“…God never left us down here.”

Many people found themselves glued to their television sets over the past couple days as news organizations kept a close eye on the events taking place at the San Jose copper-gold mine in the Atacama Desert in Chile.  Through the lens of their cameras we witnessed the rescue of 33 Chilean miners as they ascended from the depths of the mine into the arms of family and friends in a beautiful reunion. 

In those reunions we witnessed what was expected as the miners were reunited with their families after 69 grueling days in the depths of the earth: the hugs, the kisses, and the first words spoken.  We also witnessed things that may not have been expected:  a spontaneous soccer cheer, for example.

There are so many things that we will remember from these events for the rest of our lives.  But in this blog I want to speak to something that was written that stirred something in my heart from the very moment that I heard it.

Among the 33 miners who were rescued from the mine was a nineteen-year-old miner by the name of Jimmy Sanchez.  Before he was even rescued, Jimmy Sanchez wrote a letter that was sent up from the mine in advance of his arrival to the Chilean surface. In the letter were penned these words: 

“There are actually 34 of us, because God has never left us down here."

 

The moment I heard these words, I was instantly reminded of another story that I’ve heard/read many, many times that displays the faithful presence of God in the midst of some of the greatest trials. 

The story that I’m referring to is found in the Old Testament Book of Daniel.  It is the story of three young men. Their names are Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (otherwise known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego).  These three young men were taken captive, along with so many of their people, by the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, when he besieged Jerusalem.

Following their capture they were taken to Babylon, where they were no longer their own people.  They were forced to submit to a king who required them to live in a way that was completely foreign to them.  But one day, the king began to ask too much.  In Daniel 3, we read that…

“King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, ninety feet high and nine feet wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon…Then the herald loudly proclaimed, ‘This is what you are commanded to do…As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.  Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”—Daniel 3:1-6

That was where the three young men drew the line.  All their lives they had been taught that their God, the One, True, Living God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has commanded them:  “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.”  The time came for this decree to be put into practice, and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah made the decision to stand for God rather than bow to an idol.  The result:  They were brought before the king, questioned, and thrown into the blazing furnace (which was now seven times hotter than usual).  Let’s pick it up there:

“Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious…and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace…The king’s command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers…and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace.  Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisors, ‘Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?’  They replied, ‘Certainly, O king.’  He said, ‘Look!  I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like the Son of God.’”—Daniel 3:19-25

Awesome!!  Whether it is 600 B.C. or 2010 A.D., God is the same yesterday, today and forever.  He has been, and always will be, faithful!  The psalmist said in Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.”  

We are living in difficult days, and it seems that there are people that I know and love who are facing tests spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally, and financially every day.  To those, I just want to share this with you:  Don’t Give Up!! God is still God, and He will always be there.  If He was there in the fiery furnace in Babylon, and in the mine in Chile, what makes you think He won’t be there for you?  The answer:  He will!

Our Greatest Need

There is a tremendous need in the church today.  As easy as it may seem to identify what that need is, oft-times we are looking in the wrong places to meet it.  We think that the need in the church is for more money, methods or people.  Those are needs, but they are not our greatest need.  The greatest need in the church today is the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

If we were to hear a description of the church that was birthed in Acts 2 (Acts 2:42-47), and compare that with many of the churches today, we would see that there are some similarities.  We would see that there are some differences.  But we would also see that something, rather Someone, is missing.

Dr. Ray H. Hughes, in his book Who Is the Holy Ghost?, put it this way:

“The church has been so leavened with the spirit of the world that few Christians know what it means to pray in the Holy Ghost and live a deep, full, all-conquering experience.  They simply exist spiritually.  They know nothing of life more abundant and the abounding, all-victorious participation in the life of a resurrected Christ…They are powerless in the presence of temptation because their low level of Christian living.  Many church members have begun to ask if there isn’t something more than this up-and-down, now-conquering and then-defeated, now-repenting and then-sinning kind of religion.  Too many are lacking victory.”

That pretty much nails it on the head, but that’s not the way God desires it to be.  It is His desire that we have life and have it more abundantly.  It is His desire that we live victorious, Spirit-filled lives.  Think about the words of Jesus in…

• John 7:38 He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly (heart) shall flow rivers of living water.

Does that describe the kind of life that so many in the church are living today?  Not so far as I can tell.  But it doesn’t have to be this way.  God has given us promise after promise in His Word that He has all that we need, and so much more.  So much of what we are lacking is provided for by the Holy Spirit:  love, joy, peace, power, effective ministry, etc. 

Let me quote Dr. Hughes once again:

“Having received the infilling of spiritual power, we joyously and gladly share this out-flowing spiritual life with others.  Many Christians today are like shallow well-pumps that must be primed in order to give forth water.  To get a little water from a Christian like that is a major task; and when the water does come, it comes with gurgling, grumbling protests.”

There is a huge difference between the two, and once again the glaring difference is the Holy Spirit.

We need a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit as individuals and as a church.  I pray that we will begin to cry out once again, “let the fire fall, let the wind blow, let Your glory come down.”  Jesus said we don’t have because we don’t ask.  Well, I’m asking!  How about you?

The Koinonia of the Ekklesia, Part III

In this trilogy of blogs, this third and final installment deals with the importance of not only knowing what it means to be in fellowship, but also the importance of protecting it. 

As I was teaching this I couldn’t help thinking of another trilogy, a trilogy of movies, that came out between 2001-2003.  The trilogy that I’m referring to is, The Lord of the Rings.  The Lord of the Rings movies were based on a three-volume book written by J.R.R. Tolkien about a young hobbit by the name of Frodo Baggins and his journey to a place called “Mount Doom,” in the land of Mordor, to destroy a ring that has been the cause of much death, destruction, greed and evil in the world he lives in called “Middle Earth.” 

This difficult journey is made a little easier because Frodo has not been left to take it on his own.  He is joined by eight companions consisting of three hobbits, one Maia, an elf, a dwarf and two men.  These nine companions form “The Fellowship of the Ring,” and together they embark on the journey with a common purpose—destroy the ring at Mount Doom, as well as the ring’s creator, the Dark Lord Sauron. 

In the first movie, it doesn’t take long before we realize that there are many dangers looming for the fellowship.  First, there is the presence of outside evil forces that will do anything to get possession of the ring.  Secondly, there are many opportunities for their fellowship to be destroyed from within. 

May I say it is no different with the fellowship of the Church.  This fellowship that we have with one another in the church is something that is very special.  Here are a couple of the reasons why:

1. The fellowship that we have is God’s idea.  He has always longed to have fellowship with us.  Just look at Adam and Eve, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, David, and the people of Israel, and you will quickly begin to see how important this is to Him.  He also longs for us to have fellowship with one another.  Jesus prayed for this fellowship in John 17.
2. This is a fellowship of “light.”  In 1 John 1:5-7, the apostle John wrote, “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all…But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.”  The apostle Paul shares this same message with the church in Corinth (2 Corinthians 6:14) when he says, “…what fellowship hath righteousness and unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness?”

You see, the fellowship of the church is very special.  Together we make a difference in a world that seems to be steadily headed in the wrong direction.  The devil knows this and that is why he would love nothing more than to destroy the church. And he will attempt to do so by any means necessary. 

• He will use outside forces.  Just pay attention to the different media outlets today and it won’t take long before you can see evidence of this.
• He will also try to destroy the church from within.  Some of the tactics he will use are…(1) differences of opinion (Acts 15:36-41), (2) differences of operation (Galatians 2:11-21) and (3) differences as a result of offenses (the New Testament book of Philemon).  

If this fellowship is so important to God that He initiated it, to Jesus that He prayed for it, and to the devil that he will do anything to try to destroy it, then it should also be important enough to us that we will stand together to protect it.  There will be tests along the way, but by the grace of God, we will stay together.

The Koinonia of the Ekklesia, Part II

In my last blog I wrote part one of “The Koinonia of the Ekklesia.”  In it I talked about the last word of that phrase, ekklesia, and what it really means to be a part of the church.  To be a part of the church is to be a part of “the called-out ones.”  It means to be a person who has been called out of darkness (sin/the world’s system) into the marvelous Light (a relationship with Jesus Christ).

In this blog I want to focus on the koinonia or, the fellowship, of the church.  The fellowship of the church is much more important than we give it credit for because we often fail to truly understand what fellowship is. 

The fellowship in the church is “the joint participation of individuals for a common cause or purpose.”  The word fellowship means so much more than the typical, “let’s all get together and have a fellowship dinner in the church’s fellowship hall” sort of thing.

When I think of true fellowship I think of the words that were penned by Luke in Acts 2:42-47.  The people of the early church were people who were in joint participation for a common cause.  They were in fellowship with Christ.  They were in fellowship with His sufferings.  They were in the fellowship of the “mystery” of God’s grace.  They were in the fellowship of ministry.  And they were in fellowship with one another.

Those who were a part of the early church are described this way:

• They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching
• They devoted themselves to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer
• Everyone was filled with awe, and many miraculous signs were done by the apostles
• All the believers were together and had everything in common
• Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone who had need
• Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts
• They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people
• The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved

What an awesome picture of what, I believe, God intended the koinonia of the ekklesia to look like.  This shows what an impact the church can make when we are in true fellowship, not only with Christ, but with one another. 

In my final installment on this topic I will share the importance of not only having this true fellowship, but also the importance of protecting it at all costs (with a little help from The Lord of the Rings).  Make sure to check it out!