Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Jubilee

We will soon be celebrating the 50th anniversary of Kentucky Road Christian Church (October 10, 2010). We are promoting this event using Leviticus 25:10 as a central theme: “Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you.”

Certainly we are not suggesting a reinstitution of Old Testament Law; we are simply borrowing the concept of jubilee to focus our attention on the celebration. This is in keeping with the definition of the word. The dictionary says that jubilee is a) a specially celebrated anniversary, esp. a 50th anniversary; b) the celebration of such an anniversary; c) jubilation, rejoicing.

Within that context, we are celebrating our congregation’s anniversary. We are rejoicing, both at what has been accomplished for the Lord and what will be achieved in the future. We look back in thanksgiving for the ways in which God has used us, and look forward in anticipation to serving Him all the more.

In the Old Testament, the Lord offered His people many opportunities to celebrate. They celebrated the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Harvest, the Feast of Weeks, the Sabbath, and many others. But one thing I noticed clearly—in every situation—God commanded them to CELEBRATE.

Let’s take a look at the definition of celebrate: a) to observe (a day or event) with ceremonies of respect, festivity, or rejoicing; b) to extol or praise; c) to make widely known.

It was during a celebration of the Passover that Jesus instituted another celebration—a time of communion with Him. “For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8, NAS).

Why do we attend church? We sing and pray. We learn from God’s word. All of that is wonderful, but those are things we could and should be doing any and every day of the week. What makes Sunday special? It is the celebration of the feast. It is the respect we show God in meeting around the table of His Son. It is a time of festivity and rejoicing as we realize the great price that was paid to lift from our shoulders the burden of sin. This was main priority of the early church. “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread” (Acts 20:7).

Congregations strive “to make widely known” their programs and activities, their achievements and successes. May our goal be, instead, “to make widely known” the success of God’s program through the activity of Jesus Christ on the cross. May it be His divine achievement—which has brought us liberty from sin—that is the focus of our jubilant celebration each and every Lord’s Day!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Spring Rains

Job said something interesting concerning his position as a spiritual leader, “Men listened to me expectantly, waiting in silence for my counsel. 22 After I had spoken, they spoke no more; my words fell gently on their ears. 23 They waited for me as for showers and drank in my words as the spring rain” (Job 29:21-23).

Wow! Sounds a lot like the old E.F. Hutton commercials … “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.” Well, no offense to Edward Francis Hutton, but I’m betting that what Job had to say about God was more important than what Mr. Hutton had to say about stocks and bonds.

Wouldn’t it be great if people today listened to Jesus like that? But not too many want to wait on anything anymore … even Jesus. Waiting in silence for Jesus to speak? After He speaks, not arguing with Him? His words falling gently on our ears, rather than being an annoyance to our lifestyles? Wanting to hear what Jesus has to say? Drinking it all in like the spring rains? If we would do that, perhaps we would see the same growth that the spring rains produce.

Yet so many will not listen. So many are convinced that they know all they need to know about God and His Christ. “These people have stubborn and rebellious hearts; they have turned aside and gone away. 24 They do not say to themselves, 'Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives autumn and spring rains in season, who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.' 25 Your wrongdoings have kept these away; your sins have deprived you of good” (Jeremiah 5:23-25). I NEVER want my sins to deprive me of the wonderful blessings God has prepared for me.

Lord, I am ready to listen! I want Your word to feed me and lead me. I know Your Son is coming back again someday … and I want to be ready. I want to be like a wise man ... listening to His word, acting upon it, established permanently on a solid foundation. Like the ground drinks in the spring rains, I am ready to drink in Your word and Your will. I will not argue. I will listen. May Your words fall gently upon my ears.

“Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth” (Hosea 6:3).