I've Heard of You!

It feels good to sit here at my desk, starting the book of Colossians.  I began Philippians nearly six weeks ago, and being immersed in that book sustained me through some of the more difficult spiritual circumstances of my life, lately.  I'm grateful for God's sustaining grace and for His empowering direction during troubling times.  Miracles are more apparent during those times; faith is strengthened.  God is good!

At any rate, the next Pauline letter in the chronological study we've doing is Colossians.   So, onward!

4because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—

(1:4, NIV)

9For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you.

(1:9, NIV)

There are a couple of mega-churches of which I have heard and would love to visit.  One is the Brooklyn Tabernacle, in New York City.  Those of you who know I'm a musician understand my fascination.  The choir there has, for years, been glorious!
The other is John Hagee's church, in San Antonio.   I ALMOST got to visit it when I was in that town for a reading convention a few years back; but, to my misfortune, Dr. Hagee was out of the pulpit that Sunday.  Bummer!

In the verses above, Paul says he has "heard of" the church at Colosse, because he never visited there, at least, he had not to this point, nor is there any record that he did later.  By this time, A.D. 60, he was nearing the end of his ministry and his life.  Paul did not plant the church at Colosse either.  It appears from chapter 1:7 that the church was started by someone named Epaphras.  Who was he?

In his New Testament Commentary1 Warren Wiersbe notes that the Colosse was a small town.  The Colossian church, a predominantly Gentile church, was started by two converts from the church in Ephesus.  Those two converts were Epaphras and Philemon.  We can reconstruct this from comparing Acts, Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon.

Acts 19:10 tells us the scope of the Ephesian church's influence.  Ephesus was a large town, large church, which "planted" smaller churches all throughout Asia.  One of these was the Colossian church, which was probably about five years old at the time Colossians was written.

"We have heard of your faith...."

What a tremendous compliment!  Here was the renowned apostle Paul, writing to this little po-dunk church to say that their faith had come to his attention.

Another point that is key here is that this (seemingly) little "nobody" church was a key player in "spreading the gospel to every creature", as Jesus had commanded.  We are often deceived into believing that the big, flashy ministries are the ones that matter.  Just this morning I was thinking about Beth Moore, for instance.  There is no doubt in the world that her ministry has been and is continuing to be mightily used by God to save souls, release Christians from spiritual bondage, and so forth.  She has been used by God tremendously in my own life!  But, my next thought was something akin to this:  my little ministry is worth less than nothing.  That was a devil-thought sent like a flaming arrow to my spirit, right there!

I assure you that neither you nor I can comprehend the scope or influence of this ministry or any other, for that matter.  Only God knows.  I believe we will be shocked and amazed if and when God reveals to us in Heaven which ministries He used the most to further His kingdom!  Most of them we probably will never have heard of!

One of my college roommates lost her father a couple of weeks ago.  He had been pastor of his church, one church, for over 60 years!!!  Yes, you did read that right!
Or, I think of my friend, whose ministry is under tremendous spiritual attack at the moment.  Who KNOWS what God wants to do with that ministry of his, in the future, when Satan is defeated in his current attempt to destroy it!
Or, there's Jim Elliot2, whose name came up in Sunday School yesterday.  Jim's ministry to the natives in Ecuador, on the face of it, looks like a terrible tragedy.  Yet, God has used that ministry to not only bring many of those Ecuadorian natives to salvation in Jesus Christ, Jim is famous around the world today for his witness and his martyrdom.

So, my fellow believer, don't think that you are a "nobody" for the kingdom.  God knows you.  He knows your heart.  He knows the extent of your love for Him.  He wants to use you in ways that you cannot even imagine or even see with human eyes.

Be faithful.

"We have heard of your faith...."

Father, You know the name of each of us, Your children.  We may believe that what You have called us to is insignificant or, even....silly!  But, only You know the true impact of our callings, faithfully fulfilled, to Your kingdom.  Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven!  May each of us shrug off the enemy's arrows and re-affirm in our hearts the spiritual callings you have placed on our lives today.  Grow our faith exponentially, Father!  In Jesus' name, amen.

Sources:

1   Wiersbe, Warren W., and Warren W. Wiersbe. The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: The Complete New Testament in One Volume. Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2007. Print, p. 658.

2  End of the Spear, 2005.

An Essential Work

15For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16I do not cease to give thanks for you when I remember you in my prayers. 17I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of him,18– since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened – so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense strength.

In verse 15, we see that Paul is commending the Ephesian church for, first of all, their faith in Jesus Christ and, second, for their love for their fellow believers.  This parallels the new "first and second commandments" Jesus enunciated in Matthew 22:38-39.  Paul is commending what he desires to see continue.  He issues similar commendations to the Colossian church (Col. 1:4, Philemon 1:5) and to Timothy (2 Timothy 1:13).

Paul goes on to say that he shows his love for the Ephesians by praying unceasingly for them.  What specifically does he pray?

• That God will give them wisdom as their knowledge of Him increases.  (They are not the same thing, you know -- - wisdom and knowledge.  You can know a lot about Jesus and not have Him in your heart.  You can have Him in your heart as Savior, and know a lot about Him and still not possess but a thimble-full of wisdom and discernment.)
• That they might have hope that His calling is steadfast, firm and sure.  (It's so easy to doubt that God is with us, isn't it?  So easy to doubt that He cares, at times?)
• That they might realize how very rich they are in Jesus Christ! 
• That, as believers, they might realize the extent of God's power (in their lives and in others')

I don't know about you, my readers, who are believers, but this has been my experience:  I don't pray for my fellow believers as much as I should.  There are about 1000 people who attend my church regularly, and while I pray for our church as a whole, I neglect to pray as much as I should for individuals with whom I minister, shoulder-to-shoulder.

See, Paul really believed that God would work, move, demonstrate His glory, in response to Paul's prayers.  Because he believed that so strongly, he prayed "unceasingly".  I have to question my own level of belief when confronted with my own comparative prayerlessness.  My prayers tend to be narrow and more "reactive" than "proactive".  In other words, if someone asks me to pray for them, I will.  But, do I pray for them "proactively", as Paul describes here?  Not so much.

Do you know what happens when we fail to pray for our brothers and sisters (our shoulder-buddies) in this fashion?  We run the risk of loving them poorly.

Let me give you a painful example, painful to me, at least.  I was confronted last week with the reality that I had failed a sister in Christ, one who was most definitely a "shoulder-buddy".  (Get the scene of two people hooked together like two oxen who bear the yoke on their backs in order to pull the wagon.)  She had given clues that she had unmet needs in our local Body of Christ, but I was oblivious.  (If you are now thinking, "This can't end well"....well, you are right.)

When we don't pray for each other, we are not "in tune" with one another.  We become like a wonderful orchestra whose instruments are slightly off-key.  And, as a result, instead of producing heavenly music, what's produced is a ghastly cacophony of sound.  Have you ever gone to hear a live symphony or band performance?  Before it begins, the instruments are all playing....whatever they want to.  Cacophony!  Then, the concertmaster, usually the first chair violin (orchestra) or first chair clarinet or oboe (band) silences the group by giving one long, clear note.  Immediately, the musicians tune their individual instruments to that one unifying note.  When they next start to play a beautiful piece of music it is just that....beautiful!

Prayer does that!  It unifies believers in the heavenly realms.  I don't understand prayer more than just a little tiny bit.  If you are an expert, then please enlighten me.  But, in my view, prayer is like looking through the keyhole....You can see a very limited view, and what you DO see is distorted! You have no idea what else is "out there", on the other side of the door.  Our perspective of prayer is like that! We pray, not being allowed to see all that our prayers accomplish!  That is God's way.
Sometimes, He allows us to see clear answers; a lot of the time, He does not.  Almost all the time, we have no clue as to the effectiveness of our prayers.  Accordingly, we tend to think prayer does not matter.  Many Christians view it as merely a Christian "convention", an archaic trapping of religious gatherings.

How sad, when the Bible makes clear that prayer is indispensable to the spiritual warfare in which we are engaged.

Luke 6:12 And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
Luke 18:1 And he spoke a parable to them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

The Happy Pastor says this:  "Prayer is the essential work – everything else flows out of it: worship, evangelism, ministry."1

You know, I've noticed that, when I blog about prayer, I don't get many hits.  Christians don't like to read about prayer because, like me today, it stirs their hearts with conviction.  Non-Christians view it as "talking to the sky".  Maybe you are like me and are convicted about your "prayer life".  If so, then let's take deliberate steps to go before God's throne of grace more often.  What a wonderful privilege it is!

Pray your own closing prayer here today.  :)


Source:

1   https://thehappypastor.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/the-centrality-of-prayer/