So, you wanna be a prophet?

Isaiah 61: 1-3, Micah 2: 1-3, Book of Mark

Isaiah 61: 1-3 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise, instead of a spirit of despair.

Micah 2:1-3 Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning's light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it.
They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance. Therefore, the LORD says: "I am planning disaster against this people from which you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.


Prophet requirements include a firm commitment to God; a willingness to wrestle; a sensitivity to evil; a sense to feel the thud of injustice; a propensity to identify with human suffering; ability to rock the boat; not anxious of conflict; be able to survive without living as a hypocrite; having society describe you crazy, dangerous, subversive; being able to criticize societal values: wealth, power, and prestige; you even have to comfort those who suffer.

And it’s risky. Poverty, Embarrassment, Ridicule, Persecution, Assassination, even Execution; prophets are not fortunetellers, but people called to bear out a duty. Responsible for proclaiming God with determination, power and passion, your even positioned as Christ’s representation for an entire community.

Conversation Creators

1) When the true spirit of justice is lost, how can we challenge society’s practice of justice?
2) How do we ‘rock the boat’ when we see evil, hypocrisy, suffering?
3) ‘Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the Children of God': it is pretty hard to be a peace maker when you are stirring up trouble
4) In our modern society, where it seems that purely materialistic philosophy of life and the universe prevails, it can be difficult to get people to listen: So, why bother being a prophet?
5) Isn’t it much more comfortable staying at home in peace or living a ‘good life’?
6) Could you be a prophet if God called you resolutely to speak for Him?

When God Is Silent The Living Church Foundation

Isaiah 59:1-4 Psalm 13; Heb:5:6-12; Mark 10:46-52


Isaiah gives voice to a wayward nation, describing its miserable condition and the Psalm is a plea from the victims of an oppressive enemy who beg God for deliverance.

Hebrews calls to Christian believers who are moving away from God. Their condition of backsliding is bluntly described — those who should have been teachers are in fact no better than children in the ways of God. They are admonished and encouraged to show earnestness in the way forward. It is noteworthy that, in spite of their disappointing sluggishness in Christ, they are nonetheless addressed as “beloved.”



In the case of those in the Old Testament, God is silent because the people have abandoned God for a sinful life, but in the epistle, the faithful are far from God, not because of deliberate sin but because they have avoided maturity in Christ.

Finally, in Mark the theme is completed in the person of Bartimaeus, who is blind and begging by the roadside. He is as blind as those the psalmist talks about, as sidelined among the people of God as those addressed in Hebrews, but he shows how to respond. Bartimaeus perseveres in his cry through the crowd’s opposition, and comes to Jesus quickly when he is called. He must acknowledge publicly and before Jesus what is his heart’s desire. He knows that his sight, once restored, will change his life forever. No longer will he be able to beg; no longer will his place be by the roadside. 
Similarly, when the people described in Isaiah turn from their wickedness, they will live; and those addressed in Hebrews are enjoined to “leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity.”



Jesus said to Bartimaeus, “Go your way.” According to the last line of the gospel, what did Bartimaeus identify as his “way”?

If God is silent in whole or in part of your life, are there any “iniquities” that might be causing that silence?

As there was people who tried to stop Bartimaeus from calling to Jesus, do we let others and stuff to get in our way of God?

Lets talk about some of these words/phrases: courage, strong faith, resilience, no social boundaries in Jesus, powerful appropriation.

What do you think of this: I want to be following Jesus rather than I want to be like Jesus - which is more correct?

Christian Ministry in a Pagan Environment

I found a great site on the net, Please have a go at the writing...it is refreshing

Thirteen Paradigm Shifts we encountered doing Christian ministry in a pagan environment...

1. Other People Exist: Simply coming to the understanding that the world does not revolve around “me” but that everybody is having an experience, created by God, loved by God, and that we needed to repent of showing partiality...

2. Nobody will listen to you unless they know you like them: We began to understand that people, subconsciously, merit a religious or philosophical idea not on logical conclusions, but on whether or not the idea creates a “good person”...the definition of a good person being whether or not a person is kind to them, tolerant and understanding, able to listen without arguing and so on.

3. Nobody will listen to God unless they know God loves them: We came to believe there was usually a hidden pain behind hostility, that many people have been hurt by the church, or people or perspectives they believed to represent God. Many
times its as simple as an interview they saw on CNN, but an apology and kindness went a long way in helping people understand God was loving.

4. Other people have morality and values: We came to understand that Christians do not own morality, that everybody lives by a moral code, not always informed by an ancient text, and yet it is there. Calling people or even thinking of them as
immoral was, then, inappropriate. In fact, we often found that people who did not know Christ lived a morality close to his heart in many areas we had ignored, ie; community, tolerance, social justice, fairness and equality, freedom, beauty and
so on and so on.

5. Find common ground: Often the morality of others overlapped Christian morality, and we came to understand that in these cases, we would focus on the overlapping issues. We came to see this as kindness, just as though we were on a date or
making friends, we did not focus on what we didn’t have in common, but rather on mutual feelings about life. We would not say or do anything to combat people unless they knew we loved them, and this takes a great deal of time.

6. Define terms in their language: We were careful about Christian sayings and phrases that might be offensive: Crusade, sin, immorality....we came to understand that concepts were more sacred than terms...

7. Telling somebody about the gospel is about them, not us: We were careful not to try to “build our organization” and respected peoples freedom and space. Sharing the gospel became an exercise in friendship, rather than an attempt to grow a
machine. Often, people feel used if they feel they are being recruited. The gospel, we learned, is really about them, their feelings about God and truth, about sin, about life 8. Don’t let spreading the gospel feel any different than telling somebody about a love in your life, about your children or a great memory: We realized that in telling somebody about Jesus, we were telling them about somebody we have come to love and need, and about something that had happened to us, an encounter. This keeps us from sounding preachy, and allows us to share part of ourselves in a friendship.

9. Include lost People in Your Community: Our organization was not exclusive. We invited non-believers into the community if they wanted to be invited. We were careful not to not be ourselves with them, but they were certainly invited and enjoyed being a part of the group. We explained terms that we used, what we believed, but other than that, continued as normal.

10. Apologize for what you represent: We discovered that many people have been offended or hurt by what they perceive Christianity to be. We allowed ourselves to stand in the place of “Christianity” and apologize whenever necessary.

11. Be authentic: We discovered the need to be as honest about our lives as possible. We did not feel the need to sale Jesus, as much as share what He has done in our broken lives. We had no problem sharing our doubts and fears about faith, along with our commitment and appreciation for what God had done.

12. Pray for the Salvation of others: We discovered the need to pray for others. This would insure God was working in peoples lives, as we asked Him to. We discovered the work of evangelism is something God lets us watch, but very little of it is what we manipulate. We repented of not believing evangelism was a spiritual exchange between a lost person and God, rather than believing it was a series of ideas we were supposed to convince others of.

13. Ask people if they would like to know Christ: We decided to initiate, whenever the relationship called for it. We were not afraid to ask people if they would like to know God.

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