Archive for Bible
November 09, 2008 at 03:10 PM · Posted under Bible
As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty. -- Matthew 13:23
Francis is the real deal.
Luke 8:15 describes Francis as receiving the word and holding it fast in an honest and good heart. As the simplest of the four characters in Jesus' parable, Francis doesn't fall into the errors of the others. Mind is open to the gospel; heart is set on Jesus and Jesus alone.
Francis is not crippled by serving two masters - everything: every relationship, every possession, every talent, every minute is consciously given to serving God. Francis recognises that God created all of life and both desires and deserves to be honoured in all of life. Francis might be an outgoing, in-your-face evangelist that somehow manages to naturally slip into conversations about God in an average 27.63 seconds from first introductions or might be the kind of person who rarely says much to anyone but displays the transforming power of the gospel and the love of Christ - the type people turn to to share their problems with. Or Francis might be the practical type that drops dinner round to the young couple that spent last night in the hospital and came home parents. Or perhaps the person who invests time in young people showing them by instruction and example what it means to follow Jesus.
But whatever Francis does - whether vocal or silent - is done in the service of God. It is inspired by the recognition of God's grace towards them. It is empowered by God's spirit within them. It's done in the imitation of Jesus.
Francis is open and honest. Humble and loving. Obedient. Francis has the heart of a servant. How? Francis knows what it means to be loved by God.
Examples
Jesus. The perfect example of the one whose perfect obedience and love towards God the Father is the basis of all our hope. Talk about that for "bearing much fruit!"
John. The apostle who knew that Jesus loved him. His affections and priorities are simple: he loves Jesus and he loves like Jesus.
To Ponder
- Who do I know who lives like this? When did I last thank God for placing them in my life? How can I learn from them? How can I encourage them?
- What is it that leaves me short of the mark? Where are my ideas and ambitions out of sync with the gospel? What is holding me back from living like this?
And finally...
Pray that you will fall into the final category. One who bears fruit. One who sees the likeness of Christ reproduced in themselves through following him in the power of the Holy Spirit and in others as you evangelise and make disciples. And pray for your loved ones, that they will too.
Why are you still on your computer when you could be on your knees?
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November 05, 2008 at 05:50 PM · Posted under Bible
As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
-- Matthew 13:22
Pamela is a rock. She knows and understands the gospel. Her faith is evidently deep and meaningful. She is growing, albeit slowly. She's in church (whenever she can make it) and she faithfully gives (when she can afford it) and she faithfully prays (when she can find the time).
But work is just insane at the moment. There's a credit crunch and everyone's a bit worried about their job, Pamela included. So she's putting in some extra hours.
And she's a concerned about her image, so trips to the hair dressers are a big deal. And her nails. And that little bit of teeth whitening - oh and slight straightening.
She's the one you can depend on - she almost always says yes when someone asks for her help.
And she keeps up with her non-Christian friends, but she's usually too tired to even think about, must less talk about, Christian things and so she just enjoys their company. Which helps keep relationships running smoothly.
She's angling for a promotion and putting a lot of work into getting it.
She's afraid of being lonely, so she's always got a boyfriend. It doesn't really matter that he's not a Christian, he's "sympathetic" and he's a man. Her man.
Pamela's problem is that she hasn't understood that Jesus is enough. That he is sufficient.
She is unable or unwilling to cast her burdens and worries on the one who cares for her (1 Peter 5:7). The ambitions and desires that she has absorbed from the society and culture that she lives in matter almost as much to her as Jesus - and they're starting to crowd him out.
She needs to see that her life and priorities must be assembled to God's specifications not her own. There will be things that she fears; things that she loves - but they must never be allowed to displace the stuff that is more important than life itself.
When Jesus explains the most important commandment in Mark 12:29, he starts the quotation with "Hear O Israel, the Lord, the Lord your God is one." The understanding that God is one, that God is sovereign, that single-minded devotion to Jesus is all that is required is central to dealing with the fears and temptations that pull us towards the worship of multiple gods.
Examples
Solomon was man of unparalleled wisdom. Yet too much time hanging out with hundreds of hot heathen wives seduced him; he began to engage in the idolatrous worship of other gods.
In contrast, Paul (Php 3:14) was guided by one thing, one ambition, one goal. One pure and holy passion ruled his life. He refused to be side-tracked or diverted from being sold out for Jesus.
To Ponder
- What do I spend my time worrying about? What do I allow to crowd out my devotional time with God? What saps my passion for the gospel? What do I need to cut loose because it impairs my ability to follow Christ?
- What is my friend involved in that is diluting the impact of their faith? What should I be praying for them, for their desires? Where and how should I be provoking them to be more dedicated to their Lord?
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October 10, 2008 at 07:08 PM · Posted under Bible
In his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul starts by greeting his readers and warning them of the gravity of the gospel; the severity of the judgement of God on unrighteousness. He impresses upon them the need to endure the suffering that engulfs them. And he prays for them:
To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfil every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
-- 2 Thess 1:11-12
Paul then warns his readers about the necessity of clinging to truth in the face of a strong delusion that will come. And about the opposition that will come. He instructs them to stand firm; to resist any loosening of their hold on the gospel. And he prays for them:
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.
-- 2 Thess 2:16-17
He ends by instructing them how to live as a community of the redeemed: first implicitly - asking for their prayers - then explicitly asking them to be diligent, and warning them to give busybodies a boot up the backside.
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.
-- 2 Thess 3:16
Each time he places a burden of responsibility on their shoulders he prays for them. And he lets them know (a) that he's praying for them and (b) what he's praying for them.
Every so often I get a text from Keith. And it reads: "Thinking of you and praying for you." Invariably it comes at a time when I need encouragement.
How do you encourage and instruct the Christians that you know; that you care for? Is there a friend you're praying for that doesn't know? Do you communicate your burdens for people horizontally - to them - as well as vertically - to God?
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October 04, 2008 at 08:38 PM · Posted under Bible
When reading Romans, it's easy to follow the rhythm and just hit the highlights: amidst the flow of the argument, the sub-points, backup points, asides and so on are easy to miss.
One such easily marginalised verse, Romans 6:21, nestles immediately prior to the triumphant and highly memorable "But now you have been set free from sin...!"
But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. -- Romans 6:21
And yet, when I pause for thought, it reminds me that...
- I'm ashamed of my sin because my sin is shameful.
- Sin has no redeeming features: it brings no fruit, no growth, no strategic or long-term benefit.
- Sinning deliberately is the spiritual equivalent of sticking your arm in the jaws of an Tiger Snake. The existance of an effective anti-venom does not stop it from being criminally stupid and self-destructive.
- A sinner may be justified by Christ, but sin is never justified.
And it reminds me of the danger of reading Romans too quickly.
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October 03, 2008 at 07:17 PM · Posted under Bible
My new ESV1 from R L Allan & Son finally arrived today...
It is beautifully bound and looks to be considerably more durable than the (considerably cheaper) TruTone cover on my current main bible (which has worn thin on the spine).
(The box it's sitting on is a box of 100 Gideons schools testaments - which seemed like the most appropriate free surface)
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September 21, 2008 at 03:10 PM · Posted under Bible
Having been hanging around churches for almost 27 years, the story of Noah is one that I'd sort of assimilated. I'd picked up the basic outline - people do evil; God judges; Noah is shown grace; 100 years of ark building and preaching; 40 days and nights of rain; 1 year and 10 days after rains start they leave ark; sacrifice is made; God makes covenant with Noah to never do it again.
And the spin, or the implication, that was put on the covenant was that it was God's reaction against the horrors of the flood. As if God almost felt like he'd overreacted and decided to voluntarily forgo any future right to catastrophic global flooding.
But reading it this morning I noticed that that's not the bible's interpretation: Genesis 8:20-22 describes the covenant as God's response to the aroma of the sacrifice. It's not the death of animals he delights in - because he's just destroyed thousands upon thousands more animals than Noah offers - it's the act of God honouring sacrifice. The way the bible tells it, the sacrifice that Noah makes - of every type of clean animal - reminds him of the sacrifice of Jesus (Ephesians 5:1-2). The ultimate act of obedient love. And it's this presentation (albeit unknowingly by Noah) of the death of Christ that results in the covenant with Noah.
As my old crusaderurban saints leader used to say: "The answer is always Jesus."
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June 30, 2008 at 04:15 PM · Posted under Bible, Oh really?
St Paul saw no need to seek to convert, but simply to make clear the origins and the dimensions of one's own faith.
Bishop Marc Andrus
Yes. We are talking about the guy who wrote:
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. (1 Cor 9:19-23 ESV).
The guy who wrote: "We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God"; declared that there was only one mediator between God and man: "the man Christ Jesus"; pronounced curses on anyone who preached another gospel; described those who do not follow Christ as "children of wrath," "dead in trespasses and sins," "sons of disobedience" and without "hope and without God in the world."
That guy.
And now we find that what he was really trying to say was: Come on guys - let's all be authentic and spiritual in whatever form we find most natural - and let's all be open about it.
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April 09, 2008 at 07:23 PM · Posted under Bible, The Resurrection
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
1 Cor 15:3-4
The idea that a messiah would come, die and rise from death is so improbable that any rational person would dismiss the idea as preposterous. Or at least they would have done before 33 AD. Yet this most outrageous claim is exactly the claim that was being made by the bible - as Peter points out in Acts 2:25-26, when he quotes and expounds Psalm 16. A mere 50 days earlier, Peter had no expectation of Jesus' resurrection. On Good Friday, it seemed irrational, and on easter morning, the empty tomb was inexplicable. Yet as he re-reads scripture in light of the resurrection, he sees it as inevitable - he declares that any other outcome was impossible.
It is this same point that Paul emphasises as he writes to the christians in Corinth: Jesus rose from death exactly as scripture prophesied he would. And Jesus rose from death demonstrating that scripture is a more reliable guide to reality than human expectation or reason.
Jesus rose from death so that we would trust scripture more than we trust ourselves.
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March 27, 2008 at 06:00 PM · Posted under Bible, The Resurrection
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
1 Peter 1:3
Jesus rose from death, so that we could have hope. Not a dead hope, a dead Christ, a dead vision of the future - but a living hope in a risen Christ of a glorious future. A hope that won't disappoint or let us down.
We only have this hope because Jesus is alive!
(In context, the point Peter makes is actually more subtle. He's saying that God, in his mercy, has caused us to be born again - given a new spiritual nature/identity - and our hope is a part of the fruit of that new birth.)
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March 27, 2008 at 05:39 PM · Posted under Bible, Life
I'm reading through Integrity - Leading with God watching with a local pastor who is graciously making time in his busy schedule to correct, challenge, exhort, rebuke and encourage this arrogant young jerk. It's sobering reading - I've grown up in an ecclesiastical tradition which is high on abstraction and low on application. Integrity is quite the opposite: Jonathan writes with remarkable clarity as he highlights my favourite sins and failures, as well as the ones I hadn't even noticed. And rather than leaving me wallowing in a soup of navel-engrossed self-pity, he is challenging, insightful and hopeful in his application.
I've actually overcome my natural reverence of books and antipathy towards marking them in anyway and every chapter thus far has sentences underlined and notes in the margin. It's that good. And that relevant.
A few choice quotes thus far:
- Integrity, then, means a coherence in every area of life. (p19)
- When leaders at any level fail to live with integrity, the fallout is deadly serious. It poisons community, destroys trust, torpedoes a coherent and unified mission and, most seriously of all, betrays the cause of Christ's gospel and dishonours the God whom we serve. But when Christian leaders live their words, keep their promises, serve their community - in short, show us Jesus Christ - then Christian community is built and Christian mission in enhanced. (p20)
- Sincerity, consistency and reliability: failure to demonstrate integrity in these ways is quite possibly the most serious obstacle to any form of Christian ministry and, indeed, in the growth of God's work (p34)
- the greatest motivation to live a life of integrity arises from a sense of gratitude. (p36)
Buy. Read. Apply.
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March 25, 2008 at 06:10 PM · Posted under Bible, The Resurrection
I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. -- Revelation 1:17b-18
On the cross, Jesus suffered for our sin and removed the claim that death had over us - for "the wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23). But in his bodily resurrection, he destroyed the power of death. He took away the keys: Jesus owned death.
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March 24, 2008 at 08:57 PM · Posted under Bible, The Resurrection
According to the Venerable Bede, Easter comes from the name Eostre - an Anglo-Saxon pagan goddess. Yet this once worshipped "deity" has been entirely obliterated by the worship of Jesus & the celebration of his resurrection - it has been thoroughly redeemed. But what is it that we celebrate? And why?
Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' -- John 20:27
Here Jesus gives one reason for His resurrection: to ascend to God the Father. Jesus was raised from the dead in order to restore his fellowship with the Father.
On the cross, Jesus emitted a heart-searing cry that Matthew & Mark record in the original Aramaic - "Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani" (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?) - a cry expressing the anguish of separation from the father as he suffered for our sin. And when Jesus was raised from the dead, having suffered once for all for our sins (Heb 9:26), he was raised in order to restore the relationship that was set aside when he was forsaken as he suffered in our place.
Why does this matter? Because this relationship is the fundamental model for all others. The Father loves the Son (John 3:35) and unless the Jesus was "unforsaken" there is no hope for us - because John 15:9 tells us that Jesus loves us in the same way in which the Father loves Jesus. An unrestored relationship between Jesus and the Father would mean no hope for our relationship with Jesus.
Jesus was raised from the dead in order to ascend to the Father in order that we might look forward to an eternal, unbroken relationship with Jesus.
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October 27, 2007 at 11:13 AM · Posted under Bible, Life
3 top tips on bluffing your way through a bible study:
Rephrase the question
Everyone else will assume that you know the answer - that the answer is so obvious to you that you think someone else should have a chance instead…
e.g.
A: Who is this passage written to?
B: (Pauses) To put it another way, who is the author addressing in this passage?
Caveat: You do need to actually understand the question - otherwise you’ll look as though you’re trying to take over the bible study.
e.g.
A: Who is this passage written to?
B: (Pauses) Or, to put it another way, who is writing this passage?
Use long words
Particularly useful when someone tries to get you answer a question you don’t know. Say: “I was considering the X implications.” Where X can be soteriological, eschatological, didactic, ecclesiological, hagiological, epistemological, apocalyptic or any other word that sounds intimidating and that won’t be understood.
e.g.
A: What is Paul’s response to the captain of the ship?
B: Sorry - I was just pondering the apocalyptic implications of this passage.
Caveat: If your study leader or anyone else in the group understands the word, you will find yourself in hot water.
e.g.
A: How would you go about teaching this passage?
B: I was just considering the didactic implications…
The “Precious thought” response
You may have missed the question. You may have been asleep. You may have not even read the passage. So you pause, look upwards, smile slightly and say: “It’s a precious thought, isn’t it?”
e.g.
A: What are the backgrounds of these Corinthian Christians?
B: It’s a precious thought, isn’t it?
Caveat: If the topic in hand is judgement or sin related, you will sound harsh or sinful.
e.g.
A: Would you agree that one of the major problems faced by young people growing up in today’s culture, not far removed this Corinthian one, is the high degree of sexual immorality?
B: Yes. It’s a precious thought, isn’t it?
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September 07, 2007 at 09:58 PM · Posted under Bible, Preaching
The Epistle to Philemon is a relatively obscure letter written by Paul to accompany a run away slave called Onesimus. Here are some notes I made when I preached on this letter back in March.
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September 06, 2007 at 10:38 PM · Posted under Bible
Luke 10:1-12
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
A few points that hit me:
- We’re servants, not entrepreneurs for the Kingdom - the requirement is that we are faithful to our call, not that we do incredible things.
- We share the gospel, but we do it humbly (relying on God’s provision v3-4, accepting other people’s hospitality v7-8, not trying to prove we’re self-sufficient)
- Compassion is not an optional bolt-on (v9) People are people and we should care about their bodies as well as their souls.
- Announcing the gospel is the aim - which is not to say that the we feign interest in people in order to share the gospel with them, but rather that this is the most authentic way to share the gospel: humbly, compassionately and explicitly. Not a superstitious “I hope they’ll tell by the way I hold my knife and fork that I’m a Christian and then they’ll ask me about Jesus and I’ll be able to tell” approach: we have a message that everyone needs to hear but the people who need to know don’t realise they need to, because they don’t know what the message is. If they did, they wouldn’t need to know, because they’d already know. So we need to be prepared to volunteer the gospel.
- We’re not always going to be “successful.”
The contemporary church usually fails in one of three ways:
- We don’t go. We just sit in church and pray that God will honour our disobedience by sending people in to make our church bigger, so that we look successful and people think our church is a cool, hip place to be.
- We go like the “liberals.” We do humility, we do compassion. We are generous. But we never actually explain that Jesus has the answer.
- We go like the “fundamentalists.” We preach the gospel. We wag our fingers. We shout through megaphones, but we never get close enough to show compassion, or to demonstrate that we’re talking about good news.
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