Don't Just Stand There----------- Sing!

"Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ?  And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?" (1 Corinthians 10:16-- NIV)

 

Our text is inexhaustible.  I feel as though I still only "scratch the surface" of its power------------ "participation!"  The Interlinear Bible tells us that the Greek word is, "koinoia."  It means, "partnership, literally, participation, social interaction, or (pecuniary) benefaction," viz, financial contribution.  You probably never heard that last part before.  I know I didn't.   

 

It was a sad day for America when the decision to perform the National Anthem by some celebrity replaced the audience participation in singing the National Anthem.  (Be sure to see the best singing and "atmosphere" of the National Anthem I have seen in years on our Blog site-- notice the athletes' participation and response).  The vast majority of Americans today are no longer participants; they are just observers.  Find someone who does it more impressively and we will watch him do it.  But whose "anthem" is it anyway?  I still sing the Nation Anthem, even when people turn and look at me as though I am some nut case.  They don't remember the generation of participators.   

 

Our text speaks of "participation in the blood of Christ....and....the body of Christ."  The original text reveals that this is more than just "feeding on Christ" at His Table.  This is our "anthem."  It is our "participation, partnership, interaction, contribution" in the Church of Jesus Christ in the earth, "which is His Body."  Goods friends of ours recently sent us a check for our mission efforts this fall.  They live a life of, "koinonia."  In the memo section they simply wrote, "Go!"  Everything they do for us is really partnership, interaction, contribution with us, a participation in our "participation in the body of Christ."     

 

The call to you and me today is to participate, partner, interact, contribute in the Church of Jesus, and thereby to a lost and dying world.  Don't be as the mass of humanity at sporting events who just stand in mesmerized awe at someone else's "singing."  Sing-------- participate, partner, interact, contribute "in the blood....and....body of Christ," in your house, your neighborhood, your city, your nation.  Be as that young 18 year old who, after he emptied his wallet in the collection plate, wrote a note of consummate Christianity, "and my life." 

 

Father, in Jesus' Name, may I never let someone else do my singing.  Amen.

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View the American National Anthem "participation" at:

www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com

  

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

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"God Was Moved By Prayer"

"Thus they did all that the king commanded, and after that God was moved by prayer for the land." (2 Samuel 21:14--NASB)

As you can see from the Jerusalem Post article which I sent earlier this morning, the world is moving at an exciting yet sobering prophetic pace.  The article by Carolyn Glick reveals the European and especially the German connection to End Time events.  "Der Spiegel" is a fairly "leftist" magazine, but I find it helpful in keeping me informed on the German perspective on world events.  Your support for Sarah and me in prayer and finances enable us to fulfill the call to the strategic cities of Jerusalem, Berlin, and Washington, DC.  I have never been more convinced of this call.

Along with your family, neighborhood, city, and nation, I encourage you to adopt a nation for prayer.  Pray regularly for that people group.  Notice in our text that "God was moved by prayer for the land."
What a powerful statement, "God was moved by prayer...."-- what a powerful commission; what a powerful promise.  R. W. Schamback once said, "Tears don't move God.  Faith moves God."  It is the prayer of faith which shall "restore the one who is sick."  It is the "prayer of faith" which "will restore the" nation.  Luke 18:1 says that Jesus "was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart (never give up)."  Okay, "Never give up."  

Father, in Jesus' name, move me to move You in prayer.  Amen.
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*     Israel Mission:                                   October 16-25
     Berlin, Albania Mission:                    October 30-November 16
*     "Tea Party" in Washington, DC:          September 12
*     I am preaching in the CCE Mtgs:     September 12 & 13



"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

"Causing Consternation"

"Then I came to the exiles who lived beside the River Chebar at Tel-abib, and I sat there seven days where they were living, causing consternation among them." (Ezekiel 3:15-- NASB)

The best I can make of this passage is that Ezekiel caused, "consternation," but he was also, "overwhelmed," (NIV), and, "astonished (NKJV) seven days."  The Hebrew reveals that Ezekiel was "speechless, motionless" for that period.  One can only pray for such anointing among us.  Today's church is just too blasé, too flippant, too, "of this world" to encounter such a move of the Holy Spirit.  But it need not be.  When the People of Jesus Christ are "astonished" and "overwhelmed" by the Word of God, when they are "motionless" and "speechless" with, at, and in "The Bread of the Presence," Jesus Christ, we can then see, and we can then hear "what the Spirit is saying to the churches." 

The Word of God told Ezekiel earlier in the passage, "Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go speak to the house of Israel ....Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth...."  It was in this calling that Ezekiel "sat there seven days...among them."  A watchman is one who "leans forward...to peer into the distance; by implication, to observe, await."  The Church of Jesus Christ has been called to be "a watchman for the house of Israel," and, the nations.  We will cause "consternation" and "astonishment" for some, others will simply avoid
or ignore us----------- and perish. 

The Church is called to fast, to pray, to care for the widow and the orphan, the poor, to "disciple the nations."  We are also called, as Ezekiel, to "lean forward...to peer into the distance, to observe, await."  When we do, our words and activity will not be empty rhetoric and fruitless endeavor, but "mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ...."------ "consternation" to some----------------------- Life and Peace to you and me.

Father, in Jesus' Name, grant me grace "to peer into the distance, to observe, await," and mostly, "lean forward" into You.  Amen.
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For the Star Spangled Banner as it should be, go to:
www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

"Why Do The Nations Rage?"

"Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?...You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel." (From Psalm 2) 

At 04:45 on the morning of September 1, 1939, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire at pointblank range on a fort in Westerplatte, Poland.  Thus, the start of World War 2 seventy years ago this morning.  The German and Japanese would "rage" for another six years before they were literally dashed "to pieces like a potter's vessel.

I was in Germany before the "clean up" from the war was complete.  Yet even now there are places in most European countries where the scars of war still remain, along with thousands upon thousands of grave sites of those fallen in battle.  Photos of Europe and Japan after the war reveal a world of, "dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel."  Yet history reveals that God really does not have to do this to us.  We do it to ourselves. 

The word for, "plot," in our text means to murmur, complain.  The human race has been doing this against the Living Triune God from the beginning.  "Why can't we eat of that tree?!?"  Never satisfied humanity, after turning against The Blessed Trinity, turned against itself.  Remember Cain and Abel?  And be sure of this one thing.  No people group on the planet can claim victimhood.  Every race at some time in their history has taken something from somebody else, terrorized, invaded. I repeat with absolute certainty and unapologetically.  No person on the planet has a "clean" history, regardless of race, creed, national origin, gender, etc.  History is proof that when men and nations say to Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit, "Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us," they then set about to weave despotic, heinous, almost unbelievable demonic cords of their own creation. 

What can you and I do?  Our Psalm today tells us.  "Serve the LORD [Jesus Christ] with fear, and rejoice with trembling.  Kiss the Son," Jesus, embrace Jesus, surrender to Jesus--- "lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little.  But remember, and make no mistake about this----- "Blessed (happy,..to be envied) are all those who seek refuge and put their trust in Him." 

Father, in Jesus' Name, help me to never "take counsel together" with those of this world system, only with those who are of You!  Amen.
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*     Prophetic News:     www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com
*     Preaching in the CCE Meetings:           September 12 & 13
*     DC "Tea Party":                                    September 12
*     Mission to Israel:                               October 16-25
*     Mission to Berlin, Albania:                    October 30-16

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

"Save Yourselves"

"With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, 'Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.'" (Acts 2:40)

We are saved from sin, forgiven, names written in the "Book of Life," on our way to Heaven only through the Blood of Jesus Christ, His Blood of His Cross.  Yet we only walk in "so great a salvation" as we walk in obedience to the "Law/Word" of God. In reality, faith is not a noun; it's a verb.  Faith is not what I believe in my mind, nor even what I say.  Faith is what I do.  The Holy Spirit gives us something to "do" in our text, "[You] save yourselves from this corrupt generation."  The Greek word for, "save," here is exactly the same word for, "be saved," as in John 3:17, "that the world through Him might be saved."  Evangelical Christianity just will not come to grips with this reality. 

Salvation involves pure grace and mercy from the Living Triune God, and, pure obedience from you and me.  Scary thought, but according to our text, there is a reality in which you and I, "save yourselves."  Of course, our salvation is "not of works, lest any man should boast."  But it is of obedience, lest any of us be left out!  You can boast in works, but it is extremely difficult to boast in obedience.  Jesus said, "So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants.  We have done what was our duty to do.'"  No boast here, just the "duty" to obey.

How much we miss of the joy of our salvation when we just glory in our
salvation but do not obey in our salvation.  Our text is a command and call to holiness, "save yourselves from this corrupt generation."  This, "holiness, without which no one will see the Lord," is defined clearly in Jesus' prayer for us, "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one." 

Throughout the "God-Breathed" Word the message is clear.  You and I can only, "save yourselves from this corrupt generation," in the grace, mercy, and power of the Living Triune God------------------------ and, our obedience------------------- through the grace, mercy, and power of the Living Triune God. 

Father, in Jesus' Name, by His Blessed Majesty, our Holy Spirit, I pray for the "eye salve" so I "may see," and "gold refined in the fire" so that I may "save [myself] from this corrupt generation."  Amen.
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*     See one of Obama's communist appointees at:
     www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com
*     Taking a group to DC for the "Tea Party," September 12
*     Preaching in the CCE meetings, September 12 & 13
*     Israel Mission, October 16-25
*     Berlin, Albania Mission, October 30-November 16


"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2