Col 4 - Prayer and Proclamation; Don't forget Praise!

Colossians 4 NIV

Young Evangelists - Youth Choir
Say it! Sing it! Just do it!
Share the Good News!

Prayer, praise, and proclamation; that is my evangelism strategy. As Paul closes his letter to the Colossians he reminds us to be diligent in prayer and proclamation. Devote yourself to prayer. Pray that God will open doors for the message so that mystery of Christ may be proclaimed. We don't need a program. We just need the grace of God in order to do His will.

Years ago, my congregation was involved in a multi-congregation effort to do more evangelism. We met quite a few times to talk about evangelism among ourselves. As I drove home with two of the congregations "delegates" to this consortium, we discussed the fact that we were driving quite a distance and spending an awful lot of time talking about evangelism and not actually doing any evangelism.

The truth be told we had these many meetings and had come to the conclusion that we were not of like minds. Leaders from various congregations did not trust one another; everyone seemed to have different and personal agendas, and we were not working well together. We talked a lot at every meeting; but, we never actually got to the point of proclaiming the mystery of Christ. We never got around to doing any evangelism. We had been too busy trying to figure what kinds of evangelism programs would work best. We agreed on that drive home that evening that we already knew in our hearts what we needed to do.  That we would quit wasting time, energy and financial resources talking about evangelism. We were determined to get back on track and put our time and energy into doing the ministry we had received from the Lord. Rather than just talk about it, we would get on with the business of evangelists: praying, praising God, and proclaiming the Good News through both word and deed. We presented this to the council. The motion was approved. By the grace of God, we continued to grow both in Christ and in numbers.

The growth that happened though, did not happen because of one or two or even three people. In this closing section of Paul's letter; he reminds us that he had many co-workers in the gospel. They proclaimed the Good News with one heart and mind. They served together. There were no special programs. They did not discuss strategies. By God's grace, they prayed that God would open doors and proclaimed the mystery of Christ clearly to the glory of God. And... the church grew both in Christ and in numbers.

God's Peace - Pr. J

Job 29 - Good Old Days

Job longs for the "good old days" when all was well with his life.  In fact, it was better than well.  His life was great.  He was admired, respected, looked up to.   

How many of us long for the "good old days."  I hear it all the time.  It is strange to me, though, that it is not the really elderly who I hear this most from, but more from the middle-aged.  Those who have lived 80 or 90 years have experienced enough life to know that each year will bring change and some of it will not be good.  But, they also know that much of the change to come will be good and they have learned to trust God. 

For some, who reach middle age, it is kind of a shock when we realize that we're not young any more and we want to go back to those days when we were - when everything seemed wonderful - even if, in reality, it was not.  I think, just maybe, the reality of our mortality starts hitting many of us sometime after we hit the age of 50.  We long for the "good old days" because we fear death.  If not death, maybe it's life we fear.  Maybe it's fear of not being young and beautiful, active and full energy to go out and a desire to go out and change the world.  Physically, we often cannot do what we use to do and so we long for the "good old days" when we were young and had hopes of doing great things. 

Now, I'm just surmising.  I'm sure this does not hold true for everyone.  But, it seems, it holds true for Job.  He is sick and tired.  He would be considered, after all, middle aged, as we know the rest of the story and know that he will live to prosper and even raise another family.  His life is not any where near it's end; yet, we find him today longing for the "good old days." 

May God help us to learn to enjoy each day for the gift it is.  The past is the past that has brought us to today.  It has helped make us who we are.  But, would we really want to go back to those "good old days" and learn all those lessons all over again?

God's Peace - Pr. Judy