This past weekend our David's Tent congregation hosted Brian Slater of Chosen People Ministries. This is the very same Brian whose work John and I supported and participated in when we visited Israel last May. He is literally the hands, mouth, and feet of Messiah Yeshua in the land of Israel, feeding the poor, clothing the naked, visiting those in the prisons, ministering to the Holocaust survivors who have been neglected and abandoned, and bringing the Gospel of Messiah Yeshua to the Jewish people. What an inspiration his life and ministry are to us! It brought me full-circle to an examination of my own faith journey. If we sit around a table, week after week, studying, examining and debating the Scriptures, but not DOING what they say, how are we living out the great Commission with which our Master entrusted us? How are we bringing others into the Kingdom? How am I a life prepared for God?
Today's post from Pastor Francis Frangipane ("A Life Prepared for God") spoke answers to these questions of my heart. I felt led to pass it on to all of you. The days are short, my friends. The harvest all around us, even in our own neighborhoods, is utterly ripe for picking; people are losing homes, jobs, friends, and stability. People are losing hope. Shall we spend our time behind closed doors studying Torah? Or shall we we follow the model of our Master, and sit with the tax collectors, the prostitutes, and the poor, and offer a long, cool drink of salvation?
"Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says! Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror, and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect Torah that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, BUT DOING IT - he will be blessed in what he does." James 1:22-25.A Life Prepared for God by Francis Frangipane:
I love the Word of God. I have a burning passion that my words, whether written or spoken, might be filled with the substance of God. I love comparing translations, researching commentaries and then using that holy information to prepare teachings. Several years ago, however, I found myself being corrected by the Lord. I had spent too much time preparing my message for a service. Suddenly, the Holy Spirit interrupted my study to recalibrate my focus. He said, "I have called you, not just to prepare sermons, but to prepare people."
This was a subtle, but profoundly significant correction. I was reminded of John the Baptist who was sent as a "forerunner before [the Messiah]." God had called John "to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luke 1:17).
There is a difference between preparing a message about God and preparing a people for God. As we approach the end of this age, I believe our Father is in the process of training people to serve during the last great harvest. Our destiny is to "grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Messiah" (Eph. 4:15). This means, we must not only know that Jesus heals but know who He intends to heal and how He wants to heal them.
You see, our quest is not only to possess accurate theology, but that the actual "life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:11).
Thus, it is of the utmost importance that we settle the eternal goal for our lives. Are we seizing life's opportunities to appropriate Messiah or are we mostly coasting? Let us say with vision and assurance, I am preparing myself for God!
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. (Psalm 23:4-5)
