“Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to these words. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man.” 
 (Ecclesiastes 12:12-13 NIV)


 There is no power in reading and studying and writing, unless it is accompanied by and arising from meditation and personal interaction with the living and personal God. Private study without person-to-Person dialogue gives rise to a personalized religion and pride that increases as knowledge increases. May you always reject this. May you rather be found more in prayer and meditation than in private padding of our inner knowledge sanctum. This is about which audience you truly play for. I am not yet sealed into the concert hall of One. It is this place of spiritual devotion that gives rise to sounds that attract many – even enemies. It gives rise to the sounds of compassion, wisdom, generosity and activated love. It gives rise to the sound of hard work, of selfless inventiveness, of consistency and sustained godliness.


The concert hall of many is a cacophony of noise and tunes and shouts and proclamations. It is stuffed full of booths and stalls of men and women trying to ply their knowledge onto prospective fans and supporters. It is a place of anesthetic gas puffed out of puffers of praise. It has no end of items to trade and purchase. It is an endless parade of conferences and ecclesiastical opprtunity. 

     “Jesus’ brothers said to him, “You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” For even his own brothers did not believe in him. Therefore Jesus told them, “The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come.” Having said this, he stayed in Galilee.” (John 7:3-9 NIV) ND

The Quashy Quadruped
She filled his eyes with elegance,
Her white wisps dancing down the aisle -
They found heaven for a while...
Until Bigfoot Elephant
Waltzed into the room.

Those days were big-benevolent;
Their blue skies stretched a million miles -
They spied their Creator's smile...
Yet that Greygod Elephant
Forbade this independent boon

Then irreligious un-decadent,
They'd loved a life undefiled -
They'd found faith like a child....
While Wrinkled Elephant
Whistled some very adult tune
 
They weren't suckling sycophants -
He wasn’t born all meek and mild,
Her tears weren’t some sluggish sleepy Nile....
Twas Wooful Woomal Elephant’s
Big butt that blacked the moon
So the twilight incandescence
Shrouded joy in joyless wiles…
Like the sound of a phone half-dialled.
So Happy Hairy Elephant
Carried them on his back entombed
NRD

Gossip. Something that is 90% true about a person, is not true

Flattery. You are vulnerable to flattery to the degree you are insecure

Games. Don’t over-think communications before they happen. Naivety wins you God’s favor

Fatherliness. Even as you get older, treat younger men as fully fledged brothers.

Perspective. Practice treating people relative to God, not relative to yourself

Investment. Give your finest time to fruitful friendships, but be ready to smile at everyone.

Peace. You will violate and be violated in the path of friendship, but take heart – God has a real and abiding peace in Christ.

Anger. Be forthright with the brother who has offended you – better that than being forthright about him to others.

Patience. No-one knows your inner man straight away; very few even know themselves.

Vision. See potential, so you can help redirect things every now and then.

Rebuke. If you need to rebuke a brother, do it on the basis of his future, not his present.

Insight. Only pure love gives pure insight.

Validation. Most people use others to validate their own journey: be in the minority here.

Possessiveness. When you pretend to own something, you end up with pretend-friends too. A pastor who ‘owns’ his church objectivizes ‘his people’ and makes them strangers, not friends.

Separation. Friendships are ‘lost’ when they are based on work first.

Marriage. Your wife is a close friend, but not a partner in everything.

Leadership. If God gives you captaincy, never wear the armband.

Open-handedness. Always be willing to release an inheritance gained, and you will have an even greater inheritance in deep covenant friendships.

Generations. Our sons must and will go further than us. This requires recognition and releasing.

Sophistication. The more complex the systems, the more shallow the friendships.

The lowest seat. A man who can switch on humility is not humble. Humility is an attitude gained through failures, not an attribute deployed in success.

Suck-up. A sychophant only wants power, not service.

Moralism. Where morality poses as holiness, lust will abound.

Crusades. Causes align friendships to the cause, not to the love of God.

Outsiders. Church-mindedness robs us of the privilege of dining with prostitutes and tax collectors.

Trust. Those who share painful times will share private worlds.

Bullies. Headstrong men use friendliness as a lever for co-operation.

Two kingdoms. God will disciple you towards laying down your life for your friends. This is the end goal of the Christian trajectory.

Money. Friends are spontaneous givers and reluctant receivers.

Communiques. True friendship always includes one-to-one correspondence. Social networking alone loses the one amidst the many.

Snares. Never lay traps - you are guaranteed offence and loss of friendship.

Justice. You deserved justice but received mercy. So pass on to others what they don’t deserve too.

Infallibility. You are never as right as you think you are. And when you are dead right, you can still be dead wrong.

Silence. Saying nothing only makes you appear wise; it is not wisdom itself.

Risk. Being clumsy with our words is a great sign of love.

Death. To lay up treasures in heaven, we must see just how much God treasures others.

We sow to the East and reap from the West; we lay down something, and somewhere, blessing flows back...if not to us in our lifetime, then to others in our spiritual family tree (and to us in Eternity).

I was blown away by the fact that it was the kindness of an Ethiopian eunuch that saved the prophet Jeremiah’s life after he had been thrown down a cistern to die, around 587 BC...

“So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud. When Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern—the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate - Ebed-melech went from the king’s house and said to the king, “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they did to Jeremiah the prophet by casting him into the cistern, and he will die there of hunger, for there is no bread left in the city.” Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, “Take three men with you from here, and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.”” (Jer 38:6-10 ESV)

And then, around 32 AD, Philip is sent by the Spirit of God to the desert in Gaza, to another Ethiopian eunuch...

“Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”* And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.” (Acts 8:26-38 ESV)

A eunuch from Ethiopia had rescued one of God’s true servants in Jerusalem from slaughter under King Zedekiah. Now, 619 years later, one of God’s true servants from Jerusalem was sent to an Ethiopian eunuch to show him salvation in the slaughter of King Jesus. Wow!

Could one bold act of kindness in Jerusalem have led to the gospel coming to Africa 619 years later? God’s word shall NEVER return void. Though we do not see the harvest; though our great-grand children might well be the beneficiaries, God shall not be mocked...sowing always leads to reaping.

N

The very essence of prophecy is God's powerful word. The hinge of this power is obedience to His voice. Trying to be reasonable; to please the majority or the powers; to protect position and current benefits; to not defile tradition; to defend the economic class we were born into....all these steal the power and profoundness of prophetic community.

““You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.” (Matthew 5:3-4 MESSAGE)

When we consider verse 3, is it not true that we are so good at manufacturing rope; at keeping up appearances; at leaving prayer to the very end of things? We all tend towards self-sufficiency. So, sometimes our merciful God cuts off our rope. Sometimes he cuts off our options. Every now and then he cuts off our legacy. That’s only because God our Father wants Jesus Christ to be our Legacy, our Option, our Hope and our Rope that is anchored in Heaven itself. Are you at the end of your rope? If you are not, you cannot realize just how strong the heavenly Anchor is.

When we consider verse 4, is it not true that we spend much of our lives fighting to gain and keep what is most precious to us? Our careers. A happy family. Possessions and surplus funds for a rainy decade. A position that is esteemed amongst our peers. But this verse suggests boldly that these things are not “Happiness”. These do not make up the state of "blessedness". This verse says that such blessedness comes through loss….for only when we lose something precious do we then see what is most precious. Only when we lose earthly comforts do we then find and feel the Comfort of God.

When asked for the secret to his great anointing, Smith Wigglesworth suggested that his interrogator should never have asked the question, as Wigglesworth had suffered almost unbearable anguish for years after the death of his wife – and it was out of this deep anguish that his deeper relationship with God was born…and it was out of this deeper fellowship that the deepest anointing of Christ flowed over in signs and miracles.

We are all good at seeing a man’s strengths and coveting them. But we are all bad at seeing what suffering and service in weakness has been involved in raising up those very strengths we covet. We are all good at aiming for the top of the hill, but we are forever seeking shortcuts to increasing elevation.

Matthew Henry described the beatitudes as “the articles of Agreement between God and man”. Do you want to be blessed, happy and to be envied? Then do not despise poverty of spirit, or the journey thereto. Do not scorn tears and times of anguish. Do not resent yourself for wrestling with your own weaknesses, and all the less as those weaknesses increase the revelation of God’s loving strength. Do not seek your first help from Egypt, or from the strong and the noblest of friends. Only make Jesus your Friend of friends and your chief counsel.

Have you lost that which is most precious to you? A spouse, a career, a spiritual office in the church, an inheritance, a reputation amongst men? Then be of good cheer within yourself, because God is making you meet to be a chief servant and cupbearer to the King of kings.

How did Abraham become the father of our faith except through decades of barrenness? How did Moses lead God’s people through the desert except for 40 years of his own solitude in the wilderness? How did David become a righteous king except through suffering under an unrighteous one? How did the prophets stay true except through the scowls and seething of their mockers? How did Jesus become the perfect sacrificial Lamb except through religious persecution and Roman torture? How did Paul flow with such power except through being delivered of his own powers? How did Martin Luther make his good confession except through a night of agony in the prison cell? How did CT Studd blaze with such zeal for God except through being delivered from the shame of his blazing sins? How did James Hudson Taylor happily suffer so much for the Chinese peoples except through his sickly years in serving the poor in England? How did Richard Baxter and his peers so willingly suffer the confiscation of life and property except through seeing how rich they were in secret fellowship with Christ?

Are you at the end of your rope? Are you at least near it? Rejoice, and again I say rejoice. And I will rejoice with you, here in Broken Britain. And that is by faith. Above the drums and cymbals of worldly joys, lies a heavenly joy incomprehensible to fallen minds. It is there. I have caught a glimpse of it now and then. Above the banks and stock exchanges, mansions and sundecks of the ‘successful’ stand tall heavenly silos of blessing and provision for the faithful who are poor in spirit. It is there, and I have drawn down from it now and then. And high above the thoughts and wisdom of this world is a Wisdom that created it; a Knowledge that is paradisical; a Truth that makes worldly wisdom foolish. It is there. I have stood at its open gate.

Here’s three cheers to the hopeless and "Gesundheit!" to the ropeless, for our Redeemer lives, and he bestows his Kingdom and his Comfort on his poor and mourning children.

This is the truth of the matter.

N

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’” (Matt 25:34-36).

Our faith outworks in love, or it is hollow faith. Our fellowship with the Spirit outworks in increasing tenderness, care, meekness and esteeming of others...or it is self-indulgent fellowship.

Of course, as with biological processes so too we are on a growth-journey. It takes time to have the mind renewed; to have all the selfish rocks lifted out of the soil. That is why infants do not run governments.

We have been justified now and forever before the Father, in Christ Jesus. Our position is secure, for eternity. Nothing can snatch me from him, how blessedly true. But let us not confuse soteriology with sociology: I can lose connection with the Head, who gave his life for humanity; I can lose my bearings when I still live trying to serve my own ambitions; the wheat can be choked by the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth; I can spend my whole Christian life on earth without ever finding traction in the sufferings of others.

My middle-class brass bubble can remain somewhat intact, and transfer me to glory with....nothing.

And I can chase after "noble" goals with an ignoble mindset. I can seek to travel into many nations and yet hardly ever witness to Jesus Christ. I can seek to love my friends and still ignore my suffering community. I can be part of something "big" and yet lose sight of the little acts of service, kindness and generosity. I can "switch on" the glory-face, but show little of it to my wife and relatives at home, let alone my enemies. I can preach in big venues and still love money and status more than a love for the poor.

I can miss out on daily opportunities to give a cup of cold water to the thirsty, in my quest to find the Reservoir.

Vanity, vanity. a chasing after the wind. The Kingdom is coming, and it is a Kingdom of Love.

Nick

There are now 15 million AIDS orphans, of which 12 million are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Over 3 billion people live on less than £2 a day. 80% of humanity live on less than £7 a day.

28% of all children in developing nations are malnourished. 800 million people worldwide are chronically undernourished.

1 billion people cannot read a word.

128 million children have no access whatsoever to education.

1 million people die of Malaria every year, with 400 million new infections.

1.8 billion people have no immediate access to running water and live on less than 20 litres per day.

The average Englishman uses 50 litres a day just flushing his loo.

Over 400 million school days are lost every year due to water-related sicknesses.

1.5 million poor people die every year because of lung diseases due to solid fuel burning.

There are 35 million widows in India.

161 nations are now involved in human trafficking. Children make up half of the world’s slaves, in whatever form. 30 000 Romanian women are just “missing”.

The wealthiest 20% of the world’s population account for 77% of total consumption. The poorest 20% account for just 1.5%.

497 billionaires are worth £2.4 trillion. The nett financial worth of the world’s poorest 2.4 billion people is £1.1 trillion. In other words, one billionaire possesses more wealth than 10 million poor people.

Let's have another conference..

What does it mean to be famous? How much are our own definitions coloured by our grooming, by noise and color and the dazzle of this present age?

We live in a strategic, humanistic world. But for all man’s cleverness, those who stand out in history aimed at something more than rational ability. Consider the splendor of Beethoven’s 9th, the delicacy of a Shakespearean sonnet or the power of a Churchillian speech – is there not something profoundly deeper, weightier, more skilful and sacrificial to fame than mere rational living?

I have no doubt that famous men and women of world history all had diligence as a cornerstone. Laziness gets a man nowhere. But still, the honors roll of fame is distinctly lacking in certain types of job – casino owners, share traders, consultants and church managers. Not that I am saying these kinds of people are bad people. I am sure that some could be famous in their own way. What I am saying is that a special communication with Creator and Creation is always part of the mix. A going beyond the visible, into the visceral and unexplored. And then an ability to persuade others to their end. Whether through the symbols of e=mc2, the words of “friends, Romans, countrymen”, or the sleepless lyrics of Nessun Dorma (who does not get goosebumps with Pavarotti’s cry of “Vincero!”?)…we see a glimpse of the essence of fame.

We know in our gut that normal - selfish – living will only guarantee us a place in a cemetery.

And so too, in the church of God, fame does not go to clever churchmen. There is no honors roll devoted to mere managerial strategists or obsessive sheep-counters.

Who are the most famous people in Christian history? I guess most of them will only be known on Judgment Day. But we can be fairly sure that some of these will be on the honors roll already. I have taken the liberty of noting very briefly the reason for their fame, to demonstrate that a higher passion and motivation was central to all of them:

Paul the apostle – scarred preacher, apostle, writer, miracle-worker

Peter the little rock – preacher, miracle-worker, martyr

Polycarp – preacher, martyr

Blandina – a woman of the word of her testimony in the face of gruesome death

Augustine – theologian, preacher

Boniface – evangelist, extremely courageous martyr

John Wycliffe – theologian, Bible translator, martyr

Martin Luther – one justified by faith, resister of religion

John Calvin – theologian, preacher, writer

Thomas Cranmer – author of book of common prayer, martyr

John Knox – embracer of the Reformation, fiery preacher

Richard Baxter – puritan preacher, sufferer for Jesus

George Fox – uncompromising saint and preacher

John Wesley – a strangely warmed heart, evangelist, hymnodist

George Whitefield – revivalist, evangelist

James Hudson Taylor – sacrificial evangelist to China

William Wilberforce – determined abolisher of slavery

Florence Nightingale – tender nurse to the Crimean wounded

William Booth – carer for the poor, founder of Salvation Army

Charles Spurgeon – preacher, writer

DL Moody – evangelist, friend of deprived children

Smith Wigglesworth – preacher, faith healer

Martyn Lloyd-Jones – expository preacher

Amy Carmichael – Irish missionary to India, friend of the poor

Corrie ten Boom – Holocaust survivor, helper, rehabilitator

Mother Theresa – minister to and advocate for the poor

Even when we think of the “living famous”, we see a higher cause and a living embodiment of the Word of God as the central theme:

Billy Graham – evangelist

Jackie Pullinger – faith minister to drug addicts of Hong Kong

Tim Keller – pastor, preacher

John Piper – theologian, writer, fiery preacher

RT Kendall – preacher, author

John Stott – theologian, teacher

J John – preacher, evangelist

D Yonggi Cho – Yoido minister, preacher, evangelist

Terry Virgo – grace preacher, apostolic minister

Michael Eaton – Bible scholar, preacher, teacher

Matt Redman – psalmist, song writer

If I have left your hero off the list (which I surely have), then why don’t you think what has made him or her “famous”? By the way, I have generally excluded younger men and women, as they too must stand the test of time (not my test, but the test).

Do you want to be a famous Christian? Firstly, don’t aim for greatness - that will just devastate you. Don’t aim at managing your future, and thus your surrounding situation – that will just make you another control freak (you might become famous for 15 minutes, as the saying goes). Take aim at Christ Himself, to do His will and to live to please him first and foremost. Dig into the word to find out what pleases him. Make the most of every day. Test and approve his good, pleasing and perfect will. Beat your body and make it your slave. Put sin on the cross. And temptation too. And then - do the works of Christ, in Christ. Serve Him, with or without applause. Preach as though He alone were listening. Give your private life fully to Him. Don’t live for the same things the pagans run after.

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither”. Clive Staples Lewis.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Writer to the Hebrews (Heb 12:1-3 NIV).

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Apostle Paul (Phil 3:10-12 NIV).

N

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.16For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

8. STEP OUT OF THE ORDINARY.

“But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.”(Matt 14:27-29). Too few people these days are doing anything unusual for Christ. All I hear is how people are "just making it". I hear so many friends sharing the same fears and frets that my unsaved relatives share in. Are you bogged down in the usual, in the mundane, in the same quiet desperation of the world-people? In your mind...in your life...are you in a rut? Can God surprise you? Can he say, 'sell all you have'; 'set apart for me..'; 'go to the house on Straight Street"...? I sense the thrill. GK Chesterton said it best when he wrote of the "sanctified sensational".

9. DON'T MAKE ROOM FOR SELF-SINS.

How much of your thought life is about you and your issues? You need deliverance! Self-sins so easily masquerade as pathologies and hangovers of past events. They even hide amongst the baggage by convincing their host that 'it was because of the sins of others'. i find no place in scripture to validate and indemnify sin. But it is true that we cannot just evict these squatters with the broom of self-determination. We need to come under the law of displacement - lesser things need to be displace by greater things. A vacuum always sucks. Get sucked into God's vacuum, and He will get sucked into yours: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” (Col 3:1-3) 

10. CELEBRATE BIGGER PEOPLE AND GIFTS.

What happens if a Spurgeon joins your church? What happens if your next employee is a modern Bill Gates? What happens to your wife's gifts where they exceed yours? What if your assistant is a prophet of God? Can you learn from a beggar, and sit at the feet of a younger man? Eccl. 4:4 says, "And I saw that all labor and all achievement spring from man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind." Are you free of the truth of this verse? have you been delivered from small-minded comparison and competition? Get over it, there is always someone better and bigger and more beautiful than you. the point of Christian ministry is enlarging others, not diminishing them to your level. in celebrating others, there is great reward, both in the here and now and in the hereafter.

11. STOP BEING CAUTIOUS IN YOUR LANGUAGE.

Many are too careful. They are "precise, polite but never profound". Many still cut down tall poppies. If you are never celebrated, do you celebrate others? A church that has a well developed culture of celebration is a church in revival. yes, i believe in honest and forthright speech, but so much of this these days is a cover for a sly comment. Release the power of the gospel through your tongue! know that God knows your every hidden sin, but has not exposed you. learn the lifeskill of seeing the good, and commending it, rather than hunting for the bad to expose it. There is no glory in store for the witch-hunter saint. it is not even saintly.

12. ASK GOD WHAT HAS ROBBED YOU OF YOUR ZEAL AND DEMAND IT BACK.

By scripture! The word exhorts us to "never be lacking in zeal". We are called to keep our fervour, serving the Lord. what happened to yours? after having begun in the Spirit, how now have you drifted axle deep into the sands? petition for God's tow-truck! get hooked up and winched out. do whatever it takes! without zeal, the boxer has lost the match. "It is not the size of the dog in the fight; it is the size of the fight in the dog". This is a worthy saying. No church or life will be built on the 'reasonable man' principle. not only because it is a fight and a race, but because the devil fights dirty. Stop being so reasonable, and get radical again. Lukewarmness makes Jesus sick. I believe this is true - God loves heating up cold hearts. He rejoices at the penitent sinner coming home. But once home, don't fall into the starchy sin of the older brother, whose love grew cold in the very house of his father.  

13. BE VIOLENT AGAINST TEMPTATION.

If you want to grow bigger, than direct part of your new-found zeal towards beating your body and making it your slave. Please. Don't believe your feelings first. "Feelings come, feelings go, feelings are deceiving; my faith is in the Word of God, nought else is worth believing". For so many of us, it is the one little rusty stake through our foot that keeps us going round in circles for years. Ecclesiastes 10:1 "As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor." 

14. OVERCOME THE 'YUCK FACTOR'.

I borrow this from my friend RT Kendall. Everyone has one - at least one - trait or quirk that offends us. We have one or two in ourselves. We used to call it the "chipboard under the veneer'. these days, most just hit it and then bounce away. With one offence, the relationship is terminated. this attitude will keep you very small, and keep you in a bunch of friends who are obsequeously clever, swampy, mawkish yes-people . Learn the secret to this scripture from Proverbs 19:11, "A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense."

15. DON'T BE YOKED TO LITTLE PEOPLE.

Bad company corrupts good character. "Show me your friends and I will show you your future" is a little harsh but carries some weight nonetheless. By this header I do not mean be elitist and aloof, but choose your friends wisely. And if you are small-minded, then be humble and learn and embrace the bigness in others. Many years ago, I drifted to the edge of my fellowship. Within a year, my circle of friends had changed totally. I woke up with such a fright one morning. I realized I was on the edge of a precipice, but had been nudged there so subtley by the devil. That same week, an elder came to me saying God had given him a dream – in it he saw me walking on the very edge of a cliff, wobbling as a I went. He said God had asked him to tell me that I was about to throw away a glorious inheritance, and He did not want that. Yikes!

16. READ MORE DEPTH, TAKE IN LESS SLUSH.

Your gift can bring you before kings, yes, but without some investment you can end up more as the court jester than the wise counselor. Don't get stale dated in your knowledge; don’t fall for the entertainment monkey. “The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they while their companions slept were toiling upwards in the night”

We all need the milk of the gospel really. But the thrill of being saved is in its growth potential! Being a baby is carefree, but it is devoid of the glorious possibilities of work, of influence and of great adventure. Are you serious about a close walk with God? Are you willing to beat your body and make it your slave? Are you someone who welcomes the Sword of the Spirit, not just the Oil of the Spirit? Then this word is for you. "What do you see, Jeremiah?": this is the time for seeing more of God and more from God. Seeing is what makes us people of enlarged faith and greater impact. To the measure we do not see by the Spirit, we see by the flesh. I heard a great preacher saying this recently, "we live in a time of an awakening world but a sleeping church". He likened churches in the UK to the military regiments of the allied forces in the early stages of World War II - "strategically competent but dynamically ineffective".The points that follow could each make you a bigger person in God, if you mix them with faith. They could make you a wakeful saint, a person who is both strategically competent and dynamically effective!

1. STOP SEEING PEOPLE RELATIVE TO YOURSELF, BUT RELATIVE TO GOD.

Too many saints ask this subconscious question, "Are you for me or against me?", as though that is what is of ultimate importance. I find these kind of people boring. Their lives are their worlds are their worlds are their life. And their prison. Everything and everyone must somehow fit into their privatized ambitions and insecurities. To this we say, the gospel of Jesus Christ can put the flesh to death. For you to become a bigger person, selfless love must increase! "Esteem others higher than yourself" is a distinct possibility, with practice in the Spirit, because Resurrection life is in you!

2. MAJOR ON THE MAJORS.

Romans 14 speaks of three discretionary matters - vegetarianism, alcohol and observing special days. Don't pick a fight over these things, either way! Peace, power and unity are what matters. But there are many other discretionary things: how people worship; "church model"; language; cultural idiosynchrasies and the like. Major on the majors! And do it in the lives of people you love too. Nitpicking with your kids is a sure-fire way to alienation in your old age. For us pastors, too many of us get lost in one or two people's sins and struggles. By this, I am not condemning persevering love and care, but I am judging so much time wasting with folk who do not want to be free, and show no desperation for their sin. Finally, in preaching, let's major on what the Bible majors on!

3. MOVE FROM CHURCH- TO KINGDOM- MINDEDNESS.

This is a huge need today. There is too much domain management and turf-guarding. Some won't even listen to great preachers 'from another camp'. Paul was the epitome of Kingdom-mindedness. Even from his prison cell, this is what he wrote to the church at Philippi: “But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice” (Phil 1:18). God is calling his saints out of task-bound, high-walled ecclesiastical rigor mortis where the life of God is organized to death, into freedom and fire and the preaching of the advent of the Kingdom of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Death to the formulaic, manualized, tabulated church recipe book! Life to lively, big-hearted, full-chested sainthood!

4. THINK OF THE FUTURE AS AN ADVENTURE, NOT AN ALARM. You will never become a bigger person by worrying your way into your future. You cannot change your stature by this route. It is exhausting, self-destructive and faith-quenching. Believe, oh believe, that He exists and loves and cares and provides. If he arranged all of the kosmos to feed one little sparrow, will God not be able and willing to feed you? If he exericsed so much wisdom in beautifying a brainless lily that cannot even comprehend or enjoy its own beauty, will God not clothe you now?! So many believers spend so much energy and hoard so much kingdom resource trying to mitigate their futures. The Titanic is going down, and we are here to the end, with smiles on our faces. Get over yourself, and see God a little more. You will see a God at perfect peace above and in the chaos that is Planet Earth. And you will find a God who is willing to share that same peace with you.

5. RISK DISAGREEMENT BY SPEAKING. This is a dangerous thing to write, especially if you are a man whose tongue is a razor. I am speaking more here to men who have shrunk themselves by agreeableness at the expense of truth. Those of us who have swapped power for plausibility. The men and women who would rather than preserve fragile peace by staying silent. Carl Trueman once wrote that Christian debate was never meant to be "a self-congratulatory love-fest". With so much illegitimate hierarchy in the church, preserving the 'power players' at the expense of releasing true dialogue and with it, the priesthood, some challenge is much needed. Oh, how we need original thinkers to risk moments of unpopularity!

Gal. 2:11 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Stand up and be counted. be a firend of God before you are a friend of Man. Just don't over-rate yourself or your wisdom. Remain a learner, speak and listen freely.

6. GET RID OF WRONG VIEWS OF AUTHORITY. The 10 spies who returned in unbelief from their Canaan scouting trip had 'positional authority'. They were recognized as credible in their respective tribes. They knew how to counsel marriages and families and make right judgments in matters of social affairs while crossing the desert. But they had no faith, or little faith. Faith is what brings authority - and the Roman centurion of Matthew 8 understood this. There is no authority to your "office" or title. Where we borrow authority from position we too will be like the seven sons of Sceva on the day of war, stripped and beaten. Worldly governments may operate from office, but not so the sons and daughters of the Kingdom. Jesus had no office or title. Neither did Paul, but the deomns shivered because he 'knew who he believed'. I have come to see that there is no authority in knowing scripture either. It is only the Word emblazened by a private friendship with the Spirit that forges the sword of God in our mouths. Our authority is in prayer and intimacy. Without prayer - intimate prayer - we are relatively powerless. Gifts may still operate, but the many Jericho walls remain untouched. Please settle your view of authority, and of 'government' too - you are not governmental because you are born with a willy, excuse the French. Government comes from submission to Christ, upon whose shoulders all of God's government rests! Settle this! It will stop much time wasting, and also liberate women from ecclesiastical chauvenism. Reece Howells knew his God. He stood interceding for Britain under the droning engines of the fighter planes as they duelled it out in the summer of 1940. God heard his prayers and delivered many nations from the tyranny of the Third Reich. That's power! Matt. 8:9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

7. GIVE MORE THAN YOU SAVE. Prov. 11:24 One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. To grow bigger in God, this is one lesson you need to pocket. Let's be straight here - I do not believe in New Testament 'tithing'; I do not want compulsive giving; I beg from no man and no man must beg from me. Great - those are the negatives sorted. But you cannot live by your negative truths. So, what is your positive view of your money and possessions, in light of eternity? Are they yours? Are you, yours? Have you seen a God so compelling that you would willingly sell a house or land or car and bring the money to the feet of the church, the foundation and pillar of Truth? Or are you wasting your life trying to deflect attention from your secret idol? Sow to the East and have blessing hit you from behind, as it charges in from the West. Anyway, if nothing comes back to sowers, they know that their God and Sovereign is their "shield and very great reward"! To be continued.

This is an excerpt from Michael Eaton's remarkable essay entitled, "Expository Preaching", which features in Greg Haslam's "Preach the Word". This is a 623 page gem of essays by 20 well-known contemporary British preachers, and is a "must-have" for any preacher or preacher-to-be...
'"For anyone embarking upon Christian ministry, the first step is to ask, "What kind of ministry do I have?" and to structure his or her day accordingly. The preacher, having answered this first question, must then ask a second question: "What sort of preacher is God calling me to be?".

In order to answer this question, the individual must think very carefully about who he is as a person. Am I the kind of person who could happily sit at a desk for two or three hours a day, or does the thought fill me with horror? Or am I much more the type of person who loves being with people, pastoring and counselling them, and serving them in their day-to-day needs? We are all different with different God-given gifts. While we need to be careful that our gifts do not become our weaknesses (for every gift if used lopsidedly becomes a weakness), yet I believe we have to follow our gifts. I have never known two pastors that are alike. I have never known two men with an apostolic ministry that are alike. I have never known two people with any kind of prophetic ministry that are alike. Every single one of us is different, and we are each at our best when we are being ourselves.

I don't think every pastor has to be a great Bible expositor. Some people are not made for it. We each have to decide what sort of person we are, what our gifts are and what our desires are - since the Lord gives to us the desires of our heart. Our answers to these questions will help us decide how much time per day and per week we ought to be giving to preparation for preaching, and it will be different for each one of us. For myself there is scarcely ever a day when I don't preach and therefore I have given myself plenty of time to be involved in the Word of God.

We also need to consider what is a realistic level for us in our preaching. Not everyone is an original thinker who wants to spend hours delving into the Scriptures. Some people are content to rely on material that others have presented, and there is nothing wrong with that. Sometimes when I visit a remote village in Kenya or Malaysia, for example, I find someone preaching one of my sermons. The preacher may feel a bit embarrassed and explain that he is drawing from material in one of my 'Preaching Through the Bible' series. But that is the very reason I wrote the series in the first place - I want to put material into people's hands. The first step for every preacher, then, is to consider his gifting and decide how much time he is going to spend in the Word each day".

A critical underlying issue here is GRACE - God will only grace you for that to which He has called you. When walking by the Spirit (inexactly!), we find that our desires and His calling marry nicely. N

So, have you overcooked the nature and level of partnership in your marriage?
What does the Bible expect of a "wife"? To know she is equal before the Cross; to be filled with the Spirit; to work easily with her husband in the home; to be godly; to use her gifts and graces (surely?!), to enjoy Jesus day by day and keep walking on her own adventure with Him.
As women get older and wiser, they are to "train younger women" (Titus 2:4).

So how does this very freeing scope of grace change when the wife becomes an "elder's wife"? What is the nature of this phenomenon? How does she suddenly become a brand? Why is she suddenly bestowed the gift of leadership in so many churches, even if the Spirit has not given her that gift (some women do have that gift)? Why does she suddenly have to become more manly, and share in all the pastoral nasties, in visioning and strategizing, in wrestling over wayward sheep?

What will become of her journey, her children, her femininity, her uniqueness? Oh, what of her beauty and her joy? Is she really called to share so explicitly in "eldering", by virtue of being married to an elder? Is the senor pastor’s wife really the “co-captain of the church”; "the mother of the church"? Help me find the scripture. And don't ask me to say any Hail Mary's.

Well, what does it say of an elder's wife? The Bible has lots to say of all women, but what of this unique "office"? Does it exist?
1 Tim. 3:2 says, "Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife". The Bible has more to say about deacons' wives here...1 Tim. 3:11 adds, "In the same way, their wives are to be women worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything." Well, I would hope that would be the end result of the gospel for all female saints.No mention of an "eldership team", of the wife sharing a mirror-image calling, of her having to lose her mind and her children, of frenetic travel, of becoming a slave to the front-most pews. I am not even sure a good wife young in the Lord would disqualify a man from receiving a shepherd’s cloak in the flock...
Of course the wife remains a woman, a daughter of God, someone freed utterly by the gospel of Jesus Christ. She too is a temple of the Holy Spirit, an agent of the gospel in her sphere (for a few women in the bible, that sphere was to be a companion to Jesus, and a travelling companion to the apostle Paul...).

What is her sphere? You might as well ask me describe every flower of the earth in a single sentence. She is unique. Some are mothers, some are prophets; some are weak, some are strong; some are infants in Christ, some are mature; some are teachers, some are listeners. In Africa, some are apostles. Fact. Maggie Thatchers, Ma Theresas, Nightingales and Blandinas...someone needs to write a poem. Each one called to be active yeast and salty salt in very special and unique ways. And surely all women have giftings, and some will be greater than their husbands.

By the way, I think one huge effect of wives being de-Woozified will be a loosening up and greater permeability in the church, for men and women..the a-biblical term, “eldership team”, will no longer present a formidable, impenetrable pack.

My dear friend, has your wife lost the virtue of her special specialness? Is she firstly "wife" or "woman"? Is she a "team member" or Christ's member? Has she sacrificed the power of delicacy for the pull of your office? Is she burned out from being in the wrong fires? Or...are you her ceiling? I’ll leave it there.

I think it is heartily good that a spouse shares in the partner’s life, ministry, joys and heartaches. Two-way. But, lest we as men want our wives as “women in bed and men everywhere else”, let us remember that which is our first mandate as husbands (whether we are elders, electricians, engineers, elderly or at ease)...Eph 5:25-28 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.”. Now compare that to sitting half-stupified in just another coffee shop sharing jointly in the pale pathologies of “your” church...

Are you getting Ephesians Five right? Or has your lady become the church’s concubine? Claim her back, wash her, set her free to the freedom that Christ gave her at Calvary. Maybe she will even go beyond you – but who cares, because it is the flock that matters, right?

Nick

Not quite plastic tough elastic

Makes me spastic this

Middle class brass bubble

That keeps me calm in

An ocean of trouble

Above pathetic but

Unsympathetic anaesthetic this

Middle class mask that doubles

My deceit as a priceless antique

In the rubble.

Oh Hollywood have a heart and fall silent

For one moment as I glimpse a

Flash of your dirty knickers.

I thought I saw the quite absurd –

It could have been a tweetie bird.

Something flickered.

I'm not sure any more because the

Bubble burst for only a brief moment.

What price!? What price!? What price

I pay for a lifelong stay in the

Semi-Penthouse suite. Sweet and sour.

Cometh the hour cometh the bubble man;

Here's trouble man,

It's double-or-nothing-man.

That's something, surely?

Oh so rich but so poorly this surly soul

Surrounded by such cool gadgets –

Gosh I'm posh-underspiced, overrated and

Extra-bored. Lord, get me outta here.

Gottagetouttahere. Gottagetouttahere!

Slow train comin' down the track, it's

Bare and burnt and a bad sight for

RayBan eyes. The seats are worn, torn, forlorn from

Years of being sat on and spat on by riders

Who longed for the liFe chained to Me.

How ironic, this sad sardonic

Double-edged sword signed 'Jealousy'..

Everyone is grasping upwards;

No-one knows contentment except in flash

Moments of secret ecstasy. Why me?

Why me Lord? Why not leave me to my

Unerring inertia of middle-class meaningless

Momentum? Why not leave me as a...

As a…silver-plated parody of perpetual momentum

On the desk of the gods?

It was not my lot. It was not even a little bit.

It was a nothing. Now that bare burnt

Train is going….somewhere, at least.

Could a different destiny

Rest in me Somehow?

Blessed are the poor in faith - but

Blessings are the faith of those terrified of Poverty.

No chance of a cuppa tea from enamel again?

My clumsy refrain in a Train.

Happy with nothing, for there I can possess..

Everything.

It's easier to sing but let it chug.

I have my mug of char and somewhere,

Somewhere far I know, somewhere

Under the rainbow (way out of sight)

I will find a place to grow out of my diminution –

Out of this awful middle-class

Morph-dwarf attrition that forced me

To view the world through

The big end of a telescope.

Hope. Hope. Hope again.

My refrain on a train.

Let me smell it, glimpse it, brush it briefly

As it's promise passes by my

Middle-Class Bubble

Stretched tight with my craning.

Without it, without it's touch,

I feel Life draining out.

I'm near the end of my rope.

With one touch I can go on in the hope of....

Significance

ND

God loved the whole world that He sent His only Son on a Mission to rescue us all from our own sins. For many centuries, "mission" was a term aimed at God and his self-revelation to the world through Jesus Christ. It is His mission! He is the One Who so loves the world that He gave His only Son. It is true though that His church is missional. Since Christ's resurrection almost 2000 years ago, the church is "in-mission". We carry God's message of reconciliation in Jesus to the world. To remain here on earth means God still has good works for us. He still wants Jesus to shine through His church as light in the darkness that is over nations.

But the church is not the light, nor the fulness of the Kingdom of Jesus. She is, in the words of David Bosch,

Before moving to England, with all its mixed heritage and maladies, my definition of mission was too narrow. I spent some years in a missional organization which espoused "church planting" as the means by which the gospel was to be propagated amongst the nations. This was done in good faith. Nevertheless, as a result, I was tempted subconsciously to view the church and her leaders more as the custodians of mission than God Himself. In this area I fear I became a little humanistic in my orthopraxy (although never holding Arminianism as orthodox!).

This narrow view of mission leaned me oftentimes towards an emphasis on responsibility in my preaching, at the expense of God's virtues in Christ. That is an embarrassing confession actually. It tipped me in subtle ways towards seeking out leaders and missionaries, rather than preaching, prayer and pastoring all people. What should have happened accidently crept into the realm of the deliberate - what I mean is that leaders and missionaries (all ministries, for that matter) emerge "accidently" as we preach the Word of God deliberately...

Even though God is sovereign in all matters human looking backwards, to this day I carry regret in the many who were hastened through spiritual adolescence because their own zeal, ambitions and giftedness reacted chemically with my perceptions of a dying and needy world.

There are much more horrible consequences to "missionalism" in full flight though. Christopher Wright speaks of the faulty logic of "looking for a biblical basis for mission rather than seeing the missional heart of God in the Bible". Of course, in many ways narrowly-defined missionalism introduces both discontent and potential disqualification into the wider ranks of the saints - if 'normal' husbands and wives and office workers are not somehow "engaged in the dramatic", then they could well conclude that they had surrendered themselves to a "lesser life". How tragic this is, and all the more when you see the sweeping "mission-mandate" in the word of God is not geographic nor gift-orientated, but local, normal, mundane, day-to-day. The Word commends every saint to "remain in the situation he was in when God called him" (1 Cor 7:20). We also see that both Paul and Jesus commended various churches for faithfulness in the local house; for abiding with each other; for holding onto truth in testing that comes to their city; in assembling together; in being salt and light; in being ready to give reason for the hope they have; in washing their wives with the Word; in hard work; in.....abiding! And for a few men and women, filled with and directed by the Spirit, they are moved to move beyond. The non-geographic outworks geographically.

In 1978, Johannes Verkuyl identified 4 impure mission motives that have beset the Christian church in her zeal to "go"... "(a) the imperialist motive - turning natives into docile subjects of colonial authorities; (b) the cultural motive - mission as the transfer of the missionary's "superior" culture; (c) the romantic motive - the desire to go to far-away and exotic countries and people's; (d) the motive of ecclesiastical colonialism - the urge to export one's own confession and church order to other territories".

The genius David Bosch expanded this further in his book, Transforming Mission, to include more adequate but still incomplete motives for mission: "(a) the conversion motive - emphasizing personal decision and commitment, but narrowing down the reign of God to the sum total of saved souls; (b) the eschatalogical motive - the eagerness to see the return of Christ which ignores the realities of life and its living in the here and now; (c) the "plantatio ecclesiae" (church planting) motive - prioritizing the gathering of communities of the committed but identifying the church with the Kingdom of God (they are not the same thing); and (d) the philanthropic motive - challenging the church to seek justice in the world but equating God's reign with an improved society".

In the face of these impure and inadequate motives, the best definition I have ever come across in my life to date is that of Bartholomew and Goheen, in their book The Drama of Scripture: "God’s mission is this: to restore the creation. Israel’s mission flows from this: God chose a people to again embody God’s creational purposes for humanity and so be a light to the nations, and the Old Testament narrates the history of Israel’s response to their divine calling. Jesus' mission: When Jesus comes on the scene, He takes upon Himself the missionary vocation which had been Israel's. He embodies God's purpose for humanity and accomplishes the victory over sin, opening the way to a new world. When His earthly ministry is over, He leaves His Church with the mandate to continue in that same mission. And so the Church's mission: in our time, standing as we do between Pentecost and the return of Jesus, our central task as the people of God is to witness to the rule of Jesus Christ over all of life".

In His mission we find the meaningful life mandate for every single Christian. While it requires preachers, it is not all about preaching. While God moves through His church, it is not all about church planting. While he commends us assembling together, it cannot only be about meetings. While His rule can change society, it is not firstly about social justice. While Jesus is coming back soon, it is not merely about speeding His return.

It about nations being discipled into Christ, one person and family at a time. It is about incarnational belief - the Holy Spirit finding hearts to abide in, and in so doing, the salt becoming salty wherever it may fall. It is about healed marriages and healthy divorcees; it is about both blessings and tribulations suffered well; it is about both joy and perseverance; spiritual gifts and public politics; teaching and miracles; quiet times and shouting from the rooftops. It is God's mission where every saint has a place, and a profound one. We all so quickly look to this event or that outpouring, even though Christ warned us that "the Kingdom of God comes without our observation". One thing I do know, is that wherever mission truly brings in the Kingdom it is always a miracle of God - the unfathomable working of the Holy Ghost in impossible ways, deep within the people He inhabits. Possibly the two most haunting legacies of all from secularizing the Mission of God are the Holy Ghost becoming more a lever than the Lover; and the Word being more principles than the Person.

I trust this piece brings you peace. I trust you engage your mind on this matter. May God show you how small you are, and how much you matter to Him. May you find your place in obscurity; and in your success may God get the publicity. May we see churches arise where godly mums are championed as much as powerful evangelists; where Kingdom-minded businessmen are as much heroes as charity workers; where preachers are sacramental but not sacred cows; where every means of grace has meaning beyond its visible appearance and applause.

N

Well, firstly what did not happen is that it was NOT cognitive understanding of Christ “penal substitutionary sacrifice”! A man being raised from the dead defies rational thinking! Whenever your Christianity boils down to equations and formula and rituals and patterns, you can be sure you have lost sight of resurrection faith. You have lost the wonder! Is there the thrill of spending time alone with Jesus? Is Jesus your hobby, asked Michael Eaton? What do you spend your spare time and cash on, asked JI Packer? Is there still “shattering astonishment”, asked Eugene Peterson? Are you still beholding the glory of God, asked Charles Spurgeon?

Christ’s resurrection power being the power of our very transformation from glory to glory...2 Cor. 3:17-18 "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord". This is not some book learning or church liturgy. This is actually seeing Jesus.

The Message translation of 1 John 1:1-4 says,

The lesson? you cannot control, plan and neatly manage your own spiritual growth. Sorry. And that is the swine for the Modern Man. Such a man man seeks to understand and apply knowledge to his benefit. In your job you are rewarded for this kind of knowledge. Faith means nothing to your employer; the afterlife means nothing to your shareholders. But none of these count for anything in the first instance when it comes to the resurrection. We are encountering the God of the impossible. The Lord over death and hades. The God of the galaxies. The Face of Flaming Fire. The Source of all Light and Heat and Matter!

But we live in the culmination of an age that cannot stand any fraction of mystery, of the Unknown. We send telescopes to space and nanoprobes into the human body. We have electron microscopes. In every field of endeavour there are tens of thousands of people with doctorates. We have been to both poles and on top of every high mountain. The internet promises a never-ending diet of knowledge and awareness of….everything.

But you cannot learn this over the net or from a book or conference. You learn this only because it has been revealed to you. John 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day." Even as Mary and the other ladies were hanging around the tomb, this kind of “knowledge” is only for those preoccupied with death…seeking a way through death…hoping that there is power over death.

Here are 5 thoughts on faith that comes from revelation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

Mary was a prostitute from whom Jesus had cast 7 devils! These women were sincerely desiring to bless Jesus in his dead state. They were in mourning. They were minor actors in the gospel drama. Often, resurrection faith escapes those in the centre, because the system of church or living has created momentum for us to get on without Him. Times of need and desperation cause us to look at the death of Jesus on our behalf. And when you start to think on his death, you are not far from his empty tomb.

Mary ““Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’” (Mark 16:6-7)

If you lack this revelation today, you can “ask God"! John 20:13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

It happened in a cemetery garden. None of the apostles were there! We think by going to every conference, finding the man with the golden touch, we will somehow find Jesus. But Jesus is near you, with you, close to you. He was in the garden next to the tomb!

Luke 17:20-24 “Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. Men will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other.”

In the parallel account in John, it says of Mary that her eyes were opened as Jesus called out her name. And then she cried “Rabboni!”. Can you dare believe Christ, the living Christ is calling out your name?

When Mary Magdalene ran back to the disciples to say his body was missing, they did not believe her. You can never package a sense of awe and sell it! It's not easy to convey a sense of wonder, to another. E Peterson “It's the very nature of wonder to catch us off guard, to circumvent expectations and assumptions. Wonder can't be packaged, and it can't be worked up. It requires some sense of being there and some sense of engagement”.

5. It inspires others to see Him After Mary told the disciples, John 20:3 says “So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.”

I love the fact that neither disciple encountered Jesus here. Verse 9-10 says they did not understand that Jesus had to rise from the dead, and “they both went back to their homes”.

Later, in John 21, Jesus calls to them from the beach, John shouts, “It is the Lord!” – and all the disciples start to row hard for the beach!

Luke 24:32 "They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

"On the Sabbath and during the week. In times together like the disciples fishing, and in times alone like Mary in the garden of Gethsemane. In times of forlornness. In times of despair. On the road and around the supper table...I love this!

What can we say when we encounter Peter in heaven one day, who one time cursed the knowledge of Jesus, but ended up as a pillar, crucified upside down? Or what of James and John, boastful and competititve, but then becoming apostles and servants to the death?Where did Wigglesworth get his zeal? What drove pimply Bruce Olson to the Motilone Indians of Columbia? What took frail Hudson Taylor to China or little Jackie Pullinger to Hong Kong? What did David Brainerd see? Or Murray MacCheyne? What of the millions of unnamed Christian heroes across the world and through the centuries? Those who have suffered persecution, ridicule, and even death for the sake of the “Name”…

Surely there is a God in Heaven, and His Son is with Him too. He longs for us to be where He is, and the sure knowledge, the evidence of things unseen beyond the grave, is what becomes the nuclear generator in every saint looking to Christ. No-one stole His body; no-one looted His tomb....He was raised from the dead, and in Him every blood-washed saint has also been raised, and will be raised!

love, Nick

Do you know that a man can believe that Jesus died for his sins, and yet never quite believe that Christ was raised from the dead to have a real relationship with him? But do you think that God wants his church built up the dead Christ or the living Christ? Christ DIED, but he is not DEAD. Because He’s alive, I live!

Is your Christ dead or alive? Some don’t mind, dead or alive, as long as they are safe and saved. But faith in the resurrection of Jesus changes everything.  

Not just a salvation, but a new life. Because He has been reconciled to the Father, we can be reconciled. Because He has entered the glory, we can be transformed in ever increasing glory. Because Jesus and the Father are one in Heaven, we can be one. Whenever there is a diminished revelation of the resurrected Christ in a marriage, a friendship, a church or a nation, there will always be (a) lack of relationship with God; (b) lack of transformed lives; and (c) division and disunity in the marriage, friendship, church and nation. Without resurrection life in a church, we have Old Covenant religion in some form. “Destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days”. Man-made temples have to come down when His Body becomes our tabernacle.  

Whenever our hopes are anchored in something less than eternity, earthly-mindedness sets in. The "law of displacement" tells us that you cannot simply defeat a competing affection - you need to displace it with a higher affection. Ultimately, there remains forever only ONE Pearl of Great Price. When we see the risen Lord, it is not a hard thing to sell all our precious but lesser pearls.

”and surely I am with you always, even to the very end of the age” (Matt 28:20). He is not only the Son of Man who walked with people in Palestine 2000 years ago. this very day He walks with us by His Spirit, Who is His identical. So, the resurrection means we can have a real and living relationship with Jesus today. “Today, if you hear His voice…” (Heb 3:7). to this day, faith comes by hearing His voice. We live by every word that proceeds (present tense) from His mouth!  

“He freed those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Heb 2:15). Do you believe in life after death? In dying on the Cross, Jesus was shouting to us, "watch me!". In being raised from the grave, Jesus was shouting, "you will most certainly be raised from death too - fear not!!"  

Because He has been raised from the dead, and because we are IN HIM, we too will be raised up into heaven when we die. Charles Simeon, the famous English pastor, was asked on his death bed by his best friends why he never had stopped smiling, through all the decades of suffering and persecution. His answer? "My Lord has passed through the prickle bush - and I am joined with Him - so why ought I complain about a few thorns on the way through that same bush, to be with my Lord in glory forever??" 

He stands before the Father, having satisfied His justice, forever our Man in Glory, forever interceding. He is the Author of our Salvation, says Heb 2:10, and He is "the Author and Finisher of our Faith", says Heb 12:2.

When I speak of resurrection faith, I am speaking of our faith that flows from the revelation that Jesus is alive today. We can lose this faith. This is why Paul was prompted to declare that he "had kept the faith" - not "the Christian faith" as some new moral code, but faith that kept his eye on his risen Lord, and kept him persevering with joy through everything the devil threw at him.

The disciples, men who had walked and eaten with Jesus, were taken off guard by the resurrection. so much so that Jesus rebuked them for their stubborn refusal to believe His eye-witnesses. May you and I be eye-witnesses of His face, His glory and His entire Person...today!

love, Nick

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom 15:5-6)

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. “May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:20-23)

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.” (James 3:13-18)

“From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Eph 4:16)

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” (Col 3:12-14)

Every gift - not just the "5 fold" gifts - serves this purpose. Christ is coming back for one Bride. Think about this before you are too quick to dedicate your life energies to pursuing privatized goals. And as you do, forgive men; release debtors; love everyone with all your heart - not just the "likable" people. Practise the spiritual skill of overlooking offences. Act and speak as men and women who will themselves be judged by the law of Love. Sow towards righteousness. Bite your tongue. Pass the shocks and pains onto Jesus, the Great Yoke-Breaker.

the same Awesome Power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you. The reason all the New Testament authors could write instructions so plainly was because they knew that the church had been raised to a supernatural life. The Spirit given to us is powerful. He tends us towards holiness. These authors wrote not to the "old you", but the the new you - the Christ-life within.

Be a pot for noble purposes. When Paul wrote of this (2 Tim 2:20), he wrote specifically in the context of men who argued and chattered and slandered. God is saying here, that the man who does not increase spiritual unity across the body is a common man.
Don't be a commoner any more! Humility releases the power of God - so apply yourself in your new life to love; to peace; to meekness. For such a man is described as "great" in the eternal Kingdom.
Nick

“Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, “A gallows seventy-five feet high stands by Haman’s house. He had it made for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.” The king said, “Hang him on it!” So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s fury subsided.” (Esth 7:9-10 NIV)

Haman loved position, and hated anyone who did not honor his position. He was so furious with Mordecai the Jew, for not bowing and scraping to him, that he got the king to issue an edict of annihilation against all the Jews in all the provinces of Persia. He even built a high gallows by his home to hang Mordecai there. In the end, God turned it around on Haman, and he was hanged on this very gallows.

If we oppress others, He will defend them and resist us. How many times have we mulled over injury and nursed our wounded pride and then built a gallows in our own mental garden? The self-righteous person defines his or her grievance, finds a culprit and puts him on trial in the courtroom of their soul. The sentence is always harsh, such is the sinful nature. We cannot help but gloat over any downfall or setback the accused party experiences. We assume automatically and erroneously that God has sided with us; but God sides with no man or woman - He sides Himself with truth, humility and righteousness.

Even when we are walking in honorable ways, and are victimized for it, the Word grants us no license to start gallows construction. “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”(Matt 5:44-45 ESV). “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Rom 12:19-21 ESV).

God will deal with all evildoers as He sees fit. He is Judge of all. But mercy always triumphs over judgment. God blesses forgiveness. God is deaf to self-righteousness and the cries of the man who sees every splinter in other men’s eyes. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:36-38 NIV)

God looks at the heart. Even in our Christian immaturity, He makes no lien for the anger-judgment-murder triad. He calls that “sin” and says His power is unleashed in all who forgive. Forgiveness is not in its highest honor when it is only extended to the penitent. The Word calls us to forgive men and women the moment the offence is incurred - we are called to walk in forgiveness, if we desire to walk in the Spirit. This is not some mental chant, but transacting with Jesus in the power of the Spirit, to hand our offences over to God, to pray for our enemies and then to walk free of the burden of anger. This too is a very heavy burden – heavier than despair to be sure – which Jesus is eager to lift off our shoulders (Matt 11:28). The witness of the Spirit comes the moment we humble ourselves to release our tormentors; and this witness is also the seal of God’s favor – heaven’s endorsement of a Merciful God. Forgiveness is the work of the Cross: when you forgive, you are a co-worker with Christ.

Nick

Christian Prediction ought to be, "what IS God doing TOMORROW?". He is the great "I Am". He is building His church. He is the spirit of prophesy. He has the whole world in His hands. He created Time as a means through which He can interact with His creation.

Christian Peace ought to be: "Who are you, and what would you have me do today?". He has left us His peace. He has instructed us not to worry about tomorrow, today.

When we invert these things, we lose joy. When our prediction is based on our strengths, allies, resources and enemies, we are no longer prophetic people. And we fill our todays with worry, at the cost of peace. We are His children.

In Isaiah 7, King Ahaz is asked to trust God today for a future deliverance. He just needed to believe in the unseen. Instead he checked his troops and defences. In contrast, Elijah believed he was on God's mission - in rebuking Ahab and shutting up the rains. In 1 Kings 17, he sat by the Kerith brook until the day it dried up. He had peace in each day that God would provide water and ravens. He had peace for each day that God would guide him. No word from God meant he must just abide where he was. No striving, no besetting worry, no giving over to works of panic. “Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the LORD came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.”” (1 Kings 17:7-9)

This surely is the difference between man-church and God's church. Our peace is that He will not leave us, nor leave us in unbearable situations. Our prediction is that He will deliver us, build His church and save the world.

"Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit", says the Lord. "Unless the Lord builds the house, the workmen labour in vain."

Bless you, Nick

He is the perfect Father, who sought me out while I was His mortal enemy, deep in sin. If I am saved by grace alone, then “it is no longer by works” (Romans 11:6). He put the seed of the gospel in my conscience, gave me over to conviction of sin, and led me to the Cross of Christ. I confessed with my mouth and believed in my heart....and the word says “I will be saved” (Romans 10:9). My sins were washed “white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18); I have confidence in today to “come boldly unto the throne of grace”” (Hebrews 4:16); the Spirit is given to me as a promise, as a “seal of ownership” (2 Corinthians 1:22) and as confirmation of my enduring “sonship” (Romans 8:15). The Son ever lives to intercede for me before a willing Father, “Who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son”. (John 3:16).

All I need to do I glance at Him in faith, inasmuch as the Israelites were healed of the deadly vipers’ poison with one glance at the bronze snake lifted up in Sinai (Numbers 21:8-9). He adorns me with grace gifts and convicts me in my conscience – from the inside out – of a life that pleases the Father. From hereon, all God’s dealings in my life are His fatherly dealings. Even the tough things are His discipline in me, “that I might share in His holiness" (Heb 12:10). God picked His fight with Jesus on the Cross, and now He has picked me as a son in Christ. The Lord does not change His mind. He has sworn on oath that I am His.

My salvation is a flawless, eternal work of the Trinity, into which I have been swept up. Just as no baby chooses of itself to be born, when to be born, and to whom to be born....so I was born into sin and darkness, but by the eternal foreknowledge of the Father, I was “born from above” into the Kingdom of light!

If Nicodemus struggled to understand how he could “enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born” (John 3:4), how could I believe I could enter heaven’s womb a second time again to be born again....again? I am born from above, once for all time; the Cross has slain me and raised up the new Christ-life within...I am born again of imperishable seed….

I am a son. Even a worldly father would not disown his son for his sins – would he tear up his birth certificate or disavow his title? God is the perfect Father! And now, I have the new Spirit, genetic, name, family and Father, so I may grow up “by the Spirit” over the course of my lifetime. Having begun by the Spirit, I need to continue by the Spirit. But my status as a son remains unchanged. If any natural child started to believe they had lost their father’s favor - that they were on a long and painful road towards being rejected forever as a child - it would produce all manner of bad psychologies and behavior. The child would work to gain favor and approval incessantly. He would strive to show he was a “worthy son”. It would be a sad time for the parents, watching their son driven ever more by insecurities multiplying from such a core fear of rejection.

I am a son – I have not worked to gain my sonship. No servant can become a son through serving. The fact that a son chooses to serve with his Father does not add to his sonship – it adds to the quality and depth of his knowledge of the Father, and the quality of his life....but it does not define his status as son."

We try hard to change things, so hard that if they change we take the credit. We just don't see the evidence of Grace when we live in prayerless perfectionism. It is at the same time egotistical and exhausting. God is perfect but not a perfectionist. We see this in scripture, in the frail lives of those who wanted to believe. God opened Sarah’s womb in spite of Abraham fathering Ishmael. God sent Moses to Egypt in spite of his reluctance and Israel’s grumbling, and God delivered them in spite of their fears. God raised up heirs for Jacob in spite of his deviousness. God crowned David with favor in spite of his bloodied hands. God sent prophets to Judah in spite of her stubbornness. God sent His Son to the world in spite of its hatred. So now, in Whose hands is the deliverance of your life and your church? If my life is my hands, I am destroyed. If the church is in my hands, all is lost. Living under grace, is expecting favor in spite of our weakness, in spite of our past sins. Yes, it is about responding to God, but no-one gets it bang on.

I realize it is far easier for me to pursue moral rightness than holiness. It is easier to live than to die. Christian moralism still allows me my private sins; my anger; my pocket idols. It is not too hard to find a church that will celebrate me for my gifts and brilliance, above my fellowship with the Spirit.

We reject the lie that holiness can come through observing the law - we are too wise for that one - but then we can make laws out of grace easily - as easily as we can preach about the gospel without preaching the gospel. As the puritan Thomas Watson put it, "There is as much difference between heavenly comforts and earthly, as between a banquet that is eaten and one that is painted on the wall."

There's no getting away from it (praise God) - the man is his message. This gives us over to the liberty of responding to Jesus in our hearts. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. I care not whether the man be the apostle Paul or the church janitor, this is the truth. No-one is blessed by a man's rightness. All are blessed by God's righteousness in Christ, finding a home in you and me.

As the law produced animosity towards God and men, so now Christian moralism produces prayer apathy and private scorekeeping. We will be prayerless without private passions to God. Desire and desperation - the stuff of Real Life - drives us to God. Moral rectitude keeps us in neutral. It was the reality of David's fears and desires - coupled with his belief that God was real and rewarding - that drove him to worship and petition. Doctrinal and social rightness is the reward in itself...to have proved myself more right than my fellows. It is the antithesis of love, of self-emptying love.

Only when the Holy Spirit enters a person can there be Life. Only when a man enters a woman can there be conception. Only when a preacher embodies his message can there be revelation. Only when a bee climbs into a flower can there be pollination.

So then, how much life, conception, revelation or pollination can we expect in a church movement built only on associations and convocations? Without the divine and human intimacy of the Book of Acts, all you are left with are empty acts. My contention is that true intimacy between God given friends, ministers and churches need be felt in our bowels, not merely our year planners.

Jesus washed feet, wept over death, was moved with compassion and indwelt his relationships with persevering love. He discipled his friends by imprinting his life on them, by leading the way and taking the fall. So too, we are not ministers and apostles if we merely preach, travel and counsel. - these alone make us professional churchmen, no more. True ministers have entered the kingdom through many hardships, carry men on their hearts and suffer for the sake of the elect.

Some are too challengable: the weak consciences. Some are only challengable after a time: the independent consciences. Some are unchallengable: the hard consciences. A few are challengable in Realtime by God and friends: the soft consciences. Be soft

If the kindness of God leads us to repentance, this surely is central to how we raise our children. The law was put in place as a guardian only to the Jews. We must not confuse loving correction with the heresy of preparationism, that being a misguided belief that putting the moral law on someone is a necessary preparation to receiving the gospel. Jesus was the full embodiment of the gospel - to adults and to children. Kindness includes correction and rebuke, but always from a kind heart, seeing danger further down the road. Religion has set more children on a pathway of rebellion than all the forces of hell.

Read other blogs here

Kind words are rarely clever;

clever talk is seldom kind, still

he builds the little platforms for

the windmills of his mind.

Those mills use up some yardage

in a yard with little space,

as he crowds his own dominion

with things that hide his face.

Such things are not organic -

those organs of success

that play their faulty music

inside his hollow chest.

“The sides must be protected!” -

at the centre all is quiet.

So truth is most neglected

except where he can buy it.

[Exception is the norm now

except for once or twice

when through the mental storms now

he glimpsed a Great Suffice]

He started planting seedlings,

that seedless, saltless sage,

who traded Kind for Clever and

sold Wisdom for a wage.

The wise man he is fruitful

and fruitfulness is peace;

he knows his yard needs yardage

for bushes, plants and trees.

He breaks up all that’s fallow;

he chops up all that’s “good”

which doesn’t pass inspection

by the Inspector of Good Food.

So inspect your own dominion,

examine all that’s there

and ask yourself this question,

“Is it foul or is it fair?”

Do not protect your shadow

where the old branch is so bare.

Do not pretend to Plenty

with plastic pineapples and pears.

Change your life direction,

reject the Clever for the Kind;

don’t live on in your dissection,

In your chants of “Hey, I’m fine”

There is a plough and ripper

There are more seeds to find

To help replace the Failure

Of the windmills of your mind

My life is a castle and the castle’s cast down:

The walls all collapsed and the turrets half-crumbled;

The singing well silent; the mighty all humbled.

This castle in ruins, with stones all around.

Nehemiah’s weeping, His tears full of pain:

He’s heard of my plight, He’s heard of my pillage,

He’s seen visions of my destroyed little village.

Nehemiah’s tears will me whole once again.

Nehemiah’s coming and coming with zeal:

He’s coming to build up, to raise and reverse -

His envy flows over, and so does His purse.

Nehemiah’s promise is an oath with a seal.

Nehemiah’s circling this city of smoke:

This shell of a husk of a skin of a town

Where Black was the colour and Dark wore the crown.

Nehemiah’s angry, His passion’s provoked.

Nehemiah’s entered this city of shame:

He’s working and building and surveying it all;

His eye’s on this hamlet He’s raising up tall.

Nehemiah’s grounded and founded his Fame.

Nehemiah’s temple is cleared of its ash:

His songs and His Scribe are both well installed -

My heart, mind and soul are as priests now enthralled.

Nehemiah smiles, His flaming eyes flash!

Nehemiah’s come at the Father’s command;

Nehemiah’s invaded this town and its lands

NRD

I have long known as a believer in Christ that I shall be known by my fruit. It is the fruit of the Spirit, of abiding in the Spirit. It is fruit produced by the Farmer Who tends me, Who prunes me, Who nourishes me. But it is also not earthly fruit. It is not the fruit of right circumstance....Matthew 5:47 "And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?".Scriptures like this have often plagued me in my Christian walk. And you?

The question is, amidst all our life activities and fears and desires for the future, HOW is this fruit produced? Has God chosen the rich to be rich in faith? Are you loving when surrounded only by lovers? Are you faithful when everything falls into your lap? Are you patient when you are gaining all your inheritance now? No, God produces His fruit in us - emblems of His divine nature - through trials. "Suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance, character" (Romans 5:3). Sometimes I wish scripture were not so blunt.

• How can you learn to grow patience unless through delays?
• How can you be found as gentle unless through hard men?
• How can you grow joy in Jesus unless through times where lesser joys are stripped away?
• How can you learn to abide in heavenly peace unless through war and times of strife?
• How can you become loving with God-love unless you are hated and have enemies? How will you ever know the type and depth of the love you possess unless you face hostility?
• How can you be kind as Christ is kind, unless you are exposed to unkindness?
• How can you find goodness abiding in your heart, unless you dwell amongst badness?
• How can you be faithful, unless you face fickleness and difficulties that invite you to walk by faith, not by sight?
• How can you control yourself by the Spirit’s power unless you face trials and temptations? Unless you see and take the way out God has promised always to provide?

So often we cry out to God for deliverance, when we should be asking Him for wisdom. This is what James tells us – when facing many and diverse trials and temptations, ask God for wisdom in those trials (Jas 1:5). And know that you are blessed when you face them, because

Jesus, forgive us for asking You to remove all the nasty things, which are the very things You are using to develop the fruit of the Spirit in us. And it is only this fruit that will grant to us eternal rewards forever and ever. Amen.

How willing are you to wait for the Lord? I am not talking firstly about having quiet times, but not moving until He speaks; until He releases. Let’s face it, there is so much activity in the church today, but so little revival.

Who is building His church?

Most of us take matters into our own hands, like the King of Israel who said to Elisha “this trouble is from the Lord – why should I wait for the Lord any longer?” (2 Kings 6:33). Samaria was being besieged, people were eating their own children from hunger. Or what of King Ahaz in Isaiah 7, surrounded by two marauding armies, checking his supplies and munitions? Or fearful King Saul, facing the Philistine army and making the sacrifices because Samuel was late?

It always seems to happen to kings! Why? Because when we are our own kings, we are responsible for our own safety. Jesus is our cleft in the Rock. He is the Conqueror Who makes us more than conquerors! Read Psalm 27 sometime, to catch the spirit of meekness that blesses God and brings us His deliverance.

How does this apply to you? You don’t need to react when attacked, misunderstood, slandered, overlooked. You don’t panic with the rest of the world. You don’t seek refuge in debt. You don’t make your boss or elder your refuge.

Psalm 37:34-38 "Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it. I have seen a wicked and ruthless man flourishing like a green tree in its native soil, but he soon passed away and was no more; though I looked for him, he could not be found. Consider the blameless, observe the upright; there is a future for the man of peace. But all sinners will be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be cut off" He will exalt you. I

f He does not, then either you remain in obscurity or you exalt yourself. That is the only choice. But when you choose the road of self-exaltation, you always need to pull others down to pull yourself up. That is the root behind the spirit of gossip and slander and deceitful speech in a church too.

The curse of the LAW is at stake here – the law of Cause and Effect, best captured by the older brother when he said ”all these years I have slaved for you”.

HUMANISM is at stake here…. “who holds the remote control to your life?”. Your boss? Your pastor? Have you read the account of David – Saul tried to slaughter him but could not!

The PROCESSES of God are at stake here. Our intervention always results in premature blessing that becomes the curse. Whole church systems are based on rewarding gifts! (“there are no reward for using God-given gifts; only for love” - RT Kendall). Remember Abram, lost in Mesopotamia; Moses, forgotten in Midian; Joseph, a slave in Egypt; Paul in the obscurity of Tarsus. Oh how we need to enjoy obscurity, because we are fellowshipping with the Unseen!

SIN is at stake here. Mean-spiritedness is sin. 8 of the 15 sins of the flesh listed in Galatians 5:19 are to do with the sin of brotherly jealousy…. hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy

And JOY is at stake here. There is no joy in drivenness. In watching over your shoulder. In carrying the heavy yoke of your own destiny. In all the anxieties that result. In knowing in your heart, once you get there (to the "top") that it was your cleverness, your maneuvering, your flattery, your cunning, THAT GOT YOU THERE.

Vindicating yourself is a terrible temptation. You forget that most dead saints and martyrs are waiting for the Day of Judgment for their vindication.

Mostly, our own attempts at self-vindication are not based completely in truth. We have blind spots. We are proud by nature. We almost always start of from the position of our own “rightness”, not our righteousness in the mercy that is the precious Blood of Jesus.

The sick thing about self-vindication is we lose things we cannot afford to lose: we lose our revelation of the cross, which speaks mercy not judgment; we lose our fellowship with the Spirit, who tends us towards meekness and forgiveness; we lose our peace.

And further, we lose our witness in the world. The world does not need us to be a hardworking charity, but a forgiving community…a community that reveals Christ. Mark Dever writes how many of his unsaved friends gladly join with him in speaking out against the sex trade, child abuse etc….but NONE of them will ever share in his task of preaching the gospel. Nothing robs you of your Christ witness and presence quicker than a desire to prove yourself, advocate yourself, vindicate yourself. It also shuts of the flow of covenant blessing to those you are trying to prove yourself to.

The spirit of vindication always turns my attention towards myself. How am I looking? How am I coming across? What did that look mean? Does she like me, does she hate me? Is he an ally or an enemy? People have to be in one of those two camps!

So, we ought to repent of rushing ahead of God in our own self-awareness…. “for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God”. We ought to ask God to give us over to releasing all debts. We ought to reflecting on things we are rushing ahead in – promotions; expectations of upward mobility; religious traditions.

Even now, across the worldwide church, the Spirit is bringing a new and unknown wave. May we be found in the number of the saints who wait on God, who cleave to Jesus, and not re-invent another church system to replace the obsolete one.

Jesus was a loving and compassion Man. He wept. He longed to gather Jerusalem to the gospel. He cried out to God. He forsook comforts to be in the villages and amongst the people. He had no place to lay His head. He took pity on people. He fed people. He washed people’s feet.

He saved you to take you into Deep Love too. To know His love for you, how true. But then to love others like He loves them. This is the Fulness of Life - to share in His Life, His Love, His Ministry!

Do you spend too much time worrying about your looks, your clothes, your friends and their opinion of you? Are you Mary Mary Quite Contrary, worrying about how your garden and children and church doth grow? What is the trend? The Holy Spirit delivers us into the Life of Christ!

Is it the reason you are a Christian? Secular psychologists have often made this assumption, in studying “faiths” – people choose them "on the basis of which one makes them most happy". Do you avoid unhappy times, places and people? You might just be avoiding the bulk of Christ’s ministry!

Is it only the world that is suffering, or are you feeling their pain too? Too often church websites seem to paint a picture of Perfection in a Bubble. We dismiss the Way of Christ, because some have done it the wrong way. His Way is loving the unlovable. His Way is touching the untouchable. His Way is comforting the lonely, mourning with the broken, living amongst the dying. And in that place, bringing life. We too will bring His life in that Way!

I was told I was "a discipler of leaders". Wow. And I did that well. But does the Word call me to train leaders, or make disciples of all nations? And how did that affect my heart and compassion for the "nothings"? It did. To whom did Jesus give His finest time? To the rejects. To the sick. To the poor crying out to Him. The "leadership model" intruded into many minds and churches and became the best excuse of all to pass by on the other side of the road to the Bleeding Man. The Gospel of Love fell under its heavy eclipse. We stole His Way, and that stole our hearts.

I am convinced Satan targets our faith-love above our material wealth and physical health.

So, what false altars are there in your heart and mind? What price are we paying for our middle class expectations? What price of faith? What price of love and service and eternal rewards?

These are the days of shallow perfection; of faith to look good while being not so bad; of church to empower me, not to disempower me; of meetings for healings instead of healings for meetings; of virtual friendships and virtual love; of limiting the agony of a shattered and sinful world to 5 minutes on Sky News; of succumbing to the Highwayman and giving our money instead of our life; of embracing a grace that helps us avoid everything nasty; of instant flyweight heroes who no longer need to be

Flee from gratification, into the unknown path of losing yourself. Ask Jesus right now to deliver you from self-obsession, the sin of our postmodern post-renaissance, post-community age. He will take that kind of prayer seriously. It will change your life course. Ask Jesus today to strip you of everything that would rob you of eternal riches, and of a deeper walk with the Spirit now. You won't know where this will lead you, but He is totally trustworthy!

Nick

It was so good to be back in South Africa in October. Wow, to see friends who have grown in grace.

has endured through 12 choppy churchy years, as we have both swum through deep waters in different cities. But to stand and minister into the flock he has raised up through sweat and tears, through an outrageous passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ - scandalous really, except in knowing that we have shared each other's burdens over many a long telephone call! God is busy to this day in Rustenburg. And what a profound unit of fellow soldiers He has assembled there!

was full of pathos as we ministered to Glenda's dad, who has lost his wife very recently, and also suffered a horrible criminal attack a few weeks later. All my theoretical theology crumbled in the sight of this weeping, frail man, who brought my wife into this world. Now I know for sure that a cup of cold water "for the least of these" is worth more than all my studies in scriptures, if those studies don't make me a more compassionate man.

was more emotional than I thought it would be - not only because it was our church for over 7 years, but also because they were so hungry for the word of God, and so warm in receiving us.

is so uniquely special to Glenda and I. The week there was full of highlights, special people and profound ministry moments. One thing I know is that true friendship is the glue of the Kingdom. "Love must be sincere" was part of my Romans reading this morning, and 3Ci has that sincere love. "Anupokritos" means "without dissimulation, genuine, not fake". To love like that takes time, sacrifice, openness and a fleeing from all things superficial.

- the man who has singularly shaped my theology more than any other, since first sitting under his ministry in 1985 (and first hearing him say, "walk in the Spirit deliberately and you will fulfill the law accidently"!). What a glorious time in Nairobi, somehow so Biblical. The hours spent asking questions and listening to a continual stream of revelation, coming from decades of labour in the Word, was a life highlight for us who went. And then there was the time together - 8 pastors and preachers from UK and RSA, together on the "unknown path". Cool, man!

... I have had a growing awareness since getting to the UK that the future will be DEEPER and PLAINER, more expensive in many ways, but willingly paid from the growing revelation of the "Purl of Great Price" (apologies to English language purists):

The naked gospel. Take the Atonement for example - should we not be horrified as to how many theologians are trying to de-stigmatize the Cross by doing away with the "curse motif"; emphasizing the Love of God at the expense of the Wrath of God; trying to abolish penal substitution as out-of-date? These things stand at the very centre of our gospel! May there be many preachers who rise up in this time, in the fear of God before the favor of man, to preach God's virtues plainly and purely. 

so crowds are not gathered to whoop-making things, but to the Word, around the Cross, to come and die so they might live. This is the trigger for the priesthood of all saints to emerge from the theatre productions that typify so much of church meetings today. 

The future of apostolic ministry is going to look more and more like Paul and his friends in Acts. Organic, one-way tickets, suffering, bleeding for churches, longing for people "in the bowels of Jesus", "poor yet making many rich, having nothing yet possessing everything". I cannot see how apostolic organizations and denominations that have reduced preaching ministry to conferences and speaking circuits will in any way prepare the churches for revival, or be the "tomorrow's wave". God has judged this cute and neat surrogate, even in me, and found it wanting.  

as men and women covet more of God's voice and presence in the private place. The Age of Tolerance for compromise is nearly over. The room for grace to be preached in ways that foster low level ambition for God and even the "anaesthetic of antinomianism", is narrowing by the day.  

Not wierd ostracized communities, no - saints in the world yet so not of the world that they shine in any place, at all times. May you and I "be found in that number".

loveNick

He was a waif of gutter born;God took him in, a child forlorn.He smiled at last, a son of grace;A prince unveiled, all stains displaced.

He grew up strong, he ate fine fare;He lost his frown, he lost all cares.His robes they shone with firstfruit love;Hopes rose like suns in skies above.

But then one day he took to fear:"What if I lose this life, this cheer?What if my God forgot my name;What would become of all this fame?"

And so his worry worked its wayInto his heart and then some dayHe stole into the King's throneroomAnd took a sceptre, with a broom.

He shut himself up in a wing;He made a crown and wore a ring.With that mace he ruled his roomAnd swept his tears up with his broom.

He sang some songs to cheer his heartOn days he thought of life apartFrom One Who washed him clean that day -A stolen heart stole him away.

And so he sits as Lord of SmallWith built-up shoes to make him tall.The door is closed, the doorbell rings...To open now is to not be king.

God loved him then, God loves him still;He knocks and calls as Fathers will.House is open but Room is sealed -The key's within; the love's congealed.

....The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately 2000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

After 3 minutes a middle-aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later: The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw
the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes: A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes: The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.

The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour: He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. The same Joshua Bell whose concerts were sold out months before at astronomical ticket prices.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perceptions and priorities.

In a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour, do we recognize beauty? Do we only value things if we had to pay for them? If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made....What else are we missing?

(from a friend...)

Now I am happy for my life's world to get smaller,
as long as my small life does not get worldlier.

I am more comfortable to be a coach to future preachers of truth,
but more desperate than before never to preach as one who coaches truth.

I am at peace that my ambitions were so self-engrossed,
But, mark my words, my ambitions will never be peaceful.

I have more rest now in the One who preserves my rewards,
but still find no joy in preservation.

I know more now how frail I am,
But seek far higher knowledge than my frailties.

I have boxed with men and won some rounds,
But now well know bare-knuckle fighters lose the match in the end.

I seek deeper love now beyond deeper meaning,
but see more clearly just how meaningful love is.

I am beyond the violence of sexual insanity,
but am not so insane or insensible to think I cannot be violated by sex.

I have made my peace with past failures and family members,
but now want much more than the mere blank slates of forgetfulness.

I can still worry, and worry much, in atheistic moments,
But live less in dread and more in the moment.

I still think quickly but more so to bless,
yet now I realize why the tortoise beat the hare.

I think more than ever of my fragile mortality,
but also of my spirit's immortality.

I am less smoke and mirrors, bluff and bluster,
But still too regarding of men's sins and distemper.

And finally I realize, my wife's more right and wise than I at first could see,
And it's okay to be weak and wrong and blind sometimes.
I am less strong but more free.
Less eager but more willing.
Less ambitious but more desiring.
Less proud and more caring.
Less gifted than I thought, but more able.
Less likely to be famous, but more confident about the Glory.

I would love to think I have unending years,
but the hourglass was upended the moment I was born.
I cannot stop the sands of time, but I can build upon the Rock.

Now more than ever. I can build upon this Rock. I will and I am willing. And so too I see more clearly just how willing God is. This is my chief achievement, that is seeing what Christ has achieved and perceiving His passion for me to receive His achievement. With peace and power. I am more thrilled with this perception than everything else I have written in this prose.

I picked up a tin of “matt clay” hair product, for “that choppy look”. That’s funny, seeing as my hair loss entropy continues unabated. Thoughts flashed through my mind – not anti-glamour and all the primping and preening of the modern age, but pro-unGlamour somehow.
I began to see names in my mind…Abram in his tents; David in a cave; Jeremiah in that cistern; Nehemiah on the rubble; Jonah trudging to Nineveh…
The world is quite rotten, once you are willing to stare away from the intense light of headline-grabbing fineries. It is quite possible that most middle class couples in quiet desperation give scarce a thought to rubbish dump kids or entire families of beggars in the third world. Moments of wistfulness arise as we remote control our way past Al Jazeera, but solace can be found amongst Sports and Movie channels. It’s far more palatable to see pathos in fantasy than in reality.
For us western churchgoers, with electricity and running water, the glamour/unglamour choice can be just as cryptic. Suffering might just have boiled down to not being able to holiday abroad or not having the money for take-outs. Someone flashed his lights at me in the traffic yesterday, and it wasn’t even my fault…. In this bubble of suffering, church is also tough - “worship” might only be possible with great bands and halls and sound equipment. Commitment might be at its apex when we join a home group and give towards a building fund.
I too want to be a history maker in my time.

The phrase does not quite fit my theology, because God presides over the future that is history in the making. Be that as it may, the sentiment is real. No-one really wants to be an also-ran. The challenge for us is to move beyond our ETCB’s (elastically tough culture bubbles) into the terrain of real faith.

Not that little things don’t matter to God. I love His tenderness. He does love to bless us, even with hardships. But He also desires to bless Nineveh, Philistia, Somalia and Iran. Sounds Billy Joel-ish. Nota Bena: there is no calling to compulsive suffering and self-flagellation, but it might be profitable to put a question mark over what “success” is, in God’s view. The only view that counts, to be sure.
We are not so crude as to believe that God defines success by the amount of creature-comforts we accrue. He who dies with the most toys does not win anything postmortem. We know from preachers’ cautions that size does not matter – God is not impressed with crowds. Faith, yes, faith pleases God. Not faith for God but faith in God. Faith with disappearing boundaries. “Un-compartmentalized faith”….some have faith for healing but not for suffering; faith for meetings but not for drudgy living; faith for family but not for enemies; faith to live well but not to live badly - or die well; faith to receive but not so much to give away; faith for promotion but not for scorn. You get the picture.
The trouble comes when we hit pieces like Hebrews 11. What becomes clear is that we need a faith IN God. That means we need to get to know God, not merely certain attributes that bless or empower us. RT Kendall said it best.. “there are some attributes of God that I don’t like, but I must accept them because He is the only God I will ever have”! The God who tousles my matt clay hair, is the God who tousles up tsunamis and typhoons too.
Faith in God delivers us from the sin-possibility of the rich young ruler, who could not sell all to follow Jesus. He had a bulkhead that kept the flesh afloat. Faith in God means we are empowered to deal with the “fencelines of disobedience” – those areas that God cannot fully be God without us disobeying (although He is always fully God). Faith in God exposes and exterminates idols – even the little ones we can tuck away in our saddlebags like Rachel.
And, relating to this essay, faith in God means He can send us anywhere and speak anything through us.
I am not firstly thinking relocating home, but relocating heart. Gospel revelation needs to get to the poor, to the ignorant, to the unparented. This is also not a vote for notching up gospel scalps or telling others how much we did this week for Jesus, but truly becoming willing and available channels of love, or truth, of meekness and of care – anytime and anywhere.
At this time, I have an outburst – we are NOT in revival because gifts are flowing and people are swooning in our meetings. We are in revival when the gospel so penetrates our hearts, that we order our private lives and thoughts and finances around it (the preacher’s life is his legacy, because it is the lance of his message). And thus, the salt is salty. And "saying my prayers" is a bad joke.
Glenda and I are called to Europe, not to become post-modern Christian incognitos, but to become more besotted with Christ and more effective and available to God for noble purposes in the decades ahead. Only He can bring the increase – not just in church size, but in private power.
Finally, would you read these compelling verses? "Memoirs to a few amazing ancestors"...

Gen. 12:1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.

Ex. 3:10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Gen. 45:5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.

1Sam. 27:7 David lived in Philistine territory a year and four months.

Jer. 1:7-8 But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD.

Jonah 1:2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

Acts 14:19 Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead.

Heb. 11:38-39 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.

Rev. 2:10 Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Phil. 2:7-8 (Christ Jesus) made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!

“Therefore God exalted Him…”. May God give you and I grace today to live humble and obedient faith-lives, that He too might exalt us on the last Day. This is the “resurrection” that Paul strived for! This is the consummation all the heroes of the faith desired! What counts is faith in the God Who Is.
N

Is it truly possible to control a man's heart by controlling his behavior, his office or his geography? Is this what "accountability" has boiled down to? That if a we be part of a church, team, home group or denomination, we are safely “accountable”? Joab, Lot, Judas, Demas were not accountable. Controlled maybe. They were all "in team".

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. No-one else can guard it. Only God’s Spirit and sentry in me. The heart is either soft or stone, good or bad, becoming better or worse. It is either Spirit-controlled or under compulsions. An offended man is like a walled city - polite, but indifferent. An ambitious man knows exactly how to tow the line and coo with the doves. A passive man knows how to look holy. A yes man always looks good to a driven leader. A sinful man knows how to give away the smaller sins. An impressionist knows exactly how to turn the facts into something more palatable. An unteachable man always has a fine-sounding argument. A grumpy man will still laugh when everyone else does. A weak-willed man will go with the flow and not cause a ripple. And what of "loners"? A loner on team is a subversive. A loner off team is a secessionist. A loner in point position is a benign savage. A loner in retirement is sour...

"What's your point??". Mmm, the point is that only intimacy, mutual love and respect can create the bridges for covenant "accountability". I am not speaking here of "warning the divisive man", or "handing the grievous sinner over to Satan", but the realities of invited counsel, the pains of disclosed shame, the heights of vision and the depths of despair. Stuff that makes for great bands, bound and binding themselves to one another in love.

Either one Tuning Fork is raising up a symphony, or many instruments are playing a few careful and cautious notes together, to avoid a cacophony.

Laws of compulsion introduce sterility, cowardice and imitation, and pillage our entrepreneurship, courage and blazing adventure. In one, we wear masks until our dying day. In the other, we peel off the veneers and find God in each other through the shock of seeing the "warts and all".

Under legislated accountability, people are either heroes or zeroes. Under covenant love, we all have strengths and weaknesses; we can accept all men, even sinners, and enjoy their strengths while covering over much nakedness.
What of the "hero" with brilliant theology in all but one glaring area - where he serves a fine feast along with a single slice of dark mud? Under compulsion, we swallow down the food, mud and all. Without masks, we can find ourselves in a place of humility and teachableness, where we no longer are more passionate about being proved right than we are about learning from others....where correction and rejection are more lovingly distinct than ever before....where knowledge and doctrine are no longer weapons, but prizes and tools in our mutual quest for God.

1 Cor 1:26-27 “Brothers, think about your own calling. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is nonsense in the world to make the wise feel ashamed. God chose what is weak in the world to make the strong feel ashamed. “

Whenever I live and speak by the world’s wisdom, I lose God’s strength and wisdom. And WHAT IS THE WORLD’S WISDOM?

Where deeds don’t match the seeds sown. This is theoretical wisdom; this is wisdom that draws crowds but grows nothing. So often worldly wisdom has a measure of power to change my “now” – but lacks a long term horizon and benefits. In the case of covenantal living, true wisdom always draws the receiver more into a life of love, forgiveness and compassion. These fruits are the kind of “action” Jesus loves.

- hidden reefs, suppressed appetites. When our guards are down, when the pressure is on, when the opportunity presents itself. Joseph refused to sleep with Mrs Potiphar. Saul did not refuse to make the sacrifice. Abel offered blood sacrifice. Cain murdered him in secret. ”As it is written: ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness’”.

Wanting to outwit, outlast, outplay. Wisdom that really is just knowledge that empowers me. True wisdom disempowers me, and empowers the Spirit of Christ within me. Some read for power, learn for power. Most do. This is the great push from parents for their kids to “get an education” – “to get ahead”.

This is not to say that we should not learn from Christ through men, but “what after all is Apollos? What is Paul? Mere servants through whom you came to believe”…. This is critical. Much of what passes for wisdom is nothing more than borrowed truths and learned behaviour. “Their fear of Me is nothing other than rules taught by men”. Nothing new, fresh, dynamic – all regurgitated, sometimes repackaged. This empties virtues into values, twists Truth into traditions, borrows men’s jewellery while neglecting the treasuries of David. “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words”

I think this happens when a man shares truths more to build his ministry or church, than to build people. Somehow this makes even dynamic teachings sterile. What are the signs of sterility? No leaders, no new preachers, general lack of maturity, people only doing well while in the environment, but falling apart when removed from it. ”We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ”. My great sadness in this season of my life is that I do not have a Paul over me, proclaiming Him to me. So be it. But maybe in my lifetime I can be that Paul to some others. To be that, you and I need to pursue the same relationship with Jesus that Paul had – intimate, total, continuous, uncompromising, heaven-anchored, devoted, body-beating, tender and deep. No lip service. No circumstantial Christianity. Nothing.

Sometimes, true wisdom is dismissed anyway, but dismissal is not the same as contradiction. God’ word is flawless, and for true wisdom to pervade the pulpits of the world, now is the time for the called out preachers to be workmen who needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of Truth. Mostly, lack of effort, lack of “ergon” - labor that produces a sweat – leaves our preaching contradictable and “controvertible”.

That is, wisdom that is acceptable to the modern man. The wisdom of the gospel should be a rock of offence to every fibre of self-righteousness within me. So too should it offend my self-preservation, self-promotion, self-indulgence. The gospel firstly bids me come and die, and then live for another Who firstly I engage with BY FAITH. Not by sight. Not by formula.

The power of the Cross is its ability to slay the flesh and leave space only for God and His new man. Earthly wisdom accommodates modification, reasonableness and decency…but is nothing more than a religious overcoat. It may not take on the crude appearance of the Mosaic law, nor the harsh drabness of the stoics and rigorists, but it remains man’s way of trying to please two masters.

Wisdom that is full of appeasement; full of false modesty. Wisdom that brands the spiritual man as a zealot; the passionate saint as a hothead. Wisdom that declares peace before God has vanquished hearts. Wisdom that strikes truces with the world even while the Messiah is riding out to command and conquer.

This is the source of much Christian compromise. We are not called out of the world, but called out in the world. We are called to be aliens and strangers. We should learn and observe, but always from a place of devotion. Solomon had genuine God-wisdom given as a gift, but his heart was not devoted, so that wisdom accelerated the madness.

-while diminishing and demeaning worldly appetites. “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better”

This is a great sin of mine, a great opportunity for the devil to admix my wisdom with worldly wisdom. And thus an avenue for every other fleshly sin.

Those who fall for it show themselves as the idolaters that they are in their hearts, seeking the approval of men above the approval of God (John 5:44). God’s wisdom lowers and condescends itself. God’s wisdom makes the bearer look bad, mostly. It humbles him, debases him, empties him, prostrates him, obliges him downwards, away from fame, away from position. Even though God has blessed me with a good vocabulary, it must remain the servant, not the maestro. Wisdom from above is never shared to impress or wow or gather fans. It is always shared to the advantage, blessing and salvation of its hearers.

Wisdom that the wise man claims as his own, his property, his legacy, his prowess. There is no acknowledgement in worship of the gift, the grace, the generosity of God. And so even grace-given wisdom is corrupted, and becomes foolishness. Think of all the mad-scientist evolutionists, desperately trying to disprove God Himself. Think of the empire builders, the corporate bosses who dominate and destroy lives by the very wisdom and gifts given by a loving and merciful God.

Anyone who tries to tell you what to do, without living in and living out a personal relationship with Christ. Harshness and harsh treatment is a sure sign of the presence of worldly wisdom.

The gifts leave a legacy of construction, but the fruit leave a legacy of covenant. Solomon built a great empire, but destroyed his life and his future legacy. Churchill was gifted to deliver the allies from the evil of Hitler and the Nazis, but all the Allied brilliance did nothing to stop England’s slide into a moral abyss in the decades following the war. In fact, the real heroes of the faith were slaughtered in the trenches.

(Really, the choice is plain,

Where loss is gain and
Gain is dross;
Where’s might’s not right and
Blind is sight.
The choice is here and
Here right now:
Not What? and When?, but
Who? and How?)

Men with sticks, they tap and lean;
Blind and weak, they know their need –
They know the Crutch is how they’re freed.
Three-legged friends, in whom I’ve seen
Release from soulish, selfish ends.

Now men with bricks know no such limp –
They’re strong and big, they’re Lives out Loud;
They’re Sunny Days with scarce a cloud
And scarcely too have time for wimps,
Who would never make their Building Crew.

This limping lot aren’t apt to build,
But totter on in needy stance.
This walk of weakness – to Christ a Dance –
Grants them frail friends, a Rejects’ Guild,
Whose means will never make their Ends.

The strong ones bake and lay their bricks;
They build at pace as men at work
And raise their towers like kings berserk.
They read for power and place their ticks
By feats that make the feeble cower.

But when deeper in the Word we peer
We see weak men strong and strong made weak;
We see bread that feeds in ravens’ beaks
And One Who builds with those whose Fear
Is greater than great goals fulfilled.

Some with sticks and some with bricks –
Who shall be crowned on Kingdom Day?
Men who made much, of whom much was made?
The ones e’er healthy, the Never-Sick?
Well, where’s the Healer, with the frail or wealthy?

There’s change afoot, a New Revival
That brick-men miss as men who lead –
The Mustard Plant’s not for mighty weeds
Who fierce promote their own survival
Above a Heaven too remote for them to sense
There’s a Future to their Present Tense.
There’s a Builder upon Whom weak men lean,
And in leaning live out their wildest dreams.

Men with sticks and men with bricks –
Make your choice and take your pick.
Make it wisely, make it now;
It’s not What? and When?, but
Who? and How?

Nick

 So, how does the Christ fit in with the two-fold blessing of the inheritance promise made to Abraham – that of nations and generations, dominion and dynasty, geography and genealogy?

Am I opposed to any form of inheritance in the here and now? Well, in spite of Christ’s words that we were to “invite those to supper who could not invite us back” (that we “might have rewards in heaven”), I am ALL FOR the displacement of darkness with light; ALL FOR healthy marriages, healthy churches and church multiplication. I am all for healing, deliverance….the KINGDOM COMING.
The hermeneutical Christ-key for me, however, means that Christ Himself is my Reward, in spite of what may befall me here on earth.

In the place where we are genuinely enjoying Christ for Christ’s sake - not for reward or blessing or help or miracles’ sake – I believe we live powerful lives, that change others while keeping them free.

How else can any man walk away from success, from salary, from home, from the known, from applause? How else can we go to the third world, to the valley of decision, to war-torn nations?
How else will batons be passed on without hooks? Or disciples released to surpass the discipler? How else could the elders be honored, or the weak not despised?

The litmus test for what we are truly aiming at in the depths of our hearts comes when lesser things are taken away, position is lost, troubles come, prayers are not answered. Is Christ my sufficiency, or not? When lesser things take on idolatrous positions in our hearts, then when they are removed (God will do it), we feel useless, displaced, confused, suicidal.

So, regarding NATIONS as one leg of our inheritance, we are called to go, by Christ Himself (not by men who tell us what Christ has called us to). And as we go, we find our Christ-inheritance. Like the Levites, who were assigned no land, so too for us God Himself is our Reward. When we are blessed with the things of the earth, we are “as those not engrossed by them” . When the time comes for us to choose, unlike Lot we will not “choose for ourselves”, but always for Christ. When deferring rewards enriches others, blesses others, saves others, we will defer our rewards, because we ultimately and primarily are citizens of another Kingdom, and we too are seeing the City with Foundations.

Regarding GENERATIONS, what joy it is to see our children serving the Lord with zeal. Our biological and spiritual children, that is. They belong to God, yet in Christ we can enjoy all saints as part of our Christ-inheritance in the here and now too!

1 Cor 3:21-23 “So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.”
When it comes time to ENDURE SUFFERING, Christ is with us, close to us, fellowshipping with us in it. He is enough. He is coming soon and His reward is with Him.

“True have his promises been, not one has failed. I bear witness that never servant had such a master as I have; never brother such a kinsman as he has been to me; never spouse such a husband as Christ has been to my soul; never sinner a better Saviour; never mourner a better comforter than Christ hath been to my spirit. I want none beside him. In life he is my life, and in death he shall be the death of death; in poverty Christ is my riches; in sickness he makes my bed; in darkness he is my star, and in brightness he is my sun; he is the manna of the camp in the wilderness, and he shall be the new corn of the host when they come to Canaan. Jesus is to me all grace and no wrath, all truth and no falsehood: and of truth and grace he is full, infinitely full”. Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Closing
Christ is in all, over all through all. I cannot be Christ-centred merely by claiming it to be true, nor teaching it as truth. My private passions reveals my true priorities and preference – for rewards seen and now, or for the secret Treasure, for the spiritual table of feasting, for “the food you know nothing of” .
I believe this secret feasting, through sunshine and through trials, will be the hallmark of the next revival tsunami. That which moves powerfully yet invisibly within us, does massive damage when it reaches the shores of men.

Many are saying, “here he is, there He is”, but as for us, let’s stay true to our True North. Let’s make Him our Reason and Reward - practicing the fellowship of the Spirit; taking the spy-cams out of the master bedroom of our love affair with God. He wants to take us deeper into Himself; higher up His holy Hill. In this place, we will care little for worldly things. As Christ takes us further into the mysteries of this hidden Kingdom, the Kingdom will come, but also “without observation”, unselfconsciously, accidently.

Christ is our Inheritance – His realm is our Nation, His people our Generations.

loveNick

Humanism is ugly in any form. This anthropocentric tug came into force the moment Eve bit into the apple . It is man’s way of doing things his way. It is man’s way of remaining focused on man – this goes beyond the Tower of Babel even into Christian ministry .

God wants us looking to Him, for everything. In life and in death, in sickness and in health, in riches and poverty. Blessings and hardships – these are all God’s way of turning our eyes to Him.

And then, ultimately, God sent His only begotten Son. In surrendering His dignity, His status and His very life for our sins, Christ opened the Life Gate that All may go in. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear His voice…. yet so many remain deaf, unwitting, un-appreciating.

And so too in the church, we get saved in a rush of heaven, and we fall in love. But our motive in this marriage can be as self-indulgent as many men on their honeymoon. And as time goes by, the selfish nature of our mindsets pervades into self-centered pursuits, where our new Life Partner is invited to bless, help, serve, love, but we remain the Lord of our own chariots.
In the modern world, many in the church are not so carnal as to merely use Christ for material Ends. But use Him we still can do. In this more ecclesiastical scenario, He is the empoweror of our Preaching, the planter of our Churches, the Enlarger of our Congregations, the worker of our Miracles, the definer of our Success-Identities, the vindicator of our Decisions.

I cannot give my life to these ends, no matter how noble or altruistic they might “feel” for a while (normally 10-15 years). The “Christ-hermeneutic” is more than a change of source of blessing (whether corporal, ecclesiastical or social); it is a change of heart, aim, ambition, power, destiny, Sovereign.

John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”.

The threefold prayer of Paul for the Ephesus church – that they might know the hope, the inheritance and the power – all were prefaced with the chief prayer of “knowing Him better”...
The key to prosperity is Christ, not a faith formula. Ps 16:5 “LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.” The key to leadership is Christ, not training leaders. 1 Cor. 11:1 “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” The key to miracles is Christ, not atmosphere or music or a quest for miracles. Gal 3:2, 5 “I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?” The key to marriage is Christ, not marriage seminars. Eph 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”The key to church planting is Christ, not the right team or prayer. Acts 11:20-22 “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. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.” The key to perseverance is Christ, not success nor psychology. Heb 12:2-3 “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” The key to rewards is Christ, not a focus on rewards, or trying not to focus on them. Phil 3:10-11 “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” The key to scripture is Christ, not another podcast. 1 Cor 2:16 ““For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?”. But we have the mind of Christ.” The key to unity is Christ, not an insistence on unity. Eph. 4:15-16 “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” The key to holiness is Christ, not principles for holy living. Col 1:22 “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation”The key to our inheritance is Christ, for He is the sum total of our Inheritance.

It is true that leaders and ministers in a church scenario without Christ as the central gaze, become something other than pure channels of the gospel. to quote directly from Os Guiness, in his book "Dining with the Devil" (pages 69-70), leaders take on the form of one of the following caricatures (as more earthly inheritances than Christ are pursued) :

Pundit – the one for whom everything can be known; everything can be pronounced on, centered professionally on the importance of information. Knowledge is more powerful than Christ’s Humility. Engineer – the one for whom everything can be designed, everything can be produced, centered professionally on production. Production and administration are more important than Christ’s Love. Marketer – the one for whom everything can be positioned, everything can be sold, centered professionally on consumer satisfaction. Impact is more important than Christ’s Truth. Consultant – everything can be better organized, everything can be better delivered, centered professionally on management. Efficiency and workflow are more important than Christ’s Life.Therapist – everything can be gotten in touch with, everything can be adjusted or healed, centered professionally on healing. Human need is more important than Christ’s Mission. Impresario – everything can be conveyed to advantage through the presentation of images regardless of any reality, centered professionally on public relations. Sensation and Corporate Experience are more important than Imitating Christ.May ours not be the lot of these dead-end streets to "ministry"!!

In our final session, we will contemplate the Christian and his inheritance of the Two-Fold Blessing in Christ.
loveNick