Joining Jesus – 20th May 2019

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4. Repent
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
Revelation 2:1-7
It is possible that over the time that you have been a Christian, the love for Jesus and His Mission that you had at the beginning has waned. Perhaps it is true of you, just like the church at Ephesus that: You have forsaken the love you had at first.
If this is the case the you do not need to despair, but you do need to do something rather than just ‘accepting this situation’.
The church at Ephesus was told to:
Consider how far you have fallen!
The best way to ‘consider’ is to take time to reflect on how things were. If you keep (or kept) a journal, then look back at the time when you know that you had a deep love for Jesus and read the things that you have written down. If not, I suggest you grab hold of a pen and a notebook and spend some time writing down some of the things that you remember about the time(s) when your love for Jesus was real and then, once you have written down what you can remember, read through what you have written.
As you read and reflect upon the words you have written you will, I believe, be prompted by the Holy Spirit to ask God to do something in your life that will cause you, once again, to have a deep love for Jesus.
This leads on to the second thing that the church at Ephesus, and you, have been told you must do:
Repent and do the things you did at first.
It is important that your time with God doesn’t end with you just wishing you could go back to how things were. The truth is that you need a fresh and present tense encounter with God. This will follow repentance!
The word repentance, in the context of this letter, means something like ‘turn around and get back on track’. Your life may have been going in an increasingly ‘non-Jesus-centred’ direction for months, years or even decades. You may have become increasingly focused on things that have little or nothing to do with being a follower of Jesus. All of these things have somehow pushed out, or covered over, the love that you felt for Jesus – so!
Stop going in the direction that you are heading in, turn around and then begin to do the things that you did in that time (those times) when your love for Jesus was real.
This week, I strongly encourage you to make some time to CONSIDER ‘how far you have fallen’ and then to REPENT!
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Joining Jesus Pastors coaching.

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Dennis Pethers, The Rooftop International Pioneer recently completed the first online session of ‘Joining Jesus’ with pastors from across Northern Kentucky in the United States.
‘Joining Jesus’ is an online coaching process for pastors who want to be equipped to make disciples who make disciples.
Dennis comments:
As I travel across the world, I meet so many pastors who are honest with me and admit that they have never been equipped to make disciples of people who are beyond the walls of the church. This is a real problem because, in a time when fewer and fewer people are coming to church, it is essential that Christians are equipped to be ‘disciple-makers’. To equip others, it is necessary for the pastors to be equipped! This is at the heart of the Joining Jesus coaching process.
The Joining Jesus coaching process is beginning to be used by pastors across the US and the continent of Africa.
For more information about how to join a group please email joiningjesus@therooftop.org

Joining Jesus – 13th May 2019

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3. Have you lost your first love?

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

At the heart of this letter which includes many positive comments about the good things that the church in Ephesus is doing there is an enormously critical and challenging comment. It is just a few words but these words are enormous in their implications:

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen!

The accusation against this hard working and seemingly committed group of people was that they were doing many of the right things but that they had forgotten why they were doing them.
Does that ring any bells with you?
Just a few days ago, I was sitting in a coffee bar with Phil, a good friend that I have known for years. Among other things, we were talking about the disappointment that we both often experience at the lack of passion that there seems to be among so many people in the church. During our conversation, he said to me:
“How does it happen? Even as I reflect on my own life, I can remember a time when I was so passionate to be reaching people and God’s presence was so real! Over a period of time, this passion for people and awareness of God’s presence with me seemed, somehow, to be replaced by just conforming to church life and going through the motions! How does this happen?
I am pleased to say that Phil has now rediscovered, in an even deeper way, the passion for reaching people and a real awareness of God’s presence with him not just when he is in a church building but wherever he is.
But Phil is not the only person that I have had a similar discussion with. The truth is that I have met hundreds of people, all over the world, who have shared a similar story with me. The deep love for Jesus and His Mission wanes and is replaced by becoming busy with ‘church stuff’ and, over time, we can easily forget why we are doing the things that we are doing. We do them because that is what we do!
As I think about so many people that have shared this kind of story with me, I have concluded that every one of them never set out to lose their first love. That was not their aim or desire, it ‘just happened’ because somehow, being part of a church, which was busy doing what it does, seemed to change their focus from Jesus and His Mission, to the church and its activities.
It is interesting that this letter is not to an individual but to a church, the whole community!
If each of us is to rediscover our first love, there is a deep and profound need for the church to rediscover the ‘love that it had at first’.
This week take some time to reflect upon what this would mean for you and for the part of His church that you belong to. You may find these words from the prophet Jeremiah helpful as you engage in reflection:
The word of the LORD came to me: “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:
“This is what the LORD says:
“‘I remember the devotion of your youth,
how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the wilderness,
through a land not sown. Jeremiah 2:1-2