The King's Invitation

GO HOME AND PUBLISH

All Christians are supposed to be publishers.  If you’re not publishing, you need to check yourself.

The Gospels tell the following story of a leper who came to Jesus for healing; “Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, ‘If You are willing, You can make me clean.’  Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing, be cleansed.’  As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.  And he strictly warned him and sent him away at once, and said to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone, but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’  However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the matter, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places, and they came to Him from every direction.” (Mark 1 : 40-45 NKJ).

Now, the man in the story did not do as Jesus had instructed.  But can you really blame him?  He was suffering from an incurable, fatal disease, and Jesus, with an outstretched arm and a few words had cured him, and restored his life.  Excitedly he went out and began to “proclaim it freely, and to spread the matter”; the King James version says he began “to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter.”  When I think of “blazing abroad the matter,” I imagine someone starting small fires as they go along, and the fires begin to grow and spread, coming together, until it sweeps unstoppable over the landscape.

The result was Jesus had to leave the city because of the huge crowds of people coming to Him.  He went out into the deserted places, but the people still came from every direction.  Why?  Because of the power of one man’s testimony.  Jesus, of course, knew what would happen.  He once told His disciples that if He be lifted up, He would draw all men unto Him.  This former leper was lifting up Jesus, and people were flocking to Him.

Later, we read that Jesus and His disciples crossed over the sea to the country of the Gadarenes.  There was a man there Jesus had come to minister to.  “And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains.  And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces, neither could anyone tame him.  And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.” (Mark 5 :2-5 NKJ).

Jesus had mercy on the man, and cast out the demons which possessed him.  Later, when Jesus started to leave, the former possessed man begged Jesus to let him go with Him.  “However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, ‘Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you..’  And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him, and all marveled.” (Mark 5 : 19-20 NKJ).  The King James version says, “he departed, and began to publish.”

This man was volunteering to go work with Jesus, but Jesus said no.  He sent him home instead!  Jesus gave this man one of the toughest mission fields – his family and friends.  The people who knew him “B.C.”  The people who knew what he used to be.  Those are the hardest to convince there’s been a change in your life – but once they really see, they cannot help but consider the source.

Why are we not reacting with gratitude like these men?  Like the possessed man, we too have been released from bondage.  Like the leper, we too were dying of an incurable disease called sin, and Jesus stretched out his arms on a cross and cured us, restoring our life with His blood.  Why are we not publishing?  Why are we not blazing it abroad?  Some will reject the message, yes, but some will marvel – and be drawn to Jesus.

Take the church to someone this week – you’ll both benefit.

Originally presented October 24, 2009, at the Morgantown Church of God Men’s Fellowship Breakfast.

© 2009, 2010 Randall Buchanan

King’s Invitation Ministries

P.O. Box 501

Foxworth MS 39483

For many years, I sat in church services on Sunday mornings and listened to the songs and the sermons with one eye on my watch.

After all, it was late Sunday morning and we would be eating lunch shortly after the service ended.  We needed to be out of there at a decent time to get the food on the table at home, or to beat the other church folks to the good tables at the local Mexican restaurant.  Whatever was being said, whatever was happening, it needed to be wrapped up by 12.  The church I was attending actually had a clock over the sanctuary entrance, facing the altar, so the pastor could see if he was running over "his" time.  That's just the way it was, until one Sunday in the fall of 2001 - when God took my wristwatch.

The sermon had been wonderfully delivered, and within the alloted time.  I looked at my watch.  Almost 12.  But my attention quickly turned to a young man who had responded to the altar call, and was on his knees fervently seeking God.  Next to him, an older couple stood together, holding hands and praying silently, but intently, for some unspoken issue.   The regular prayer warriors of the congregation were around them, praying.  But at 12:00, many in the congregation turned and headed for the door.  Lunch was calling.  Time was up.  And God spoke to my heart saying, "Is this all I get?"

I was crushed.  He was speaking to me and of me.  I had been limiting Him by limiting the time I was willing to spend in His house.   How long will we give a sinner to repent?  How long will we give a broken heart to be mended?  How long will we give a lonely soul to touch God?  How long are we willing to stay and pray for those in need?   How long will we wait for God to speak to us?  Maybe God wanted to do something for us at 12:01, but we were too busy pushing past the Widow Johnson, who was talking to the pastor's wife about something she'd bought at a yard sale.

Sure, we can worship and pray after the service is over, at home, on the job - and we should!  But we come together, as scripture commands us, to share in this corporate worship and to edify the body of Christ.  “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10: 24-25).  How do we put a time limit on that?  Why are my desires greater than the needs of these hurting brothers and sisters of mine?  I repented, took my watch off, slid it into my pocket and began to pray.  Later, I even took the clock down from over the sanctuary entrance, and placed it in the utility room.  (Someone put it back up before the next service!)

As I stopped focusing on the time, and sought only the presence and revelation of God, I began to enjoy my time with Him more and more.  Before that day, I had not realized how I had become a slave to time.  It was so liberating to be without a watch, in fact, I stopped wearing one at home, at work, at play!  Still don't. Maybe one day I’ll get the nerve up to toss my cell phone, too!

Take the church to someone this week – you’ll both benefit. 

© 2008, 2010 Randall Buchanan

King’s Invitation Ministries

http://ministry-webs.com/ministry/kingsinvitation/index.html

We read a lot in the Bible about “hope”.  We are encouraged to have “hope in Christ”, He is the “hope of righteousness”, the “hope of the gospel”, the “hope of glory”.  But what does it really mean to have hope?

First let’s determine what it doesn’t mean.  It doesn’t mean “to wish”.  You may hope to get a pony for your birthday, but that’s not the kind of hope we’re talking about is it?

The word translated as “hope” is elpis. It means “a confident expectation; to anticipate with pleasure”.  If I tell my kids I love them and ask them for a hug, I have hope that they will run to me, and throw their arms around me and squeeze me tightly. I have that hope based on a three things; first, on the relationship that we have; second, on how they have acted in the past; and third, on the belief that they love me.

To have real hope, we have to tap into those three things with God.

1)      Our relationship with God (build that relationship - spend time with Him, talk with Him, please Him, do things which bring honor and glory to Him, obey Him)

2)      How God has acted in the past (read the Bible to how God has acted in the past, especially the Psalms; I once saw a poster which showed two men talking and one said, “ever think your life’s in a rut?”, and the other replied “a rut?  No, a rut goes somewhere. My life’s in a pothole!”;  Have you ever felt like that?  David did.  He said, “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry.  He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the mirey clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps” (Psalm 40:1-2) – so if you find yourself in a pit (or pothole!) cry out to God!)

3)      Belief that God loves us; (Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’ (John 3:16))

     Maybe you don’t feel that you have this “real” kind of hope.  So where do you get it?  From the Holy Spirit.  Romans 15:13 reads, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

     God cannot lie. His promises are “exceedingly great and precious” (2 Peter 1:4).  We can have hope in what the Bible says.  REAL hope.  Confident expectation.

     So, now that we’ve determined what real hope is, how to recognize it, and where we get it, let’s look at 10 things real hope can give you;

 1) HOPE brings FAITH : Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Romans 10:17, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” 

2) HOPE brings SECURITY : Psalm 16:9 “Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest” (dwell securely) “in hope.” Hebrews 6:19 says that our hope in Jesus is “as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.”

3) HOPE brings BOLDNESS : 2 Corinthians 3:12 “Therefore, since we have such hope, ÿwe use great boldness of speech…” Proverbs 28:1, “…the righteous are bold as a lion.”

4) HOPE brings STRENGTH : Psalm 31:24 “Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the Lord.” Tired? Defeated? You don’t have to be!

5) HOPE brings PATIENCE : 1 Thessalonians 1:3 “remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father.”

6) HOPE brings MERCY: Psalm 33:22 “Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, Just as we hope in You.”  Jesus said we are to imitate God in being merciful. Luke 6.36, “Therefore be merciful, just as your father also is merciful.”

7) HOPE brings HAPPINESS : Psalm 146:5 ”Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.” 

8) HOPE brings JOY : Hebrews 3:6 “but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end” (joy is the original state of man, and the eternal state of man, to which we will not fully return until we join our savior in Heaven)

9) HOPE brings BLESSINGS : Jeremiah 17:7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord.”  Why would God give blessings to those who hope in Him?  Jesus said (Luke 11:11) “If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

10) HOPE brings ATTENTION : Psalm 33:18 “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy.”

     Would you like to have God’s attention?  Do you have real hope in your life?  You can.  Trust Him completely.  Believe without question that what He has said CAN, WILL, and MUST come to pass!

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

     Do you know what happens to a refrigerator full of food that’s been without power for a couple of weeks?

     Little did we know when we evacuated our home during Hurricane Katrina, we would be gone for weeks.    I still cringe when I remember opening that refrigerator door once we finally got back home.  That device, which was once such a blessing, had now become a curse; what was once filled with sustenance now held only with filth and decay.  Nasty indeed, but I learned some things from the experience.

     1) Once the source of power was removed, the contents spoiled quickly.  The same applies to us; if we allow ourselves to become disconnected from God, what follows is spiritual confusion, malnourishment, and decay.  Paul said, “Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.”  (Colossians 2:18-19).  Pray.  Read the Word of God.  Seek Him.  Stay connected to the source, or you wind up eating only spiritual junk food.

     2) The refrigerator looked the same from the outside, but when the contents spoiled, the outward appearance no longer mattered.  Don’t be fooled by the outward appearance of a person (even yourself!), be it good or bad – it is what’s in the heart that really matters.  Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.  Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23:25-28).  Don’t judge a book by its cover – read a few pages for yourself!  Oh, and check yourself while you’re at it.  Have you been “playing church”?  You may fool your family and friends, but you can’t fool God.

     3) Had I known what was coming, I could have removed the food ahead of time, and avoided a lot of heartache.   I could have been prepared.  But God has warned us to be prepared concerning the greatest single event in our future, and He’s instructed us on how we should be living in preparation for it.  Peter said, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.  Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God…” (2 Peter 3:10-12).  Jesus will return soon.  Are your family and friends prepared?  Are you?  Christians who do not “practice what they preach” become the very excuses non-believers use to justify their own lives.  Don’t let yourself become a stumbling block.

     4) The good news is, I was eventually able to clean that refrigerator and use it again for the purpose it was created for.  I couldn’t help but see myself in that picture!  Jesus found me all filled with filth, cleaned me from the inside-out, and made me useful for His purpose.  He suffered and died to make me worthy.  Why?  Because God loves me, and you.  Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17).  If you’ve never experienced the saving grace of Jesus, I urge you to seek Him today.  Don’t wait.  It doesn’t matter how you appear on the outside, He can do a great work inside you if you let Him in.  John Newton, writer of the wonderful hymn, “Amazing Grace”, once said in his old age that he was only sure of two things; that he was a great sinner, and that Christ was a great savior!

     And if you have experienced the incredible mercy and grace of God, and are counted among the redeemed, you should care enough about the people around you to share this Good News with them.  You don’t have to be a pastor or a preacher, just a born-again believer.  If you find yourself having trouble doing that, I suggest you pray, as Paul did, “that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel… as I ought to speak.” (Ephesians 6:19-20).  And then just do it – trusting God for the outcome.  Share the Good News that’s inside of you with those who don’t have any.  Show them that you’re plugged-in, and that they can be too!

Take the church to someone this week – you’ll both benefit!

© 2009 Randall Paul Buchanan

King’s Invitation Ministries

P.O. Box 501

Foxworth MS 39483

http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/kings_invitation_ministry/

Some like to say they want more of God.  I used to say it myself.  But I’m not buying it anymore.

The opening verses of the 55th chapter of Isaiah read, "Ho!, Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat.  Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.  Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.” (Isaiah 55:1-2)  At Jacob’s well in Samaria, which can still be seen today (yes, the Bible is REAL), Jesus told a Samarian woman, “Whosoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.  But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” The water of Christ will satisfy, but we have to know we are thirsty or we’ll never come to drink.

And this water has no price.  I didn’t say it has no value.  In fact, it’s value is such that we could never afford it.  “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Romans 6:23).  But what do we do?  We “spend money for what is not bread” and we use our resources “for what does not satisfy”.  We fill our lives and our spirits with spiritual junk food.  When you’re full of junk food, you’re not thirsty or hungry.  But it wears off quickly and fails to satisfy, so you have to rush back out and get more.  So what does satisfy?  Jesus told us.  He said, “I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35).  I’d call that satisfied.

So we should listen carefully to God.  He will speak to us if we read His Word.  He will speak to us if we pray (real prayer is a two-way conversation).  And if we eat what is good , the Bread of Life, Jesus, our soul will “delight itself in abundance”.  Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10).

We ALREADY HAVE as much of God as we REALLY want.  We can’t and don’t have to earn it, all we have to do is ask.  God isn't holding out on us, but you can’t fill something that is ALREADY FULL!  If we really wanted more, we would MAKE ROOM for Him.  Get the spiritual junk food out of our lives!  Stop exposing our eyes and ears to worldly things in place of Godly things. Paul said in his letter to the Philippians, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy - meditate on these things.” (Philippians 4:8).  Are you filling your mind and heart with things that don’t line up with what Paul wrote?  That’s junk food for your spirit, and it will never satisfy.

Take the church to someone this week – you’ll both benefit. 

© 2008 Randall Buchanan

King’s Invitation Ministries

http://ministry-webs.com/ministry/kingsinvitation/index.html

• Main
• Archives
• Albums
• Links
• Send us a story or an E-Mail
• Summary-Blog Directory
• Admin

• Go Home and Publish!
• God took my wristwatch
• The best gift I never knew I always wanted!
• we are out of time
• The Real Meaning of Hope
• Plugged-In or Unplugged?
• spiritual junk food
• Passion (for real men only)
• God put salt in my oats
• the salesman
• an uncertain sound
• are you wanted?
• people are like bottles of pop
• how to break a man
• a light in a dark place
• STOP going to Church!
• Is this all there is?
• a bad church experience
• don't fear the mountain
• Jeff Bates sings to sick children
• missing Daddy
• 3-year-old touches God
• the mighty oak of Thundergod
• the desires of my heart
• Why can't we be happy?

• General [0]
• Life and Living [26]
• MoBlog [0]

• RSS 0.90
• RSS 1.0
• RSS 2.0
• Atom