 So welcome to this week's Mentringer. My name is Smita Narona. I think most of you here should have already been introduced to me either in class or in a previous Mentringer. So today we're going to be looking at the topic Keep the Fire Burning. I think last week there were some questions on suffering that we didn't address. So we'll talk a little bit about that later. Can we just open with a word of prayer with someone be willing to pray for us before we begin? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this hour of mentoring. Father, we pray that as you minister to us through your word, Lord, we will be able to retain what we have learned, Father, and apply the same in our lives, Father. Yes, Father. We also pray, Father, for a blessing upon all our teachers and all the students of our Biblical College and pray, Father, that we will continue to live and work in a manner that will be honorable in the eyes, Father. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. So we did have a few questions that were not addressed from last week on suffering. Maybe we can address those questions before we go into today's topic. So the first one was how do we teach non-believers about suffering? I'm not sure who asked this question. We just have the questions here. How do we teach non-believers about suffering? Is there anyone from our faculty who would like to respond to that question? Hi, Smita. Hi, everyone. So with regards to teaching non-believers about suffering, well, it's actually a wonderful opportunity to share the gospel. One thing is we don't have to prove to anyone that there is suffering in the world. They already know that there are various kinds of suffering. So one can actually take that opportunity to share the Biblical perspective of why there is suffering, the source of suffering that we have a good God and this is the source of all suffering and take it from there. And I think that's a wonderful opportunity to build bridges and share the gospel. Thank you, Pastor Jakes. I'll just add and then if there's any other faculty member who would like to share, you can share. So I think, like Pastor said, it is a really great opportunity to share the gospel, especially because there are such a few answers and such a few answers that really satisfy the heart when it comes to questions about suffering apart from the cross, right? Because in the cross, we see that Christ has taken on our suffering that he is born so much of the pain that we don't have to bear. And now while there is suffering that we still experience, we have the comfort of knowing that Christ is with us in that suffering, that we have the Holy Spirit with us in that suffering. And to know that there is hope beyond our suffering also. There's very little outside of the cross that answers that question when we look at different faiths, we see that there is either this thing of overcoming all desires so that you don't suffer or there's the other answer of this is a consequence of your own mistakes of your own past sins or the other thing is suffering is just there. We can't escape it. So those are the kinds of answers that people are getting. And obviously it doesn't minister to people who are hurting those answers. And so to offer them Christ to offer the hope that we have in Christ is something that can really be something that ministers to them. So yeah, that's just one thought. Would anyone else like to share any other faculty member? And if that question was asked by someone who's here on the call, let us know if your question got answered satisfactorily or if you have any further questions. I just like to share something Smitha. I think the best example would be our own testimonies. We've all gone through a suffering. So what did we do at that time? How we trusted in Jesus and of course the suffering may not have gone away immediately but the strength, the courage, the peace, the joy, the assurance that we have, the confidence that we have that enabled us to go through that suffering is something that other religions don't have an answer to or offer. So I think that can be a good thing like how you went through the suffering and how God really enabled you, strengthened you, helped you and how you came out refined in that process, how it built your perseverance, your endurance, your perspective to life and your relationship with God and I think all that can really help a person and also that the grace and the strength that God gives us and ultimately how he saw us through, carried us through or walked us through that entire process can also be a great encouragement and help others to put their trust in Jesus. Thank you. We'll go on to the next question. If you had a question that was not answered last week, we have three questions here so we'll go through these three but if there was some other question feel free to post on the chat. So the other question was in the story of Saul and then there's a quotation from Scripture. Now the spirit of Yahweh departed from Saul and an evil spirit from Yahweh tormented him. So the servants of Saul said to him, look please an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. The question is how can we see this because God won't take delight in seeing his people suffer or being tormented. Would someone be willing to answer that question? Let me know if I need to repeat the question as well. Hi everyone. Hi, Smitha. Thank you for reading out that question. I'll just try to answer it. So in the passage that we just read, it seems like the evil spirit was sent by God. So it seems that way but we would need to interpret Scripture through Scripture and when we look at the rest of Scripture, we see that God is not a God who sends evil to torment and cause people to suffer and that's pretty clear. And therefore when we interpret this passage, then we would know that though it seems like that, that's not what it means. And I just want to make reference to Scripture in the Book of John, John 14 and verse 30 where the latter part of that verse says, for the Prince of this world comes and he has nothing in me. So Jesus is very clearly stating that he is separate from Satan and that nothing of Satan is a part of him and therefore when it comes to demons being sent out to torment people, obviously it's not God who is doing that and so God doesn't cause people to suffer and we've already addressed this question in the last mentoring arm in Pastor Jake's, Jack Omar had taught about suffering that there are many reasons why there is suffering but definitely it's not God who causes it. So I just want to share that but if any other faculty want to add to this, please feel free to. Thank you. Thank you Pastor Nancy. Would anyone else like to add? Anyone else from the faculty? Thanks a lot. I'm from Kolkata, I just joined just now. Actually God allows suffering so that we can realize our mistakes and we can come back to him and correct ourselves because he allows sufferings only because for us to correct ourselves and to come to him and obey him and worship him. I just wanted to share this. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I think Pastor Jake's did cover some of the reasons for suffering in last week's session so if you missed that you can go back and watch the video that's available on our YouTube page or on Google Classroom or the learning platform. And yeah, Pastor Jake's would you like to add anything? Answer to this question. Yeah, I just want to quickly add that especially about Saul, I think Saul and the spirit that commented and we see very clearly that the spirit of God departed and of course we're talking about the old dispensation that the spirit of God would come for a purpose and would leave and so spirit of God had departed so the divine protection, the hedge of protection which was around Saul was not there and therefore whenever somebody steps out of that they make themselves vulnerable for the attack of the evil one for evil spirit. So that's the thing. So like we had this earlier, God is not the source of suffering. God is not the author. But and like this sister, Sharma, mentioned, so God is not the author of it. I just wanted to clarify but in the event of that happening, in the event of rebellion, in the event of us stepping away intentionally from God's divine protection well God still uses that for sure but it's not God's perfect, God's not will that one should suffer because we see in the original design that God did not design with suffering but if I design the world with suffering in it and we see the end also in Revelation that he's wiping away every tear and there's no sorrow, there's no pain. So we should be very clear that that our God is a good God. He is not the author of suffering but in the event of this, in the event of us stepping out of divine protection well God still uses that for our good. Thank you. Thank you. So we have one last question. So how to handle when suffering comes and we have to go through maybe year after year and people from other beliefs ask where is your God? What should our stand be on that? I've posted the question here on chat as well. Would one of our faculty like to address that please? Yeah, so it can be a, it can be a challenging season and to go through and also for us to make sense of it first of all and then if there are questions from others who do not know Christ to actually answer them also. So one thing is well we cannot answer and satisfy everybody's questions but we can just share. This is the hope that we have and whatever we are going through on this side of eternity is we can share whatever we have learned. We can share that aspect, the source of suffering and why it happens and so on. So if year after year it's a difficult season, it's a challenging season and that's why we are called to run the race with endurance and through faith and patience inherit the promises. So definitely I'm not, like you said earlier also it can be challenging. We're not downplaying it but this is the hope that we have. So that's the only answer. Others might still have questions, what about your God, why is he not doing this, that and so on but we can use that opportunity to share the hope that we have, the reason for the hope that we have in Christ and keep going and I think the first question that we shared about the hope that we have in Christ nothing can actually satisfy no worldview can satisfactorily answer that and this tangible hope and comfort that we have in Christ is something that we can share. Thank you. Thank you Pastor. Would anyone else like to add to that? Anyone on staff? I think Pastor Jekumar has answered it quite adequately. Okay, sure. So I think that was all the questions that we had last week. If you had a question that was not answered feel free to add that to the chat but we can go into today's topic. So I had given us the topic Keep the Fire Burning and I intended to talk about how we can stay strong in ministry so that we continue to serve God till the end. We don't lose focus. We don't lose our steam and burn out before we get to the end of fulfilling all that God has for us but as I was preparing God kind of redirected what I was going to share about but it still falls under this theme of keeping the fire burning from the perspective of keeping our passion for God and our love for God in a place of going strong. So where we don't lose our love for God in the process of serving Him or in the process of following Him. Why is this important? Because this is the biggest key to us serving God faithfully to serving God fully till the end but also it is the only kind of work that would be pleasing and acceptable to God where we are serving from this place of love for God where we continue to have a passion that is so fervent for God that that fuels all that we are doing all the work that we are doing for His kingdom. So we'll read a few passages of scripture and I may just ask one of us to read. We begin with Mark 12, 28 to 34 if someone could read that for us please. Mark 12, 28 to 34 Okay, shall I read? Mark 12, 28 then one of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together perceiving that he had answered them well asked him which is the first commandment of all, Jesus answered him and the first of all commandment is the Lord our God, the Lord is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength this is the first commandment and the second like it is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself there is no other commandment greater than these so the scribe said to him, well said teacher you have spoken the truth but there is one God to love him with all the heart, with all the understanding with all the soul and with all the strength and to love one's neighbor as oneself is more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely he said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God but after that no one dared question him Thank you pastor so we see here and we see this in all the Mark, Matthew and Luke that this commandment is repeated as the greatest commandment or the most important commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength right, why is that given to us as the most important commandment because from our heart is where all the issues of life come out everything that we do, all of the good things, all of the bad things flow from within as our heart, soul, mind and strength and so this is the place where we need to be making sure that all of our energies are focused in love, in submission and surrender and worship to God we see here also that it's more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices that we can offer so as people who many of us are serving in different ways, we are either serving in churches or in full-time ministry, often those ministries, the work that we are doing for God can take over our lives right, because there are such great demands on our time on our energy, on everything that we have to give that the time that we are spending actually with God in his presence is what gets sacrificed for the sake of the ministry but in Revelation 2-6 we see that Jesus calls the Ephesian church back to his, back to its first love or to the love that it had at first it doesn't say for God or for people but it just says come back to the love you had at first if somebody could read that for us Revelation 2-6 can I read? yes go ahead in Revelation 2-2 I know your works, your labour, your patience and that you cannot bear those who are evil and you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not and have found them liars and you have persevered and have patience and have laboured for my name's sake and have not become weary nevertheless I have this against you I have left your first love remember therefore from where you have fallen repent and do the first works or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lamp stand from its place unless you repent but this you have that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate thank you see here that Jesus is commending the church in Ephesus saying I know your deeds your hard work, your perseverance you cannot tolerate wicked people you have tested those who claim to be apostles and have found them to be false and then right at the end verse 6 you hate the practices of the Nicolaitans so they are being commended for their hard work they have continued to serve God they have held on to truth not letting false teaching come into the church and the Nicolaitans were a cult that had kind of allowed idolatry and worship of the imperial so the Roman leaders all of those things they were kind of allowing that with also worshiping Jesus these were the kinds of things that the church had not accepted they had made sure that they stayed pure and they continued to serve God even in the face of opposition that was coming their way but still this is not satisfactory in Jesus' eyes so he says yet I hold this against you you have left your first love you have forsaken the love you had at first and so it's important for us to realize that the work we are doing is not the end that God is looking for it is definitely good the love that we have for God should result in us serving him and serving his people but if we are letting go of love but continuing to serve God that is not satisfactory in God's eyes so let's just take a quick look at the Ephesian church they came from the city of Ephesus Ephesus was known for worship of the God Artemis who is a fertility goddess so they had one of the most renowned temples that had been built in Ephesus and it had thousands of priests and priestesses and many of them served as sacred prostitutes in the temple coming from the religious background many of them were coming from apart from that there was also the imperial cult so the Roman emperors who demanded worship so there was that political pressure that came in with the religious side of things and then we see from the history that we have in scripture about how the church had been established by Paul so Paul visited Ephesus during his second missionary journey and he spent a very short time there although the people there responded positively to the gospel he had other places that he had to visit and so he didn't spend a lot of time there but he did go back in his third missionary journey and he spent over two years in Ephesus teaching and from Ephesus also teaching in the rest of Asia but between those two visits that he had those two journeys Paul was had gone to Ephesus and had talked to them about the baptism of John which people had received positively so when Paul went back they had not heard about the baptism in the name of Jesus and so Paul taught them about it he prayed for them and they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and immediately began to manifest gifts of the Spirit we also see that there was open confession of sins we see that they they actually rejected some of their cultural practices openly so we have an account in Acts 19 where they brought their scrolls they usually used to wear scrolls with magical incantations so these were tied around their neck to keep them safe from all evil they brought all of these scrolls and burned it in public and the value of the scrolls we have recorded as 50,000 days wages for an average worker so it was not small sacrifice that they had made and Paul himself testifies in 1 Corinthians 16 19 he says that a great door for effective work has opened up in Ephesus and so he continued to stay there and minister because of the the way the church was responding and the opportunity that he had from Ephesus to minister in the rest of Asia so we see this is how the gospel impacted the church at first they also had opposition from Jews and Gentiles alike they were not allowed to continue to meet in the synagogue so they had to leave and meet elsewhere where Paul was teaching them then we also see that the Gentiles started to come against them because they were abandoning worship of the cultural goddess who was Artemis so they had all of this political pressure they had pressure from the culture around them from the religion that was prevalent in their culture and from the Jews as well because the Jews didn't want to associate with them because they were causing trouble for the Jews being people who were viewed as a sect of the Jews the Christians were initially viewed in that way with all of this the church continued strong but somewhere along the way they had forgotten that initial love that they had for God that had made them forsake all other things and follow him instead they had gotten caught up with the work that they were doing for God so the things that they were the ways in which they were serving him holding on to doctrine all of those things became important to them and those things became the end goal that they were working for those things became the things that they were passionate about that were consuming their thoughts through the point that they had neglected God himself right so they were not falling into the idolatrous practices of the culture but in their hearts they had allowed these things to become idols instead of having God be the only one who they were worshipping the only one that they were giving their whole heart to so as as students here as faculty here as alumni from the Bible college we're all people who definitely love God people who are serving God and people who love the truth that's why we're in Bible college because we want to pursue a deeper knowledge of who God is we want to know discern what is right from wrong but how can we keep ourselves from falling into the same trap that the Ephesian church fell into we'll just look at the example of Mary we have the story of Mary and Martha in Luke chapter 10 verses 38 to 42 and we see a contrast between Mary and Martha whereas Martha is said to have opened her home to Jesus it also records for us that Martha was distracted by all the preparations and she was worried and upset about many things and this is what Jesus cares about her you are worried and upset about many things but Mary on the other hand she sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said and Martha testifies she's left me to do the work by myself but Jesus testifies and Mary has chosen what is better so this is the one thing that Jesus comments and Jesus says this is the better thing to choose it is to be in communion with me to be in my presence to delight in me to listen to me to learn from me that's what he desires Psalm 27.4 David says one thing I ask from the Lord this only do I seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord that I may be in His presence all the days of my life to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple so David also talks about the same things of being in the presence of God, of communing with Him, of delighting in Him of seeking Him, of trying to know Him more, hungering for more of God that is where we should make sure we don't compromise right? No matter how how much we're growing in ministry no matter how how much our other responsibilities may be growing outside of ministry with family or with our work whatever it may be to never compromise on that dwelling in the presence of the Lord, of delighting in Him, of seeking Him because this is where that fire that we have in our hearts for God will be rekindled this is where that fire will keep staying strong if we look at examples of our relationships in marriage or our relationships with our parents, relationships with our children often times we get so busy just taking care of the people around us we have to serve them, we have to take care of our homes take care of the needs of the people around us that we lose we lose sight of the fact that people were supposed to be in relationship with people we should just enjoy spending time with getting to know them delighting in who they are, delighting in this gift of relationship that God has given us in the same way we forget that with God as well where we get so busy just doing what we're supposed to do following all the rules and taking off all the things that that seem good to us or seem good to the people around us that we just forget to delight in this gift of relationship which is such a beautiful, beautiful thing to have a relationship with our Creator our God who rescued us saved us, who restored us to be called into relationship with Him what else can offer that to us that kind of relationship that kind of friendship of a place of safety a place of acceptance a place of knowing who we are who we truly are created to be so my reminder to us today is to come back to that place of just delighting in God to make sure that we don't let other things take us away from God himself however good those things may seem and especially because those are the outside things that everyone else gauges our spirituality based on what they see on the outside so everyone thinks that we are doing really well based on how our ministries are how we are serving and what is the fruit of the work that we are doing but only we can stop in the presence of God and examine our hearts to see whether truly what we are doing is coming from a place of love and so I want to encourage us to to do that to stop and examine our hearts in God's presence to allow God to show us whether he really has that first place in our lives and if we find that we have fallen away from God as our first love this same passage in Revelation 2 tells us how we can come back so the first is to remember from where you fall in remember means not only to recall but to return to that is to go back to that first place you were in and when Revelation when Revelation talks about fall in there are three ways in which it talks about it it actually uses this word a lot there are 23 times in Revelation that the word fall is used and in the New Testament as a whole it's 91 times that it's used but 23 of those times are in the book of Revelation so it talks about falling down in worship before God that's one way fall is used the other way is falling from a place of glory to a place of destruction and the third way is judgment falling on people so what is interesting here is that the church the Ephesian church used to be the church that was falling down in worship in utter reverence for God but it's falling from that place of glory and God is warning them of judgment falling on them if they stay in that place falling from a place of glory into a place of destruction and so he's calling them back to this place of just falling before God in complete awe of who God is being lost in worship being caught up in his love for them that is the kind of worship we see described in Revelation and how do we do that it's by remembering remembering what God has done for us we see constantly in the Old Testament God calling the people of Israel back to remember what he has done for them how he has been faithful to them how he has saved them how he has walked with them the miracles that he has done in their midst and he says in different ways they are called to remember so to set up altars to pass it on to their children and their children's children those are the ways we can make sure that we don't forget what God has done by sharing our testimonies by having physical reminders of how God has worked in our lives so one thing for me is I have a little art it's like a little it's not a painting but it's something that a friend of mine made for me she once asked me what was the most important attribute of God to me personally and one that had really really drawn me to God was friendship and so she made a little this thing for me that I have up in my bedroom but every time I look at that I'm reminded of how God has worked in my life of how he has been a faithful friend when I felt like I had nobody else so having those kinds of reminders around us verses that remind us of what God has done in our lives or words or pictures that remind us of ways in which God has worked in our lives the other way is to repent so repentance here is changing our heart changing our minds turning away from sin and turning to God and then the last is to do the first works so interestingly here as well we see that God is calling them back to work he's not saying stop working he's saying work but do the work like you did it before the grace of love from place that is motivated by love like we see in first Corinthians 13 the true value and meaningfulness of what we are doing for God is found when it is coming from a place of love the other ways we show true love for God as scripture talks about is by obeying God John 14 talks about obedience to God by obeying evidence of our love for him and one John 4 20 and 21 talks about loving our brothers and sisters that if we claim to love God we must love our brothers and sisters so these are the the first works of love that must be evidenced in our lives and they should all come from a place of truly loving God so we've come very very close to the end so I'm just going to stop here we just have a few minutes if you'll have any questions any thoughts you would like to share please go ahead and anything that you would like to share or questions with regard to this topic or any other topic thanks Mitha for sharing I was just thinking as you mentioned you know like some reminders around you they really help you to keep that focus alive you know even you know like prayer or coming until study time and worship so many of these things that God has already called us to I think when we have that as part of our daily routine it's so very helpful to to continue to keep us in that place of love so that we can receive from God and from that outflow comes out ministry and everything else that we do for the Lord so I was just thinking that it's so sorry that it's so important to guard it and to make time for these things thank you that's Nancy so one question that I okay I think brother Kofi you have a question yeah sister can you please through a little light on how their first love was like how the church's first love was like okay so where we covered a little bit of the history of the church we see that they completely turned away from other things right we see how all of the challenges that they were facing all of that didn't stop them from publicly confessing their sins from publicly giving sacrificing financially so those were evidences of what they felt we don't have any other account of what exactly what else the church did we see the manifestation of the spiritual gifts so these are all the external things that we can see like we talked about there are external things that we can see and we can judge by those external things but God knew their hearts so that's where it comes to our personal standing before God examining our hearts before God and looking at are we truly delighting in God so if anyone else was looking at the Ephesian church they probably thought that they were still very they were still doing very well spiritually because they were still holding onto the truth they were still persevering in spite of the challenges and the opposition the persecution that they were facing but God says they've let go of that love that they had at first and so that is something that God only can reveal to us and for this church God was able to expose that for them that they had forgotten that initial devotion and delight that they had in God I hope that answers your question thank you any other questions so I'll ask a question for our faculty how do y'all make sure when things obviously get very very busy there's a lot of pressure there's a lot to be done like past Nancy mentioned having this as part of your daily routine how do you make sure that you don't let go of it when you feel the pleasure of so many other things on you and the second part is even in those times how do you make sure that you're really worshipping rather than just worrying about all the things you have to do with any of our faculty for me personally I think it's pressing in more and also kind of pulling away I mean that just to get into a personal time with God to get away from the activities around but also not to cool down but to press in more that always is there and I'm just reminded of the scripture Mark chapter 4 where it talks about the measure that we use is what will be measured to us and understanding that we get it's Mark chapter 4 and verse 24 take heed with what you hear I just find that refreshing in the sense okay I go with a big measure with a big level of hunger and God always pours out into my life and I'm refreshed and renewed again thank you we've come to the end of our time if anybody had any questions you can feel free to post in Google Classroom in I think past Nancy they can do that right in the main audience yes they can okay so you can feel free to post there and we'll have your questions answered thank you all for joining us today see you next week