doing from our being not the other way round…

I have not blogged for an awful long time and I am no longer going to make excuses as  to why I am so sporadic in my blogs it is just the way that it is as people always take president over paper/computer work. However I do know that the blogsphere is a good way to communicate and get idea out there.

So here it is. For over a year now it has been a privilege to meet nearly every week with other Jesus centred mission focused pastors to pray for our people and the town in which we live. To be honest we would love for more like minded pastors in West Bromwich to come and join with us but there we are.

During this weeks gathering the pastor of the Baptist church prayed passionately for our congregations and town, you know the kind of real heartfelt prayer that is prayed when do don’t know what else to do or how else to do it, it was just real. He prayed that God would open our eyes to see what we need to do for change to take place in West Bromwich, in our churches and our town. I’m sure this was not the first time that my friend from the Baptist church  had prayed this prayer and likewise this is a prayer I have prayed many times in the 3 years that I have been in West Bromwich.

So I have been giving this some thought and actually just trying to listen to what the Holy Spirit may be saying to us in this regard. Why is it that we feel the need to do? Is it because we find our identity in our doing? Our job’s (employed or volunteer)  do not define us if they do we are in real trouble! In the same way nor does what we “do” for Jesus make us a Christian. Just because we go to a church building it does not make us part of Jesus’ church, just because we take communion it doesn’t make us a Christ follower, just because we read the bible and pray doesn’t make us a Christian. Before we do anything we must and I say that as an absolute imperative be rooted totally in what Jesus accomplished on the cross for us by confessing Jesus as our saviour from our sin.

Jesus is our propitiation meaning that he bore our sin taking the wrath of God that was destined for us and absorbed it in his body. Jesus is also our expiation which means that he takes away our sin and make us clean. At the cross Jesus defeated sin, death and Satan when God raised him from the grave and now lives forever more, so because he lives we can experience eternal life in Jesus. What Jesus did on the cross only becomes a reality to us when we respond by putting our faith in him.

We need to stop trying to make people act Christian and instead be Christian put our trusting Jesus completely for salvation. We as his church need to trust Jesus completely and stop trying to earn his favour. We already have it as his children!  So here is the point that I think the Spirit whispered in my ear: we need to get back to trusting Jesus that he is still able to save and is still as powerful as he always was and will be. I believe that we also need to either get acquainted with the Spirit as the paraklete (the one who comforts & comes alongside) and as the one who equips us for service.

I guess what I am saying is that in our own efforts and striving we will not change anything that is of eternal value unless we are rooted in in God through Jesus and point people to Jesus as saviour. Our doing must come as a result of fellowship with God through Jesus and not be an end in itself as it will ultimately be unfruitful. If we remember Jesus’ words to his disciples in Acts 1:8 that they were to wait in Jerusalem until they received power from the Holy Spirit to be witnesses to Jesus . May we be a church rooted in Christ that truly goes in the power of the Spirit in our mission field and be fruitful for God’s kingdom. Let us do the work of the kingdom from our being in Christ and not the other way round.

 

back to it

It has been a long time away. This has been the first full week back in the office/study after two great weeks at Fraisthorpe Camp and then our first two week holiday for almost 3 years.

The bible reading plan that I had been following before the summer months came hit a bit of a lull. However this last week I have started back on the reading plan and have been ploughing through the Psalms. I have to say that I do not find the Psalms the easiest book to read. Don’t get me wrong it is wonderful and the psalmist beautifully describes God, his majesty, his power, his salvation etc, but I just struggle with poetry. Not that I don’t like it I do it is just trying to get my head round the genre.

One thing is very clear that despite the tremendous challenges and problems that are described it is never lost that the Lord God is the one who is mighty to save it is at his hands they are delivered, that they are at his mercy and he is a refuge and strong tower amongst other adjectives. I think we would do well to learn from the psalmist and place our trust in the Sovereign of the whole universe as our deliver, salvation and refuge and stop looking for these things in any other place.

 

seeds family worship

Neil Robbie (whose blog you can find on the right) a friend of mine who is a fellow minister in West Bromwich pointed out a great resource for teaching kids scripture. There are some examples found on youtube or you can visit their website at www.seedsfamilyworship.com to find more resources and cd’s.

 

finishing well

Well in case you think that I have given up on reading the bible in 90 days due to my lack of posts I haven’t it is just that life has been a  bit to hectic to find the time to blog.

In my readings I have been going through Kings and Chronicles (as of the end of my reading this morning at 2 Chronicles 24) and it is amazing to see how many of the Kings of Israel and Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord. They followed the wicked and despicable practices of the nations around them by worshiping foreign gods and following wicked practices.

King Asa was a good king for 35 yrs of his reign and in the end it all went wrong. He turned aside from the Lord and did evil and ended up dying diseased.

There is a challenge here for us to keep following Jesus all our days. Asa got towards the end of his life and got complacent we must be careful not to do the same by keeping our eyes fix on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith…

 

like everyone else

Sorry for the severe lack of blogs over the last few days but things have been a little hectic so this is a post I began last week.

I’m now into 1 Kings and will hopefully blog something more up to date later on but this verse struck me from 1 Samuel last week – “…Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” (1 Sam 8:5).

The people cried out for a earthly king because all the other nations had one. There was only one problem with this request they were not like every other nation! They had been called by God to be a people set apart from the other nations. The Hebrews were to be distinct and under the rule and fellowship of the Almighty God. They saw the other nations and wanted to be like them. The wanted to swap the incomparable God for a man who would rule over them!

Now as we see in the grand scheme of things and the Lord in his sovereignty worked this all out for his salvation purposes. As through the line of the second King David, the Word would take on flesh (read John 1) be born to Mary (see the genealogy in Matthew 1). Christ the King who sits on the throne for ever and his kingdom is established for ever!

The people of Israel missed the point of being set apart but before we get dragged down the line of think to harshly of them, could the same be said of us?

How often as Christians do we act just like everyone else, watch the same gunk on TV as everyone else, act the same way as everyone else. How often do we make man made things king over us rather than allowing Jesus to reign in our lives. The kingdom of God is established in the hearts of people. His kingdom is not restricted to geographical boundaries, his kingdom and rule is wherever his people are! One day every eye will see and every heart will understand that Jesus is Lord over all but for now not everyone recognises this. However as Christians we should be distinct because Jesus is our Lord and his Spirit is changing us. He has called us to live a different way, the way of the kingdom (for a summary read Matt 5:3-12 for Jesus’ full blown sermon on what this looks like read Matt 5-7. Of course all the recordings in the gospels account display Jesus Kingdom activity but Matthew is at least a start).

Are you wanting to be like everyone else or is your life different because of Jesus? I know that I want my life and the lives of other Christians to be distinctive from what everyone else is like in society. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if the way that we were was attractive and different in a way that glorifies Jesus so that other may follow him and be called also to be distinctive in what is a broken society!

 

first group walk in prepatation for the 3 peaks challenge

 

the probelm of self-regulation

We have not heard much about the MP’s expenses and salaries of late. The problems that they encountered only go to show the problems that we get into when we self-regulate. As part of the 90 day bible reading plan that I am using I have just read through the  book of Judges and repeatedly we see this cycle: apostasy, servitude, supplication, salvation (esv study bible). Things have got that bad amongst God’s chosen people that apostasy had even affected Jonathan a levite, a descendant of Moses in Judges 17 & 18. This was generally not a good period in the history of the Jewish people they were rebellious and self-regulating even though they were chosen to be a people set apart for God and follow his ways!

There was much that we can draw out from the book of Judges but there is a verse repeated (again at the end of the book 21:25) that particularly struck me. Judges 17:6 says this “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Now it was no wonder that the people stryaed from following the Lord. When they took their eyes of following God’s ways it gave opportunity for the sinfulness of their hearts to lead them after foreign god’s, and make god’s according to what they wanted and what would serve their needs. Much like today, people do what seems right in their own eyes making god’s of their own design. By this I mean anything that gets in the way of truly trusting in Jesus for salvation. People look for this in all kinds of places and when they find it but it never ultimately satisfies. True life is only found in Jesus.

The cycle that is found in Judges can also be found in the lives of people today. The only way to avoid this is to look to Jesus as the saviour and the giver of life anything else will fall short and leaves us doing what we feel right in our own eyes. Life comes through doing what Jesus commands not because we have to this would be works but because he sets us free to do so – this is grace. If we are to learn any lessons from the book of Judges let it be that self-regulation, looking anywhere else other that Jesus, will lead us away from life and to destruction. Let Jesus regulate our lives because we have put our trust in him as our saviour.

 

taking responsibility

“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children” Deut 4:9

This is a verse that I came across a number of days ago and just not had chance to blog in it until now. The Mosaic Law deals with the outworking of God’s convenant with his chosen people. It deals with how the nation of Israel were to live before God and one another. They are often being warned of the consequences of not following God.

Here at the beginning of what is Moses’ summary of the the days of his life of leading the people before God and law, statutes and rules the people were to follow Moses calls the  people to “take care , and keep your soul diligently“. The Israelites were like the rest of us fallen broken humans with a nature set on destruction and selfishness. Gven to ant to live our own way and follow our own gods of our own making. As is seen in there behaviour when on route to the  promised land they quickly forgot the deliverance that God had given from slavery in Egypt and turned from him and crafted a golden calf to worship! We too can quickly forget what we are saved from but even quick what we have been saved to.

If we have heard the call of Jesus and been obedient to him and placed faith in Jesus for forgiveness from our selfishness and sin we are forgiven but in the act of calling us from a life entwined in a inherent sinful nature he calls us a life of freedom in him and to live for him from that point on. Not to quickly return to our the patterns of the past.

As Christ followers we have responsibility to take care that we are genuinely following the Jesus who is reveal in scripture and not some image of Jesus in our own making. We must take care to read the scriptures and be obedient to them as God’s authoritative word engaging our brain and applying it and importantly being obedient through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.

We must keep a watchful eye on our soul keeping it diligently. Proverbs 4:23 tells us to ”keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” If we do not keep a check on our hearts then they will runaway with us and lead us to destruction. The only way in which I believe that we are able to do this effectively is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). He is the one who transforms our heart and if it is not submitted to him we have no chance of taming it on our own. Navel gazing will not help!

We have to take responsibility for our walk with the Lord. Lets not play the blame game but stand up and be counted and guard the inner parts of who we are.

 

using extreme measures

Check out the extreme measures that God goes to when revealing the intentions of Balaam’s heart in Numbers 22. He uses a donkey but not only that the donkey speaks to his owner and puts him in his place! The Lord might not have used a speaking donkey when dealing with you or I, but what extreme measures has he used in which the motives of your heart have been revealed? Sometimes it takes extreme measures to get our attention but when the Lord speaks we must obey…

 

the task is to great to do it alone

I am up to Numbers 21 and I had to use one of my 2 “grace days” over the weekend. Obviously missed a few day of blogging. Below is something I save to draft a few days ago and never got round to posting. Short but to the point…

Just a thought from Jethro’s advice (Exodus 18) to Moses that the work of leading the people and making decisions was to great from him alone. Likewise in the church, leadership is to great a task to deal with alone. It has to be done in teams and if teams are not in place it is the task of the primcipal leader to create one under the leadership if the Holy Spirit by identifying those called to by Jesus to shepherd his people. Each congregation needs to have teams of elders. This is something which we are undertaking at WBCC to address.

Hopefully I will have time to blog more up to date posts from recent readings tomorrow…