The
next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him,
“Follow me.”
Philip,
like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael
and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about
whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
“Nazareth!
Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come
and see,” said Philip.
When
Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in
whom there is no deceit.”
“How
do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus
answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip
called you.” Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are
the king of Israel.”
Jesus
said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will
see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will
see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of
Man.””
When
we worship at an evening service, it’s about as close as we come to being on a
date, and it is special to worship God with my best friend. We had some much-appreciated
conversation with the campus pastor before the service and again briefly after;
we were blessed to catch up a bit about what God is doing in our lives and I
was able to share a prayer ministry of which God has let me be a part. Here is
what I shared:
A neighbor of mine, whom I’ll call Audrey, because that’s her name,
was in the last stage of life. She had been lamenting for twenty years since
becoming a widow that she didn’t know why God wasn’t letting her die.
During one of our conversations we agreed to pray for each other. Soon
after that, God put it on my heart to ask Audrey to pray for those on the
prayer list from a church we had visited. My wife enlarged the list and I
passed it along to Audrey with the request that she pray for each person.
Shortly thereafter, God nudged me to extend this request to the churches we
visit.
I would ask that you extend that same request to your members who
are shut in. Being asked to pray for others has several benefits: it helps them
feel like part of the church, it gives them a sense of purpose, and helps them
connect with God. You have one more powerful prayer warrior praying, and God
alone knows the results that might come about from these prayers.
I pray this is something you will do, if you don’t already. I know
God will bless it. Audrey knows too…He took her Home mid-December.
The
church provided earplugs and for a change I didn’t need them. I am not a huge
fan of smoke and traveling spotlights in worship, but my eyes were recently
opened to the realization that if that is part of what brings a crowd like this
to worship, it is right for this church. My only disappointment was expecting
to see a cross going into Holy Week.
We
learned of some of the mission efforts of the church. One in particular I’m
really impressed with is an American Ninja Warrior-type competition for
handicapped children. I look forward to hearing more about this.
The
sermon was part of series called “Who Is He?” and chronicled this obscure Man’s
three public years to become the most-known person ever.
Some
supportive narrative, from Christ’s coming into the world during the
Greco-Roman era with radical teachings that conflicted with the current
culture, to 92% of universities being founded by Christians, to today with 900
million Google search results for Jesus. He did well tying the story of Nathanael
recognizing Christ to Jacob’s dream. I believe the pastor’s passion won over
any doubters and awoke a lot of Christians to their calling…an excellent
message.
We
opted to worship Saturday night due to a family commitment Sunday afternoon.
We
picked up a decaf coffee and headed in to find seats, which, conveniently, had
cup holders.
Following
an uplifting conversation with one of the pastors we’ve gotten to know, worship
began. One of the announcements had to do with a ticket to attend Easter
worship. At first it sounded strange, but when I looked around and saw the
worship space nearly full, I thought it was probably a good idea to have some
sort of “reservation” system for high-attendance services. At least everyone
knows they’ll have a seat when they arrive.
The
pastor’s prayer as he began the message included the request that God “bind the
evil one, as he has no business here” and that we be able to “hide behind the
Cross.” Both powerful requests, I thought.
The
current series is called “Who Is He?” in which the congregation has been
exploring attributes of Jesus. This message pointed out that on the surface
Jesus led a small life, but His life has impacted the world, its values, and
its treatment of others in radical ways since He walked the earth. His impact
cannot be overestimated…He is without question the most famous person in the
history of the world. The question is, how can this be?
The
pastor declared that if we stated what we believe about Jesus, i.e., that He is
the Son of God, that He is God, that
He is eternal, that He suffered, died, and rose again, and that He is the only
way to God, but we substituted another name for His, people would truly think
we’d lost our mind. Some contend He was a “great person” or a “wonderful
teacher” or an “amazing moral example.” However, Jesus left us none of those
options as a valid opinion of Him. The options He did leave us as far as what
we believe about Him are that He is either a liar, a lunatic, or He is Lord.
Those are our only choices.
And
we must choose daily.
Lord, we were blessed to worship here and we pray Your continued blessings on this church and its leadership. Amen.
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