Listen to the Vision

I have been going through the Book of Ezra, and today was meditating on the fifth and sixth chapters. In these chapters the Jewish nation re-begins rebuilding the Temple and is blessed by king Darius. ow what is interesting is that the king before, Artaxerxes demanded that the Jews stop building. They did, but re-began under Darius. He doesn't only bless their building, but gives money and goods to aid them in their mission. All this is cool, but what took out of these readings can be found in four verses, Ezra 5:1, 2, 11, and 6:14.

What are these verses? You will need to look them up yourself because I am to lazy to cut an paste them for you, but you may be able to infer them from the rest of this blog.

Why did Israel begin to build again, after being forced to stop. Because the Prophets had a vision. God told them to re-start. Once the vision was given to Haggia and Zechariah, they communicated it to Israel, who promptly began building. And what were the prophets doing while the building was going on? Were they lifting with the rest of the men? No, they were supporting them. I will say it again; They were Supporting them.

What does this mean? I think it means that they continually re gave the vision. They were constantly lifting up the people, encouraging them, and reminding them what they were working for. They were always recasting the vision- the vision they received from God.

Next in our story of these prophets they are asked by whose authority they build, and their first appeal is that they are servants of God. They were obedient to the vision. they could have stopped until they were given the okay, or not build out of fear, or asked before they built, but they didn't. They began building and casting the vision from God, and then relied on their obedience to Him to save them. They could have appealed first to the earthly authority they had been given generations ago (and eventually they do, but only as a supporting argument). The first reason given as to why the build is that they are servants of the God of heaven and earth.

Finally we find that later the prophets are continuing to prophesy, and the people are prospering because of it. The people are not prospering because of all the wealth and protection offered by Darius. They are not prospering because of their hard work. They are prospering because of the prophets prophesying.

What does this mean. I believe it means that they prophets were listening to God, he was giving them more of the vision, they the took this to the people, who obeyed out of reverence for God, and they were blessed because of it.

Notice something though. They were not prospering because of the old vision, but because the Prophets continued to prophesy. This is not to say that the vision had changed, from God's perspective, but rather more was being revealed. Now when the next step was revealed, the people could have followed to the next level, or stayed where they were out of fear of the unknown. They chose to go where the vision would take them, and they were blessed because of it. They were allowed to prosper. They would not have prospered had they stayed where they were, because God was already at the next level. He had moved on, and they need to stay with Him.

I have a few more observations about his in general. Now, I am stealing this teaching, but the job of a prophet was threefold in the Bible. They received the vision from God. The communicated the vision. And then they protected the vision I think all that can be seen in these chapters.

First, the prophets were told to restart building the Temple. Next the people built it. And finally when there was opposition to the building, they continued to build, appealing to the authority of God.

Now it is really easy to see how they got the vision. But we are never told that the communicated the vision, but they must have for work to start on the building. Not only that, but they must have communicated it very well, since they themselves were not building with the rest, but only encouraging the workers. People were not mad that the prophets were not building because they had sold God's vision so well. The people saw their role in the vision, as well as Haddia and Zechariah's role. Not only that, but the prophets continued to communicate the vision to people., and the people prospered because of this.

No where do we see the prophets defending the vision to Israel. Now there may have been opposition at first to begin building. Remember the last king told Israel that he would destroy them if they rebuilt the Temple. Surly some people remembered this. But the Prophets do not defend the vision to these people- they communicate it. Because they communicated the vision effectively, the people hopped on board. Where they still afraid for their lives? I am sure some of them were, but they caught the vision, and nothing could stop that.

Now the prophets did defend the vision. Don't get me wrong. But they defend it to OUTSIDERS.

So that is my goal now. Communicate the vision. Of what you ask, of Concert Ministry and Sunday Morning Ministry at Mercyhouse- Amherst. I need to learn how to communicate it to the insiders, to the church, and not defend it. Seeing as I am defensive by nature, God needs to work a few miracles in me for this to happen, but I think he has already begun. I hope to communicate the vision to you next time. Until then, may the peace of God rest upon you.

Reaching, Blogging, Loving

How do we reach the lost for Christ? That is the last question I left us with, I believe. I know it has been a while since my last post, but I have been unsure and uninspired. That is I was until recently.

How do we reach the lost for Christ? Relationships. Just relationships. Its that simple. Today I was listening to NPR, and the talk was about Hyper connections. These are things like Myspace, text messages, Facebook, etc. They are electronic, on the Internet (mostly), and impersonal by nature. Now NPR had both praise and condemnation for such technology. Some of the people who praised the technology said it allowed them to go deeper into friends lives and to stay connected to people they were friends with. The critiques said that this allowed you to only focus on your own world view and didn't make you make new friends.

Now we can argue the pros and cons of this technology until we are blue in the face. The truth is that both sides are right and wrong. It simultaneously allows you to connect deeper with people and isolate yourself, at least in my opinion. It can be used to escape and to withdraw, as well as network and explore. This is not what I want to focus on though.

What I want to focus on is why these technologies have taken off, and why there are so many people upset about them. Everyone hates cell phones, but we all use them- Why? Well the reason is relationships.

You use cell phones to connect with your friends, and the people who dislike them usually feel that the cell phone has killed the art of conversation. People don't just talk to each other any more. We can't, we're to busy talking on our cell phone. Or text messaging. Or blogging.

But the relationship is the common bond. People want, need to feel connected. They want relationship. Remember, the first thing that God saw that wasn't good in all of creation is that man was alone. Now man had the garden, the animals. even communion with God, but it was not enough? Why? Because God created us to need relationship with other humans.

So in a world where we are losing our identities, are cu of geographically from family and friends, and work in front of a computer for 80 hours a week, it is no surprise that somehow we would try to make relationships fit in our new technology.

The reason that Myspace and the such have exploded is simply because the church is not doing its job. just like pornography, we are drawn to the easy cheap imitation. We are content for a while looking at pictures of a woman, and we will also be content for a while reading about a persons life. We will tell ourselves that we are in relationship, that we are connected. But it is a poor imitation for the real thing. Can a blog hug you, and email hear the joy in your tone, a text message cry about your pain.

We, as the church need to offer the real thing. We need to embrace people. We need to fill their needs ( and at the same time fill our own). We need to be in relationship with the lost.

It is too hard, you may say. I am not a councilor. I can't relate with their problems. I don't have the time. They don't want any more friends.

Well it is all BS. We are called to be with them, whether we want to or not, if we can solve their problem or not, if we can relate to them or not. Find a way to relate. They don't want more friends, you're right. They want true relationship though. They do want someone in their life who is going to "expect the best of them, and wade through the worst". They DO want fellowship.

SO this is my solution then. Love these people. It is that simple. Relate with these people. Laugh and cry with these people. Meet them where they are, and invite them to where Jesus has brought me.

I will have more to say about this next time, I am going to meet some people.

In Him

Sorry It Takes Me So Long

Sorry it takes me so long to post a blog, but to be honest it is because I am doing more important things. The weeks I don't post are the weeks that I feel God is using me the most, so don't be discouraged, but rather encouraged when there is nothing new to read.

Anyway, I am now officially a missionary with the Southern Baptists. How this changes things, I don't really know, but I am getting health insurance from them now, so wooo. But this does change things a little. I am know expected to evangelize- which is awesome. Up until now I have felt that evangelism was to be done on my free time, and not when the church is paying me. Now this was a fallacious thought, and my pastor told me that I have the freedom to be an evangelist, but knowing and feeling are two different things. Now I am paid to be an evangelist. What does this mean though.

Well I know what it means to the Baptists. It means getting people baptised. And to some extent that is the gist of it. It is a measure of how well one is evangelising. But there is so much more. How does one evangelize?

I know I have discussed this a few times already, but it is of such importance that I fell we can talk about it again. How does one evangelize?

Is it simply handing out tracks?
Holding up signs that predict peoples doom?
Do I need to think of slick programs to sucker people in?

See I feel there is a value in programs, but they are not all. Unfortunately I have become sucked into the church. What do I mean by that? Well I used to have a lot of non-christian friends, now I have very few. The ones I had have become Christians, or moved away as life called them other places. I have lost my place on the front lines. I think this is where the evangelism happens.

I also used to be in the world because of my job. I was an undercover christian in the Mullins Center, now I work for a church. I need to be on the front lines undercover though. How do I get back there? And once there, how do I reach these people for Jesus?

I am going to end here and update this in a few days when I have the answers I need. I encourage you to think about how to do this wherever you are as well. Jesus wants to reach the people you are daily in contact with as well as the people I want to be in contact with.

Just an aside, I want to reach the dirty, but somehow stay clean myself. This is what I will be meditating in the next few days.