Prayer Prompt

I hope you have begun reading Romans 6 answering the seven questions given out Sunday.  As you write the prayer from Romans 6 in Question 7, I invite you to post it and share it with me on FB under the  #R6Pray.
Coach/PJ 

Whatever...

Allow me to share two applications of Colossians 3:23 this week.

Dayton and I grabbed supper at McDonald’s after the ballgame.  As we sat there enjoying the burgers, I noticed a young worker fly through our section swiping tables.  She barely wiped the tables leaving them more of a mess than clean and flinging to the floor what the dirty rag happened to graze. Suddenly my Deluxe Quarter Pounder didn’t taste as good.  I wondered if the guy who put my burger together may have had the same work ethic.  Since this same girl seemed friendly when she had taken my order, and there was some rapport, I wondered if she might listen to a verse I had memorized.  So I strolled up to order a Mocha Frappe (“Don’t tell Mom!”) and asked if I might give her some really good advice. She smiled and said, “Sure!”  I said, “You are probably a good Christian girl.  You probably go to church and have a godly grandmother.” She affirmed both with a smile. I shared “Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord, rather than for men” Colossians 3:23. She liked it but did not connect.  I then said, “I love young people, so please just hear me.  The way you wiped those tables really made me question my burger.  Imagine in the future that you are not serving man.  Imagine that the very next customer is your Lord, Jesus Himself…walking right through that door.  Would you want Him to sit at those tables over there?”   She took it well and promised me she would apply that truth to her work.  It was a different kind of divine appointment.  Other workers were listening in and ultimately all were invited to worship at Crosspoint. It was really a fun exchange! We all enjoyed a moment of simply being friendly.

Then Saturday morning, our men came together for breakfast and yard work.  Someone prayed, “Lord, thank you for this food and the opportunity to work together on your place.” I loved that reminder! 

Coach/PJ

Reminder

Crosspoint Family/Friends,
Yesterday was an awesome day in the Lord's House among His people!  Just a quick reminder to study Romans 6 this week asking the seven questions we reviewed yesterday to help you understand and apply the truths you will discover. I am praying for you! 
PJ

In Acts 27, the shipwreck on the island of Malta is recorded when Paul was on the last voyage taking him to Rome.  Here we see a wonderful principle of the necessary unity within any church body that guarantees the key to a successful journey.  I have never seen this part of the story until in the backdrop of our passage that we consider today in Ephesians 4:1-6.

Paul has seen a vision that the voyage would certainly be with danger and real loss.  It speaks to us in guaranteeing that our purpose in life as individuals and as a church will also involve loss and many dangers if we are faithful and obedient.  Just ask any Christian in an Islamic country. During many days and nights of a storm that covered the light of day and the stars of the night, the threat of certain demise led some aboard to deceptively let down the life boats for selfish escape.  Upon Paul’s testimony and leadership that all would survive if all remained and stayed united, the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship’s life boats and let them fall away.  Having gained all the men’s trust, Paul blessed the remaining bread and broke it and they ate together and received strength.  Paul then made a promise from God, “not a hair from the head of any of you will perish.” And so it happened that they, all 266, were brought safely to land.

I challenge you to read beyond the written account and ask good questions.  Why must they all stay on the ship?  Why did Paul seek to keep everyone on the ship united in the promise?  Surely there were onboard some rank, offensive, low-down scoundrels who really in man’s opinion had no merit of surviving.  Why would it matter if a few were allowed to escape?  Wouldn’t that mean more food for the united that remained faithful and aboard?

Look to the end.  Look at the view from God’s perspective.  His promise and purpose was to bring Paul to Rome.  There were still responsibilities and work that would need to take place in running the ship aground, making it to shore, surviving together among unforeseen inhabitants, and ultimately boarding the next ship from Malta to Rome. So where are you going with this Sorrells?

Each of you is on a God-sized mission on a voyage of a lifetime.  God has unique assignments for each of you according to your gifts. All must remain.  None can be lost.  Regardless of merit, class or rank, we all have a role to complete in order for us to carry a most precious cargo to the world, the gospel—the good news of salvation.  Onboard that ship was the missionary Paul, who was the vehicle, the instrument God had purposed to bring a message to Rome of salvation in Christ alone.  Go to the island of Malta today and you will still find a contingent of Christ followers who date their faith to the influence of a crew of 266 shipwrecked strangers. 

What has God uniquely gifted and assigned you to do in your church to assure that the gospel message is not lost at sea?  Stay aboard!  Hang on!  Commune together!  Keep the faith! Cut the life lines of escape and remain committed to the call to which God has called you. 

Coach/PJ

Grace

When does grace become grace? That sounds like a book title.  Last week I said to my son, "Grace is not grace until there is repentance." Then I lay awake through the night pondering that statement.  Does God's grace hinge on the work of repentance in the child of God?  Does grace toward my children rest conditionally on their turning from wrong toward me, their family, our God or others? 

I pictured then the father of the prodigal on the porch night after night.  Was he full of grace on the porch each night?  Or did his grace spring from the porch only when he saw his son on the horizon?  Upon much contemplation, I confess I have much to learn.  I must be as that father, my grace and love for all, especially my loved ones, must be extended free from any sign of their turning.  Certainly the grace I felt from God when He saved me was not withheld conditional upon my own heart turning in repentance.  It is grace that leads to repentance.

The Bible does not teach us that we, in some state of repentance, turn the heart of God toward us.  Paul wrote to the Ephesian believers that it is by God’s grace that we are saved and that our salvation has nothing to do with any work that would merit us favorable toward being saved. It is clearly stated that it is God’s grace, His loving kindness that initiates the wayward heart toward any feeling of being sorry, penitent.

I am learning that I need to think before I speak.  I need to pause and consider all of the scriptures, the whole counsel of God, before I answer.  I need to think on a heavenly level instead of an earthly level. 

"Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?" Rom. 2:4

Coach/PJ

Fear

I remember as a child walking up the hollow at night to catch catfish in the pond.  The old road twisted and turned by caves, dark woods, foggy hayfields and the Redd family graveyard, as well as an old homestead and barn that were deteriorating. Often the wind off the hilltops would howl and cause the loose tin to bang and rattle.  I look back at those moments and wonder how in the world I ever made it to the pond.  The lure of the pull on my rod had to have been strong.

In a man’s study called “Stepping Up,” Several men and sons in our church confronted the definition of real manhood. Our men’s study at noon on Wednesdays has also mixed in some great teaching on being a man. I recall lessons such as rejecting passivity, accepting responsibility and leading with integrity. 

Read about Moses, Joshua and Esther this week and the courage they demonstrated in leading Israel in difficult times of her history.  In Esther’s case, she had to confront her fear of certain death by confronting the king with the violent scheme of Haman to destroy her people, the Jews.  She had to overcome her fear and trust in the Lord’s invisible hand of providence and the truth that His people are always under His watchful eye even when we must risk everything for Him.

Plato said that “Courage is knowing what not to fear.”   The Bible tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We need His wisdom, so we must begin to know Him intimately and trust that His eye is ever upon us. 

I read this week that “without Christ, you are all you have.” I am so glad we have Christ!  I am so glad we have one another—in Christ.

Coach/PJ

Gratitude

“We’re grateful to you for saving us.  We will never forget what you have done for us.” This is a statement very near to many today.  Consider the many in history that have made this statement.  The people of Israel, though they complained against Moses and God in the wilderness, one might argue that some may have expressed this sincere gratitude. Slaves in every part of the world, when freed by any entity would certainly say this to their rescuer.  Certainly there are recordings of freed American slaves expressing such gratitude to the work of Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman and others. Jews across Europe have thanked those, like Oskar Schindler, who helped them escape the death chambers.  From the Talmud we read, "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire."  I heard a similar statement by a desperate mother to the man who would attempt to rescue her daughters from ISIS, “If you’d save all these girls, you would give us the whole world.”   We recently viewed the PBS Frontline segment, “Escaping ISIS.” A Yazidi man, who escaped ISIS was featured in his mission to rescue as many of the thousands of Yazidi women and children captured by ISIS to be bought, sold, molested, raped and killed.  With each rescue, I heard this familiar statement… “Thank you for saving me.  I will never forget what you have done for me.” I often thank God for saving me.  I do.  I had to pause when I heard this played out in front of my eyes—escape from sin, persecution, captivity, gross and barbaric mistreatment, and escape from religious tyranny.  Seeing a group of refugees crossing over a hillside still in range of ISIS gunfire, embracing fathers, brothers and mothers, from whom they had been separated months to years, hearing their cries and extreme gratitude, then encountering their savior, lawyer turned warrior, Khalil al-Dakhi, I came to a surreal moment of truth—how really grateful am I that my Jesus, my Savior, gave His life to rescue mine from this same death?  When I thank Him, is it just part of my prayer, or might I really pause and consider from whence have I been rescued?

“We’re grateful to You for saving us.  We will never forget what You have done for us!”

Coach/PJ