I Need You

There's a little chorus we've been singing in the Church for many years now. It says,"He's all I need, He's all I need, Jesus is all I need". I love singing this song, at the same time I sing it with mixed feelings because it is not what the Bible teaches.

The Bible clearly teaches that we also need each other. We need Jesus and His people. Paul says to the Corinthian Church that we cannot say to each other, "I have no need of you" ( 1 Corinthians 12:21 ). I realize that there are those times when we just don't want each other, we get burned-out on people, disappointed in people, irritated with people...but there are also those times when people pray for us, encourage us, help us, and love us. Relationship is such a vital part of our life and ministry.

So let's be honest. There are those times when we just don't want to be around people, and we want it to be just "me and Jesus", but we must recognize that we are designed for togetherness, with all of its joys and pains.

Yes, we need Jesus, but we need His people too.

GUIDANCE AND THE WILL OF GOD

 In my 35 years of pastoral ministry, probably the most asked question of me was, "How do I find the will of God for my life?"

In Matthew 26:36-46, we find Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (the last time I was in Israel I shared from this passage with our group), and He is struggling with the will of the Father. He prays to the Father, "if possible, let this cup pass from me". It's comforting to me to know that Jesus Himself struggled with God's will.

This passage of Scripture gives us great insight to understanding Divine guidance:

1-It all begins with prayer ( verse 36 ). Prayer was the way Jesus processed things internally.

   We all pray every day, but there has got to be those seasons of intense prayer in our lives

    before making decisions.

2-It will challenge your emotions ( verse 37-38 ). Jesus thought He was going to die! Have you 

   ever felt like that? Your emoting crop-up. Your back is up against the wall, and if you don't

   deal with your emotions, it will cause you to recant. We tend to cave in to our emotions. It's

   the battle of the soul.

3-It will result in surrender ( verse 39-42 ). The best thing to do when struggling with the will of

   God is to give up and give in. It's called "surrender".

There will always be a conflict between the spirit and the flesh ( verses 41 ). Jesus says, "I understand that your spirit is strong, but I also understand that flesh is weak". Jesus tells us that watching and praying is the key to overcoming the flesh. The way to keep the flesh in check is to say, "I delight to do Your will, oh God".

That's what I'm thinking about today.

John 14:6

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). Being certain of anything these days is looked down on in our culture. To believe in absolute truth is to invite hostility and accusation of fundamentalism and religious extremism. Our culture has embraced the easy way of relativism ("If it works for you, fine, but don't force your idea on me"). But it only takes common sense to know that truth doesn't waiver, no matter how much we deny or mock it. Hot water still burns, ice is still cold, the wrong road won't get you home, and Jesus still is the way, the truth and the life, and the Bible is still God's unchanging Word.

Just this week I received news about a friend who has decided to give palm reading a try. The upsetting thing about it is that this person is a Christian (though not rooted and grounded in Christ). The scary thing about it is the deception this person has bought into. The person has declared that it is "Christian palm reading", citing how often the Bible talks about the hands. 

Is relativism slipping into the Church? If we're not careful and grounded in the Word, we can be deceived. The Scriptures warn about false prophets and teachers coming in the last days claiming to represent Jesus.

We must also remember that throughout history crimes have taken place by people who have used the Bible in the wrong way.

Don't be deceived, Jesus will always be the only way to the Father. He is and will always be the only answer.

Israel, the Church, & the Kingdom...where do we fit?

At its inception, the Church was Jewish and remained so until the gospel began to spread. Antioch, where the first gentile congregation began, was the base from which the gospel spread to all the world.

Romans, chapters 9-11, deals with the question of the Jews in God's providence and purpose. These three chapters are an elaboration of the theology of God's dealings with the Jews. Three things about the Jewish people are important to our understanding:

1. They are the "first fruit", meaning the first people of God, through Abraham, to understand covenant with God.
2. They then relayed the riches of that truth to the world through the Law, which God had given to Moses.
3. Through them the Messiah came into the world ( John 4:22 ).

Romans 11:17 refers to the Jews as "natural branches", and the Gentiles as the "wild branches". We are reminded, in verse 20, the the "natural branches" were broken off because of their unbelief (in chapter 9, verse 2, Paul expresses sorrow). In verses 25-26 we learn that Israel's rejection is temporary. Just as the "fullness of the Gentiles" will come, so will it come for the Jewish people.

God has planned that in the future there will be a massive in-gathering of Jews, as they turn to Christ and are reconciled to God ("grafted back in").

Where do we fit in all of this?

We are living in a sobering moment in history, that calls us, as believers in Jesus, to stand with Israel. We could be living in the last days, and we cannot afford to be passive in the face of prophecies that are being fulfilled. As the Church, we are called to PRAY and to MINISTER according to the words of Jesus, (and I paraphrase ): "It is not our task to speculate when the end will come, but it is our responsibility to do kingdom business till He comes" (Luke 19:13).

Standing with Israel means moving in prayer and outreach on behalf of the lost sheep of Israel.

Let's pray for a last day's outpouring of the Holy Spirit over the Land of Israel and her people.

That's our role.