Pastor Mur talks about finishing well and blessing the people you encounter no matter where you are in life.

Once you pass your 80th birthday, opportunities disappear. Everyday logic says that you are too old for a new career in any field. Time is short. Health, a question. No one wants you, your best days have gone by; the world belongs to the young who have prospects for growth, not death. Once you are 80, you need to get out of the way. You have had your day.

This will change somewhat in coming years since our population is aging, and our retirement planning and provisions are in jeopardy, if they exist at all. Many people my age will have to be productive since they will live longer, and the economics of life will demand that they work or go without.

I have been bi-vocational for the last 26 years. I am a civil engineer that specializes in solving problems that arise on large and small construction jobs, and I am a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Part of my ministry is a staff pastor in a large church, and one of the things I do is to pastor a group of the older people in the church. I will be 81 on my next birthday. The oldest in that group is 92.

Image: David Marcu

I am well aware of the verses in Ecclesiastes 12 and while I realize the truth of those words, I am not ready to be taken where I do not want to go, nor I am ready to give up living or hoping. My Bible tells me I have a future and a hope without any age limitation, and those are the words I choose to live by. Futures and hopes involve risk, and being willing to make the effort that will require God’s help for success.

Another of my ministry activities is to stand at one of the side front exits of our church, and bless those who exit by that door. I do this every Sunday after the 7:00 and 9:00 morning services. I make my way to the door as the preaching minister invites the congregation to stand for the closing prayer and the final song of the service.

I get to look out at the 800 to 1,000 that are in the audience for five minutes or so twice each Sunday, and while I am looking at them, I pray for individuals that catch my eye. Today, I looked at a man in a brightly colored shirt, and I prayed “Lord will you bless the fellow in that shirt this week”. I soon noticed another shirt the same color and I prayed for that person, and for another six or eight that also were similarly dressed. I did not know any of these by name.

No one knows I do this. I do not know most of those I bless. They do not know I pray for them, so I have no idea what my prayers achieve, but I am convinced that the God I turn to is eager and wanting to bless those I select each week.

I open the door as the service ends, and perhaps 40 to 100 people pass by. I say or repeat the word “blessings” to many; sometimes I say “woman of God, man of God or God loves you”. There is not time to say more since they pass by quickly. Some shake my hand, but most do not. It’s a double door, and they are moving along in two’s and three’s, so my ministry lasts five minutes and they are all gone.

I have gotten to know or recognize many that exit by my door since they pass that way every week. I often wonder what my speaking those blessings means to those that hear my words. I know that God hears me and ministers to those I bless, and those you bless.

I have learned to bless people, businesses, stores, cars, trucks, buses, ambulances, all kinds of things as I drive around town. I go by City Hall and bless the Mayor, the city council and those who work there as I pass. Would you, God, bless our Governor and the legislators? There is no end of people and things to bless. Imagine what could happen if each of you who read these words begin to bless those who pass by you.

God, would you bless each one that reads these words out of their socks this week. In Jesus name! Amen.

Pastor Mur
October 30, 2011

This encouragement originally appeared in the October 2011 edition of the Pneuma Informer, the email newsletter of the Pneuma Foundation. The Pneuma Foundation is the parent organization of PneumaReview.com.

Messianic teacher Kevin Williams takes us back to the time of Second Temple and shows the significance of the ninth hour of the day. Was the Messiah using temple language when he declared, “It is Finished”?

We read in Acts 3:1 “Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.” Read in passing, we can gather that Kefa and Yochanon (their Hebrew names) were headed up Mount Zion at about 3:00 in the afternoon. This was a time-honored tradition the rabbis tell us goes all the way back to Isaac. “And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide.”¹

During the period of the second temple, the ninth hour had become wrapped in ritual and significance. As with many Hebrew observances, one only has to look a little while before encountering word pictures and metaphors that point to the person and purpose of Messiah. Join me as we go on an excursion, away from this temporal existence back to the period when Jesus walked the earth.

Imagine if you will, that you are a Levite. You’re wearing your white linen robe, and you place the priestly turban upon your head. With practiced familiarity, you walk from the Southwest Chamber out into the Court of Priests in Herod the Great’s Temple. The majesty of the temple complex still stuns you, as the golden Holy Place—where the ark of the Lord resides—gleams in the late afternoon sun. All around you are other priests busy about their work—for it is nearly the ninth hour.

Directly before you, the ramp, leading up to the altar, beyond that, a little to your right, is the Holy Place where the Most High dwells.

The shofars, the ram’s horns, blare as the doors to your far right thrust open and the High Priest steps out into the late-day sun. It is time to fulfill God’s holy Torah, “The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even.”² His vestments of gold and jewels shimmer a dazzling array of colors and glory. The golden crown he wears reads, “Holy unto the LORD” and gleams like fire on his head.

A stream of other priests pour in through gates to the south, the north, and the east. Beyond these great bronze doors, you can see throngs of Israelites, milling about expectantly. Across the court, a chorus begins, singing from Psalm 66:15-20:

I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah. Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul. I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.

The Cohen Gadol, the High Priest, approaches the great altar. A female lamb is brought forth, innocent and without blemish. It is the last sacrifice of the day—the asham offering—the sin offering that atones for all the sins the Hebrew people were ignorant of committing. Such a God we serve! To cover even our ignorance!