A Great Open Door!

MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER RIDGE CHAPEL

(Powerpoints used with this message are available at no charge. Just email me at mnewland@sstelco.com and request #121.)

(Title Slide) A GREAT OPEN DOOR!

Genesis 12:1-3; 1 Corinthians 16:5 9

A. One day, almost 4,000 years ago, God spoke to a man named Abram, who was later called Abraham, & said to him,

(Slide 2) “Leave your country, your people & your father’s household & go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation & I will bless you;

(Slide 3) “I will make your name great, & you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, & whoever curses you I will curse; & all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

Now why did God do that? What was His purpose? And why did He place such an emphasis on the subject of being a “blessing”?

(Slide 4) Well, as most of you know, I spent the first few years of my life with my parents on the border of China & Tibet. And the 2 Tibetan women that you see projected on the screen may help us understand why God was doing what He did.

(Slide 5) You see, the great majority of Tibetans are followers of Buddha & believe that there are thousands of different gods.

(Slide 6) How about this idol? It is almost 9 feet tall, & they say that it is made of solid gold. They worship it as a “Thousand-armed goddess” involved in almost every aspect of human life.

(Slide 7) Day after day, year after year they bow down before idols & offer sacrifices – not because they love them, but because they fear them & are seeking to appease them. You see, they believe that every bad thing that happens in life happens because some god is angry & has sent evil demons down to punish them.

(Slide 8) But which god, & why? And how can you appease that god? Well, of course, you can offer sacrifices to one god after another until finally you hit the right one. Or you can go to the Lama priests & pay them to determine which god is angry & then to offer sacrifices & intercede on your behalf.

(Slide 9) Here are some Lama priests preparing to take part in the new year’s festival. For 3 days the people bring offerings & sacrifices to the Lama priests to do their “devil dances” to drive away the evil demons from their village.

(Slide 10) Finally, on the 3rd day, when the priests have collected all they can from the people, the high priest comes & does the “Stag Devil – King of Hell” victory dance, & he announces that they have successfully driven the evil demons away from their village for another year.

(Slide 11) But for these 2 Tibetan women, nothing seemed to help. No matter to which gods or how much they sacrificed, their troubles & the evil demons that they believed had caused them did not go away.

Finally, the priests told them that somehow they had so angered the gods that nothing they had done so far was sufficient to appease them. There was just one thing left to try, the priests said.

If they would make a pilgrimage to a holy mountain that was about 3½ months journey away; & when they reached it, if they would crawl on their hands & knees over the rocks for the 11 miles around its base, praying “Om mani pad mi hum” over & over again as they crawled, then the gods would surely be appeased & send the demons away.

It is hard for us to realize that there are millions of people living in such superstition & fear. You see, we have been taught that God knows & loves each of us. And all our lives we have heard these words:

(Slide 12) “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

(Slide 13) “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” (John 3:16-17)

PROP. God does love us & yearns for us to love & follow Him, & in doing that to be a blessing & an example of the difference God can make in our lives.

B. I think that is the way the Apostle Paul must have felt when he wrote the words we find in 1 Corinthians 16:5 9. Listen as I read.

(Slide 14) "After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you for I will be going through Macedonia. Perhaps I will stay with you awhile, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go.”