Western Hills Christian Church: “You are family here!”

The Father Draws You

He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
John 6:65

Throughout Jesus’ ministry on earth, He never seemed intimidated by the crowds.  Instead, He looked into the multitudes and focused on those whom His Father was sending to Him.  Jesus knew that because of sin, no one naturally seeks after God.  Sinful man’s inclination is to hide from God, rather than to come to Him (Genesis 3:8; Psalm 14:1-3).  Therefore, whenever Jesus saw that the Father was drawing a person to Himself, Jesus immediately began relating to that person.

Jesus observed the great lengths to which the despised tax collector, Zacchaeus, had gone in order to see Him pass by.  In response, Jesus immediately left the crowd and spent time with this man in whom the Father was obviously working (Luke 19:1-10).  When Jesus noticed a man following after Him, Jesus spoke to Andrew, “Come!” (John 1:39).  Every time the disciples experienced a new insight into the truths of God, Jesus recognized that it was the Father who had been at work in their lives (Matthew 16:17).

As your desire to spend time alone with Jesus, recognize that this is the Father drawing you to His Son.  You do not seek quiet times with God in order to experience Him.  The fact that He has brought you to a place of fellowship with Him is evidence that you are already sensing His activity.  As you read the Scriptures and pray, trust that God will honor your response to His leading by teaching you more about Himself.

Henry and Richard Blackaby
Experiencing God Day-by-Day

Your people shall be volunteers In the day of Your power.
Psalm 110:3

One mark of revival, during which God comes to His people in power, is that God’s people are compelled to offer their lives for His service. Many churches lack people who are willing to get involved in carrying out God’s redemptive work. The mission fields are crying out for Christians to go and share the gospel with those who’ve never heard it. What we need is not more pleas for volunteers, but an outpouring of the power of God. When God comes among His people in power, there is never a shortage of volunteers or resources for His work!

When Christians today are asked what aspects of the Christian life are most important to them, missions is not usually ranked as a priority. This is because we have lost track of why God called us in the first place. We were not saved from our sin simply so that we would qualify for heaven. God delivered us so we would have a relationship with Him through which He could carry out His mission to redeem a lost world.

Only the power of God can free us from our natural self-centeredness and reorient us toward the mission of God. There is no need to pray that God would come in power. That is the only way He ever comes. We need hearts that are so responsive to Him that He will choose to demonstrate His power through us. Is your heart so filled with love for God that you are watching for the first opportunity to say with Isaiah, “Here am I. Send me!”?

Henry and Richard Blackaby
Experiencing God Day-by-Day

"By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God" (Hebrews 11:5)

Our second hero of faith is Enoch. Genesis 5:21-24 records that "Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him."

What a wonderful epitaph: "Enoch walked with God." His life exemplifies the walk of faith. Adam and Eve had walked with God in the Garden of Eden, but their sin separated them from such intimacy. Enoch experienced the fellowship with God they had forfeited.

Enoch’s faithful walk pleased God greatly. And after more than three hundred years on earth, Enoch was translated to heaven without ever experiencing death. It’s as if God simply said, "Enoch, I enjoy your company so much, I want you to join me up here right now."

Like Enoch, there is coming a generation of Christians who will never see death. Someday–perhaps soon–Jesus will return for His church, "then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up . . . in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians. 4:17). Enoch is a beautiful picture of that great future event, which we call the rapture of the church.

As you walk with God, He delights in you. You’re His child and your praises and fellowship bring Him joy. Psalm 116:15 says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones." Even death itself simply ushers you into His presence for all eternity.

Let the joy of intimacy with God, and the anticipation of seeing Christ face to face–either by rapture or by death– motivate you to please Him more and more each day of your life.

Suggestions for Prayer: Thank God for the promise of Christ’s return.

For Further Study:

Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

What events surround the rapture of the church?
How were the Thessalonians to respond to Paul’s teaching about the rapture?
How should you respond?

From Drawing Near by John MacArthur Copyright © 1993. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.com.

David reminds me of a simple principle of Christianity that sadly gets lost on our parts at times as we pursue Christianity vs.. pursuing Christ.

Psalm 25
”1 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;

2 in you I trust, O my God.
       Do not let me be put to shame,
       nor let my enemies triumph over me.

3 No one whose hope is in you  
       will ever be put to shame,
       but they will be put to shame 
       who are treacherous without excuse.

4 Show me your ways, O LORD,  
       teach me your paths;

5 guide me in your truth and teach me,
       for you are God my Savior,
       and my hope is in you all day long.

6 Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love,
       for they are from of old.

7 Remember not the sins of my youth
       and my rebellious ways;
       according to your love remember me,
       for you are good, O LORD.

8 Good and upright is the LORD;
       therefore he instructs sinners in his ways. (continue with rest of Psalm 25)”

If God isn’t the object or our faith, doesn’t “Christianity” become just another religion?

Grace and peace be with you.