Asia travels - February

"Times of refreshing comes from the presence of the Lord."

This journey to Asia started in the Philippines for our annual Great Commission Leader Summit.  The theme was REFRESH.  We invited our missionaries and our Asian partners to join the Summit.  We had 28 people from five countries represented.  It was a rich time of fellowship with each other and with experiencing the Lord.

We focused our time together on Paul's prayers from the book of Ephesians:
     Prayer of Enlightenment — The Majesty of Christ
     Prayer of Empowerment — The Marvel of Christ's love and power
     Prayer of Encouragement — The Mystery of Christ and sharing Him to our world

The Lord personally "met me" and touched my heart with His!   I was preparing to teach for an evening session with the Summit leaders for the Friday night church gathering of Filipino's.  I was not comfortable with "my"original topic, so I walked back to my room praying, asking God what He would have me share on. In my room, the Lord led me to a topic based on Hebrews 3:1, "Consider Jesus the Apostle and the High Priest of our confession."  At once, I knew this was what the Lord wanted me to share on — the current ministry of Jesus as our High Priest!

Often when we think about Jesus we talk about (and we should) His Incarnation (The Word became Flesh) His Humiliation (the Cross), His Exaltation (Lord of all) and His Return (The Second Coming).  Amen!  But we often miss out on what Jesus is doing right now!  I find that many believers are unaware of Jesus' current ministry.

The author of Hebrews reminds us that Jesus has not just gone to heaven and is sitting idly by until it is time for His return.  The author of Hebrews not only shows us that Jesus is better — He is better than the angels.  He is better than Moses, the deliverer.  He is better than Joshua, the conqueror.  He is better than Aaron, the high priest. He is better than the Old Covenant. Why because Jesus is God who is on the throne and He is the Apostle carrying out His redemptive plan and sending us as His heralds throughout the world to let the world know that Jesus is Lord.  And He is our High Priest - this is what I focused on.  As important as the Cross is (and it is essential for we are saved by His death) even so, the High Priest ministry of Jesus is just as essential (for we are being saved by His life).

Jesus is present through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in each of His people's lives.  He is our (my, your) High Priest.  The author of Hebrews outlines His ministry of High Priest with these verses.  (Hebrews 2:16-18, 4:14-6, 6:17-20, 7:24-25, 9:11-14,10:1-13) and then the author exhorts us to live our lives differently by encouraging us to respond with the phrase, "Let us...." seven times,  (10:22, 23, 24-25, 12:1-3, 28, 13:13, 15).

In the Old Testament, the High Priest had a number of responsibilities but I focused on His clothing.  He was clothed with an Ephod of beautiful colors. On each one of his shoulders he had six black onyx stones with names from each tribe of Israel engraved on them.  He also wore the Breastplate of Judgment over His heart.  The Breastplate had twelve gem stones with each one of the twelve Tribes of Israel engraved on them.

This was a living metaphor of Jesus our Great High Priest who has our name written on His shoulder and over His heart.  He has big enough shoulders to carry the weight of our burdens and He has us on His heart - twenty-four /seven.  He is here - with us, for us and even in us!

The Holy Spirit took this truth and moved me is a personal way. Thank you, Lord!

The rest of our trip was also rewarding, fulfilling and challenging as well.  We traveled to other locations and had a wonderful time of fellowship and the Lord gave us opportunity to speak to a number of church leaders to a group of college student about pursuing a holy life.

Thank you for your continued prayer and encouragement.

love, doug