Home thoughts from abroad.wordpress.com

Then you will know that I am in Israel,
    that I am the Lord your God,
    and that there is no other;
never again will my people be shamed.

Just one further thought on God being among His people:

Doctor J. Sidlow Baxter, in volume 6 of ‘Explore the Book’ (p.45), refers to Acts 5;12-16, and says that the early church had been given the power both to attract and repel:

The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. ¹³ No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. ¹⁵ As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. ¹⁶ Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.

He writes:

‘That holy band had the power to create fear…Most people today think that the only power needed by the churches is the power to attract. They are wrong. The local church needs also the power to repel – to repel the hypocritical fraterniser, the worldly compromiser, the intriguing insinuator. Oh, the curse of the ”mixed multitude” in our churches, whose appetite is for the leeks and garlics of Egypt! In that first church the Spirit-charged atmosphere was was life to holiness and death to pretence.’

²⁸ “And afterward,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your old men will dream dreams,
    your young men will see visions.
²⁹ Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
³⁰ I will show wonders in the heavens
    and on the earth,
    blood and fire and billows of smoke.
³¹ The sun will be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood
    before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
³² And everyone who calls
    on the name of the Lord will be saved;
for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
    there will be deliverance,
    as the Lord has said,
even among the survivors
    whom the Lord calls.

This great prophecy was fulfilled, at least in part, on the Day of Pentecost.

It is encouraging to see that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit will affect all types, and all ages. Everyone can have meaningful work to do, ministries to fulfil, under the inspiration of God’s Spirit. The very notion of outpouring points to plenty, generosity and abundance. God gives over and above the level of our asking and expectation.

The Acts 2 version of this story was read out in our church recently, and we were encouraged to meditate on it, and think, ‘Is there a word or phrase that jumps out and catches my attention?’ For me, it was primarily this line:

”And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved…’

Perhaps there is someone on your mind today for whom you want to pray this very thing – that they will call on Jesus’ Name for salvation?

Surely he has done great things!
²¹     Do not be afraid, land of Judah;
    be glad and rejoice.
Surely the Lord has done great things!
²²     Do not be afraid, you wild animals,
    for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green.
The trees are bearing their fruit;
    the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.
²³ Be glad, people of Zion,
    rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given you the autumn rains
    because he is faithful.
He sends you abundant showers,
    both autumn and spring rains, as before.
²⁴ The threshing floors will be filled with grain;
    the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

²⁵ “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
    the great locust and the young locust,
    the other locusts and the locust swarm—
my great army that I sent among you.
²⁶ You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
    and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has worked wonders for you;
never again will my people be shamed.
²⁷ Then you will know that I am in Israel,
    that I am the Lord your God,
    and that there is no other;
never again will my people be shamed.

“Nothing in or of this world measures up to the simple pleasure of experiencing the presence of God.” ~ Aiden Wilson Tozer.

A chapter that begins with threat – a dark cloud hanging over the nation – culminates in glorious sunshine. The hinge point is somewhere in the middle where God’s people genuinely get right with Him and seek His face. Then He generously and abundantly pours out His blessing. Of all the wonderful blessings catalogued, surely the greatest is in verse 27: The knowledge of the Lord’s presence in the midst of His people.

The apostle Paul writes about a scenario where God’s Spirit is so powerfully at work in the church, and unbelievers come in and ‘…fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!” ‘ (1 Cor.14:25).

“If the presence of God is in the church, the church will draw the world in. If the presence of God is not in the church, the world will draw the church out.” ~ Charles Grandison Finney

Then the Lord was jealous for his land
    and took pity on his people.

¹⁹ The Lord replied to them:

“I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil,
    enough to satisfy you fully;
never again will I make you
    an object of scorn to the nations.

²⁰ “I will drive the northern horde far from you,
    pushing it into a parched and barren land;
its eastern ranks will drown in the Dead Sea
    and its western ranks in the Mediterranean Sea.
And its stench will go up;
    its smell will rise.”

“The greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, buy unoffered prayer.” ~ F.B. Meyer

“My life is one long daily, hourly record of answered prayer. For physical health, for mental overstrain, for guidance given marvelously, for errors and dangers averted, for enmity to the Gospel subdued, for food provided at the exact hour needed, for everything that goes to make up life and my poor service. I can testify, with a full and often wonder-stricken awe, that I believe God answers prayer.” ~ Mary Slessor

See what happens when God’s people return to Him with all their hearts; when they seek Him whole-heartedly: He answers their prayers with words and deeds, with provision and deliverance. He speaks and He acts (Do we catch resonances of what happened at the Red Sea in verse 20? I think so).

“Four things let us ever keep in mind: God hears prayer, God heeds prayer, God answers prayer, and God delivers by prayer.” ~ Edward McKendree Bounds.

It seems to me that this is God’s ‘normal’ work: when we walk humbly and repentantly before Him, striving to live with clean consciences, and seeking to keep ‘short accounts’. There will always be mysteries we cannot explain, but God’s usual way with His own is to bless us with answered prayer.

Then the Lord was jealous for his land
    and took pity on his people.

¹⁹ The Lord replied to them:

I have one question today: When exactly was then?

Looking back through this chapter, we remember that it opens with a vision of an invading army. In the light of the threat, the people are called to genuine repentance (sincere, not superficial). They are to gather in a nationwide prayer meeting and call on the Lord together.

Jesus taught: ”Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matt.5:3). Generally this is taken to mean those who mourn for their sins (i.e. the genuinely repentant).

Following such mourning in chapter 2 there comes this ”Then”: there is a great turnaround. God intervenes. He acts and He speaks.

So we are once more exposed to the power of prayer.

In his excellent book, ‘Praying like monks, living like fools’. Tyler Staton argues that if Christians took the words of Jesus about prayer seriously, pastors would have a hard time getting their people to do anything but pray! But manifestly this is not the case.