Let’s Get excited About The Mystery Of The Gospel
"My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ." (Col 2:2)
Pastor’s blog: Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF 8-7-09
Everyone loves a mystery. People are intrigued by mysteries. They want to solve a mystery before anyone. Thomas Jefferson’s friend and mathematician, Robert Patterson, encrypted a message over 200 years ago. People have been trying decode his text since then and finally someone has. It turns out that the mystery text is actually the Declaration Of Independence. Robert Patterson was a genius to make an encryption that would stymie our best minds for two hundred years.
But there is mystery that God has given, that could never be solved by even the most clever of people. It is mystery that no person could even have conceived, even if they were told. (Acts 13:41) It is mystery that must be revealed to us by God himself. And this mystery that was hidden from ancient times, has now been revealed. The mystery of God is Christ himself…Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Col 1:27) In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. When Christ dwells in our hearts, we are encouraged in heart and united in love. The other part of the mystery is that God wants to save all people, even the Gentiles. When Gentiles accept the gospel, then they, too, are indwelt by Christ. They have the same hope to reign with Christ in the heavenly kingdom. You may think that this obvious. But to millions upon millions of people, these facts are still a mystery and many aspects of this mystery may be still mysterious to you. My question is, why are we so excited about discovering the meaning of small mysteries, and ignore understanding the greatest and most glorious and ancient mystery of all, the mystery of the gospel of Jesus?
Friday, August 7, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
"Fast Food" God
The God Of The Bible Is Not A “Fast food” God
1 Samuel 7:2, “It was a long time, twenty years in all, that the ark remained at Kiriath
Jearim, and all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the
LORD….”
Pastors Blog Kevin Jesmer 7-17-09
Throughout the Bible God has revealed what he can do when a person, or a group of people live by faith for twenty years. From the Bible we can see that God sent Isaac to Abraham and Sarah after 25 years of living by faith in God’s promise. In 1 Samuel 7 we see that Israel was changed when Samuel faithfully taught the Bible and prayed for 20 years. Moses spent 40 years being trained in the desert before he was ready to return to Egypt to lead his people to the Promised Land. In this country we are used to fast food. We have a change of President every four years. We change our career path by getting a four year bachelor’s degree. We expect change in at least four years. We think that if a small house church doesn’t outgrow itself and have to move into new facilities in 4 years then it is being unfruitful and God is not blessing it. But this is not so. The God of the Bible is a God who works over 20 year periods of time (or even more) to bring about his good purpose.
This celebration was especially significant for another reason. It was held in a conference room in the heart of Triton College, on the Fourth of July weekend, at that. Triton College actually opened its doors to us. Literally, for 16 years they could not penetrate the culture of Triton College. But lately, the Triton Bible Club, has become an integral part of the Triton College Community. They were voted “Outstanding Student Group” for one year. Last year, Pastor Teddy was invited to be a prayer servant during the NIU Shooting memorial. Some Bible club members are studying the Bible at Triton UBF church. Indeed, God is raising Triton UBF to be a ministry for Triton students. This has all come about after twenty years of faithful Bible study and prayer. May we repent of our impatience and our “fast food” mentality when it comes to doing the work of God. May we wait in God’s time and let God work according to his plan. All we need to do is pray and be faithful to our mission.
1 Samuel 7:2, “It was a long time, twenty years in all, that the ark remained at Kiriath
Jearim, and all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the
LORD….”
Pastors Blog Kevin Jesmer 7-17-09
Throughout the Bible God has revealed what he can do when a person, or a group of people live by faith for twenty years. From the Bible we can see that God sent Isaac to Abraham and Sarah after 25 years of living by faith in God’s promise. In 1 Samuel 7 we see that Israel was changed when Samuel faithfully taught the Bible and prayed for 20 years. Moses spent 40 years being trained in the desert before he was ready to return to Egypt to lead his people to the Promised Land. In this country we are used to fast food. We have a change of President every four years. We change our career path by getting a four year bachelor’s degree. We expect change in at least four years. We think that if a small house church doesn’t outgrow itself and have to move into new facilities in 4 years then it is being unfruitful and God is not blessing it. But this is not so. The God of the Bible is a God who works over 20 year periods of time (or even more) to bring about his good purpose.
This celebration was especially significant for another reason. It was held in a conference room in the heart of Triton College, on the Fourth of July weekend, at that. Triton College actually opened its doors to us. Literally, for 16 years they could not penetrate the culture of Triton College. But lately, the Triton Bible Club, has become an integral part of the Triton College Community. They were voted “Outstanding Student Group” for one year. Last year, Pastor Teddy was invited to be a prayer servant during the NIU Shooting memorial. Some Bible club members are studying the Bible at Triton UBF church. Indeed, God is raising Triton UBF to be a ministry for Triton students. This has all come about after twenty years of faithful Bible study and prayer. May we repent of our impatience and our “fast food” mentality when it comes to doing the work of God. May we wait in God’s time and let God work according to his plan. All we need to do is pray and be faithful to our mission.
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