Gathered Together: God's Hand Moves

During the last few months I’ve been going to church, to a church that never closed. I go because I need to be in the house of God and worship. I go because there I experience the presence of Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus. I go because God commands us to come together for prayer and worship. (Hebrews 10:25)

The Church body meeting together, no matter where it happens is important.

The Word says that where two or more are gathered, Lord Jesus is present. (Matthew 18:20)

Together we have a spiritual unity, that is spiritual power and it moves God’s hand. (1Corinthians 5:4)

In Acts 12:1-19, Peter has been placed in prison by King Herod, who was rounding up church members and mistreating them. He did this to please the enemies of the church. At that time the church’s adversaries were the Jews, unbelievers in Jesus.

Four squads of soldiers guarded Peter.

But prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God. The church knew the ways of Herod. He had just put James the brother of John to death with a sword. They did not wish to lose a second apostle.

God’s hand moved.

That night Peter slept between two soldiers, bound with two chains and two more guarded the front door of the prison. An angel of the Lord appeared and light shone in the cell. He struck Peter’s side to wake him. He gave directions to Peter and led the way out. Peter thought it was all a vision. They passed the guards, but no one saw them. The iron gate to the prison opened by itself, and they exited onto a street. Then the angel left.

Peter continued to the house of Mary, the mother of Mark, where many were gathered and praying.

Herod conducted a search for Peter, but never located him. The guards Peter left behind were ordered to be led away to execution. Herod’s way once again.

Beneath Saint Gabriel’s Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel, are caves where the the public does not enter. My father-in-law, a local, knew about them and took me to the backyard area of the church. There priests were working outside. One took us on a subterranean tour. Below, I saw a small carved altar in the rock, behind the cobwebs, where the first believers met during times of persecution.

This is a way of the true church—never forsaking the gathering together.

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THE OUTER DARKNESS: FOR JEWS WHO WILL NOT BELIEVE

(C) 2020 Kelly Jadon

Changing the Church

The summer of my junior year in college, I worked as a counselor at a Free Methodist Church camp in Ontario, Canada. One blustery night a ferocious storm blew through, fronted by lightning and thunder. It felled a large ancient oak. It landed just between the cabins on soft green grass. My turn on the maintenance crew that week required I help cut it up. A chainsaw was placed in my hands and I cut off great limbs. The trunk was left to professionals, who had better stronger equipment and more expertise.

Sometimes the old things need to be cut down to make way for new and better things.

Lord Jesus said, “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results.  No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.” (Mark 2:21-22)

What was The Lord referring to? He’s speaking about the old religious systems that are so stuck in tradition that they’re inflexible and cannot contain a new work of God. And so, God goes outside these systems.

One good example would be Operation Christmas Child, run by Franklin Graham’s organization, Samaritan’s Purse. With a shoebox gift of love, they reach thousands of children for Christ who otherwise would have remained in darkness. It is one of the greatest moves of God in our time as each day thousands of children come to know Lord Jesus.

Another local example would be Roxanne Brown’s Carebag, Inc. which reaches hundreds of the homeless, giving them necessary living items, showers, and the love of God.

The list is endless. God is moving in His Church, taking us to knew and better ways of reaching the unreached, the unchurched, and those chained in darkness.

During these chaotic last six months, many churches have closed their doors. Some have reopened, some have not. Some never will reopen. (Michelle Boorstein/Washington Post) Not every church practices Godliness. God is cutting off limbs, preparing for new things.

When The Lord led His people, the Hebrews, out of bondage in Egypt, He began bringing about new things, teaching them to be a holy nation, set aside to Him. Old ideas of life in Egypt had to be thrown out—idol worship, being content as slaves, etc..They were stuck in their old mentality.

God instituted holiness through change, culminating in worship of Himself and the creation of the Tabernacle. (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)

The Lord does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. (Hebrews 13:8) He brings change. He wants an end to sin and old ways of thinking.

This morning I went out to cut down an old dead orange tree in my backyard. I used a smaller battery operated chainsaw. I worked at it, a little at a time, sweat dripping into my eyes, thorns puncturing my calf, but I could not cut it down. I knew I needed something bigger and more powerful. God knows my thoughts. Then my new neighbor came to the rescue with his bigger better chainsaw. In a minute, the tree was cut down to the ground, leaving only a stump. The wood was hard, that’s why my smaller saw couldn’t do the work.

Believers, we cannot save ourselves. No president can save us, no army, no Homeland Security. What will save us is obedience to God. We must humble ourselves to His desire to change us, His Church and this nation. He begins first with His own people, “to the Jew first and then the Gentile.” (Romans 1:16) Like the tree, the old ways are hard and difficult to alter. Like the neighbor man from next door, we need God’s power to do the work. We pray. He does the work.

Hard times cause the Church to turn to God and away from our own strength.

Let us pray for holiness and Godliness first in ourselves, our church and then our country, the United States. And let us pray that His will be done, His purpose be accomplished.

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LAWLESS TIMES

(C) 2020 Kelly Jadon