The Devotional - A Look at the Book #665

by Jesse Abel

Meditate on this!

Church leadership is the stewards of the mysteries of God. What are some of the mysteries? Grace in justification; grace in sanctification and grace in glorification! Stewards of the manifold grace of God reveal the mysteries of His grace through teaching and application of Spiritual Truth within the church. 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 and 1 Peter 4:10

There is not a day that goes by that while we are in the middle of something, we become distracted from what from what it is we are doing. Distraction never comes at a convenient time, in fact; most of the distractions that I face happen at critical times. Some of these bumps in the road are route changing detours and some are a momentary expectation already factored in. The rub! How do we prepare for the rapture of the church? For some of us the rapture will be a major detour and others the moment in time we’ve been waiting for. Is it possible for a believer of the manifold grace of God to be annoyed or frantic at the appearing of the LORD in the skies above one day soon? I believe that many will be busy doing religious works and yet be unprepared for shout and the trumpet. Matthew 25:1-13. Distraction, wrongfully assessed causes many to squander their stewardship of the manifold grace of God.

James 5

James 5:13-20 – Once some years ago in prison ministry I met a young man of twenty years of age. He had murdered an elderly woman for drug money. Normally the crimes of people in prison are not discussed and the only reason I knew the crime of this young man is because he confessed it publicly to me and about one hundred inmates who were attending a Bible Study being presented by the Bill Glass Prison Ministry and Campus Crusade for Christ.

The subject of the bible study was on this section of scripture and at one point the young man stood up and asked for five minutes to speak and the teacher agreed. But like all of us there with these two ministries; we were unprepared for what we heard. There were audible responses to get the man to stop talking, even some of the inmates asked him less politely to “shut up!” he did not stop talking.

The passage here speaks to the heart of every believer and proves that believers before and after salvation will sin. The passage proves that the church is responsible to deal with all sin. The suffering need prayer; the joyful need songs; the sick need the fervent prayer of the elders and not a public spectacle. The anointing oil of the Holy Spirit in the Name of the LORD are responses to the grace of God. The Faith to raise the sick, forgive sins within the church body and restore grace in the life of the suffering. These matters are for the church and not for public awareness.