When Moses was distressed because of the greatness of the task of leading the children of Israel through the wilderness, God commanded him to gather seventy elders to help him carry the burden (Numbers 11:16). Moses gathered the seventy round about the tabernacle and the spirit that was on Moses rested on the seventy (Numbers 11:24-25).
We so often associate prayer with kneeling that we may fail to notice the various positions of prayer in the Bible. In fact, standing was often the assumed position of prayer in scripture. Genesis 19:27 "And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD." We know what Abraham was doing when he stood before the Lord. He was praying. The New Testament also supports the stand up and pray attitude. Mark 11:25 "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." The phrase, "when ye stand praying," shows that to be a common position of the body for prayer during this time. Yes, they also kneeled. This is seen in numerous passages: Luke 22:41; Acts 9:40; 20:36. But standing was a common and accepted way to pray. We should not hesitate to stand up and pray today.
After Jesus cast an unclean devil out of a man in a synagogue service, the people cried, "What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out" (Luke 4:36). Many bibles will take passages that refer to "power" and change it to "authority." However, here we see the importance of both. Authority is the right to do something. Power is the ability to do something or to make something happen. Among men, a person can have one without the other. A man may have a position that gives him the right to make a decision (the authority), but he may not have the power to make it happen. On the other hand, some people have the power to do certain things even when they do not have the proper authority to do them.
Last night, Drew Ray preached a powerful message at Antioch Baptist Church. The text of his message was taken from Hebrews 4:9, which states, "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." This idea was that, although we have a present rest in Jesus Christ, our true rest will come after we leave this world. Therefore, our present life is a time for service. We need to work; or, as Jesus said in Luke 19:13, "Occupy till I come." Brother Ray pointed out the word "occupy" is related to the word "occupation." One of the most convicting passages he used was the invitation of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-29. It begins, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." But too often we stop with the rest. The next statement is, "Take my yoke upon you." That is work. We find our rest in Jesus Christ through our service to Him. All this reminds me of a verse I read yesterday: "Their strength is to sit still" (Isaiah 30:7). We have far too many in our churches who are described by that statement.
Women are developing a taste for violence in their entertainment. Less and less are women put off by violence in their novels and movies. According to a frontpage article in today's Wall Street Journal, women are increasingly drawn to thriller novels where the hero is an assassin or a revenge killer. Women now make up 60% of the audience for the gory "CSI" television franchise that has three different series. Movie houses are also noticing that women make up an increasing percentage of the viewers at recent horror/terror films. Women are losing their squeamish nature when it comes to violence. One of the signs of the days of Noah was that "the earth was filled with violence" (Genesis 6:11). Jesus told us that "as it was in the days of Noe [Noah], so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man" (Luke 17:26).
