It's so easy to look at others…your friends, your family members, even your church body, and list all the problems they have. "They do this wrong" "they have this attitude" "they really need to change this" "they need to do this more" "they really should…" It's pretty easy to spot the areas they are slacking in and notice the major sins or problems they have. It's not really uncommon to hear complaints about problems "in the church" or to hear about the most recent "issue" with a friend. I know, because I have done my share of complaining. We excuse our critical stabs by saying "we just need to pray for them: so here's a list"…might I add, we make a pretty exhaustive list most often. We share our list with others, vent about the problems…and maybe we do actually offer the list up in prayer. However, what I have been challenged with recently in my own heart is the attitude with which I pray. Is it always "Lord, they have this problem, could you please change them"? I know I'd like to call this intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer is Biblical, and a must for every believer…but true intercession, can it be found? The Spirit makes intercession on our behalf, and Jesus prays for us daily, He IS our intercessor! (Rom 8:26; 8:34; Heb 7:25). Likewise we are instructed to pray for each other (more than once in the New Testament). Paul talks about praying for each other a lot; in fact he opens and closes most of his letters with some comment to that effect. I find it easy to pray for those who are hurting, sick, or needy. Prayers of thanksgiving and compassion come easy to me. But what I am referring to is a specific type of intercessory prayer, and that is for those who appear to be in some sort of sin…this includes sins of omission! These prayers seem to change the attitude with which we pray …"Lord, fix them, they aren't doing enough" or "Lord, they are just not getting it, help them to see what they should be doing!" I have noticed recently a desire to see things change in our church family. A good thing. I see the desire for revival and for renewed hearts towards service. However, I need to be reminded what side of the fence I am on. When one part of the body suffers all suffer. Therefore, when one part of the body sins…well, the body is at fault. What got me thinking about this are Jeremiah and Isaiah. Take Jeremiah. When he looked at impending judgment and saw the disgusting apostasy of Israel…what did he pray?  Does he say "God judge them!" No. He says" We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God." (Jer 3:25) Wow.  He doesn’t say "they" he says "we". He says "we have sinned…and our fathers"! He confesses the sin of the nation corporately. I was reminded that as I pray for my church family, as I intercede for friends or family…when I confess their sin for them, I should confess the sin corporately, God does not respond to a critical judgmental heart. Intercession means pleading on behalf of someone else. Jesus is our intercessor and he pleads on our behalf before the Father. Can you see Jesus saying "Look at their sin! Change them!". I can't. Think about what Jesus has done for us. Think about HIS attitude... "Father, look no longer on their sin, for I have taken their place. Punish me and set them free". Is this our attitude when we pray for others? We must confess the sins of the body of Christ, but we must also be willing to put ourselves in that place. 

"On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a little life-saving station. The building was primitive, and there was just one boat, but the members of the life-saving station were committed and kept a constant watch over the sea. When a ship went down, they unselfishly went out day or night to save the lost. Because so many lives were saved by that station, it became famous. Consequently, many people wanted to be associated with the station to give their time, talent, and money to support its important work. New boats were bought, new crews were recruited, a formal training session was offered. As the membership in the life-saving station grew, some of the members became unhappy that the building was so primitive and that the equipment was so outdated. They wanted a better place to welcome the survivors pulled from the sea. So they replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged and newly decorated building.

Now the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members. They met regularly and when they did, it was apparent how they loved one another. They greeted one another, hugged one another, and shared with one another the events that had been going on in their lives. But fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions, so they hired lifeboat crews to do this for them. About this time, a large ship was wrecked off of the coast, and the hired crews brought into the life-saving station boatloads of cold, wet, dirty, sick, and half-drowned people. Some of them had black skin, and some had yellow skin. Some could speak English well, and some could hardly speak it at all. Some were first-class cabin passengers of the ship, and some were the deck hands. The beautiful meeting place became a place of chaos. The plush carpets got dirty. Some of the exquisite furniture got scratched. Because of this, the property committee immediately had a shower built outside the house where the victims of shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside.

At the next meeting, there was rift in the membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s life-saving activities, for they were unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal fellowship of the members. Other members insisted that life-saving was their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all those various kinds of people who would be shipwrecked, they could begin their own life-saving station down the coast. Do you know what? That is what they did.

As the years passed, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a place to meet regularly for fellowship, for committee meetings, and for special training sessions about their mission, but few went out to the drowning people. The drowning people were no longer welcomed in that new life-saving station. So another life-saving station was founded further down the coast. History continued to repeat itself. And if you visit that seacoast today, you will find a number of adequate meeting places with ample parking and plush carpeting. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown."

By Thomas Wedel, Ecumenical Review, October, 1953; paraphrased in Heaven Bound Living, Knofel Stanton, Standard, 1989, pp. 99-101.

May we not forget what our mission is! Lets not get so distracted that we let lost souls drown in darkness. Send the LIGHT!

Today is Good Friday, a day I look forward to all year…the night we celebrate Passover! Celebrating Passover has been a family tradition for as long as I can remember. It has always been a family event…we spend the day cooking, decorating, and preparing for the ceder ceremony and Passover feast. It is definitely a highlight for all of us, and makes Easter all the more special. Passover is the last meal the Israelites ate in Egypt, and is also the Last Supper Jesus shared with His disciples. It is a time of celebrating redemption! Of course, we know that Christ fulfilled the Passover, so what we celebrate is not the ritualism, but the fulfillment of Christ as our Passover Lamb.

I want to share an excerpt from a book that describes this for us:

There are a number of ways God could have described himself to Moses and the Hebrews at the time of the giving of the Ten Commandments. He might have said, I am the Lord your God who created the heavens and the earth. Instead, "God spoke all these words saying, 'I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." By God's action of redemption from physical slavery in Egypt, He calls these people to be His own. "I will take you to Me for a people." And "I will be to you your God." The uniqueness of this God was His direct, personal involvement with His people. He entered their lives and showed Himself clearly. That hasn't changed. Many years later, at the same time they were celebrating the remembrance of their physical freedom, He acted again, this time providing spiritual freedom. His firstborn Son, Yeshua, became our Redeemer, sacrificed on the altar of the cross, freeing us from our slavery to sin." (Celebrating Biblical Feasts, by M. Zimmerman.)

 
May we rejoice this weekend as we celebrate God's unspeakable gift of redemption. Praise God for the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus, THE Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!