Matthew 25:1-13

"Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you."

Revelation 3:3 (NIV)

WAKE UP! The virgins heard the cry at midnight and woke up; some to find oil in their lamps and some to find their lamps dry. The foolish Christians asked the wise Christians to share their oil, but the wise Christian knows that oil can’t be shared, it must be bought.

The invitation rings through the ages (Isa 55:1) come and buy; buy without money and buy without cost. A Christian receives oil, food, milk (all symbols of spiritual life and vitality) by continually maintaining a right relationship with our Lord through His Spirit who is alive within us. This is what Jesus taught, it is what Isaiah taught, it is what the apostles taught, and it is what we have received and heard in our churches so let us do it! Let us all hold onto the teaching we have received by practicing it. Repent, draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Surrender each area of our lives to the Spirit and He will bring unction and life into those areas. Walk with God daily, sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to His Words, and our supply of oil will overflow!

When will He come back? Well, it may be today or tomorrow, or another 2,000 years, but friend that is the wrong question. The right questions are: Will I be ready to meet Him when He comes? Do I have oil overflowing in my life right now? Am I awake and doing His work? If the answers to those questions are YES, then when He comes back isn’t going to be a problem for us, for we will be ready. May we hear His voice calling WAKE UP right now, so that we won’t be caught by surprise when the whole earth hears the shout when He comes to get His church. May each of us be ready for His return. May we all be awake, dressed in white, with our lamps overflowing with oil!

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Matthew 19:27 thru 20:16

"Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God." 

Revelation 3:2 (NIV) 

Deeds matter! We have work to do, brother and sister, and our Lord calls us to wake up and be about His business. Our Lord taught us in Matthew 20 that we are like labourers hired for work in a vineyard. We are saved for work, not saved by works. A labourer sweats and struggles. A labourer doesn’t know the big picture; they aren’t filled in on the inner-workings and thoughts of those in the ivory tower. They have a specific role to play and they do it. In our 21st century economy, a labourer is the lowest paid employee in the company, and many field labourer jobs have to be filled by off-shore workers, because Canadians won’t stoop to the task.

In the kingdom, we are all labourers and we all receive the same wage personally paid out by the Lord on the day we meet Him. What a wonderful day that will be when our labour is over and we see Him face to face and He gives us our reward! But until that day comes, our Lord calls us to WAKE UP and keep working. Many of us grow weary and weak; some of us grow cold and apathetic. Some of us have been working in the kingdom for a long-long-long time, and want a break. Some of us protest like the labourers did in our Lord’s story and question the fairness of the different lengths of work periods.

Friend, our Lord calls some of us earlier in our lives than others. Some He calls while they are on their deathbed, and the only deed they do is trust Him, but others, like Peter, pour their entire lives out for His kingdom. Friend may we hear our Lord’s voice as He tells us: WAKE UP – FINISH the WORK I have given you!

We used to sing “Joy in Serving Jesus”;  haven’t sang it for years, but there is a lot of truth in its words:

                                       There is joy in serving Jesus - Joy amid the darkest night
                                For I've learned the wondrous secret - And I'm walking in the light
                                                There is joy, joy - Joy in serving Jesus             
                                     Joy that throbs within my heart - Every moment, every hour
                                                 As I draw upon His power - There is joy, joy
                                                                Joy that never shall depart

"Joy in Serving Jesus" via YouTube

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1 Kings 17

"I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.  Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon."

Luke 4:25,26 (NIV)

Another unnamed lady! Just reading the glimpse of her life that is recorded in 1 Kings 17 is enough to bring tears to my eyes. No husband; on her own and she is gathering sticks for their last meal before they die of starvation. We often see images of ladies and children like this on TV in far away places. Then her son dies and she blames herself and her sin for his death! This is a lady in distress living in a hard age, and a desperate time, with nothing to offer God or His prophet. Except there was something in this lady that caused her to OBEY the Word of the prophet.

Did she know that Elijah was the cause of this famine that was killing her? It is likely that she did; surely people were talking about the root cause of the extreme weather. Why would she listen to him, and why would she prepare his meal before hers? The Lord’s point is that God knew that she would listen and obey, and so He sent Elijah to her. Our Lord told us that there were many widows in similar situations to this widow, and yet there was a huge difference between all the other widows and this one Syrian widow. She stepped out in faith and obeyed the Word of the Lord through His prophet, and the saving presence and power of the LORD worked miracles in her life. The others suffered alone, without experiencing the saving presence and power of the LORD.

May the spirit of this lady be alive in us today. May we obey no matter the cost!

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2 Kings 5

"And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

Luke 4:27 (NIV)

This little unnamed Israelite girl is one of my heroes! She amazes me with her courage, compassion and her faith, so much so that I am looking forward to meeting her and hearing the “rest of her story”: how was she captured, was her family killed, what happened to her after Namaan came back healed, did her mistress worship the LORD, etc, etc? Make no mistake, this is the story of the conversion of a pagan. This man, who is the enemy of Israel, became a worshipper of the Most High God! All because a little girl, who was poor, oppressed, and a captive, cared enough to tell her mistress that God had a man in Israel who could heal her husband.

The king of Israel had no faith at all, and Gehazi the servant of Elisha loved money to his detriment; actually our Lord’s point is that no one in Israel had enough faith. Her parents must have been killed, for surely she received her faith from them! Namaan raged against the Word of God; it was foolishness to him, but his servants were very practical and managed to calm him down enough, to humble himself under the Word of the prophet and do what the prophet told him to do. To obey the Lord requires humility. It requires us to set our pride and reputation to one side and just OBEY. If Namaan hadn’t obeyed, he wouldn’t have been healed.

The Lord knew that His hometown wouldn’t do this. He knew that they would not OBEY Him. They would love to hear Him talk, but they would not OBEY, and therefore there would be no miracles for them. When He told them that their attitude was the issue, Namaan’s rage became their rage, and they tried to remove Jesus from their lives! Oh friend, are you looking for a miracle? Do you desire the saving presence of your Lord? Then OBEY Him. Swallow your pride and OBEY.

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Acts 1&2

"The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life."

Revelation 22:17 (NIV) 

As we wait our Lord to come for us, what are we to do? Our Lord told the disciples that they would receive power from the Holy Spirit and that they would be His witnesses. They were eye witnesses of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, and by them making this, a stipulation of the disciple replacing Judas, we know that they realized their importance in the spreading of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We read about Pentecost and the conversions that resulted from their witnessing and preaching, and we long for their power. We aren’t eye witnesses; we have heard about these things, they are recorded for us, but we must rely on the testimony of others who have been gone from this earth for a long time. So we wonder, how can we be witnesses? Was that just for them? Then we read this amazing verse at the end of the Bible, written to people like us who were not eye witnesses. The verse reminds us that we will be witnesses exactly the way the disciples were witnesses! They witnessed by the power of the Holy Spirit, and so shall we. The Spirit and the bride (the people of Parkdale) call “Come!”.

Witnessing is something that we do with and through the Spirit. The key to being a witness is dependence upon the Spirit of God. Friend, who is on your mind today? Who is it that you would like to witness to? Pray; commit this unto the Lord, and then wait - wait for the opportunity and then move with the Spirit and speak. Invite this person to come and receive the water of life that you know so well. “The Spirit and the bride call “Come!”

"The Spirit and the Bride", Matt Maher, via YouTube

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John 4:31-41; 6:25-39

"Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it."

Revelation 2:17 (NIV)

  
The letters to the seven churches are PERSONAL letters to each local church. They contain references in the praise, the warnings and exhortations, and the blessings that we can make educated guesses about, but really all we can say emphatically is, that those Christians who were part of those local churches would have understood the meaning of these local references.

There are several theories about what the white stone with a new name written on it is, but truly no one knows what this reference means, just as no one knows who Antipas was except those believers who were there when he was martyred. The hidden manna however becomes very clear in light of our Lord’s teachings recorded by John in John 4 & 6. Manna is heavenly food provided by God in a miraculous way in the wilderness. Our Lord taught that He was that Bread of Life, and that if we ate of Him we would have life. The manna is our Lord. The hidden aspect of the manna is revealed by our Lord’s response to the disciples when they came back to the well in Samaria with food for Him, and He told them that He had food they know nothing about. His food was to do the will of God (which echoes His response to the 1st temptation by Satan in the wilderness).

To the PERSON who is victorious (defined by not sharing in demon feasts and not being sexually immoral) our Lord will come and in a miraculous hidden way give that INDIVIDUAL the sustenance of life. Others won’t know what keeps us going; they will wonder at our hidden supply, but we will be sustained by the Lord Himself. What a blessed Saviour we serve!

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Jeremiah 23:25-40

"For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." 

Hebrews 4:12 (NIV) 

How many words have been uttered by humans since the beginning of mankind? We speak softly and we shout loudly. We speak in love and we curse in hatred. Words are tools that we use to get what we want, and they also set us apart from animals. Animals can make noises; they can communicate but only humans can form words. Words form pictures; words always mean something, whether spoken or written. Language forms us into communities, and separates us from other communities. I wonder what language we will speak in the kingdom, or will we speak all languages for we all understand?

The Word of God is different than human words, in that the Word of God is alive. It does more than form a known picture, it reveals the unknown. The Word of God reveals the secret things of God we need for life, but it also reveals the secret things of each human. The Word of God is our Judge; it holds a bright light to our innermost being and it cuts through the deception that is inherent in our sin nature. The Word of God is creative, for it created everything out of nothing, and the Word of God continues to create life where there is death, and light where there is darkness inside of humans who will listen.

What grace the Father has shown us, to speak us into existence, to send the Eternal Word to speak love and life, to speak Words of forgiveness, and Words of desire. Oh friend, take time to allow those Words to cut through the darkness and deception, open your life and allow the Sword and the Grain and the Fire and the Hammer that is God’s Word to shape you into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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