The Suffering Church

This last Sunday in church, as we focussed on I Peter 4:12-19 we talked about those who are suffering for following Jesus Christ in other parts of the world. We also spent some wonderful time praying together. Here are the prayer directives from Sunday as a reminder as well as a link to some more resources from the International Mission Board. If anyone would like to receive the regular prayer letter from our guest Sunday, just let me know I will give him your email address. Here are a few ideas of how you can pray: Pray for the small number of believers in our focus country and the work going on there. Pray that family pressure and government intimidation and threats will not stop believers from being bold in their witness. Pray for our workers and their families that are laboring and living in these difficult countries. This last year the IMB planted churches among 13 people groups previously with no evangelical church of any kind. For the first time in history a church representing Jesus Christ exists among 13 unreached peoples who have never before heard the Gospel. The IMB has over 5000 people on the field taking the gospel to the world. Pray for those who have moved to others countries to share the gospel. More than 6000 people groups containing 3.8 billion people remain unreached. Pray that individual from those people groups would come to Christ and become faithful witnesses to others within their own people group. Pray that the church that suffers would rejoice in their suffering. What a great time we shared together on Sunday. Praise the Lord for His faithful work all over the world. Check out this link for resources.

Dumb - bell

You should have seen it because I am certain it would have made you laugh out loud. I was at the end of my workout using fairly light weight doing a burn out set on the bench. I pushed one too many reps. I froze near the top and then my arms gave out. The weights came crashing down on my chest. I was stuck and had to be rescued by a fellow lifter who was waved down by a guy on the treadmill, yelling, "Save the guy on the bench." It was real funny, since I am alive to laugh about it. Felt pretty dumb actually. Wish you could have been there to laugh with me. There really is some value in physical discipline but it is so clear to me that spiritual discipline has much more value and is much safer.

The Promise

One more post about hospitality. Mark 10:28-30 says, Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” ²⁹ Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, ³⁰ who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. ESV. The part of this promise for “this time” seems to depend upon the daily hospitality and sacrifice of other believers. That would be a great reason to check our attitude of hospitality. Have a great weekend and look for a way to show hospitality.

Grumbling

Jesus had problems with grumbling and complaining. He really did. Whenever he demonstrated hospitality to sinners, the Pharisees would complain and grumble about what he was doing. They didn’t like it. They didn’t agree with what he was doing and who he was doing it for. Luke 15:2 says, “…the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’” ESV. Pharisees grumbled at Jesus because he showed hospitality to the “wrong” people. We must make sure that we don’t become grumblers against those who are trying to show hospitality to people or in ways that we might think is not best. When someone in church extends hospitality to another, self-sacrificing hospitality, we must not become observational grumblers. We really need to join them in showing hospitality, love and kindness towards others who have not provided any reason to be shown love and kindness.

Hospitality

I Peter 4:9 says, Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. ESV. Hospitality is often thought of to be warmth and generosity to friends that you invite to your home. That is being hospitable, but that is not the complete meaning of this word in I Peter. This word means to open your home and life to others that would not normally be invited to your home, to be warm and generous to people you do not know well, people you would even consider strangers. Biblical hospitality is love and kindness towards others who have not provided any reason to be loved or shown kindness. Hospitality is a tangible expression of Christian love towards those who have not earned our love. We are commanded to show hospitality as a body of believers without grumbling. Sunday I talked about hospitality and not grumbling or complaining when we have an opportunity to show hospitality. In addition to what I shared Sunday, there is another type of grumbling that we must avoid in relation to showing hospitality. More on that tomorrow.

Growth

"Why did that happen?" Have you ever asked that question? I am certain we all have. Sometimes that "why" question is more of a distraction than a benefit. More often than not, it is just better to ask another question, "How can I grow through this circumstance?" Even if we did know why, we will still have to decide what we will do with what happened. What we do in response to what happens is much more important than why something happened. When we respond correctly, perhaps then we will be able to see, through hindsight, at least some of the reason why. If we respond incorrectly, rest assured that the "why" is deemed irrelevant.