Sunday, October 30, 2011

A Chosen People


Winters in Chicago can be particularly difficult, even though our city is one of the best prepared for it. Along with only 8-9 hours of daylight, we can experience many days of overcast along with the snow and cold. And when the sun finally does shine, the temperature usually drops to near zero degrees Fahrenheit. Early last February was particularly difficult, when we had a blizzard which brought 60 mile per hour winds and two or more feet of snow. It took a couple days for most people to dig out, then the temperature dropped and we had even more misery.

Winter days seem to accentuate the difficulties of everyday life. The guys in our small prayer group at church were going through some particularly difficult times during this period: one was going through home foreclosure, another was experiencing a drop in business and difficulties with a son, and another had a sick wife. It was during this gloomy and depressing time that we came across the Bible passage of 1 Peter 2: 9-10, where Peter is giving encouragement to believers going through hard times, which says:

"…. for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy."


The words in this passage are very encouraging for a believer. It says we are a chosen people; God in His mercy, chose us. It says we are royal priests; unlike the Israelites of the Old Testament, we can approach God and the throne of grace as a priest because Jesus Christ’s sacrifice had torn the veil of the Temple between mankind and God. As believers, we are God’s own possession; He will not let go of what belongs to Him. In gratitude for what He has done for us, we will want to tell others of how God brought us out of spiritual winter of darkness and death, and into His marvelous light and eternal life. As believers, we can rejoice for we now have an identity as God’s chosen possession, a God who knows us by our name, a name that He has written in the Book of Life from before the foundation of the world. And all of this is because we have received God’s mercy through faith in what his Son, Jesus Christ has done for us, something we could not do for ourselves.

May these words encourage you as they encouraged us during the dark, cold, gloom of winter.


 

Monday, October 17, 2011

What Is Your Pin?

Near the end of the film Schindler’s List, World War Two is drawing to a close. With liberation by Allied forces imminent, 1100 Jewish factory workers gathered to honor Oskar Schindler, the man who had helped them escape the Nazi death camps. The Jews presented Schindler with a gold ring, made from a gold tooth given by one of the Jews, in appreciation for what Schindler had done for them. Moved by their gesture, Schindler comes to a moment of self-realization: he didn't deserve their honor because he could have saved more people using the many resources that he had wasted in the past. Removing a gold Nazi lapel pin from his jacket that he had worn for many years, Schindler realized that he could have saved two more people with it. Schindler is overcome with shame that he had held back something so small that could have been used to save a life.

Often times, we go through life thoroughly convinced that we are doing everything possible to give of ourselves to others. Living the American dream, we are often consumed with family, friends, work, and hobbies. But there are times, like with Oskar Schindler, we come to the realization that most of what we are doing, while not necessarily bad, is usually self centered and self serving. Recently, Kevin Conway, a missionary with Church Resource Ministries, told my Saturday Morning men’s group that the plight of the people in Croatia & Bosnia so moved him that he gave up his home, business, and career to serve God in the former Yugoslavia. Kevin also asked us to consider this question: Like Oskar Schindler, what is your pin? What are you holding back from God that could be used to save the lost?

Dr. John Piper, Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis MN has a free on-line book (in .pdf format) that helps us think about this question: it is called Don’t Waste Your Life. The book is available free at the link below:

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

A Letter to His Flock From the Imprisoned Iranian Pastor

Youcef Nadarkhani is a Christian Iranian Pastor, who is currently in prison awaiting execution by the Iranian government. You see, it is illegal to be a Christian in Iran. Many are trying to put pressure on the Iranian government to stop the execution. Recently, the Iranian Government has released propaganda (shades of Josef Goebbels, the Nazi propagandist) stating that Pastor Youcef is not being executed for being a Christian, but rather for being a rapist and thief. This is in spite of all the documentation regarding the trial. I guess when you are used to lying as often and as regularly as the Iranian government does, it is hard to keep your stories straight. This reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew 5: 11-12, where He says:


"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

From what Jesus says above, it sounds like Pastor Youcef is in good company.
Below is a letter written by Pastor Youcef to his flock over one year ago while imprisoned. When I read this, the Apostle Paul's prison epistles came to mind. I hope you are as encouraged as I am by Pastor Youcef's courage and abiding in the Lord. The letter sounds authentic; an Iranian propagandist couldn't write this.
_____________________________________________________________________________ 

This is a letter from Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani written from prison in Iran earlier this year. Pastor Youcef currently faces the death sentence for apostasy – conversion from Islam to Christianity – and is waiting for the court’s final verdict. Please continue to pray.
This message has been translated from Farsi to English.

Dear brothers and sisters, Salam

In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I am continuously seeking grace and mercy to you, that you remember me and those who are bearing efforts for his name in your prayers.

Your loyalty to God is the cause of my strength and encouragement.
For I know well that you will be rewarded; as it’s stated: blessed is the one who has faith, for what has been said to him by God, will be carried out. As we believe, heaven and earth will fade but his word will still remain.


Dear beloved ones, I would like to take this opportunity to remind you of a few verses, although you might know them, So that in everything, you give more effort than the past, both to prove your election, and for the sake of Gospel that is to be preached to the entire world as well.

I know that not all of us are granted to keep this word, but to those who are granted this power and this revelation, I announce the same as Jude, earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.

We are passing by special and sensitive days.They are days that for an alert and awake believer can be days of spiritual growth and progress. Because for him, more than any other time there is the possibility to compare his faith with the word of God, have God’s promises in mind, and survey his faith.

Therefore he (the true believer) does not need to wonder for the fiery trial that has been set on for him as though it were something unusual, but it pleases him to participate in Christ’s suffering. Because the believer knows he will rejoice in his glory.

Dears, the " judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?"

Therefore those who are enduring burdens by the will of God, commit their souls to the faithful Creator. Promises that he has given us, are unique and precious. As we’ve heard he has said: "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you"

How can it be possible for a believer to understand these words?
Not only when he is focusing on Jesus Christ with adapting his life according to the life Jesus lived when he was on earth? As it is said " O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail."


Have we not read and heard: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Many attempt to flee from their spiritual tests, and they have to face those same tests in a more difficult manner, because no one will be victorious by escaping from them, but with patience and humility he will be able to overcome all the tests, and gain victory.

Therefore in the place of Christ’s followers, we must not feel desperate, but we have to pray to God in supplication with more passion to help us with any assistance we may need.
According to what Paul has said: In every temptation, God himself will make a way for us to tolerate it.

O beloved ones, difficulties do not weaken mankind, but they reveal the true human nature.

It will be good for us to occasionally face persecutions and abnormalities, since these abnormalities will persuade us to search our hearts, and to survey ourselves. So as a result, we conclude that troubles are difficult, but usually good and useful to build us.

Dear brothers and sisters, we must be more careful than any other time. Because in these days, the hearts and thoughts of many are revealed, so that the faith is tested. May your treasure be where there is no moth and rust.

I would like to remind you of some verses that we nearly discuss everyday, (Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.) but as long as our human will has priority over God’s will, his will will not be done.

As we have learned from him in Gethsemane, he surrendered his will to the father, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
What we are bearing today, is a difficult but not unbearable situation, because neither he has tested us more than our faith and our endurance, nor does he do as such. And as we have known from before, we must beware not to fail, but to advance in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, And consider these bumps and prisons as opportunities to testify to his name. He said: If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

As a small servant, necessarily in prison to carry out what I must do, I say with faith in the word of God that he will come soon."However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

Discipline yourself with faith in the word of God. Retain your souls with patience. For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly.
May you are granted grace and blessings increasingly in the name of Lord Jesus Christ.


Yusef Nadarkhani
Lakan Prison in Rasht
2/June/2010


Source: http://cyberbrethren.com/2011/09/30/a-letter-to-his-flock-from-the-pastor-imprisoned-by-the-iranians/