Monthly Archives: December 2014

Rescued And Redeemed

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RESCUED AND REDEEMED

For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the        kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1: 13, 14)

How easy it is to gloss over these words like reading the newspaper and yet, what wealth and power is to be found in them!

“Rescued!” What does that mean to you? Not much, perhaps, unless you have experienced what it is like to be rescued from danger and possible death. I have never been rescued from a life-threatening situation as far as physical circumstances go, but I have been rescued from a lifestyle that was taking me deeper and deeper into darkness. If you have been involved in habits or addictions that were destroying you, you will understand what I mean.

Jesus rescued us from a situation far more dangerous and deadly even than physical death. What could be more dangerous than facing death? Jesus gives us the answer.

I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear, Fear Him who, after your body has been killed, has the authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him. (Lk. 12: 5)

Because of God’s mercy, Jesus has not only rescued us from death – He has also rescued us from the fear of death.

Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebr. 2: 15)

Jesus not only rescued us from death, i.e. shut out of the presence of God, but He also rescued us from the dominion of darkness which He called “hell” (Lk. 2: 15). What does that mean?

In the Bible, “darkness” often describes the disposition of the devil and all those who are in bondage to him. Darkness is the absence of light. What is the disposition of the devil?  God is everything that he is not. God is loving – the devil is not; God is generous – the devil is not; God is merciful – the devil is not; God is pure – the devil is not; and so we can go on. Imagine living in an environment like that – where you are completely ruled forever by and in the company of beings who are everything that God is not!

“Redeemed!” Redemption has to do with slavery. Not only were we in hell and under the dominion of darkness, under the control of an evil being and evil spirits who would completely dominate us forever, but we were also enslaved by him. He had the right to control us because he tricked the first human pair into giving him dominion over them, and all their descendants. We had no option but to serve him because we belonged to him.

The good news is that Jesus redeemed us by paying the redemption price to buy us back and free us from the devil’s dominion. How did He do that? He died our death, and took away the devil’s right to keep us in bondage to death. He paid the ransom price to redeem us so that He could forgive our sin and wipe our slate clean. Satan has no more hold over us because he has nothing more of which to accuse us. We have been freed from his clutches and removed from his power to dominate us ever again.

We have a new Master, Jesus, who is completely unlike our old master. We live under a new King, one who is our Rescuer and Redeemer. He loves us so passionately that He would not leave us to perish in the predicament we landed in because of our sin. He came in person to get us out of slavery and back into His family where we belong.

It is for this reason that we can be a part of the people for whom Paul prayed – filled with the knowledge of His will, bearing fruit, growing in our knowledge of God and full of joyful thanksgiving because of what He has done for us.

SCRIPTURE TAKEN FROM THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

The Key To A Godly Life

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THE KEY TO A GODLY LIFE 

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way; bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father who qualified you to share in the inheritance of His holy people in the kingdom of light.” Colossians 1:9-12.

What a prayer! In order to understand what Paul was asking for, we need to take his prayer apart and examine it piece by piece. Once we have done that, we will see that he made only one request which he qualified with outcomes and explanations.

What was his request? That God would give the Colossian believers wisdom and understanding through the Holy Spirit to know His will. Knowledge of God’s will would, of course, imply that they would also do His will. But it is much more than that. His will does not only imply doing but being. Understanding the will of God brings us into the freedom of experiencing His fatherly love and having the confidence to approach Him as His dearly loved children instead of living in the fear of punishment like slaves.

In Romans 12:1, 2, Paul gives us the key to knowing and understanding the will of God. Present your bodies to Him as a living sacrifice – in other words, give Him charge of your life – and fill your mind with the truth so that your life will be transformed – two simple instructions, but life changing if we carry them out. God is delighted when this process begins to happen because we are on track for the end result – sons and daughters who resemble Jesus.

When we understand what God has done for us and what He wants for us and from us, there will be changes in us that will indicate what is happening inside. Paul highlights three important results of active participation in what God has both said about us and is doing in us.

1. We will bear fruit in every good work.

What are the good works that Paul often talked about?

With his Hebrew upbringing and knowledge of the Torah – God’s instructions on how to live the best life recorded in the Books of Moses – Paul would have understood that God’s people have a duty to take care of four groups of people: their spiritual authority first – to whom they gave the firstfuits of their crops and animals; the temple and those who worked there; their family’s future, and the widow, the orphan, the poor and the alien who lived among them. They were to give prescribed percentages of their increase to each group which was called tsidaqah or acts of righteousness.

Some argue that we are no longer bound by Old Testament laws. True, if we think that we can buy our way to God through them, but not true if we think that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are two different Gods. The principles of God’s teaching in the Torah have never changed. What God instructed in the Torah represents His wisdom because He knows what brings the most peace to our hearts – doing the right thing in every circumstance.

2. We will grow in the knowledge of God.

How important is that? It’s more that knowing about God. It’s about knowing His heart – what brings Him joy when we act like Him. He wants us to be one with Him in who we are and what we do. The more we understand the love, mercy and generosity of God towards all people, the more we will really know Him. When we growing in knowing Him, we will grow in trusting Him even when we cannot see the way ahead.

3. We will be joyfully thankful to Him about everything because He has qualified us to be a part of His kingdom which is coming on earth and is already here in part. No more darkness – sin, evil, wickedness, and everything that goes with it. We will see life from His perspective and recognise that every circumstance, good or bad, is moving us towards maturity. That in itself is enough to fill our hearts with gratitude and joy.

What a prayer! Not a grocery list of needs and wants, but a declaration of intent; a desire that these new believers would fully participate in what God has done and what He is yet to do to complete what He began at creation.

SCRIPTURE TAKEN FROM THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

The Gospel Of God’s Grace

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THE GOSPEL OF GOD’S GRACE

“In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world – just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. You learned it from Epaphrus, our dear fellow servant who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.” Colossians 1:6b-8.

How did the gospel of God’s grace get to be what it is today in so many places across the world? What happened that the gospel became “God wants you rich” or “God wants you to walk in divine health” or even “receive Jesus as your personal Saviour so that you can go to heaven when you die”?

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that there should not be rich Christians or healthy believers or that we don’t go to be with Jesus when we die. But is this what our faith is all about? What is the heart of the good news that Jesus came from heaven to bring and to demonstrate? He called it “the good news of the kingdom of God”, and it’s nothing new.

God’s people had forgotten who was in charge. They gave themselves to idols and reaped the fruit of it – messed-up lives and conflict all around them. Isaiah had to remind them of the truth:

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.'” Isaiah 52:7.

The good news is that God is still in charge – even though it may not seem like it. People everywhere are trying to find out who rules this planet, or who rules their country or their city or their family. What a relief, when we discover that God is still here, that He has not abdicated or gone somewhere else, and that His plans are still on track! The ones who believe that He is working everything out according to His will are learning to relax and allow Him to steer the ship.

Although Jesus came to die for our sins, He did much more than that while He walked among men. He came to reveal the Father, to take us to the Father and to reconcile the whole disjointed universe to Himself so that He can restore everything to its former glory and purpose. God did not abandon His plan in despair when Adam derailed it. It was already on His agenda to provide a solution from before the beginning of creation.

Paul described the good news as “the gospel of God’s grace”. Before He ever revealed Himself to humans, He was unknown and unknowable. He is so “other” than His created universe that it would take supernatural revelation for humans to recognise Him in the world around us and in our spirits. On top of that, because we have inherited Adam’s nature, our minds are in rebellion against Him and darkened in our understanding.

God sent Jesus to be a mirror image of Himself so that we could actually see Him in a person of flesh and blood. For what purpose? To know and experience a part of His nature that is unknowable outside of our imperfect humanity – His grace. How can we know God’s grace unless we need it? How could Paul experience grace unless he felt his weakness? In his desperate prayer to be free from his persecutors, God assured him:

“…My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9.

It was good news that God was in charge. It was a relief to know that He was still ruling His world. He was still giving people the power to live among ungodly people in ways that reflected Him when they chose to turn away from trying to run their own lives. This good news was spreading like wildfire across the world and Paul was elated. It had reached the people in Colossae and they had embraced it. It was changing their lives and their community.

The good news is not about heaven by and by. It’s about heaven coming to earth here and now because God’s in charge. It’s about loving instead of hating; it’s about  forgiving instead of getting even; it’s about sharing instead of grabbing; it’s about doing life together as God’s children in God’s family; it’s about cleaning up our messy lives, burying our differences and living in peace and safety with one another because we can.

It’s about showing the world what life can look like when we let God rule us. It’s about bringing heaven to earth now in preparation for the day when Jesus returns to take charge here forever. He will restore everything, throw out and destroy everything and everyone that disrupts including the devil and his minions, forever.

No, He will not abandon the earth. He will make everything new just as He said He would and we can be part of it if we get involved now.

SCRIPTURE TAKEN FROM THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Which God?

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WHICH GOD?

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the people – the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you.” Colossians 1:3-6a.

Some religions claim that we all believe in and worship the same God but just in different ways. Is this correct? How can we be sure we are worshipping the true God?

Paul gives us a simple test to check whether we are worshipping the one true God or the creation of human imagination. Apart from the Bible, where we learn the nature and ways of God through revelation, we have an infallible way of knowing that we are believing in and following the ways of the God who is who He is and will do what He  said He will do. We must be sure of the truth if we stake our lives on what He says and what He has promised.

Our God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the great dividing line between the truth and the lies that are spoken about Him by people who refuse to believe in Him. The Apostle John stated it like this:

“Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist – denying the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.” 1 John 2:22, 23.

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.” 1 John 4:1-3.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit cannot be separated. If someone tells you that they believe in God but reject Jesus as the Son of God, no matter what he may claim, he is lying because the Father and Son are one. We cannot know God apart from the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is God in the flesh. He told Philip that whoever has seen Him has seen the Father (John 14:9). Jesus is the exact reflection of the Father and His purpose was to reveal the Father so that we might believe in Him and return to Him.

Without Jesus we will never be able to go home to the Father because Jesus is the only way (John 14:6). It is a lie to believe that all religions will take us to God. Although it sounds like and has been branded as hate speech and intolerant to claim that Jesus is the only true God, He said it and He is the only way.

Imagine taking a journey from your home town to the capital city of your country. You go to the train station, buy a ticket to that city and then look for the platform from which your train will leave. How confusing it would be if there was a notice on every platform saying that this train will take you to your chosen destination. You choose a platform, climb on the train and settle in, believing that you will arrive at the city of your choice only to find, when the train stops, that you have gone in the wrong direction.

Believing that every god will take you to heaven is as foolish as believing that every train will take you to the capital city and yet that is what people believe. But how can we know that Jesus is the way to the Father? We have to examine His track record to see whether He was telling the truth about other things. How did he prove that He was not a liar?

 

People make all kinds of promises. Gods are also said to make promises to their followers. How do you know they are telling the truth? There was one promise Jesus made that no one else has ever dared to make: He said He would be put to death by the religious leaders but, after three days He would rise again. He raised dead people to life but how could He raise Himself and in a body that could never die again? He came back to life because the Holy Spirit resurrected Him by His power.

If Jesus did that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be sure that He will do everything else He promised to do because He is the Son of God. What more do we need to know to believe that God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and that He is the one and only true God in three Persons?

Acknowledgement

SCRIPTURE TAKEN FROM THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Grace And Peace

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GRACE AND PEACE

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.” Colossians 1:1, 2.

Quite a mouthful in the opening sentence! Unlike our modern communication, ancient letters said it all in the first sentence; writer, recipients, and who they were. Who were Paul and Timothy?

Paul described himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. He was not a self-appointed or self-proclaimed apostle. We have many of those today. Why do spiritual leaders love titles? Does it elevate them above the rest or give them an edge on spirituality? On what authority do they claim those titles? Those who call themselves Apostle So-and-so or Prophet So-and-so – can they honestly say that they were given that title and office by the will of God?

With a title comes a task – to lead people by example as Paul did. Because he was a God-appointed and Spirit-anointed apostle, he could say, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” How often do those who carry official-sounding titles betray them by espousing people to themselves! They are the only ones who are right and not to recognise that is to dishonour their title.

Who was Timothy? A brother! Timothy was Paul’s young trainee. When Paul found him, he realised that he had found gold – a young believer who had the makings of a fine leader. Paul did not give him the title of apostle. It was not his right to give, but he trained and mentored him to understudy him as a faithful and fully equipped leader. He was able to leave him in Ephesus to care for the church there while Paul went on with his mission to make Christ known where He was not known.

Paul regarded Timothy as his son in the faith. He often accompanied Paul on his journeys and acted as messenger and support during Paul’s imprisonments. He was a comfort to Paul in his suffering and in his old age, a true son upon whom Paul could rely to continue his work when he was no longer there

Who were the Colossians? The ancient city of Colossae was built on a major trade route which ran through the Lycus River valley in the province of Asia Minor in modern-day Turkey. It was famous for its dark red wool cloth called colossinum from where the city got its name. The city lost its importance when the nearby city of Laodicea overtook it as a business centre.

Paul spent two years in the nearby city of Ephesus from where the gospel spread to other centres, carried by converts from Ephesus. It is likely that one of Paul’s converts, Epaphras, was responsible for carrying the message to Colossae. Philemon was a member of that church, to whom Paul wrote a short letter about his slave Onesimus.

Although Paul did not know the people in the church at Colossae personally, he could still address them as “holy people” and “faithful brothers and sisters.” Why? Because, like his Master, he could view them as already complete in Christ. As long as they were in Christ, from God’s perspective, they had already been perfected. “In Christ” is, of course the operative word.

Grace and peace! Grace – a prayer for his readers to experience the ongoing grace of God in their lives, and peace – a normal Jewish greeting – “shalom” but for Paul the result of all God’s mercy to us – His peace that guards our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  Infused into this greeting is all the richness of God’s work in the lives of those who are “in Christ”.

This was much more than just a nicety, a polite greeting like we would say when we say “hello” and “goodbye” but, to Paul, it was the expression of his heart and his love for God’s children, even if he did not know them personally.

SCRIPTURE TAKEN FROM THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.