Ephesians 1:3-10 “keeping Score”
Vince Lombardi said “if winning is not important then why do
they keep score?” one of the important things to do in learning or teaching how
to pray is to keep score. God has blessed us with many answers to our prayers
and with many blessings as our passage reminds us. James 1:17 reminds us that
all good things are a gift from God.
Yet we are not quick to give God the credit He is due. If we
keep score on our prayer life we find that God does answer prayer, prayer is important
and prayer changes things.
While I was going to expand that idea for us something else
came up.
The South Carolina shooting has been heavy on my heart and
mind. It is only the latest of many mass shooting and violent killings in our
country. How do we make sense of these events and our countries falling away
from God? As I prayed about these things my spirit settled on Matthew 24:9-14.
Jesus was asked by the disciples when the end would come. Jesus gives His
answer in Matthew 24:9-14.
Jesus’ chilling response sounds like the reading of our
daily news. We need to understand that Jesus told us these kind things would
happen. Nations will rise and nations will fall, lawlessness will be increased,
and the love of many grow cold. This is all part of the judgement of the world
and the precursor to Jesus’ return.
Can God use these horrible events to do good things?
Yes. January 8th 1956 Jim
Elliot was murdered along with 4 others while on the mission field in Ecuador.
God used this tragedy to spark a revival in missions. Hundreds of new missionaries
joined the effort to reach the lost people of the world. The tribe of people
who killed Jim Elliot where won to Christ by his widow and three children who
went to live with the tribe. The man who murdered Jim that day also came to
trust Jesus as savior.
Could God use the South Carolina shooting and other killings
in our country in the same way? Yes. If we grasp that these things show us the desperate
condition of our society, and we choose to respond.
April 15th 1912 the Titanic hit an iceberg and
sank, the real tragedy of that day was not a sinking ship, it was the half
empty life boat that did not go back to rescue those left in the water. They
feared they would be swamped by people so they stayed away. Fear of the violence
of our decaying world and nation could lead us to pull away and hide. We could
choose to play it safe like so many of the Titanic’s life boats.
Jim Elliot knew about the violent nature of the tribe he was
going to as a missionary. When asked about why he would risk his life to reach
these people for Christ? He said “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep
to gain that which he cannot lose.”
Read Ephesians 1:3-10
We have been blessed with forgiveness and grace in the midst
of Gods plan for the fullness of time. We have been blessed to be in the only
life boat in the tribulation that is the end of time. Jesus is the only cure
for the lawlessness and hopelessness of the world. God has made these things
know to us that we might save as many as we can from the now cold and frigid
waters of life.
We know where this world is headed and we know the ship is
going down. We have the only life boat available in a sea of drowning and
freezing people, our task is to save as many as we can.
Read Matthew 24:9-14
We know where this world is headed and we know the ship is
going down. We have the only life boat available in a sea of drowning and
freezing people, our task is to save as many as we can.
