Saturday 16 March 2024

If the Lord is God, follow Him!

 And so it is today; if the Lord is God, then follow Him. We cannot serve two masters

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We are blessed to have so many English translations of the Bible, each lending its own nuance to the true meaning of the Word; but translations they are, each with its imperfections and limitations of contemporary language.

When we do find a particular word that the different versions cannot agree on, then it must be interesting and worthy of deeper research.

1Kings 18:21 says: Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, “How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!” But the people were completely silent. (NLT)

Elijah has challenged King Ahab, who has been vacillating between his wife Jezebel's influence in serving the false gods of Baal and Asherah, and his chief official Obadiah's example in serving the one true God of Israel. So Elijah invites the king and all the people to a showdown on Mt Carmel, a stronghold of Baal worship, and now he confronts the people with their syncretistic dithering.

The word 'waver' is translated elsewhere as falter, halt, limp, hesitate, and comes from the Hebrew 'pasach'.  The word is also found in Exodus 12 when the Lord would see the blood on the door lintels and 'pass over', not settling upon the Hebrew occupants but visit death on the Egyptian firstborn. 'Pesach' is the festival fulfilled by Jesus, the Hebrew firstborn whose blood was smeared on a cross to remove the curse of sin so that death would no longer settle on the repentant sinner. 

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This positive meaning of pasach is contrasted with a more negative sense by Elijah. It portrays a bird fluttering around from branch to branch and not settling, hence being interpreted as flitting from one opinion to another. Completing the analogy the word for 'opinion' describes a cleft in a branch - trying to walk on both at once will end in a fall. This is the challenge that Elijah puts to the people; they have to make a decision.  The Bible suggests that God hates syncretism (mixing religions) even more than He hates apostasy (rejecting faith altogether). 

The people kept quiet, but it was time to choose, for they were about to witness the miraculous humiliation of the false gods of the day.  And so it is today; if the Lord is God, then follow Him. We cannot serve two masters (Luke 16:13), we will love one and hate the other.  There is no compromise.  God is a jealous God, a consuming fire, who will not tolerate rivals (Deuteronomy 4:24). If we choose to follow Jesus we cannot do so part time, and we can serve no other. Whatever we do is for Him, and so we shall be with our Lord Jesus forever.

Author: John Plumb

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Saturday 9 March 2024

Be single minded

A double minded man is unstable in all his ways 

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The bible says "he that is wavered is like a wave of the sea driven with wind and tossed, for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the lord, a double minded man is unstable in all his ways" (James 1:6-8, KJV)

We should pray and ask the Holy Spirit, to give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for. A dream that is not clear, won't help us get anywhere. It doesn't take much effort to let our mind drift and dream. But it takes great effort to set our mind to the task of developing a clear goal of having a clear and compelling dream.

What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to contribute? Who do you want to become in God? What does success look like for you without God? Simple! There is no true success if God is not in it as He is the source of all things the Alpha and Omega.

The whole process begins with questions we must ask ourselves. The dream is always rooted in the dreamer in his or her experiences, circumstances, talents and opportunities.

Proverbs 4:25: "let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you". You may ask what am I feeling? What are my emotions telling me? What am I sensing? What is my intuition telling me? What am I seeing? What  is happening around me? What am I hearing? What are others saying? What am I thinking? What do my intellect and common sense say?

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In all these questions the only way to get answers and achieve any of them is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and be led by the Holy Spirit without any doubt or wavering. Mark 9:24 "Lord I believe, help my unbelief".

A clear picture may come to you all at once, but for most people it doesn't work that way. Most of us need to keep working at it. Clarifying it, redrawing it. If the process is difficult, that's no reason to give up. In fact if it's too easy, maybe we're not dreaming big enough.

Just keep working on it, because a clear dream is worth fighting for. If we can get a clear sense of who God is! who God says we are in Him! We are well on our way to understanding and embracing our purpose driven life God put us on the earth for.

Moses spent the first two thirds of his life working out what God wanted him to do. trying to do things his own way, only to fail. But he had a heart for God, and a vision from God and eventually he succeeded. 

In conclusion I want to leave you with these words from 1 Kings 18:21: and Elijah came to all the people and said, "how long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God follow Him, but if baal follow him". but the people answered him not a word.



Author: Herbert Jean

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Saturday 2 March 2024

Essential?

What do each one of us as individuals see the purpose of the bible as being, because this will steer our reading and approach to “God’s Word”

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A young man that I met this week got me wondering. He is someone who came to faith through the internet. His coming to Jesus has profoundly changed his life and he has assimilated an encyclopaedic knowledge of the bible, significantly influenced by internet sources. In the group that we were in he was asserting that several scriptures teach us that the earth was originally flat.

In support of this the scriptures quoted included the use of expressions like “the four corners of the earth” (e.g. Isaiah 11:12) “He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” and “the ends of the earth” (e.g. Job 37:3) “Hear attentively the thunder of His voice, and the rumbling that comes from His mouth. He sends it forth under the whole heaven, His lightning to the ends of the earth”. Spheres of course don’t have corners or ends and so, if taken literally, the earth would have to have edges. There are other bible passages which may be used to argue this way.

Of course, most bible believers and bible scholars will recognise that these passages are not intended to be taken literally. They are by and large figures of speech which indicate something else. In this example the passages are referring to reaching across the whole earth; or the extent / size of the earth; or going deeper, perhaps a Hebrew term relating to the extension of a bird’s wing that is used to suggest the extremity of anything stretched out.

I am not mentioning this discussion though, to go into “flat earth theology”, merely as a starting point, because the conversation that I have described made me think some more about the purpose of the bible and what it means to the world generally and followers of Jesus today. Every follower of Jesus will be aware that there are some areas of scripture where their interpretation will be different from someone else’s. There may be straight-forward reasons for this. From personal experience, sometimes I have discovered that even after years of reading the bible, I have just not read a passage properly. I read it again and well, it just doesn’t say what I thought it said. Sometimes I will look something up and find that I have taken a word out of context or not understood its full meaning. Sometimes a brother or sister will have pointed out something I have missed. Sometimes it will be a sermon, someone sharing or “teaching” which changes my view. Some scripture is still completely hidden from view.

Does it matter that I have not got it right first time? At one time in my life, I was really concerned about getting everything as “right” as possible (and of course failed)! Now I am not so worried… The passage of time has taken me from a point in my 30s when I “knew everything” (not!) to a point now where I realise that I know practically nothing at all. (Of course, I may have learned a few useful things in the course of life’s journey that might be worth passing on to younger generations - but by and large they are too busy learning the same things, by making the same mistakes for themselves to listen).

I am still trying to work it out, but I think that it is important to understand why God gave us the bible? In a favourite quote John Wesley said:

“I have thought I am creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit come from God and returning to God; just hovering over the great gulf, till a few moments hence I am no more seen. I drop into an unchangeable eternity! I want to know one thing, the way to heaven--how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way: for this very end he came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price give me the Book of God! I have it. Here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri [a man of one book].”

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Here John Wesley points to a purpose for the bible – to show us the way to heaven. Of course, Jesus is the way (John 14:7: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me")  and Jesus Himself said (John 17:3) “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent”. What do each one of us as individuals see the purpose of the bible as being, because this will steer our reading and approach to “God’s Word”?

There is another quote commonly attributed to St Augustine but more recently tracked down to a 16th Century believer which says concerning unity amongst Christians and interpretation of scripture:

“…If we preserve unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials, and love in all things, our affairs will be in the best position…”

In other words there are some things that all followers of Jesus believe, that all followers of Jesus must allow liberty for others to explore non-essentials, and then there are “my pet ideas and theories”… This is a useful quote perhaps except we are then left with distinguishing between what is essential and non-essential?

There is a diagram above showing the three areas of belief. What would you put in the circles? Perhaps relabelling them “Core truths for Followers of Jesus”, “Things where its OK for Followers of Jesus to differ in interpretation” and “Things that I know are strictly my own beliefs about what’s going on”? Or – choose your own labels to help decide.

I think that having a clear view of the purpose of the bible is useful in helping to decide what interpretations and beliefs go in which circle – or “everything else”. With an honest approach we might be surprised at what goes where – and it may affect the way that we see and relate to others. For example, my fellowship with my young friend will not be harmed by his current belief in the shape of the world but it does have an impact.

Neither the Lord nor I might not mind at all that at this stage my friend has a perhaps ill-informed belief that at some point the world was flat. But was it wise for him to share it in a study group? He thought so because to him it was “essential” that we were not deceived by the world. I thought not because it offered unnecessary difficulties for others in the group over something that I saw as “everything else”. You might think that this is an obvious example, but I wonder how many times we have wandered from the true essentials onto “our particular convictions” with the result of discouraging others, or if they are still young in the faith, giving them unnecessary confusion?

Many have pointed to disagreements about “non-essentials” as the cause of church splits; such disagreements have even led to congregations being torn apart in the middle of great revivals / moves of the Holy Spirit. In this we might include attempts to label “non-essentials” and even personal favourite “anything elses” as part of the “essential core” for the fellowships in question. No wonder in his struggle with the problems in the Corinthian Church Paul took this stand: 1 Corinthians 2:2: “When I came to you, my friends, to preach God's truth, I did not use big words and great learning. 2 For while I was with you, I made up my mind to forget everything except Jesus Christ and his death on the cross” – essential ground indeed!



Author: Chris Pearson

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Saturday 24 February 2024

Working Out Our Own Salvation

Sanctification is a once and for all act but also an ongoing one

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‘Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure’ (Philippians 2:12-13, ESV)

Recently I was listening to a short podcast by Sinclair Ferguson on sanctification and holiness. He is a gifted and very learned biblical teacher amongst many other things. It immediately drew my attention as I had previously written a blog on believers ‘walking worthy’. This caused me, again, to meditate on this essential component of the Christian life – sanctification. 

To sanctify something, simply explained, means ‘to set apart’. Its biblical meaning is that something is set apart for God’s special use and purpose. Most of the time when we as Christians use the term sanctification, we mean the progressive work of God in making a believer more Christ like – more holy. 

Sanctification, however, is also a position where we are placed as believers at conversion. As the apostle Paul wrote, ‘To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints …’ (1 Corinthians 1:2 ESV); ‘…’you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God’ (1 Corinthians 6:11). Note the past tense usage, therefore sanctification has already occurred by grace through faith in Jesus. Sanctification is a once and for all act but also an ongoing one.  

In the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the Westminster divines, in answer to question 35: What is Sanctification? states [it] ‘is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness’.  

Part of the progressive process of sanctification believers are commanded to: ‘…walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God’ (Colossians 1:10, ESV)

‘I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called… (Ephesians 4:1, ESV). 

Walking is not passive; it requires effort and determination and we as individuals are responsible for ‘walking’. It may be baby steps to begin with. The timing and distance travelled is certainly variable between individuals but with the help of the Holy Spirit, that indwells all Christians and His grace, progress is not only achievable but also mandatory. Paul issues the command to ‘work out your own salvation’ (Philippians 2:12). Here he is referring to the ongoing work, required of every believer, in exercising faith and obedience in actively pursuing progressive sanctification in their daily walk with the Lord – enabled, of course, by God working in them and this of course for His good pleasure.

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Every Christian is expected to grow into full maturity. Jesus’ standard for us is to ‘be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matthew 5:48) - an arguably unobtainable goal for us, until Glory, but one we should keep our eyes firmly fixed upon.   

In Peter’s first letter, chapter 1:15-16, he instructs believers to be …’obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, …’ in doing so we are being made more Christ like, becoming more like Him, more holy and in pursuing growing in godliness we more clearly reflect Jesus in our lives and bring honour to Him.

We grow in our Christian life, first and fore mostly by what God through His Spirit is doing in us, but we are not passive in this process, we are called to respond and work in harmony – to abide in Him (John 15: 4-5). We have been granted the means of helping us achieve and be successful in this by the word of God, prayer, the sacraments, and the meeting together for fellowship with fellow believers.

Evidence of new birth is a progressive change in the believer. The Holy Spirit is the agent of sanctification working in us and enabling the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit, ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control’, (Galatians 5:22). All these attributes need to be developed in the believer. As we have been told, in so many sermons, it is one fruit with nine flavours. There is no ‘pick & mix’. If there is no evidence, no alteration in conduct, behaviour, attitude, if we don’t become more ‘set apart’ as we journey with Christ damming results are the consequence. The writer to the Hebrews says we must ‘strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord’. (12:14). 'This verse does not make holiness a prerequisite for salvation, but it recognises it as the certain result. Sanctification is a characteristic of all who are redeemed, not a condition’ (MacArthur J. The Gospel According to Jesus, pp 211 2008).

Yes, we get things wrong, yes, we make mistakes, yes, we stumble and fall in our Christian walk and yes, the enemy seeks to destroy. We must not trivialise this source, indeed the word says: ‘submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7, ESV). However, for most Christians it is the world around us and the flesh within us that causes us the most trouble with wrongdoing! Nevertheless, let us remember Paul’s words to the Corinthians, ‘if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come’ (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)

Hallelujah! What assurance.  

‘I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me’ (Galatians 2:20, ESV).

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Going back to that podcast. Sinclair Ferguson told a story about bonsai trees – with application to sanctification! He clearly stated that he knew nothing about these miniature trees. Nonetheless, what he heard tell by a Japanese bonsai expert was that all bonsai trees are shaped in the form of a triangle, all perfectly proportioned miniatures. All carefully, and no doubt, lovingly tended throughout their lives. The interesting ‘thing’, however, is that every triangle on a bonsai tree is not necessarily at the same angle on every tree. Using this natural observation, Sinclair thought this picture was a great metaphor for our sanctification. ‘Holiness, Christ likeness becomes evident in our lives when the fruit of the Spirit in increasingly well proportioned in us and has a Christ like shape BUT, the angle that shape takes in each person’s life will be slightly different from every other Christian’. An interesting comment to think about! ‘We are all being re-shaped in the image of Christ but in a slightly different way.’ (Sinclair Ferguson (25.8.23)  Principles for Holiness: Things Unseen Podcast



Author: Irene Cherrill

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Saturday 17 February 2024

"Wait on the Lord”

Above all, let us wait in patience, the Lord will respond, He will give us our answer.


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We have heard and spoken a great deal about the need to Wait on the Lord in these last few months. We are bombarded by so many streams of information and disinformation that it would be easy and, let’s face it, has been easy, for us to make the wrong decision.

It may seem an easy thing to wait, but we have to learn how. We live in a society that encourages us to; “just do it,” to; “never put off to tomorrow what you can do today,” that lives by the motto; “Carpe Diem” or “Seize the Day.” We are conditioned by our upbringing, by our education and increasingly, by social media, to “get on with it,” that it is better to recklessly embark on something and get it wrong than to do nothing.

But I would argue, along with many commentators that to Wait on the Lord is not to do nothing. I accept that it could be seen as an excuse for not acting but to Wait on the Lord is an active, not a passive activity;

If we desire, with all our hearts to serve the Lord but don’t know how to best do so, what do we do?

* Lapse into despair and despondency and give up?

* Seek help from those of our acquaintances who are willing to listen but may not be in tune with us spiritually?

* Listen to the urging of “self” and rush into a course of action which may not be in the Lord’s will and could ultimately damage our relationship with Him? 

No, we are called upon to simply wait; but to wait actively.

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Wait for the LORD;

    be strong and take heart

    and wait for the LORD. (Psalm 27 :14)

* Wait in prayer, plead our case, explain our difficulty and ask for the Lord’s  help, as He has promised.

* Wait in humility and what has been described as “simplicity of soul.” We can be sure of a successful outcome if we are aware of our own inadequacy and are earnestly and sincerely seeking God’s will.

* Wait in faith, show our unwavering confidence in the Lord. The devil will try to shake that confidence but without trust our prayers become an insult to the Lord rather than a blessing.

* Above all, let us wait in patience, the Lord will respond, He will give us our answer. Let us not be tempted to complain, no matter how long we have to wait but praise and bless God for His grace and mercy. Accept things as they are and put the situation, as it stands, simply and with our whole heart, without any self-will, into the hands of our loving God. 

And we can pray the essence of the following prayer;

"Now, Lord, not my will, but Thine be done. I know not what to do; I am brought to extremities, but I will wait until Thou shalt cleave the floods or drive back my foes. I will wait, if Thou keep me many a day, for my heart is fixed upon thee alone, O God, and my spirit waiteth for Thee in the full conviction that Thou wilt yet be my joy and my salvation, my refuge and my strong tower."

Have a blessed week and may God reward you with His presence as you Wait on Him.

Author: Alan Cameron

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