The story of the birth of Jesus cannot be told in its entirety without the inclusion of the shepherds. Luke tells this magically in chapter 2 of his gospel account beginning with verse 8. Aside from the mother and Earthly father of the Christ child, these would be the first people that God would speak to about the coming of our Lord!
What is interesting is that, like the parents of Jesus, they did not show doubt in the message of the angels who brought the news. Read what happened when the host of heavenly emissaries:
“And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.” Luke 2:15 KJV (Emphasis mine)
Notice that without delay, it is decided that they will go to see this baby of whom the angels spoke!
But who were the shepherds in Israel at this time in history?
It is no secret that sheep, and lambs, in particular, were a big part of Jewish culture. They were part of religious sacrifices that date back to the beginning of history. If estimates are correct, and simple mathematics are used, millions would have been needed just for sacrificial purposes, not to mention any used for food or wool.
That being said, the very men who tended to them were not considered holy or sanctified. If anything, they were outcasts. They were obviously dirty because of the nature of their work, as would be expected. Because they touched dead animals, they would be unclean and unable to enter the temple according to Jewish law. Since their work would require them to continue living among dead or bleeding animals, they would find it hard to go the required time to ever be declared “clean” enough to enter.
Because they did not live in town, they were not afforded opportunities for religious or other education or to learn other trades, meaning that once a shepherd, always a shepherd. Whether true or not, they were thought to be thieves as well.
Discarded by society, they were the perfect messengers!
Throughout history, God has rarely used what we would consider the most qualified people to do His work. Instead, He chooses broken, sinful, unrefined individuals who don’t have an agenda.
God doesn’t take people who have a proven track record. He takes people with faith that He can turn them around, use them, and make an impact on others for His glory!
“If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.” — Saint Francis of Assisi
The message of the birth of Jesus came to the most unlikely people of the time and community in which He was born. Armed with that knowledge, don’t let your standing, or anything about you, get in the way of spreading the Word of Jesus Christ to other today.
Living Faith by James M. Dakis is a Christian writing ministry that shares devotional teachings as well as faith-based fiction for anyone hoping to grow in Christ. Whether you are already a Christian or have questions about your faith, I would love to talk with you. Comment here or reach out to me personally.
Some time back I wrote an article that addressed waiting patiently on God to answer our prayers. It focused mainly on our tendency to pray for things with the idea that we should be able to ask today and see answers/results tomorrow. It is worth reading if you haven’t done so yet.
As a general rule, Christians tend to be the same way about other areas of our lives as well. Whether we actively pray about them or simply assume that God will give us divine direction, which He will, if we allow Him to, we tend to think that His timing should be on our schedule. How inconsiderate when it isn’t!
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.” (Isaiah 55:8, KJV)
The above verse could very well be spoken by most of us who are parents. We give instructions to our children who do not understand why. However, this is not limited to answers to prayer. It may come in the form of many other things.
Did you hear a call from God to enter vocational ministry? Did you answer the call and attend Bible College? You graduated already? Good! But wait! Did God guarantee that immediately upon graduation that you would be the senior pastor of a local church?
Do you really want to get married someday? Are you being courted by the man you love and hope to spend the rest of your life with? Can you picture yourself growing old with him? Wonderful! Hold on a minute! Even if that is true, has God told you that you will wed this year? Next year?
When you got that raise last year, knowing that the Lord had directed you and been with you in your job, blessed you with a chance to minister to those at work, and kept you and your family healthy, you saw an opportunity to take the money that you earned and do something with it. You want a new house and can afford it now. What’s that? You want a new house? Is that in the Lord’s plans for now?
“Though I can’t understand the complete complexity of God’s thoughts, I am confident that He is a very detail-oriented God”
— Casandra Santiago
God knows the details of your life and mine. He also knows the details of what He has planned. He knew them from before the beginning of the world. For some people, events seem to come quickly and easily. For others, time moves at a crawl. Why do some people find the perfect mate in high school and get married while others don’t until they are middle-aged? Why are some able to land that perfect job right out of college and others don’t find peace until they start a second career halfway through life?
While it could be argued that some of this is due to our own misguided and irresponsible decision-making, there have been plenty of times when God Himself has delayed things in life for His own glory and we simply do not know why. In 2 Peter 3:8–9, Peter tells us that time is of a very different dimension to God. “…a day…as a thousand years…” is a metaphor, not a literal statement. To an eternal God, time is not an issue. He has His own timing that is beyond our comprehension. Nothing we do, even if it is unpleasing to the Lord, is without His foreknowledge.
Are you willing to trust His planning?
If you are like me, you like to make plans for your life. In fact, I may overdo it with my scheduling. I have a conventional old-school planner where I write things down. In addition, I use Google Calendar, where I sync my phone, tablet, and desktop with reminders that go off with the days, hours, and minutes of every appointment that I have. However, as much as I try to plan for everything in my life, it is my hope and prayer that in doing so, the events and tasks that are on my agenda are those that are in the will of God; that they are ones that He has set in motion for me.
The key to seeing that through is to go to Him in prayer not just when I want or think that I need something. It is to be in a prayerful state of mind at all times and to set aside times of prayer multiple times a day to make sure that my will aligns with His, not to ask Him to align His with mine.
Who is planning your life? Are you or is God? If you are doing it without His divine direction, hoping that all will turn out right, you are fooling yourself and setting yourself up for disappointment. Trust me; I have seen it way too many times in my own life and it not only is heartbreaking but is a waste of time that cannot be recouped.
I am always interested in feedback and comments from you and invite you to leave them here. Please reach out to me if this article has touched you in any way or to let me know what you would like to read about next. You can follow me here and subscribe to get all content sent directly to you.
Just out of curiosity, I Googled, “How do I balance my life?” Not wanting to spend the rest of my life reading even a fraction of the search results, I was satisfied just to know that the return got me 2,240,000,000 results! That means that there are over 2 and a quarter billion places on the internet where I can find the “answer” to how to get balance in my life… or so someone thinks.
Why is this so important? Why do we have so many questions about it? Is life so complicated that most, if not all, of us are tipping one way or another and need to find a way to get centered? If I had to give a short answer to this question it would be probably, at least most of us.
For the record, this article is in no way an attempt at giving a magical answer to this question.
Defining the tripod on which we balance
For centuries, it seems that man has felt that the physical and mental wellbeing were very separate and needed to be treated as such. In fact, unless someone exhibited signs of extreme mental illness, at least as defined by society and medicine of the day, any stresses on the mental and emotional wellbeing of the individual were expected to be dealt with before simply moving on. The effects on the physical person were not seen or appreciated. In other words, if a person exhibited signs of being “insane”, “crazy”, or what in some particular societies may even be aligned with being possessed by evil spirits, he or she was treated as an outcast; the physical health being a totally different and unrelated concern. Such persons were, when identified, institutionalized when possible.
Change comes to mental health.
Although credited as the “Father of Modern Psychology”, Sigmund Freud was actually a neurologist with a cocaine addiction and some rather strange theories about human behavior, many of which are discounted by mental health professionals today. However, he did bring the acceptance of treating mental health as a medical condition into the public eye as far back as the late 19th century. While it would take time, people were finally seeing that what had once been seen as “crazy” or “insane” people, were often simply the very people living in their neighborhoods who suffered from an illness that could not be seen. They may even be members of their own families.
The connection of the physical and mental health was finally making their way into acceptance, although even one hundred years later, there would be many who would struggle with this concept. Still, there was a missing piece.
“Physical, emotional, and mental health needs are all interconnected” Conor Lamb
Most of us see mental and emotional health as being closely connected and I would say that I agree with that. But what about spiritual health? Does a person’s religion, or even a lack of one, fit into his or her well-being? I dare say it does!
Many people, when approached with the idea that medical science, can coexist with religion, shrink back as if you suggested that a Democratic presidential candidate could select a Republican running mate and expect to win! (For the record, John Adams, the second President of the United States was not of the same party as his Vice-President, Thomas Jefferson. However, times were different.) The truth is the idea that science and religion can be mutually supportive of one another is an argument made by many scientists of various faiths. It is not, however, something that we will discuss in depth here.
What we will explore on the other hand, is that religion or faith in general, plays as much a part in the overall health and wellbeing of an individual as do the physical and mental conditions of that same person. Let’s look at how important the health-care system has seen spiritual care as a part of its overall treatment of its patients in recent years:
There are just over 6000 hospitals in the United States at the time of this writing.
In those hospitals, there are approximately 7100 employed chaplains. This does not include the many volunteer chaplains, which would probably at least double this number.
This tells me that providing people who are healing from physical and/or mental health confrontations or threats with a connection to the faith practice of their choosing has an immense impact on mood, mental state, and even physical healing. One does not have to believe in the doctrine(s) of any or all religions to see that those who have a strong connection to a faith system are more balanced in their overall wellness.
What happens when things get out of balance?
I used to work out at a gym with a few guys who spent all of their time working on their upper body. As a result, they had massive arms and chests, but legs that looked like they belonged on a twelve-year-old girl.
By the same token, I have also gone to school with people who studied non-stop for exams in one class, only to neglect others, almost to the point of failure.
“You can’t have too much of everything, you must have a balance, that’s very important.”-Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Maintaining your health is not new. Eating right, getting enough sleep and exercise, staying on top of any medical issues; these are all things that anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the last fifty years knows. Unfortunately, the addition of being aware of mental and emotional health usually comes up only when a crisis arises or when a person’s own behavior is challenged or brought into question. This, however, should never be the case! Mental health is as important to physical health even in the person who is in prime condition.
Leaving us with spiritual health, this is the trickiest one. What is “spiritual health”? Can it even be defined? In my opinion, good spiritual health is first identifying your own faith or religious beliefs and being sure that you are free to express and practice them as you wish. Is it praying? Is it meditating? Reading religious text? Worshiping with fellow believers? You may even say, “I don’t have any religious beliefs. I am an atheist. If that is the case, your faith system relies only on you, and you should be free to express and fulfill that just as openly as the devout believer in any other system of worship. Whatever the case, identifying it and keeping it healthy is crucial.
Having a balance of all three of these factors is paramount to balanced health. If you are lacking in any of these, be honest with yourself about what you are doing to address it and where you need to turn to get healthy. Ask yourself some questions:
How is my physical health?
How do I know the answer to the above question?
Is my mental/emotional health balanced and stable? Could it be better?
If it is not where it should be, what steps should I take to get it there?
How do I identify my faith or religious beliefs?
Do I give my faith and spiritual life adequate time and resources? What are they?
The writing found in Living Faith by James M. Dakis is mostly that of Christian, faith-based content. I strongly encourage the comments and views of anyone who read it and invite you to follow and subscribe for any further content. It is also helpful if you give me suggestions of anything that you would like to see in the future!
Every state in the United States requires a license for two people to get married. The specifics of each state’s laws, however, are different. Although marriages have been officiated by clergy of all faiths for centuries, the earliest civil marriages were much more recent, when England adopted an option for people who wanted to be united in matrimony without declaring any devotion or commitment to the church.
For those of us who are clergy, we still must abide by the laws of the states where we officiate weddings, even if we see marriage as first instituted by God. I would never marry a couple that did not present a valid state marriage license and have never met a clergy that would. (There are liabilities and implications that get messy if one doesn’t but that is for another discussion.)
What exactly constitutes a contract?
By definition, a contract is, “a binding agreement between two or more persons or parties especially: one legally enforceable”, according to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary. Other sources would also include that in general, contracts include some other factors:
All parties understand and agree to all points and terms of the contract.
There is a specified beginning and termination of the contract, be it a date, a task, or another agreed-upon action or event.
There are often options to renegotiate the contract at some point or to extend or renew it at its end.
Should any party to the contract violate any part of the agreement, any party that suffers is entitled to compensation.
This is, of course, not an all-inclusive list of everything that constitutes a contract. However, you will notice that one thing is clear; in a contract, all parties are protected from one another while at the same time looking out for their own interests.
If you have ever bought a house or a car, signed a lease, opened a bank account, enrolled in college, own a credit card, or even have a library card or a Facebook account, you have entered into a contract. When marriages started requiring licenses issued by governing bodies, what was once a sacred institution now became a contractual agreement between three parties- the two people getting married and the state.
What happens when marriage is nothing but a contract?
Just like any other contract, if a person enters into a marriage with the attitude that he or she has “signed on the dotted line”, there becomes a sense of contractual obligation for both parties getting married; what must I do and what can I expect? What are my obligations in comparison to what I get in return? Furthermore, how does the state get involved if the marriage is dissolved? The problem with this approach in a marriage is that both people may spend their time making decisions based, at least in part, upon how they will profit, not how it may benefit the other party. They also look at how they will protect themselves should something go wrong. This is not to say that nobody ever does anything simply out of love and devotion if they are not a Christian or understanding of what a biblical marriage is; it simply means that the propensity to act this way is more likely.
How is a biblical marriage different?
For starters, in addition to the idea that marriage was first and foremost ordained by God, not the state, we must be cognizant of the idea that His will was for a man and woman to be joined from the point of their union until one of them dies.
“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24, KJV)
“What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” (Mark 10:9, KJV)
These, and other verses in the Bible, show that God meant for marriage to be a lifetime commitment. It is from here that we get the line, “Until death do us part”, that we hear in wedding vows. What, then, makes a biblical marriage sacred?
Biblical marriage is a covenant between three parties, with God at the center.
What makes a covenant different from a contract is that, unlike a contract, a covenant can be initiated by just one of the participating parties. A perfect example is found in the Bible when God made a covenant with Abram.
“And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.” (Genesis 17:2, KJV)
To get the full scope of what is said here, read the entire chapter. Notice how the covenant is implemented and the terms set out exclusively by God, Himself. This is one way in which a covenant may differ from a contract.
Furthermore, in a covenant, although there is a beginning, there is no end to it unless it is replaced by a superior one issued by the party that initiated the original one. We see how God has already entered into covenant relationships with Adam and Noah, and again we have a covenant known as the “New Covenant” in the New Testament, all of which replace previous ones. However, at no time does God simply cease to honor a promise.
Lastly, unlike a contract, where all parties involved first look out for their own interests, in a covenant relationship, the opposite is true; it is the desire to look out for the interest(s) of the other party(s). This is seen when we look at the covenants in the Bible, where God saves and protects the children of Israel, and in return expects complete and total devotion and worship. The same is true in a biblical or covenant marriage.
People, including many Christians, often criticize the words of Ephesians chapter 5 as they pertain to marriage and the relationship of husbands and wives. Oftentimes, the word “submit” is mistakenly taken to think that women are subservient to men and in a marriage, they are inferior and essentially nothing more than servants.
This is hardly the truth and can be seen in Ephesians 5:21, which precedes anything about the specific duties of husbands and wives:
“Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” Ephesians 5:21 KJV
The word “submitting”, or υποτάσσομαι, means to put yourself under the authority of another. While this may mean obeying the orders or instructions of another, the above verse, in its context, is about getting along in Christian fellowship and is more likely about sacrificing your own desires for those of others. Much the same could be transferred to the idea of a marriage relationship as we continue on through the rest of the chapter and see the same word used to describe a wife’s duty to her husband but also a very tall order for husbands to give sacrificially to their wives! Both of these means putting the other first and both mean putting God above all.
“There’s no sense in improving your marriage until you are secure with God.” ~ Francis Chan
We live in a world where contracts are simply a part of life. In no way am I trying to say that you should not honor them or even involve them in your marriage. However, if you are married, or planning to marry, let it be one that honors God’s plan for union.
I invite you to leave comments, questions, and suggestions for anything you would like me to write about. Be blessed,
Three things can happen, and they are all amazing!
Jesus used examples in the Bible to explain things that the people of the day would understand. This is one reason why in a culture that was greatly agricultural, at least six of the parables He told in the Bible are about farming in one way or another. Over a dozen are about food. These are things people could relate to. It would have been unwise only to use examples of things such as his knowledge of carpentry or the details of the letter of the Jewish Law with the common people.
Why did Jesus use light to refer to Himself?
Quite simply, darkness is powerful. I must admit that at sixty years old, it is still a bit intimidating to me. It hides things. That means that so evil loves to lurk in it. However, even the smallest amount of light can change that! A small flickering candle in an otherwise dark room emits enough light to create shadows and reveal what is hiding. Light brings truth to the surface. It shows life. In fact, light is necessary for life to continue.
“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.” (Isaiah 60:1, KJV)
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Psalm 119:105 KJV
So true! The light of the Lord shines and is our path. The Word of the Lord is the light that shines to brighten that path. What is more, Jesus is both the light and the Word, come to Earth as God and man.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1, KJV)
“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12 KJV) (Emphasis added)
Light will always reflect, refract, or be absorbed.
A simple fact of optical physics is that when light strikes an object, it will do one of three things. It will bounce, or be reflected, as it does on a mirror or shiny surface; it will be refracted through it, as it does through clear glass; or it will be absorbed, as it does when it hits your face on a sunny day.
If we are to be the light of the world as stated above, let us reflect (no pun intended) on what that means.
Reflection: We are to be a reflection of Christ. When people look at us, they should see Christ in us. We are not only to live a learned and faithful life but a holy life. People will see our holiness much more readily than our inner faith.
Refraction: Just as light passes through a lens one way and exits with greater clarity on the other side, let our own experiences leave us with a better understanding that we can use as a demonstration to others. Let us be forged with the fire of our tribulations as a testimony of our faith and even more so to the sovereignty of our God.
Absorption: When light is absorbed, it turns into another form of energy — usually heat. When the light of the Lord and His goodness are absorbed into you, let it warm you. In turn, share that warmth with others.
Do you have the Light of Jesus shining in you today? If you do, I am glad to know that. In fact, I hope and pray that you are sharing this light with others. There is too much darkness in the world.
On the other hand, if you do not have this light in your life, He is waiting for you with open arms. Invite Him into your life. The light, the warmth, and the peace that you will find are beyond compare. I would be glad to discuss this with you. Drop me a note in the comments if you would like to chat about this.
May God richly bless each and every one of you. -Jim
Is loving something possible without embracing it?
Love and inclusion are not synonymous. Jesus told us to love our enemies in Matthew 5:43–44. This, however, did not go so far as to tell us to include them in our dinner plans. He sent people into a sinful world to lovingly spread the Gospel message of forgiveness but did not tell them to include themselves in its sinful behavior.
We often forget that sometimes loving means not accepting behavior that is wrong (not only in our eyes but in God’s perfect and holy eyes). This can most easily be seen if as a parent, you learn that your son or daughter has committed a horrible crime. You do not stop loving your child, yet you do not condone the act. You may take action to try to steer the child along the right path but may even find a need to sever relations if the situation becomes toxic to you. It may even happen if your child or other family member chooses a lifestyle that you deem to be immoral, unhealthy, or unsafe.
I have family members who live lifestyles that I do not approve of. They know my belief and faith practices. We respect each other. I don’t preach to them and they don’t try to convert me. After six decades of growing into the person I am, there is little chance that my beliefs will change dramatically in the years to come. How then, do I (or anyone for that matter), live harmoniously with those who live contrary to our beliefs and still not embrace them? Am I being hypocritical by remaining friendly and cordial to them? Should I break off all ties to them or just pretend that their behavior doesn’t offend or bother me? Maybe it should just be a topic that shouldn’t be discussed. It’s a tough call.
Is love always about acceptance?
Jesus had a lot to say about love in His ministry. He came to this Earth with one mission; to die for the sins of man. However, when we turn to Luke 6, particularly the middle third of the chapter, we see Jesus reminding those listening that love is not only about loving those who love us back or those with whom we agree.
“ But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.” Luke 6:27–28 KJV
This is a far cry from just loving those with whom you are in a harmonious relationship! If Jesus is telling us to love even our enemies, surely we can love those with whom we simply disagree or have different moral, ethical, or religious views without compromising our values. It does not mean that we must accept and embrace everything about them. Recently I wrote an article about the evolution of the definition of the word “tolerance” in the English language, at least in our society. This goes a long way to explain what happens when we think that love means embracing everything about the ones we love.
“Isn’t it amazing that we are all made in God’s image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people?” Archbishop Desmond Tutu
We are certainly a diverse world. There are just shy of 7,970,486,000 people on the planet as I write this. Several sources that I checked indicate that the average person interacts with about 80,000 people in his or her lifetime and will influence about 10,000. This means that12.5% of the people you interact with have a chance of being influenced by you. It does not mean, however, that you must get cozy with and embrace the ideology of everyone, even those you love. If Christians are instructed to go out into all the world, they/we are surely going to come across people with whom we disagree. They may even be in our own homes and communities. They will most definitely be in places where different cultures foreign to anything we have experienced are practiced.
This must have come as quite a shock when people such as Thomas, the Apostle believed to have brought the Gospel to the Indian sub-continent, faced when he arrived. What about the first to arrive in the depths of the jungles of Africa or when Europeans first arrived in North America? Although the world has gotten smaller with technology that allows us to know about people we will never actually see or can learn about virtually before meeting in person, we still are faced with acclimating to new ways. However, must we, as we learn to understand and respect them, also entwine their beliefs and values into our own? Absolutely not!
Have you gotten trapped?
It isn’t hard to think that when you love someone, or when you have a relationship with someone, you must endorse or accept as right or fine, all of their behaviors and beliefs. We want to be thought of as tolerant and “open-minded”. However, don’t be so open-minded that your own mind, which controls your opinions, falls right out.
“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”-Alexander Hamilton
Actually, the above quote has also been attributed to others as well. The point is, that standing for something sometimes means that even when you love someone, you will not stand by something they believe or do. It can be a slippery slope but at the end of the day, know where you stand. Where do you place your faith? In whom do you place your eternal trust for salvation and wisdom to guide you during the most difficult of times? If you can answer that it is in the Risen Lord Jesus Christ, then you have nothing to worry about concerning the outlook of your eternal future. You have no need to embrace anything that is contrary to what He commands. If you are not sure of this, I invite you to contact me and we can discuss this more.
Please leave any comments, questions, or observations for me. I would love to engage in any dialogue with you. You can also follow me and read other articles I have written @ https://medium.com/@jamdak62.
Even during a time of disastrous flooding, Pastor Timothy Favour has not let up his zeal for the Gospel.
As of May 8, 2018, at least 150 people have lost their lives in the flooding in Kenya. This number grew dramatically when a dam broke in Karuru county. Additionally, cases of cholera, malaria and other diseases are being reported on increases that health care facilities cannot keep up with as poor sanitation is out of control and transportation to hospitals and doctors is often impossible.
In the West Kenya rural town of Bungoma, Pastor Timothy has already seen the damage come to his own church and home, yet he won’t let that stop him! Even though flooding already damaged the very church building where Sunday services are held, a new floor and pulpit have already been put in so that the Lord’s work will not go undone! If you would like to partner with Pastor Timothy in the work he is doing in Bungoma, please feel free to contact him at timothyjuma1@gmail.com.
“Mechanics are trained by other mechanics, doctors are trained by other doctors, scientists are trained by other scientists. Check yourself, who is your trainer”-Pastor Timothy Juma Wanjala
Three crosses at Calvary have become the symbol by which Christians have remembered the day Jesus of Nazareth died. To those who crucified Him, He was actually being executed for claiming to be the “King of the Jews”, a threat seen by the Roman government as one who would insight insurrection. To the Jews, He was committing blasphemy and they just wanted Him dead. What we fail to remember, however, or even learn, is that the death Jesus died was a very common death for the worst of the worst criminals of His day. Murderers, pirates, those who were threats to the Roman government, all were hung on crosses to die a horrible death that would in many cases run the course of three to four agonizing days before the suffering criminal’s own body drown in its own fluids or he died of exhaustion. Few people even know that the crosses were generally placed in odd numbers, with the worst criminal hung in the center. How fitting this is for Jesus, who, in His death, carried the weight of every sin ever committed by all mankind.
No fewer than three times, Jesus had told His followers that He would die and rise again. In hindsight, we may ask why, after all they saw Him do, did they still doubt Him? Would we have been any better?
One such example of this happening can be found in Mark 8:31-33, “And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. 33 But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.” (emphasis mine). Notice how, although just one verse prior, Peter had declared that Jesus was the Christ, he now denied that He, (Jesus) knew what He was talking about when He predicted His own death!
The disciples and others had seen Jesus perform many miracles in His ministry. Perhaps the one that would be considered by many to be the most remarkable was raising Lazarus from the dead. If these men and other witnesses had seen this miracle of a man who had been in the tomb four days walk out when commanded to, why could they not accept it when Jesus said that He would do the same Himself?
One thing we know is this. There were witnesses to the raising of Lazarus. Nobody saw Jesus leave the grave. Sure, stories and theories about conspiracies abounded and continue to even today. But what about the countless sightings of Him in the days that followed?
All of this, however, must be set aside and can be examined later. At this time when we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, let us never think that He died because he was murdered. Let us never think that He was taken against His will. Jesus was living in glory in heaven in perfect harmony with the Father. He willingly came to Earth in the form of an innocent baby, humble and helpless and needing the care of His mother, to grow up and be not a king who would be served, but a servant King. He served us, those who deserve nothing, by giving His life that we may live eternally.
This sacrifice was a gift. And like any gift, it must be accepted. It must be picked up and recognized for what it is. It must be applied and embraced. If you have done this already then I am overjoyed that you have accepted the gift of Jesus and His forgiveness and sacrifice. By the same token, if you have not, let this be the day that you do. If you wish to discuss this with a member of our ministry or have any questions, please contact me directly at lsministries121@gmail.com.
You could almost set your calendar by it every year. Between March and May, the rains come to Nairobi County and surrounding areas in Kenya’s capital city where the population of over 3.3 million people live in the nation’s largest city. While one can find all the amenities of a modern western city here, a closer look both inside and just outside can see that much of what is present is still a remnant of the poverty that has stricken this nation since it gained its independence from British rule in 1963.
The slow move to economic growth has come as a result of many things but the relentless and tireless work of godly men such as Mr. George Otieno Sera of Alliance Vision Education Centre, along with his dedicated staff, have seen to it that orphans have been cared for here since October 2008. We have featured some of the events and successes of this wonderful Ministry Partner of ours in the past and are pleased to say that they continue to thrive today. Unfortunately, as is the case every year, the rainy season is upon the people of Nairobi and the flooding has been devastating.
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Alliance Vision Education Centre has been blessed yet challenged with the education and oversight of over 200 at-risk children. Needless to say, this is a task which takes an exhausting amount of funding to take on. For this reason, a fundraiser has been started to ensure that the ministry can continue on. You can be an active participant in making these children’s lives better by going to https://www.gofundme.com/avecfundraiser and pledging your support. You can also go to http://avec.webs.com/ and see the AVEC website first-hand to see exactly what is happening.
However you are able to partner with this wonderful ministry, on behalf of all of us involved, I wish to thank you and may the Lord richly bless you.
Committed to serving the Lord in South India, long time Ministry Partner Saripalli Ravi Kumar of Bread of Life Children’s Home of India oversees the daily operations of an orphanage that now is home to eighteen children who have no parents. In a nation of over 1.3 billion people, roughly 20 million children, or 4%, are orphans.
The nation does not have an adequate system for helping these children and in a country that is 80% Hindu and barely 2% Christian. The work of Christian ministries such as Bread of Life is an uphill battle and in constant need of prayer and support as there is very little in the way of local encouragement.
To partner with this wonderful ministry, you can contact them at breadoflifechurch2000@yahoo.com.