Jerry Leachman was chaplain for the
Washington Redskins for over 13 years. He’s also in charge of an
influential prayer breakfast in Washington, DC. Recently Jerry was asked
to speak at every school in the Ivy League about his perspective on faith,
character and values. According to Proverbs 18:16, “A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings
him before great men.” Jerry’s prayer life is an example of the
Apostle Paul’s exhortation in 1 Timothy 3:1-3: “I exhort therefore, that, first of all,
supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all
men, For kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and
peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in
the sight of God, our Savior.” Jerry observes that on the day of
Pentecost, the miracle of Acts
Chapter 2, was not that the apostles
spoke in unknown languages, but that those in the audience received the Pentecostal
“gift of hearing.” For even though the apostles were “uneducated and
ignorant men”, who did not know other languages, each person heard from the
apostles in his own language, the wonderful works of God. This should be our
prayer: “God grant us the Pentecostal gift of hearing … that we may hear
and understand the message of Jesus Christ and that we may know Him and the
power of the resurrection.”
Revelation 5
describes the scroll that was sealed with seven seals. An angel crying
with a loud voice said, “Who is worthy to
break the seals and open the scroll?” No one could open the
scroll. According to Roman law, only the heir could open the will; the
scroll of the title to God’s creation. According to verse 5, “see the Lion of the tribe of Judah
who is able to open the scroll of the seven seals.” And behold, I saw a lamb
(as in Isaiah 53), encircled with the seven spirits of God. The twenty four
elders fell down before the lamb. They held golden bowls of incense, of the
prayers of the saints. They sang a new song, “you purchased men for God, making them servants and priests for God to
serve men upon the earth.” Then I heard the voice of many angels, ten
thousands of ten thousands encircling the throne declaring “worthy is the lamb to receive power and
glory.” And every creature was saying, “Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” Then the
elders fell on the ground and worshiped Him.
In 1 Corinthians 6:18-20,
God said that we were bought with a
price. Upon the new birth, we changed teams. We became a new creation. According
to 1
Corinthians 6:14, by his own
power God raised Jesus from the dead and he will also raise us up who have
been born of his Spirit. He who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in
the Spirit. Therefore flee from sexual
immorality. Since we are joined
together in the body of Christ, we should not join ourselves with the “harlots”
and harlotry of this world. All sins other than fornication and adultery are
committed outside of a man’s body. Know ye not that ye are the temple of
the holy spirit? Ye were bought with a price; therefore honor God with
your bodies.”
We shall stop here and pick up
Michael’s message on the next post tomorrow.
In Christ, Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment