Sunday January 9, 2011

from the series: Don’t spend your life, invest your life!

2 Kings 13:14-21

When Elisha was in his last illness, King Jehoash of Isreal visited him and wept over him. “My father! My father! The chariots and charioteers of Isreal!”  he cried. Elisha told him, “Get a bow and some arrows.” And the king did as he was told.  Then Elisha told the king of Isreal to put his hand on the bow, and Elisha laid his own hands on the king’s hands.  Then he commanded, “Open that eastern window,” and he opened it.  Then he said, “Shoot!” So he did. Then Elisha proclaimed, “This is the Lord’s arrow, full of victory over Aram, for you will completely conquer the Arameaans at Aphek.  Now pick up the other arrows and strick them against the ground.”  So the king picked them up and struck the ground three times.  But the man of God was angry with him.  “You should have struck the ground five or six times!” he exclaimed.  “Then you would have beaten Aram until they were entirely destroyed.  Now you will be victorious only three times.”   Then Elisha died and was buried.  Groups of Moabite raiders used to invade the land each spring.  Once when some Israelites were burying a man, they spied a band of these raiders.  So they hastily threw the body they were burying into the tomb of Elisha.  But as soon as the body touched Elisha’s bones, the dead man revived and jumped to his feet!

Hebrews 11:8-10

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance.  He went without knowing where he was going.  And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—- for he was like a foreigner, living in a tent.  And so did Isaac and Jacob, to whom God gave the same promise.  Abraham did this because he was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by god.

If you’ve given yourself to following Jesus, ask yourself if you feel under obligation—enslaved!— towards all people that they might encounter God.

If so, how do you feel about that?  Does that feel like good news or bad news?

If not, how do you fell about that? Does that feel like good news or bad news?

If so, is God calling you into bold steps of faith—things outside of your comfort zone?  How do you feel about those things? Do you see them as sacraments or do they need to pay off soon or you’re out of there?

Have you tried bold things for God in the past that haven’t, on the surface, seemed to pay off, How do you feel about those things now?  Might they be sacraments that are now or will soon reap a harvest?

What fresh, bold, sacramental step is God calling you into now that all might encunter God?

Psalm 139:23-24

Search me, God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.