Vessels Unto Honor

“”But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” II Timothy 2:20, 21

Here the church, or the body of Christ, is depicted as a house or dwelling place with some furniture of great value; some of smaller value, and put to meager use or no use at all. Today, as well as in Biblical days vessels used around the house have their place of service. Expensive vessels are reserved for special purposes. The cheapest vessels are expendable and in some cases thrown or given away if rendered unuseful.

The materials used in the building (Church) may be interpreted in at least four ways:

(a) The gold, silver, costly stones refer to the enduring quality of the builder’s work; and the wood, hay, or straw suggest work that is temporary and valueless. This view is supported by “work” (v. 13) and “what he has built” (v. 14). (b

I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realm (Ephesians 2:6)

by Rich Miller

Where you sit makes a difference.

At the reception, the wedding party has a special table of honor and they often are served first. In a courtroom, the judge has his own chair, presiding over the proceedings, and people may only come near him if invited. A kid would never think to walk into homeroom and take the teacher's seat as his own. You just don't do that! Even around our dinner table, everyone has their designated spot and Shirley and I occupy the two head seats, facing each other. If one of the kids decided to "feel their oats" and take one of those seats, they would receive a stern look and probably a growl!

While growing up I remember holiday feasts where there was never enough room around the main "adult" table for the kids to sit there too. We children had our own place to eat, often an old card table dragged out of the closet and recruited for duty. Usually, if we wanted food we had to wait for the adults to get their fill and then petition them to pass it from the main table. It was very clear who was honored and important and who was not! It was a memorable moment when one was invited to sit at the adult table.

Covet the Best Gifts

Written by Jack Hayford

"Covet earnestly the best gifts." - 1 Corinthians 12:31 (KJV)

It's amazing to see how the light dawns among students, pastors, and believers as we study the distinction between the gifts of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Learning to distinguish the source and purpose of the different gifts of the Godhead truly opens up "the eyes of our understanding."

All of us who know the Lord are all filled with a stirring inside that draws us to find our place as a ministering member of the Body of Christ. Some are called to vocational ministry but for all believers, there are gifts to be recognized, cultivated, and then distributed to others. We are learning how to be His hands extended.

Gaining a clear understanding of what the Word of God says about the gifts of the Godhead will help to form in you a basis for the operation of those gifts—not only in yourself, but also as ministry tools for cultivation of His Kingdom.

God Wants You Well

"For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord" (Jeremiah 30:17)

God wants you well! He wants you healthy and strong in every single area of your life.

He wants you to be spiritually strong. Strong in faith. Strong in the Word. Strong in redemption. Strong in the love of God.

He wants you to be well in your mind, to be strong and stable emotionally.

He wants you to have a healthy will, a will that's aligned with His will.

He wants your body to be well. He wants you free from the bondages of pain, sickness, and care. Free from the worries and woes of this earthly life.

Treasures in the New and the Old - The Great Commission

Rick Joyner

This week we are continuing to examine the Lord’s important Word about the scribes who become disciples in Matthew 13:52:

          “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old.”

I once heard a pastor say that his wife had prepared several thousand meals for him during their years of marriage. He said that only a few of these were so exceptional that they stood out to him, but all the other meals kept him going! We can love the exceptional, the new, and the exciting; however, there must be a place in our spiritual diet for teachings that may not be outstanding but are nutritional and keep us going.

I love the fellowship of those who are so hungry that they will travel far to hear a great preacher or teacher. God obviously rewards such hunger. Even so, if we only seek the “wow” sermons and cannot receive the practical truths of which we need to be constantly reminded, we will be weak Christians. The wise seek both the new and the old.

The Key to the Supernatural

Kenneth W. Hagin

To download a free PDF of this book, click here.

The Lord has been showing me for sometime now that the key to the last day move of the supernatural power of God will be found in two words: “unity” and “accord.” According to the dictionary, the word “unity” means “the state of being one or united; oneness; singleness.”

Another definition is “the quality of being one in spirit, sentiment, purpose, etc.” Unity also “implies oneness, as in spirit, aims, interests, feelings, etc., of that which is made up of diverse elements of individuals.”

“Accord” means almost the same thing: “to make, agree or harmonize; to be in agreement or harmony; mutual agreement; harmony; all agreeing; with no one dissenting.”

The Theme of Acts

Nothing to Be Afraid Of

"He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." (Hebrews 13:5-6)

Self-consciousness is a major problem in the Body of Christ today. It keeps us from doing the things God tells us to do. Instead of simply obeying Him, it makes us start to wonder, "Now what will people think of me if I do that? What if I command that person to get out of the wheelchair and he doesn't get up? What if I start believing for prosperity and go broke? What about that, God? I won't look too good, will I?"

Why Benny Hinn’s Second Wedding Matters More

STEVE STRANG

 

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Benny and Suzanne Hinn were remarried at the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Fla., last Sunday.

I attended Benny and Suzanne Hinn’s first wedding in 1979, so it was an emotional experience to attend their second wedding on Sunday at the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Fla.

I’ve known Suzanne since she was 14 and Benny since he first came to the U.S. from Canada around age 25. I was involved in their courtship when Benny asked me to send Suzanne some flowers to make amends when they broke up once—because I was in Orlando and he was in Canada. (This was before the days of 1-800-Flowers.) I even hosted Benny’s bachelor party in 1979. So I have a unique perspective as a long-time friend of the family.

Over the years, Benny has been on the cover of Charisma twice, including in 1978 when he was largely unknown in the U.S., and I’ve published a couple of his books.

Stick to Your Calling

"Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God.... Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." (2 Timothy 1:6,9)

Are you doing what God called you to do?

If you haven't ever thought about it before, that may sound like an odd question to you. You may be tempted to shrug it off and say, "Oh, I'm not really called to do anything. I'm not a pastor or a teacher or a minister of any kind...I guess I'm just what you might call a little finger on the Body of Christ."

Be Skillful

"The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." (Psalm 34:10)

Did you know that, according to the Word of God, there is no lack in the Body of Christ? Everything we could ever need, every problem we could ever face has been covered by the blood of Jesus. His exceeding great and precious promises have supplied it all.

Why then do many of us keep on suffering lack? Because we haven't, as Hebrews 5:13 says, become skillful in the Word of righteousness.

It takes skill to apply the Word of God. Sometimes we just sling the Word around and try to use it any old way. We pray some ignorant prayer and then say, "Oh well, God knows what I mean" and expect it to be answered.

Take Your Place

[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding [the wonders of His Person]more strongly and more clearly. And that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection." (Philippians 3:10, The Amplified Bible)

The more you fellowship with God around His Word, the more you'll know the "power outflowing from His resurrection." You'll develop joy. You'll develop faith. You'll start developing God's own characteristics... just by fellowshiping with Him. You'll begin to understand who you really are in Jesus.

I remember one day I was reading the story of the woman with the issue of blood who touched the hem of Jesus' garment and was healed.

I'd read the story many times and pictured myself as almost everybody in the story...just experiencing how it would feel to be someone in the crowd or even the one who was healed.

Suddenly God spoke to my spirit and said, "Read that again and this time picture yourself as the one wearing the garment."

Where's God When It Hurts?

This question has probably created more atheists than any other question. Worse, the seething anger that sometimes lies behind it has probably created more insane people than any other. And justly so. While faith in God doesn't logically stand or fall just on this matter, it hinges on it more than any other so far as our experience of the life of faith is concerned.

If that offends some of you, well, tough. True, we have no right at all to expect or demand a suffering-free state of false bliss that would leave each and all of us as bored dilettants living a sterile and stupid life. That is, if you can call something 'life' which has no challenges, no repentances, no learning, no growing, all of which only come through trial, error, taking part, success, pain, loss, and suffering. (We can safely ignore the many fools who think that way.) But does there have to be the kind of suffering that some people go through?

Suffering of apparently unquenchable pain, immeasurable loss, utter hopelessness, total abandonment? Suffering that will end in a slow death, like lung cancer? The very fact that there is such suffering gives good cause to doubt not only the value of the whole human race, but also the existence of any God that can be said to care in the slightest for what's been created, any God who has power over all things, any God who is anything other than a horrible brute who finds sadistic whimsical joy in squeezing every last drop of suffering out of those who've been created. It would seem to rule out anything even vaguely resembling the God that Christians speak of -- and rule in a God who deserves our utter hatred not our worship.

Except for one thing ........

.... except that God knows this is true, and set out to do something about it. Not by overriding the freedom God had put into nature and into creatures, especially the human ones. Not by working instant repairs on the universe so that all is blissfully well (that would be a jerk-God, a more powerful version of the fools I wrote off earlier), or by pulling a string here or there from a distance. But by choosing to fully take part in what is happening. The choice : soiled ancient diapers, skinned childhood knees, and dirtied adult feet. 

God felt what acceptance and rejection are like at a human level. God walked among people in the same way they walk among each other, talk to them at their level, with their sufferings small and large, face to face, person to person. God taught them in their language, with sound waves instead of spiritual whispers, from within their tradition, from within the world they knew, a world teeming with truth smothered in their own lies. But even more : God had to face the ultimate in human rejection -- to be publicly executed for having spoken and lived the truth. 

That's something not even God wanted to go through, but the whole point of it all was to go through things that no one wants to go through, if that's what it takes to complete the task at hand, for real. (In fact, that's what 'for real' is all about.)

Every Christmas, Christians celebrate (or are supposed to celebrate) this choice. Every Good Friday, Christians mourn (or are supposed to mourn) how far it had to go. Every Easter, Christians revel in the empty tomb, the risen and present Lord of all, whose love meant that death could not be -- must not be -- the final answer.

Jesus was that choice. Jesus is the divine answer to suffering. Jesus is the answer a Christian has to the problem of suffering. Jesus knows. Jesus cares. And Jesus is suffering alongside each one who suffers, ever more so as the suffering increases. The 'why' of suffering is a mystery; you'll never know the reason why, or even if there is a reason. The reply of God is no mystery, or at least, no more mysterious than love itself.

"You need not cry very loud; God is nearer to us than we think." ------ Brother Lawrence

But He's Not Here Anymore ...

Yet Jesus is not the Christian's answer to suffering by Himself. The phrase that the New Testament used for describing the fellowship of Christ's followers is "the Body of Christ". There are many angles to this, angles which are marital, sexual, medical, and so on. But let's use a biological angle, one that the apostle Paul used: Jesus is the head of the Body. That, of course, means that Jesus is not the arms, legs, hands, and such. That is what the believers are. As Paul saw it, they are a unit, a whole, just as a human body is a whole, yet each believer is an identifiable part with a function in the overall Body.

Jesus is no longer physically here. His role as head is signaled to the Body through the Spirit, the nerve impulses that cause the Body to work. Jesus can no longer hold the hand of the sufferer, wrap His arms around them, and give the comfort of a physical embrace. He can no longer move His legs to where the sufferers are, so that He can physically address them face to face, look them in the eyes, grasp hold of their needs, render through sound waves the needed words of comfort or challenge, lay hands to bring physical healing. That role is to be done by the Body of Christ in the physical world -- that is, by the believers, as a whole, in subgroups and organizations, and as people.

If you want to see a key part of God's answer to suffering, look into a mirror. If what you're looking at isn't much of an answer to anyone's suffering, then pray that the Spirit's signals start directing you.

gotquestions  http://www.spirithome.com/suffering.html