation for another great awakening. However, that won’t happen without believers speaking the truth in love, regardless of the social or even legal consequences. Political correctness is a tool of the devil!

Ministering in Japan, I long for God to prepare the people to receive the Gospel. There was a time, almost 500 years ago, when they obviously were prepared, and Christianity spread with a speed that totally alarmed the Edo government. However, the ensuing crack-down was the most effective persecution in Church history, and with the exception of a brief surge right after WWII, Japanese society has been one of the most difficult in the world to penetrate with the Gospel. That said, nothing is impossible for God. Wonderful things have been happening in the Tohoku area since the earthquake and tsunami, but so far that has remained largely localized. Recently we have been getting hints that God is doing something marvelous here, but my prayer is for the whole nation! I honestly don’t know what is necessary to prepare people’s hearts, but God does, and He’s working on it. My job is to be bold in proclamation, speaking the truth in love but never letting political correctness get in the way. I am not to be afraid of being seen as “un-Japanese,” because I already am anyway! No less than Peter, I am not to let my past failures keep me from total obedience right now.

Father, thank You for this strong Word, and for all that You are doing in, around, and even through me right now. May Your Spirit indeed be poured out, on believers and unbelievers alike, bringing genuine repentance and active faith, for the salvation of this nation and for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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The Fear of Death; April 14, 2021

Posted on April 16, 2021 by jgarrott

Acts 2:25 “David said about him:
“‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.'”

I think it’s significant that David was given the privilege of prophesying about his most important Descendant. It is also notable that Peter, an uneducated fisherman, could quote blocks of Scripture like this. Whereas it’s true that rote memorization of Scripture was far more a part of the culture in those days, it is undeniable that the same Holy Spirit who had just been poured out on the believers guided Peter in exactly which Scriptures to use, both from Joel and from Psalms. The specific statement here is of great and timely relevance to us today. Many people today are indeed shaken, driven to fear by a real virus and false claims about it. Yesterday I watched a short video of Phil Robertson talking about how strange it is that so many genuine Christians, even, are controlled by a fear of death in these days, when everyone is going to die sometime, and believers have eternity to look forward to. That’s what this passage, quoted from Psalm 16, is all about. David didn’t have the proof of Jesus’ resurrection to give him assurance, but he had faith nonetheless, and that was enough. It is only logical that believers today, who have the whole record of the Bible and 2000 years of history since, should have total peace by doing what David says here: looking to the Lord. It is a sign of the devil’s deception that so many fail to walk in that peace.

I don’t think I’ve ever had much fear of death. That manifested in a moment of great self-centeredness when I was in college, when I lay down on the floor and started a self-hypnosis routine to slow and then stop my heart and my breathing, with every intention of dying. I knew it was possible, because a Japanese friend (?!) had almost killed me with such a hypnosis routine when I was in the 10th grade, and I was actually quite good at hypnosis at this point. However, the Lord spoke to me, saying “Don’t do that,” and I did abandon the procedure and go back to living. (Incidentally, I don’t do hypnosis at all at this point, because it is manipulating a person’s will, and human free will is so precious that Jesus died to preserve it.) I have been present for many people’s deaths, and it has been tragic only when the person has not been a believer. I grieved when each of my parents died, but it was for my own loss of fellowship with them in this earth; I knew full well that they had gone to great joy and reward. I am concerned about my own death at this point only in how it will affect those I leave behind. I will confess that I hardly look forward to my wife’s death, but that is entirely because of my own loss in this life, rather than any fear for her. After all, she’s already been to heaven once and come back, and she knows how wonderful it is! I am not to be satisfied with my own assurance of salvation, but rather seek to bring as many people along with me as possible. I’ve already written a statement to be read at my funeral, inviting people to acknowledge Jesus as Lord so that they will eventually be able to join me with Him. World events and personal events do tend to shake me at times, but I must remember this truth that David knew.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for having me run across that video yesterday. I pray that I too would be an instrument for You to lead others to faith and assurance, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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The Gift of Tongues; April 13, 2021

Posted on April 16, 2021 by jgarrott

Acts 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

This was a watershed moment in human history, not to mention the history of the Church. (Actually, it was the birth of the Church.) From an objective viewpoint, it is fascinating that the phenomenon experienced here, of ignorant Galileans speaking in languages they had never learned, has been so controversial and divisive. Two days ago I wrote about how this gift requires a release of control on the part of the one exercising it, and we don’t like to be out of control, as we think of it. That’s why some people insist on calling this “ecstatic speech,” rather than “other languages” as the Greek clearly says. (Incidentally, it’s helpful that the Japanese term for “the gift of tongues” is very very clearly “other/alien language.”) Paul implies that the languages spoken may not all be human (1 Corinthians 13:1), and the person speaking will most likely not recognize what language they are using, but there are many documented cases of what is being said being understood perfectly by native speakers of that language. We have had two experiences of that ourselves. In one case, a friend who had never been out of Virginia was ministering deliverance to a woman troubled by an evil spirit, and he started saying “Get out! Get out! Get out!” over and over very rapidly – in Japanese, of which I am a native speaker. He was saying it faster than I could have! Another experience was when we had a group of Filipina trainees for a Japanese company here in Omura (over 20 years ago). Cathy went to their dormitory once a week to hold a prayer meeting with them, and in one time of group prayer she was praying quietly in tongues, when the girls became very excited. It turned out she was praying for them in Tagalog, which she certainly doesn’t speak! To this day, several of them are convinced she is a fluent speaker of Tagalog, but it still makes no sense to her. The point is, this event on the Day of Pentecost was a fulfillment of what Jesus had said in Acts 1:8. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and immediately began “declaring the wonders of God” (verse 11) to people “from every nation under heaven,” (verse 5) in their own languages. That’s something worth doing!

As I have shared many times, my own experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit was rather different, and the confirmation that it had occurred was my sharing Christ with a total stranger in Japanese, which I certainly understood at the time. However, I did receive the gift of tongues a couple of months later, to my great satisfaction, because I wanted a tool to be able to pray when my intellect had no idea how to do so. On one occasion, in a small prayer group, I was used to speak out something in a language that sounded Eastern European. Words were very distinct, and very strongly spoken. When I finished, all three of us present were somewhat shaken, and I said, “I’m glad that wasn’t addressed to me!” I had the distinct impression that I had uttered a Word of correction and admonition to someone, and that they had heard those words in a dream or vision. I don’t have any Biblical examples of that so I certainly can’t be dogmatic about it, but I do know that God can do anything at all, and that’s what I feel happened. Today, tongues are a frequent part of my prayer life, but not something I use in church services, or generally in front of other people. I am grateful for the gift, but any spiritual gift is meaningless if I don’t exercise it in obedience to and fellowship with the Lord who gave it to me.

Father, thank You for Your overwhelming grace in so many areas. I feel that You indeed want to pour Your Spirit out on this church, and I pray that would happen soon. May we have hearts fully open to whatever You want to do in and through us, for the advancement of Your kingdom and for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Siblings; April 12, 2021

Posted on April 15, 2021 by jgarrott

Acts 1:14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Thinking about it, this verse tells us a great deal. In the first place it tells us that the women were fully accepted, which was downright scandalous in the society of the day. In the second place it tells us that Mary was given special recognition. I do think Catholics go too far in various ways in their veneration of her, but there’s no denying she was a special individual. In the third place, and most interestingly for me, there is the evidence that from this point Jesus’ siblings were believers. A few years down the line James became the leader of the Jerusalem Church, as mentioned both in Acts and in Paul’s letters, and Jude contributed a letter to the New Testament. However, they had previously found it impossible to believe that their big brother was actually the Messiah of God. (John 7:5) Paul indicates that James got a private visit, as had Peter, (1 Corinthians 15:7) but it was after Jesus had confirmed His resurrection to those who had followed Him from the beginning. Blood ties are important, but they aren’t as important as the ties of faith and obedience. We today have no genetic connection to Jesus, but the Bible tells us He calls us His brothers. (Hebrews 2:11) Jesus’ physical brothers weren’t perfect, and neither are we. We need to walk in faith and obedience, appreciative of His grace, for His glory alone.

I am blessed to have older physical siblings, so I understand that dynamic. At the same time, I have many spiritual older siblings, and I am in turn an older brother to many. Yesterday the message was on how the Church is an organism, rather than just an organization, and we sang a great deal about how we are a family. That’s not just platitudes! Our business meeting in the afternoon was indeed a family affair, even though three nationalities were represented. At this point Cathy and I are senior in terms both of physical age and length of commitment to Christ, but that’s of relatively small importance. We are one family, and we are to support and encourage and admonish one another, growing together as part of the Body of Christ, for His glory alone.

Father, thank You indeed for all You did yesterday. Thank You that the business meeting was friendly and constructive and downright enjoyable! Thank You for the large group we had in the service, courtesy of all the people from Takeo. Thank You especially for the forward-looking plans we made, and how everyone seemed to own them. I pray that we would indeed move forward on every level as You intend, bringing many into Your family for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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