Monday 24 October 2016

We had a dream!

God speaking through a dream




Dare to dream.....but be prepared for some unexpected outcomes.

Following the very powerful prophetic dream that was shared with us at WAVC yesterday I was, once again, challenged by the quality of our relationships within the church generally.

Matthew 5 is always a challenge :

“‘Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”
Matthew 5:23-24 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/mat.5.23-24.nivuk

But when we realise the extent to which a real sign of the quality of our relationship with Jesus is our attitude towards, and relationship with, others it opens up new and challenging areas for us.

Attending worship, reading the bible, prayers and other Christian paraphernalia become secondary if we are not striving for God honouring relationships and doing what is within our power to fix them when they are broken.

In our series on the Letters to the 7 Churches in Revelation Jesus spoke some very hard truths to His Church. Many of these were extremely hard to swallow. It would have been very easy in the face of these to throw your dummy out of the pram and go elsewhere, somewhere easier.

However, and this is where it gets harder, the only avenue Jesus presents to the people, on every occasion where He highlights a weakness, sin or failing is........ acceptance of His words and repentance!

After our worship service I was reminded by someone of words I had said in church ( and this person was reminded of them by their non Christian partner who happened to be there when I spoke) , " it's easy to love the loveable " so that is never the test of our obedience! I am always challenged by the words of Glen Kaiser ( former lead of Rez Band) - " the person we love the least is the full extent of our actual love for Jesus".

Like the dream that was shared at church, this quote does not give the option of hiding behind so called 'spiritual activities' whilst leaving broken or breaking relationships untended.

I am so thankful that, following extremely tough words from Jesus in the letters, there is always a way back to the experience and reality of His awesome grace - through the doors of:
1. Repentance
2. Sorting it out ( the fruit of repentance)

"Let them who have ears, hear what the spirit is saying to the church."


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sunday 16 October 2016

The doing or being balancing act....




“After Rehoboam’s position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the LORD.”
2 Chronicles 12:1 NIVUK

How accurately this statement reflects a weak tendency in us that has remained constant over the generations?

When we want or need something or feel weak or fearful we 'turn to God' but when we have what we want or feel content we begin to form an identity based not on intimacy with our Father but based on what we do ( yes, even what we do in the church) or we subtly shift our confidence away from God to 'things' or even to our own abilities.

How often do we hear ' she or he has 'never been closer to God' than when they have hit a crisis point? On one level that is great and God promises to meet us whenever we turn to him with integrity and in repentance or in genuine need. However we must let that experience beg questions of what was going on in our walk with Him before that point....

There will usually have been symptoms that were ignored, excused or brushed under the carpet. Things like less and less fellowship in house groups, less desire to pray together with fellow Christians, less reading of the bible and often, ironically more work for the church or God as we like to persuade ourselves...

When we do this then even our so called 'Christian work' becomes like 'filthy rags' because it tends towards idolatry. It begins to replace God in vital areas of our lives. The growing void created by the distance in our intimacy with Him is filled by fine sounding 'good works'

Do we spend more time or place a greater priority in DOING FOR God rather than BEING WITH Him?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Form or substance? Or the third way.....



Unfortunately, some of our beliefs and practices can become “fossilized” over time. We think that we are relevant and full of truth - which we can be.......... WHEN the outer form flows from the inner substance. 

We can so easily drift into celebrating the form but forgetting the reality behind it. How we love our worship and our Christian music (nothing wrong with that) but how easily our lives or our character contradict that which we celebrate and enjoy. 

How often do we hear people, maybe even ourselves, when we have acted or spoken in ways that blatantly fly in the face of the bible, make excuses: "That's just the way I am..." , "If God hadn't wanted me to be like this He would have made me different" , "Yes, but that was written 2000 years ago .." These are all real examples I have heard recently......

Statements like these ( and there are many similar) are a signpost that we have stepped, or are about to step, over the line where the outer form is no longer linked to, or flows from, the inner substance.

In this scripture from Zechariah it has happened.
“‘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? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?”
Zechariah 7:5-6 NIV

Their fasting appeared meaningful but had no inner substance. When this or something similar happens, a worship activity or Christian witness becomes an empty ritual or, even worse, a ritual with the wrong meaning attached to it. Often this can occur as a slow erosion of values, or a spirit of pride that, when the crunch comes favours self over substance. 

As is often the case, Jesus put it in such a way that it could not fail to have impact:
“‘ “These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
Matthew 15:8 NIV

I'd love to say I have never been there, but it would be a lie..... Lord help us to see the warning signs and step back from crossing that line.

Jesus wants us to have substance AND form - working together to His glory.

Tuesday 11 October 2016

How are you going?



Jesus saw ten people, together, with Leprosy who asked Him to have pity on them.
“When he saw them, he said, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were cleansed.”
Luke 17:14 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/luk.17.14.nivuk

With God it is so often in the 'as we are going' that stuff happens.

Although we may agree with this based on our knowledge of many examples from scripture there are implications for our own lives that may well keep this as theoretical knowledge rather than life changing encounters with Jesus.

In this story, these ten people all met Jesus and they heard Him - but that is not where there lives were changed. It is only as they obeyed and set off on the journey that they were healed.

How often, when we ask Jesus something and His reply asks something of us or require us to set off doing something new or going somewhere, do we hang around waiting for further 'confirmation'? 
The confirmation, and consequent blessing, so often comes in the doing or the going, not in the hanging around waiting for Him to confirm what He has already made clear. When we do this it may genuinely be a caution on our part or it may be a way of spiritualising our reluctance or fear of 'doing what Jesus says'

There is also a twist in this particular tale. 
Of the 10 , all of whom were 'cleansed' only one returned to give thanks to Jesus.

The cleansing they received was a physical healing that enabled them to return to normal life , in community, after the priests had pronounced them 'clean' - that's pretty amazing in itself. However, when one of them returned to acknowledge Gods activity in his life and give thanks he received far more than 'just' physical healing. He was made whole - given a deep new experience of God and life - this did not just change his physical condition it changed his whole relationship with God. He exercised faith and he acknowledged God in thanksgiving. These two elements brought physical healing AND wholeness.  

“Then he said to him, ‘Rise and go; your faith has made you well.’”
Luke 17:19 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/luk.17.19.nivuk

How are you going?



Jesus saw ten people, together, with Leprosy who asked Him to have pity on them.
“When he saw them, he said, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were cleansed.”
Luke 17:14 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/luk.17.14.nivuk

With God it is so often in the 'as we are going' that stuff happens.

Although we may agree with this based on our knowledge of many examples from scripture there are implications for our own lives that may well keep this as theoretical knowledge rather than life changing encounters with Jesus.

In this story, these ten people all met Jesus and they heard Him - but that is not where there lives were changed. It is only as they obeyed and set off on the journey that they were healed.

How often, when we ask Jesus something and His reply asks something of us or require us to set off doing something new or going somewhere, do we hang around waiting for further 'confirmation'? 
The confirmation, and consequent blessing, so often comes in the doing or the going, not in the hanging around waiting for Him to confirm what He has already made clear. When we do this it may genuinely be a caution on our part or it may be a way of spiritualising our reluctance or fear of 'doing what Jesus says'

There is also a twist in this particular tale. 
Of the 10 , all of whom were 'cleansed' only one returned to give thanks to Jesus.

The cleansing they received was a physical healing that enabled them to return to normal life , in community, after the priests had pronounced them 'clean' - that's pretty amazing in itself. However, when one of them returned to acknowledge Gods activity in his life and give thanks he received far more than 'just' physical healing. He was made whole - given a deep new experience of God and life - this did not just change his physical condition it changed his whole relationship with God. He exercised faith and he acknowledged God in thanksgiving. These two elements brought physical healing AND wholeness.  

“Then he said to him, ‘Rise and go; your faith has made you well.’”
Luke 17:19 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/luk.17.19.nivuk

How are you going?



Jesus saw ten people, together, with Leprosy who asked Him to have pity on them.
“When he saw them, he said, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were cleansed.”
Luke 17:14 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/luk.17.14.nivuk

With God it is so often in the 'as we are going' that stuff happens.

Although we may agree with this based on our knowledge of many examples from scripture there are implications for our own lives that may well keep this as theoretical knowledge rather than life changing encounters with Jesus.

In this story, these ten people all met Jesus and they heard Him - but that is not where there lives were changed. It is only as they obeyed and set off on the journey that they were healed.

How often, when we ask Jesus something and His reply asks something of us or require us to set off doing something new or going somewhere, do we hang around waiting for further 'confirmation'? 
The confirmation, and consequent blessing, so often comes in the doing or the going, not in the hanging around waiting for Him to confirm what He has already made clear. When we do this it may genuinely be a caution on our part or it may be a way of spiritualising our reluctance or fear of 'doing what Jesus says'

There is also a twist in this particular tale. 
Of the 10 , all of whom were 'cleansed' only one returned to give thanks to Jesus.

The cleansing they received was a physical healing that enabled them to return to normal life , in community, after the priests had pronounced them 'clean' - that's pretty amazing in itself. However, when one of them returned to acknowledge Gods activity in his life and give thanks he received far more than 'just' physical healing. He was made whole - given a deep new experience of God and life - this did not just change his physical condition it changed his whole relationship with God. He exercised faith and he acknowledged God in thanksgiving. These two elements brought physical healing AND wholeness.  

“Then he said to him, ‘Rise and go; your faith has made you well.’”
Luke 17:19 NIVUK
http://bible.com/113/luk.17.19.nivuk