Chris' Musings

Boldness to the king

2012-01-13T05:41:00.005+11:00

The Old Testament contains tons of examples of boldness in the face of authority that makes us look week, today I want to look at the example of Nehemiah who is in a position of relationship with the King and uses that to make a request.

The king genuinely cares about Nehemiah so is perceptive:
In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, 2 so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.”
I was very much afraid, 3 but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

4 The king said to me, “What is it you want?” (Nehemiah 2:1-4 NIV)
The King in this case is not some harsh ruler, but one that has inherited the Israelites as captives, Nehemiah serves the King as his cupbearer and so they have gotten to know each other and so the king knows when things don't look right with Nehemiah, so he asks him what is wrong. For Nehemiah it is that the city is in ruins, it is the city of God and as such it is his God being disgraced, but it was done by the king's ancestors, he is bold in telling the king about this, yet the king cares and asks him what he wants, the king is a man of means and he can make this happen.

And so Nehemiah continues to be bold:
Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 5 and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.”

6 Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time.

7 I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? 8 And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests. 9 So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me. (Nehemiah 2:4b-9 NIV)
Notice the first thing that Nehemiah does is to pray, he asks God for boldness that he may tell the king what he wants, and so God gives him that boldness, and Nehemiah goes for it. Not only that but the King agrees, and with this new sense of boldness Nehemiah makes more requests to enable him to do his job fully, and these are some big requests, but again the king agrees and allows Nehemiah to go, not only so but he protects him on his mission, making sure he will return safely.

Why aren't we as bold as Nehemiah? Perhaps we don't pray enough, God tells us that if we pray for it we will be given it, so maybe that's it, Nehemiah prays and straight away makes his request. Perhaps we fear failure too much? Nehemiah didn't he would have been perfectly fine if the King said no but God wasn't going to let that be an option, the possibility of not getting the right answer didn't bother Nehemiah, why? Because he left that up to God, it was his job to pose the question it was up to God and the king as to whether things would happen for him. Let us be more bold in 2012, not worrying about failure but leaving things up to God as we live boldly for him.

Even the Gentiles!

2012-01-12T06:43:00.002+11:00

The book of Acts is a crucial part of God's word, it gives us the back ground to how Christianity took it's roots and for believers a long way from Jerusalem it gives them the basis to have an equal footing with all other believers as the Gospel goes out.

Yesterday we saw Peter speak at the house of a Gentile, today we see the reaction to that:
“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?” (Acts 11:15-17 NIV)
Peter recalls the events that happened, that he spoke to the crowd and he saw the Holy Spirit come on them, remembering that this was what Jesus had promised, the Holy Spirit would come upon his people, and so it made no sense to Peter that they couldn't be baptized and be Christians as well.

The rest of the believers respond:
When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.” (Acts 11:18 NIV)
It is because of God's giving of the Holy Spirit that we see their objections being taken away. Of course, this means that they missed the point for thousands of years, although this is not really their fault, Jewish society created a religion that was tied with nationalism, which was never God's intent. The Jewish nation was to be a light to the world and lead to people coming to God, instead they made it a nationalistic religion and hence God's giving of the Holy Spirit even to Gentiles is mind blowing for this group.

As a result the word of God goes out:
Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. 20 Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. (Acts 11:19-21 NIV)
What's interesting is that those who are acting as missionaries from Jerusalem are still only speaking to the Jews, it is the believers who come from Cyprus that speak to Gentiles, in other words only Gentiles spoke to Gentiles at this stage, while they believed it, it took some time for them to actually put that belief in to practice, even though Antioch is a crucial part of our history, it is here where believers are first called Christians and it is where Paul starts his ministry perhaps kicking off some serious ministry to the Gentiles.

Let us not just believe things in theory but let us put the things we believe in to practice living out our faith.

Showing favoritism

2012-01-11T04:07:00.003+11:00

We all know the story well, Cornelius, a Roman centurion calls for Peter to come visit him. Peter has a vision as the men are on their way where 'unclean' animals are brought down on a sheet and God encourages Peter to eat them but he refuses. It is a crucial moment in Peter's ministry as he realizes that God doesn't show favoritism.

And so he goes to Cornelius' house:
While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. 28 He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. 29 So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?” (Acts 10:27-29 NIV)
Peter heads inside and sees an impressive crowd, and he reminds them that what he is doing would be completely against Jewish law, yet he's not Jewish but a Christian now and God has now made it very clear to him that he is allowed to do this, so he went, not raising any objection, indeed Peter doesn't even know why he was asked for he went because God told him to go.

Cornelius tells Peter his side of the story:
Cornelius answered: “Three days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me 31 and said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. 32 Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.’ 33 So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.” (Acts 10:30-33 NIV)
And so we hear about Cornelius' prayer, he is clearly very devout even though he is not ethnically Jewish which must push Peter even further, here is a Roman who is not at all ethnically Jewish but he talks about how he lives a devout life for God, Peter is fast having to adjust.

So Peter does adjust:
Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. 36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37 You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. (Acts 10:34-38 NIV)
Peter finally realizes that it is not where your from but what your relationship with God is and as such he sees that Cornelius is acceptable to God and he feels free to preach the Gospel to the audience even though we don't see anyone there as ethnically Jewish, the church is starting to spread to the Gentiles!

So while this might not be a huge issue for us, the Jews and Gentiles divide we still have divides. Whether they be political, cultural, based on socio-economic status, they are all wrong. We are all acceptable to God, and he doesn't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat or an ALP man or a Liberal man, that's all irrelevant to him and so it should be to us. The election season has kicked off in the US and we must not let this define us but rather our relationship with God.

If it is from God

2012-01-06T05:03:00.003+11:00

Often the Sanhedrin, the judicial branch of the Jewish people, made statements that were more prophetic than they realize, I've spoken before about the statement that it would be better for one man to die for the good of the people but today comes to the apostles. Peter & John have been preaching in the Temple Courts, which you can imagine didn't go over very well with the Jewish leadership who haul them before the Sanhedrin and then put them in jail. But that's not where it ends, they get out after the divine intervention from God and then preach again.

And so the process begins again:
The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.” (Acts 5:27-28 NIV)
Hauled in before the Sanhedrin they again reiterate that they'd told the disciples not to preach yet they continued to preach. They feel threatened by the Apostle's preaching which has now filled Jerusalem, they believe the apostles are making them guilty of killing Jesus, yet what the apostles make us realize is that we are ALL guilty of killing Jesus, we all sin and fall short of God's glory and have committed the sins that caused Jesus to be sacrificed for our sins.

But Peter also responds in much the same way:
Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” (Acts 5:29-32 NIV)
The Apostles are consistent again as they again say that they must obey God, it was the same way they responded when they first brought in, they are just speaking about what they have seen and heard, God is a higher authority than even the Sanhedrin and so they must obey him instead. Beyond that they now claim to have the Holy Spirit which until Acts had only been on individuals for set times, now has come on anyone who puts their faith in Christ.

And that is the final straw for the Sanhedrin:
When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. 34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. 35 Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. 37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. 38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” (Acts 5:33-39 NIV)
They are so angered by that assertion that they decide they'd like to put the apostles to death for claiming something like that. But then Gamaliel does something unexpected, he suggests letting them preach and his wisdom is very Godly. While he disagrees with the apostles he leaves open the possibility that they may be right because God has worked in unexpected ways in the past, so he allows that this could be it. Gamaliel knows his history he has seen people come and go and as such he knows that if this is along those lines it will fail but if it is from God they should not fight against it because they'd be fighting against God.

I think too often we try to fight against God, we hear things that we don't like instead of trying to examine them we just yell against it. What we should do when we hear things we don't like, examine them against the Bible and what God actually says.

The Devil and the word

2012-01-05T09:20:00.002+11:00

The story of the temptation of Jesus is a great one to us, Jesus was tempted and felt the pain of that but he didn't give in to that and the way he deals with things is a significant example to us. Also revealing to us is the way the devil behaves in this incident as it shows us how the Devil really works.

First of all the devil targets need:
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:1-4 NIV)
This is an interesting one because surely it would have been OK for Jesus to eat, the devil offers him something that seems to be fine, if you're hungry why not eat, what's the problem? The problem is priorities as Jesus puts it by quoting from the Bible, he says that bread is one thing but without God it's pointless. Jesus makes God his priority above even food, and he uses the Bible to combat the devil. Jesus' example shows us that it is through studying God's word that we can combat the devil's attacks, knowledge of God will help us overcome.

From there the devil targets piety:
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Matthew 4:5-7 NIV)
The devil sees that Jesus uses the word of God to combat him and thinks that he can use the word of God to trap Jesus. We should never fool ourselves into thinking that the devil is not smart, he is incredibly intelligent and will meet us head on and adapt as we adapt. This also means that we shouldn't take people using the Bible to back themselves up at facevalue but rather examine the word of God and make sure it matches up. Again Jesus goes back to the Bible, he doesn't need to show off his holiness to bring glory to God because he shouldn't be testing God, the devil loses out again.

And so the devil continues, looking to entice with power:
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” (Matthew 4:8-10 NIV)
Power is a very tempting thing but the old saying is true "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" Jesus is offered control of the world by the devil if he worships him. Of course Jesus already has the world so it's a silly offer but he tries none the less and of course Jesus doesn't buy it again going back to the Bible.

Jesus is the model for us, he always goes back to the Bible and he maintains a good relationship with The Father that helps him to combat the Devil's threats. Even in not responding to the promise of ruling the earth does Jesus provide an example, because that is something that we also will inherit through Christ and as such that is no real promise to us. Let us remember the example of Christ as we undergo temptation.

Quarterly Update - Q4 2011

2012-01-04T04:30:00.003+11:00

Hi all,

It's been another busy quarter for us but we're loving life and are looking forward to 2012, 2011 has been a great year on the whole!

Ministry
It's hard to believe I've already been at Bracken for six months! There's been so much in this last quarter, the Pumpkin Patch and the Fall Festival were both very successful events that were well attended by the community and I enjoyed getting to speak to lots of people. There have been some communication issues in my ministry that came to light this quarter but after some prayer, thinking and some help from a fellow member of staff who pitched in some ideas they came round well, it was painful for a while and looking back on my mistakes still hurts but it's good to have learned from them. I find that I'm enjoying the Children's Ministry side of the job more than I think I thought I would, even if some days I'm not feeling up to it the kids just give me the energy to kick on and do a good job, and I feed off that energy all day. Things are going well, the youth group on Sunday evening has gotten too big to run as a Bible Study so we're switching to a talk format as 2012 begins and the Midweek Children's Ministry has been successful, they're now going to meet every week instead of every second week, they've been learning the ten commandments and they're doing a great job.
Prayer:
Pray for me that I would faithfully teach the word of God, that I would make spiritual growth my priority.
Pray for my relationships with parents, kids and youth that they would continue to grow.
Pray for all the members of our groups that they would grow in knowledge and understanding of God.

Family
Channing and I have moved in to the Parsonage, so we now live on the church property which has greatly shortened my commute, it's much bigger than we need but it allows us to have guests which is neat, we've already had Channing's Mother stay with us. We also have an addition to the family, we got a puppy a rat terrier that we have named d'Artagnan. He follows me on my interval runs (the church property is big enough to run intervals around) and he's good fun even if we're still trying to train him.
Pray:
That I would show Channing that I love her and be a good and loving husband.

Football/Soccer
This quarter saw two college tournaments come to town which kept me busy, I was able to pick up $200 covering the NCAA Division III tournament for two North East newspapers which was a nice boost. Things are picking up, media wise, I've become the soccer correspondent for the local Sports Magazine (which may be getting a TV Show) and I'm also going to get accreditation for both Texas MLS teams as a Texas correspondent for a Pacific North West website, that won't involve a whole lot of actual writing it's more a good way to get a season pass to both clubs.
Pray:
That I would put sport in the right place, not ahead of God & Wife
That the time I spend on this would be refreshing not a chore

The lowly king

2011-12-23T04:36:00.003+11:00

The Jews in the time of Christ were expecting a king that would come and take out the Romans, putting Israel back to the top. This was their view of what the Messiah would do, and while it's true that not everyone held this view, it seems to have been the most prevalent view at the time. Which is interesting because it goes completely against the prophecy about who the Messiah would be and what he would do.

Zechariah, for instance thought quite differently:
Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9 NIV)
This is, of course, the prophecy about Palm Sunday, Jesus comes in riding on a donkey, it's hard to miss the image when we see this prophecy in Zechariah. The issue is that THIS was the promised Messiah, he would come and be lowly, Zechariah even uses the word lowly. Not only does he not come on a horse but he comes on a donkey, not even a donkey but a donkey's foal. The true king doesn't need to be all fancy, his title speaks for itself and he can live as one of us.

All Jesus' contemporaries saw was the rest of the passage:
I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
His rule will extend from sea to sea
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
11 As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.
12 Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope;
even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.
13 I will bend Judah as I bend my bow
and fill it with Ephraim.
I will rouse your sons, Zion,
against your sons, Greece,
and make you like a warrior’s sword. (Zechariah 9:10-13 NIV)
All they saw was this militaristic king, one that would come and beat up all the other nations. The issue here is the word 'peace' that is what this whole passage revolves around, it occurs in the middle of verse ten. God wasn't talking about a military victory but rather a spiritual victory. God will expand the borders of his influence through winning a spiritual battle, he will defeat sin in the death of Christ. Jesus' blood is spilled that creates a new covenant which frees us from our sin "the waterless pit".

So Lowly is Jesus that even the moment of his birth isn't very impressive, Jesus is born among all the animals and is placed in a feeding trough, Jesus isn't in some palace being attended to be dozens of servants but he is lowly, yet he is God. Christmas is when we celebrate God's coming down and living among us, and he didn't do it hold it over us how much better he is but rather he lived exactly as we would, spurning the position he could have had to experience our lives. How great is our God

An unlikely prophet

2011-12-22T07:45:00.003+11:00

One of the biggest things that Jesus has in his favour in terms of who he was and what he did is the number of hostile sources (ie. non-Christian) that refer to him and his life, the most noteworthy is the Jewish historian Josephus, who was a contemporary of Jesus and lived during the intertestamental period. One of the really interesting ones comes from the high-priest Caiaphas, who makes an interesting statement in John's Gospel.

The Sanhedrin is together and Caiaphas makes this dramatic statement:
Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” (John 11:49:50 NIV)
It's clear that this is a prophecy, Caiaphas is correct it is better that one man die for the people than the whole nation perish. Indeed John 3:16 has already pointed at this and that's what we'd take on surface level from this. But that's not really what Caiaphas mans.

To get a good understanding we need to look at why Caiaphas says this:
Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.” (John 11:47-48) NIV)
Their concern is not with salvation but rather staying out of trouble with the Romans. Judaism was a protected religion, so long as they worked within the status quo, as long as they didn't cause any troubles the Romans were happy to allow them to keep worshiping in their own way. As such the concern of the Sanhedrin was often just about keeping the peace and quashing any riots. They were worried about what Jesus would do, would he start a riot? And so they met to discuss how best to prevent that from happening in order to protect their religion, their town and their position in society. It is from there that Caiaphas makes his statement, it's better to kill Jesus than to risk him starting a riot that would result in the Romans taking over Jerusalem.

And so the Sanhedrin makes a conclusion:
He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. 53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life. (John 11:51-53 NIV)
Caiaphas was already working towards this end, this was his firm belief, that Jesus had to die in order to save Jerusalem. Not only that but it would bring back the lost sheep of Israel. Caiaphas felt that by killing Jesus he would restore Israel. He's absolutely right, just not in the way he thought. Caiaphas thought that by killing Jesus he'd get rid of him and the political and geographic Israel would be restored. But what actually happens is that Jesus just proves who he is, but he does die for the good of the whole 'nation' and he does bring in the scattered. Israel in the New Testament tends to mean 'the people of God' and as such that is what Jesus achieves, he dies for the good of the people of God and he brings in all who are far away.

Caiaphas was right, but little did he know the levels that it would apply to. Where he was thinking on a Geo-Political level it was actually working on a spiritual level.

Was it really for me?

2011-12-21T02:43:00.003+11:00

One of the issues with the way the Israelites worshiped was the issue of the heart, too often on the odd occasion when they did give praise to God it was purely out of obligation rather than a real desire to honor God. I feel like the same is often true for us in the 21st century, especially at this time of year when we get so concerned with other things that church on Christmas Eve/Day becomes an obligation rather than a joy.

In Zechariah we see people come and ask God about how they should give honor to him:
The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the LORD 3 by asking the priests of the house of the LORD Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”
4 Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me: 5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? 6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? 7 Are these not the words the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?’” (Zechariah 7:2-7 NIV)
The people are showing a great spiritual advance from where they have been at by even consulting God in the first place, the book of Zechariah has seen an amazing spiritual revival, and so they ask God if they should follow the traditions that they have been keeping for years. God responds by questioning why they have done this in the past, but of course God is omnipotent, he is all knowing so this isn't so much a questioning but a revelation. God shows these people their hearts in what they were doing. He reveals to them that they weren't really doing it out of love for God but rather out of obligation.

God continues:
And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: 9 “This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’

11 “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. 12 They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry. (Zechariah 7:8-12 NIV)
God proves his point, if they were doing it out of love for God they would have shown that somewhere else but they didn't. God told them to do many other things and they didn't do any of that so it can be safe to say that when they did what they were supposed to it was out of obligation rather than out of a love for God.

For us we need to remember to honor God not out of obligation but out of love for him. Too often we do the Christmas church service because we feel we have to or because we want to make our friends or family happy, while that's noble it is not the reason we should be worshiping God, it should be as a response to his great love for us and as a way to show our love to him.

Blindness

2011-12-20T07:24:00.002+11:00

There are two things I really love about John's gospel, firstly the way it flows is great but also John is always showing us the practicalities of the ministry that happens and gives us a feel for what the world of Jesus was like, encounters seem very genuine, Jesus talks to people he meets on the street. So it makes sense that Jesus would use the healing of a blind man as an opportunity to talk about Spiritual Blindness.

Jesus heals this man, but does so on a Sabbath and so the man is brought before the Pharisees to account for what has happened:
The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out. (John 9:30-34 NIV)
The blind man has had his eyes open in more ways than one, he sees through the surface of the issue and cuts right to the point. Only God can heal blindness, something that the Pharisees would have acknowledged. But Jesus healed him, as a result, Jesus cannot be a sinner even though he supposedly "worked" on the Sabbath. In fact far more than that, not only is Jesus not a sinner he must be FROM God. Healing a man's blindness could only from God, if this man were not from God, he could do nothing. If Jesus was not God, he would have just been some creepy guy spitting on the ground and rubbing mud on some dude's face, but Jesus was from God and he healed the man. But the Pharisees refuse to listen to the man's sound logic, it doesn't fit their paradigm, someone who breaks the Sabbath can't be from God. So they find an excuse to discredit his testimony, he must have been blind because he was a sinner (another example of John's flow, the disciples having spoken about that earlier in the passage) and so they don't have to listen to him and throw him out.

It's clear that this man has had an impact on Jesus because he comes to speak to him more:
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. (John 9:35-38 NIV)
Jesus is compassionate and after hearing that the man has been thrown out he comes to offer comfort to him. The man, though, hardly needs it, he knows that they were wrong and he knows that he will follow this man that healed him (he has already proclaimed to be a disciple of him) he has seen what he can do and wants to know more. Jesus speaks of who he is and immediately the man believes he has seen the proof that he needs and he worships Jesus, further proving Jesus' identity as God is the fact that Jesus doesn't stop this action, which would be inappropriate for anyone other than God.

As they are talking some Pharisees come by:
Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. (John 9:39-41 NIV)
Too often we are in the boat of the Pharisees. Someone gives us a word of teaching that greatly impacts us, but we think that it's not for us, that we can see clearly and we are above it. Jesus' statement is condemning, they could have claimed to have been ignorant of their sin and maybe would have received mercy (in the Old Testament unintentional sins were covered by a once yearly sacrifice) but because they claimed that they could see they had no chance of that.

Too often we're in that boat, we think we're above it, we think we can see clearly when in reality we are largely blind to Spiritual things. Our response should be that of the Blind man who falls down at the feet of Jesus and trusts him to lead the way. Instead we are like the Pharisees, claiming that we are not blind and that we see clearly and we are right. Let us repent of our self importance and ask God to forgive us and change us.

Testify

2011-12-16T05:31:00.004+11:00

There are many times in the Bible that we see testimony about Jesus both from believing and unbelieving individuals, but perhaps the most important is the testimony Jesus gives about himself.

After being hassled for working on the Sabbath Jesus says:
“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true. (John 5:31:32 NIV)
Jesus notes that his testimony wouldn't be valid if he was the only one to talk about himself. That doesn't mean that Jesus isn't telling the truth, just that if we were talking in a courtroom situation, and it was just Jesus' testimony there wouldn't be sufficient evidence.

And so he points to John:
“You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. 34 Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. 35 John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. (John 5:33-35 NIV)
John constantly said that one was coming that would bring light to the world, and that it would be bigger than him. Then when Jesus came he proclaimed boldly that Jesus was the person he was talking about. There was no way anyone could possibly miss that Jesus was the guy he was talking about, yet they did. And it's not like they just didn't like John the Baptist, Jesus points out that they did enjoy John the Baptist, and so should have clearly understood that Jesus was the one that JTB was talking about, yet they didn't, they chose not to.

But he doesn't stop there, he continues, ramping up the quality of the testimony, like a good lawyer:
“I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. (John 5:36 NIV)
Jesus points out that what they just witnessed proves that he is who he says he is. This whole discussion started because Jesus healed a crippled man on the Sabbath, that healing alone should be enough to prove that Jesus is who he says he is. Who else but God could heal, and yet Jesus does it.

Jesus continues pointing to ever stronger testimony:
And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life. (John 5:37-40 NIV)
Jesus points to the Bible, he knows his audience, he knows that they will be always looking at the scriptures and so he reminds them that those are God speaking to them, which they would recognize, then he points out that they have been speaking about him this whole time. Why then do they choose not to come to him?

Jesus' testimony about himself is valid, he is who he says he is and we can just look at his actions to back that up. But beyond that there is an entire cannon of prophets who have spoken about him, not to mention the testimony from many of his contemporaries (both hostile and non-hostile) we can trust his testimony.

Not the where but the how

2011-12-15T06:11:00.003+11:00

I work for a church that has one space for a traditional service and one space for a more contemporary service. It's a great thing in many ways, it allows us to do multiple services at once, it's another space for events. But at the same time one of the challenges we have is that one space will always be considered by some people "not church", and that's why they choose to worship at the venue and service that they choose.

Someone asked Jesus about where they should worship:
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” (John 4:19-20 NIV)
The notable thing about this exchange is that the Woman is a Samaritan, not only that but even if she were Jewish she'd be an outsider in that community. For the Jews the Samaritans are the worst of the worst. The Samaritans are the Northern tribes who broke away from Israel and came up with this hybrid religion that meshed Judaism and paganism together. They were despised by the Jews in Judea for they were breaking away from God's will, unlike them. Of course the Judean's had too low a view of the Samaritans while simultaneously holding a much too high view of themselves, which are the key ingredients for blending religious zeal and nationalism.

And so Jesus replies:
“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:21-24 NIV)
In this brief statement Jesus challenges the whole religious set up of the Middle-East at the time. He basically says 'you're both wrong' because for Jesus, and thus for God, it is not the where of worship that is important but the how. And by 'how' I'm not talking about traditional, "bells and smells" v contemporary Hillsong sort of thing but rather an internal heart sort of thing. Jesus doesn't want the worshipers to just do religious ceremonies but rather to mean everything they do, if that means not always doing it the traditional way than so be it!

That still stands for us! We may not be sacrificing Bulls and goats anymore but we do still get caught in this whole idea of following religious ceremony, we have to say things a certain way or do things a certain way or else God won't hear us. That's just not true, God is more concerned with what is going on in our hearts than following some set formula. Let us not get stuck in to following our formula to the point where we forget that it is all about worshiping in spirit & truth.

Practicalities

2011-12-14T05:31:00.002+11:00

Sometimes we get so caught up in the "spirituality" of everything we forget to think about whether things are actually practical.

But would there really be an example in the Bible of that?
After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. 23 Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. (John 3:22-23 NIV)
Yes! That's exactly why John baptizes where he does. John is a significant example of this because here's a guy who really could have been tied up in the spiritual matters, he'd received a calling from God directly (well his mother did and the Holy Spirit fills him even in the womb) and he is sent to prepare the way of God for Jesus' coming, he really could have got in to this spiritual stuff. John could have headed t the Jordan and baptized in the exact spot the Israelites crossed over in to Israel, as a symbol of preparing God's entry to the promised land, that would have been some cool spiritual symbolism. But he doesn't do that! Why? Because that would have been a distraction, he goes to a place where the people were coming and he baptizes them there because funnily enough there's plenty of water there, he can tell his message of one coming greater than him, he can give a baptism of repentance and all without a distraction of this supposed spirituality.

Rob Bell said "everything is spiritual" and he is right, but if EVERYTHING is spiritual we don't need to be so caught up in trying to make everything super spiritual we miss the point, everything holds that. We too often let ourselves get distracted by making some super enlightened spiritual point that we miss the opportunity to share the Gospel with others, let us never forget the practicalities of ministry.

Preparing a house

2011-12-13T06:27:00.002+11:00

We were talking staff meeting about the distraction of preparing our house instead of preparing out hearts this Christmas and the issues with that. What is interesting is that this predates Christmas.

Haggai comes to rebuke the Israelites:
This is what the LORD Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the LORD’s house.’”

3 Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

5 Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” (Haggai 1:2-6 NIV)
They have gone to a lot of effort to make sure their houses in order but they have not taken care of God's house, the temple still lies in ruins. As a result of that all their efforts have been fruitless, everything they try to do fails because they haven't looked after God first. This isn't even about the temple necessarily but about their hearts and that they were self centered instead of God centered.

So God acts:
This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the LORD. 9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.” (Haggai 1:7-11 NIV)
God takes away any chance that they'll be fruitful, it's a strong message, but what's important here is that this isn't a punishment but rather a reminder that they need to show their faithfulness to God first. God gives them a choice, they can either go ahead and keep going the way they are and suffer actual punishment OR they can repent, turn around and come back to him and live in his glory.

So what do they choose?
Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD.

13 Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: “I am with you,” declares the LORD. 14 So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month. (Haggai 1:12-14 NIV)
They do come back to God, they obey God's command and they rebuild the temple. And as a result God is good on his promise, he declares "I am with you". That is a phenomenal thing as it is something they have not heard in a very long time. God is back with his people, because they are finally starting to listen and understand that it is better to live under God's will and please him than it is to do our own thing and miss out on something.

This isn't about God wanting us to be rich, that's plainly not true, but it's about worrying about serving God before we serve ourselves, sometimes we struggle with that because the world can have it's distractions. Particularly at this time of year when we find ourselves so distracted by what "needs to be done" that we forget what comes first is our relationship with God and putting his house in order. Let us not let Christmas distract us from Christ!

Solomon misses the point

2011-12-09T08:42:00.003+11:00

Solomon often gets a lot of things right during his reign as king of Israel but he also gets an alarming amount of things drastically wrong, the kingdom is split because of his actions as king of Israel.

But most of the time he just misses the greater point:
Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the City of David to the palace he had built for her, for he said, “My wife must not live in the palace of David king of Israel, because the places the ark of the LORD has entered are holy.” (2 Chronicles 8:11 NIV)
Solomon has a good heart here, he wants to honor God and wants to honor the holiness of God and so he wants to keep things that don't measure up to God's standard separate from him, which in Solomon's eyes, and the interpretation of the day, meant no foreigners. The issue is that he really misses the point, the King was only supposed to marry someone from within Jerusalem is what's immediately on view here, so he's already broken the commands to the King but there's more than that he's out on. The king is only to have one wife, this is not his first wife, indeed he has almost 100 wives not to mention his concubines the guy wasn't so much concerned about the rules then. But here Solomon is very concerned which shows that his heart is in the right place, he is concerned about the holiness of God above all else, if you're going to pick one that's not a bad one to focus on.

But for us we need to look at Solomon and learn the lessons from him, it makes no sense to be religiously devout about certain things and not others. Saint Augustine is a great example, he knew that if he became a Christian it would take all of him to do it, he wouldn't go in half heartedly but the whole way changing everything about his life. That's how we need to be, we need to let Jesus change everything about us, not just the bits that are easy but the bits that say "don't marry 99 women" (OK that's easy too) or the bits that say "hey, how about NOT being a jerk" that one's a bit harder

Obedience as love

2011-12-08T04:28:00.002+11:00

Often we are questioned as to why we still need to obey God's commands. If Jesus has saved us why can't we just do whatever we want and have God forgive us at the end anyway? I think "ummm well, cos" is not an acceptable answer to anyone, of course I also wonder how sincere a question this is but regardless, the Bible offers us several answers, indeed for John it concerns one of the key themes of the Bible.

That theme is love:
It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. (2 John 1:4-6 NIV)
John is right to point out that this is not a new command, Obedience as love is not something revolutionary when John writes about it, nor was it when Jesus spoke about, that has been the reality for a faithful Jew since Abraham, the believers were obedient because they loved God. Indeed their disobedience came when they were committing adultery and off loving some other god, a clearly unloving thing to do. And so that is the command, walk in love, and what is love? Walking in obedience to his commands, it's rather cyclical, but that makes sense, for God's commands are loving and so if we are obedient to God's commands we WILL be walking in love.

One of the great benefits is that means that it's largely the same thing for us today as it was when John wrote his letter, if we follow God's commands we will be loving others, which thus follows God's commands. If we love God, we'll long to be obedient to his commands and serve him.

Give to Caesar what is Caesar's

2011-12-07T05:04:00.003+11:00

There's no secret that I'm a Libertarian and as a result very much opposed to high taxation and all of that, so it pains me to see people misunderstand a passage that talks about Taxation to justify tax rates.

The passage is of course Jesus' answer to the question of taxation:
Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. 21 So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22 Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” (Luke 20:20-22 NIV)
Jesus' ministry is reaching its climax and as a result the questioning is getting more intense, Luke describes these people as spies, they're pretending to be sincere, but anyone can tell that this question is clearly designed to get Jesus in trouble, if he says No, the Romans will kill him and if he says yes the Jews will kill him because they want to rebel against the Romans.

Jesus could just brush it off, but he responds:
He saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

25 He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” (Luke 20:23-25 NIV)
Jesus sees that they're trying to trap him and knowing that Cesar's inscription is on the coin says "give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's. And so the conclusion is, Jesus says we should pay taxes or Jesus says taxes are good. But that's ignoring one key detail, the spies (or Pharisees depending on the Gospel you are looking at) are satisfied with Jesus' answer, if Jesus meant "pay your taxes" wouldn't they have risen up a mob to kill him right there?

What Jesus was saying still rings true to us, yes we should be obeying the laws of the Land but that's not what Jesus is saying here (we should do it because it is mentioned elsewhere in the Bible, but not Luke 20). Jesus is saying that it all belongs to God and we should be giving all we have to God. Just look at the positioning within the Gospel of Luke, In Luke 19 Jesus talked about servants using their masters "minas" (a currency) for his good, Jesus has been talking about how we should be using everything we have for God. Most of us have money (at least compared to the global population, we're all in that 1%) but we also have skills and abilities, that's what Jesus wants from this discourse. He wants us to give everything to God because, after all, everything is God's.

We shall overcome

2011-12-06T09:56:00.002+11:00

It's no secret that I love Christian Ska, I was recently overjoyed by the news of Five Iron Frenzy's return, indeed it is because of Christian Ska that I know my wife. The OC Supertones had a great song called We Shall Overcome and as I looked at 1 John this morning I found a strong basis for the Supertones' Statement.

1 John 4 speaks of spirits from God and from the world:
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. (1 John 4:4-6 NIV)
We are from God, says John, because we acknowledge Jesus as God in the flesh. It is a fitting thing to remember in advent that which sets Christianity apart, Christianity is about God reaching down to us to save us. Sometimes we can forget that God is more powerful than those that fight against us, sometimes our arguments seem so frail against our supposedly smart friends and we can forget about God's power. The spirits of the world are attractive to those who are of the world, and so the world will listen to them more than it will listen to God. We are doing God's work and so we know that we will overcome. It is through listening to God's word that we can know what is true and what is false.

The Supertones were right to say We shall overcome, but that's just part of the story, we have already overcame, Jesus has already won and we're just here waiting for his victory lap.

Lame excuses

2011-12-01T05:33:00.002+11:00

Often we try and excuse ourselves from devoting time to Christ "I'm too busy" or "God's cool with it" or the classic one for those of us who work in ministry "It's my day off" and all these things sound legitimate to us, or we don't think we're not avoiding Christ, but really all they are are just lame excuses.

This is nothing new, as Jesus speaks of people who miss heaven because of lame excuses:
When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ (Luke 14:15-17 NIV)
Jesus has been eating with a bunch of Pharisees and one of those makes a comment about heaven. The feast and the great banquet on offer here are images of heaven, and this would have been plain to the audience that Jesus was speaking to (especially given one of them just used that metaphor) but perhaps need restating to us, as we see heaven more as a location than an event.

Then we see the first invitee:
“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ (Luke 14:18 NIV)
The image would not have been lost on Jesus' audience, this man (and those to follow) are turning down an invitation to heaven. Not only that, but it's a pretty lame excuse, did this man really just buy a field without even looking at it?! This man is so wrapped up in the world that he's making poor decisions just to amass more stuff and cares nothing for heaven.

Well how about the next guy:
“Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ (Luke 14:19 NIV)
Again it's another man making a poor financial decision because he's so wrapped up in the world and having stuff, did he really buy these oxen without trying them out?! The modern comparison would be "I have just bought a car, and I'm on my way to try it out", it's generally not smart to buy a car without taking it for a test-drive first. But even allowing for that, must he really try them out right now? Clearly this feast is more important, and the oxen (and the field for the prior man) would still be there when he got back, can't he just wait?

Then we come to the final man:
“Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ (Luke 14:20 NIV)
Now this one seems to be a fair enough reason to say no to the feast, after all, he just got married, that's pretty important and in the Jewish law men who were newly married (1st year of marriage) didn't have to go to war (interestingly this is how America worked during the draft for the Vietnam war). But there are a few issues with this, first off, this is a banquet, it's not a war so it isn't covered by that regulation, nor would it last as long. I've been fortunate to eat at some very nice restaurants but even then the longest I was there for A LOT of food was 3 hours, even if we double that for this banquet it's still not even half a day. Besides all that, why can't his wife come? It's fairly safe to assume that this man inviting him is a friend of the newlywed so it's not a stretch to assume that he knows he is just married and would love his wife to come as well. The final issue is whether he is what the man means by 'just', we've already assumed that the man inviting is a friend of the newlywed so it'd probably be safe to assume that he would have been at the wedding and know he was a newlywed, so one would suspect that he isn't 'just' married but rather his wedding was a while ago.

And so they miss out:
“The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’

22 “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’

23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’” (Luke 14:21-23 NIV)
The man has prepared this great banquet and it's not going to go to waste, so he invites anybody else to come in, inviting everybody he possibly can, but those who refused him will not get a second chance. We face the same decision with heaven, we can choose to come but once we're dead, that's it, God's not going to give us another chance, we had out whole lives to make that decision.

For us today the lesson is simple. We cannot be so wrapped up in this world and all it's stuff, even things that seem to be Godly like our spouse, that we neglect God. None of these things were sinful (property ownership, oxen to plough a field and marriage) but when these things distract us from God, that's when they are sinful. I think we all have things that have done that to us, we've all used lame excuses, I know that too often I fall under the "but it's my day off" category, let's use today as a chance to repent from that and devote ourselves to God.

The end but not the end

2011-11-30T07:37:00.002+11:00

Often in the Bible there's this tension between the end times having already begun but yet this knowledge that we're not really at the full end of it all yet, after all Jesus has not returned. The prophet Micah gives us a view of this and we see this tension really at play.

Micah writes:
In the last days
the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established
as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
and peoples will stream to it.

2 Many nations will come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (Micah 4:1-2 NIV)
This is the part we already see, I don't think that this is a literal picture, like Zionists would have us believe. Rather this is an image of what we now see, inaugurated by Jesus we see what Micah referred to as "the last days". "The mountain of the LORD" is almost used the way we use "Canberra" or "the Whitehouse" when referring to executive office, it's not the physical place, but it's people from all nations, coming to God in worship. That's what we see now, the fastest growing church is the African church and the biggest church in the world is in Korea, we are truly coming to the Mountain of the LORD from many nations.

But then Micah continues:
He will judge between many peoples
and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
4 Everyone will sit under their own vine
and under their own fig tree,
and no one will make them afraid,
for the LORD Almighty has spoken.
5 All the nations may walk
in the name of their gods,
but we will walk in the name of the LORD
our God for ever and ever. (Micah 4:3-5 NIV)
This is the part we don't see, we don't see a global peace with everybody living in safety. The peace spoken about here is a true peace, not just the absence of war, but the absence of fear, war is so distant that it doesn't even seem a possibility. God stands as the judge and the head of all, and this all happens at his word. Now while it is true that God is the king of kings, what is on the table here is that being acknowledged by all people. This is what will occur at THE end, when God brings forth the new heavens and the new earth.

For us this should be a comfort, every day is a day closer to this perfect peace and perfect place where there will be no more war and God will be with us forever.

Fear but don't fear

2011-11-29T08:10:00.002+11:00

Regularly in the Bible there's this awkward balance between different meanings of the word "fear" one meaning to respect and honor and the other one meaning to be afraid of something, like what we see the meaning of fear today. This comes out in Luke 12 when we look at a warning Jesus gives us.

Jesus says:
“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (Luke 12:4-7 NIV)
Jesus has been talking about the Pharisees and how they are hypocrites, and as such this continues to be an attack on the Jewish rulers, indeed it's something that applies to Jesus as well, after all he will be killed by them, and it's a direct message to the apostles. Jesus tells them to not be afraid of people who can kill the body, but can't do anything after that but to fear the one who can send us into hell. Fear related to the first group is an actual fear, Jesus didn't want people to disrespect the authorities but rather to not be afraid of them, but then he takes advantage of the double meaning and speaks about fearing God. We're not supposed to live in fear of some God who is going to send us all to hell, but rather we need to honor and respect God, who loves us and cares for us. That's where the rest of Luke 12 is mainly concerned and is where this passage wraps up, even Sparrows are cared for by God, surely you are worth more than sparrows, he longs to save you from that place.

What about for us? Well we're probably not being faced with a choice between following God or death and so this makes running from god an especially crazy decision. For us the worst persecution probably gets is exclusion or name calling, now while that can be painful it's not much on the scale of what Jesus' audience would suffer for following him, Jesus wants us to endure any suffering and continue to trust ('fear') God.

Drawing up an account

2011-11-17T07:35:00.002+11:00

The Gospels have been attacked us un-credible biased witness. And while it is true that they are biased, every source of any event is biased, I think it is untrue that the Gospels are not a credible account of what happened, indeed they are written closer to the events than many other ancient literature that we take as truth was and hostile writers like Josephus often back up that what they were saying took place did take place.

But what do the Gospel's say about their own purpose, well let's look at Luke:
Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. (Luke 1:1-4 NIV)
There is no denying that Luke has a theological bent as early as the first verse. He talks about how these things have been "fulfilled among us", so it gives away what Luke already thinks. Although we also gather Luke's audience from this passage, Luke would seem to be writing to people who already know about Jesus, Luke isn't writing an evangelistic work necessarily but he is writing an account of what had happened.

We often refer to the Gospels as "Biographies of Jesus" and no where is that more true than in the Gospel of Luke, that is Luke's purpose in writing and he writes as a biographer looking for evidence, and making a measured account. If it is a biography of Jesus we want, then Luke is probably the best place to look.

Hallelu Yah

2011-11-16T03:34:00.002+11:00

The book of Psalms forms a neat bundle of thoughts of various people throughout Israel's history. The book begins with talking about the blessed man and it ends with praise, which seems an appropriate place to end after looking at 150 different meditations on God and his law.

And so there is praise:
Praise the LORD.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.

6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD. (Psalm 150 NIV)
It's a fairly simple Psalm that tells us the simple thing "Praise the LORD." (In Hebrew Hallelu Yah hence the title of today's blog). God is to be praised, in the sanctuary, in the heavens, so basically, we are to be praising God everywhere. What for, for his surpassing greatness and his acts of power, so again we are to praise God for everything he does. After reading 149 Psalms we'd probably have a good idea of what they are, and the original audience of this Psalm would have had a thorough understanding of what God had done for them having been taught it their whole lives and experienced the miraculous signs themselves, and as such the Psalmist doesn't feel the need to go in to great detail here. But finally we come to the how, and it is this that takes up the bulk of the Psalm, a long list of instruments and dancing is included. Why the list? Because we are to praise God with all that we have and all that we are.

This week in Children's Church we looked at the parable of the talents, and how the good servants used all that they could to bring happiness and joy to their master. The call of Psalm 150 is much the same, we should be working with all that we have so that we can bring praise to God through our skills and talents wherever we are and for whatever reason.

The prayer of Jabez

2011-11-15T07:13:00.003+11:00

Some of you may have just denied me as a Heretic for even mentioning the prayer of Jabez, but that would be just as bad a thing to do as your opponents. For those who have no idea, the Prayer of Jabez was a book written by Bruce Wilkinson in 2000 that promotes this concept of Prosperity Gospel, that God wants us to be rich.

But that's not really what the prayer of Jabez is, it is actually from the Bible, 1 Chronicles 4:9-10, and therefore if we, as mainline evangelical Christians believe that "all scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." (2 Timothy 3:16 NIV) Then the prayer of Jabez must be no exception.

So let's take a look:
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” 10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request. (1 Chronicles 4:9-10 NIV)
So on the surface of it, it would seem maybe Wilkinson has a point, after all Jabez called out to God and God did it, God made Jabez rich, ergo he wants the same for us right? Well before we even delve deeply in to this passage we already see one problem. This is just an account, no where does it suggest that what happened to Jabez is the norm, it's just what happened to Jabez it tells us nothing about what we should expect.

But let's look more at this passage. We're told Jabez was more honorable but as we look more at the character of Jabez, it seems that maybe it should have been followed by "just ask him so". Jabez doesn't seem honorable, rather, he sees himself as honorable and of deserving of special treatment. It would seem that Jabez was a pain, he came in to the world causing his mother pain, we can assume that this means more than the usual childbirth pain but rather a more painful experience of childbirth given she doesn't say this of any of his brothers. Indeed the word Jabez sounds like the Hebrew word for pain (which you'll see if you look at your footnote), Jabez's very name means pain, Jabez was a pain. In addition just look at his prayer, it seems very self-centered and self righteous, it's how we always portray the Pharisees as praying, Jabez was only honorable in his own mind.

But why does God grant his request? Jabez wants to be removed from the society, all the other people are annoying him, he reminds me of Ignatius J. Riley from A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (a good and very funny read if you haven't before). Jabez lives in his own little world, and cares little for what others think or need, but only for his own needs. God grants the request as it seems mutually beneficial, if Jabez doesn't want to experience the growth that can come to us through working through difficulties and "pain" and being in community with others (which can also cause pain) than so be it, Jabez will miss out and the community will be healthier without him. Jabez rather than getting a richer experience, actually ends up far poorer as a result of his request.

For us Jabez presents a challenge, too often we would rather have a comfortable experience of God, just using him as a vending machine and not wanting to be challenged. But as the Israelites found out, the desert, the wilderness, the place where we struggle is where the best growth can be found in a spiritual sense. We don't want to just seek out emotional pain, but we should be looking to use it as an opportunity for growth and praise God for that opportunity.

Perfection and the priesthood

2011-11-13T12:43:00.002+11:00

The whole point of the book of Hebrews is to point us back to Christ to show his superiority to the old way, there are extensive mentions of the Old and New Covenants but today's passage has us looking at the priesthood and perfection.

The audience he is writing to is a group of Christians tempted to go back to the old way due to persecution and so he talks about the priesthood:
If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood—and indeed the law given to the people established that priesthood—why was there still need for another priest to come, one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? 12 For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also. (Hebrews 7:11-12 NIV)
The priesthood with all its rules and regulations were not going to make anybody perfect, if it could it would have already worked. It's not a back up option, it was always the option. So if the priesthood is changed then the law has to be changed as well.

The writer continues, discussing who these words are about:
He of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar. 14 For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. 15 And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, 16 one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life. (Hebrews 7:13-16 NIV)
It is of course Jesus that this all refers to, Jesus is our high priest, and from the order of Melchizedek, a different order and something the writer to the Hebrews spends great amounts of time talking about. Why does Jesus make this even more clear? Because it was already apparent, Psalm 110 talks about it, and the writer to the Hebrews quotes from that Psalm. In addition, it's like I was saying earlier, Jesus wasn't plan B but plan A, the law & the priesthood is just a foreshadow of what is to come, and that is why it would be foolish for his audience to go back.

For us the temptation might not be to go back to the Jewish priesthood. But what Jesus has done is do away with religious/cultic obedience to a certain code. God wants us to be obedient to him but not to be saved, rather out of thanksgiving to him, it is that reason that we follow his laws. Obedience will never make us perfect, it's Jesus who does that.