`You turn off of highway 77 at the Dollar General store, head down a long stretch of road. Round a bend in the road and you have another long stretch. You see the cross and the light from it reflecting in the pond. Round two more curves and you pull into the center of the compound. There stands Rapha Chapel.
Lot of meetings and teachings in that old chapel. Even thought it has been refurbished, the change cannot dampen the feel of God's Spirit as you enter that room. As I do, I am flooded with memories, both good and bad. Of men who sat under the teaching of God's word and felt no need to change their dark lives. Men whose life ended far too soon. Then there were those who did answer God's call to turn will and live over to His care. Names flood my mind as I move to the front. Jeff, Barry, Chris, Jonathan, Greg, the list goes on and on.
Somewhere around 7:45 the men start to filter in. New faces...same story. Here at Rapha for various reasons. Some like to point out that they checked themselves in and were not sent by any court or judge. As I tell them all, "It doesn't matter how you got here....what matters is how you leave." Fifteen men fill up the seats. What shall we look at tonight? "Turn to the fifth chapter of Ephesians, and lets look at the first and second verse."
Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are His dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered Himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God."
"What does it mean when it says, "Imitate God?"
Several answers, all good ones.
"To act like"....
"To take on the behaviors of someone"...
So if we are called to Imitate God, would it not stand to reason that we must know something about God? Would we not need to find out about His nature and character in order to imitate Him?
Such imitation comes from only one source.....God, as He reveals Himself to us.
That is why we have a book called the Bible. It is His personal message to us so that we can know how to live. If I do not read this book, then my imitation of God will come from my own imagination of how I think God acts.
Not the verses from Ephesians goes on to tell us that this imitation of God's nature and character is to be a part of our daily life "In everything we do". What falls under "everything"? Why everything of course. We don't get to pigeon hole this new relationship we have with Christ. In fills every nook and cranny (didn't know you had nooks and crannies did you?) of our life. It affects the way I see the world and interact with it. It teaches me a new way to do business in this old dark, sinful world. I have been called to live on "heaven's economy".
Lesson goes on and the men ask question after question.
Then as we close I ask "Who need prayer tonight?"
One by one, the men come forward to receive.
One by one they have an encounter with God.
He was very much present in that chapel last night....
And as we walked from that room, I knew that each man who'd come to the Bible study would now have to make a decision about what they had heard and read.
A decision to either receive God's word into their hearts and lives....
Or reject it.....
Pray for these men that they would be open to letting God's word transform them.
Pulling away and heading back home, I threw up a prayer....
"Thank you Lord for Rapha...for a place where lives are changed."
God on you this morning.
mbb
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