Monthly Archives: November 2015

WHO MAY DWELL?

Pastor's Desk,

Dear Family

I am enjoying our “Journey through the Psalms” on a Sunday morning so much. Never before did I realize just how rich and complete the psalms actually are. It’s clearly no wonder that these were used by the ancient (and present) lovers of God to express their devotion, confidence in, inner feelings, fears, faith, hope and pure love for the God of Gods. They are filled with real life people, in real life situations, with real life questions and answers as they interact with a real life God.

One of the many questions which can be found in the Psalms is David’s human attempt to understand who is actually entitled to be found in God’s presence. In Psalm 15 he provides an answer to his question, “Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary”, listing 11 things:- blameless walk, does what is right, speaks truth, no slander, no wrong to neighbour, no slur against fellow man, despises a vile man, honours those who fear the LORD, keeps his word, lends money without interest, does not accept a bribe. That’s quite a list! It would become a burden above burdens were we to attempt to follow that for the sake of following it by the letter, every day, all day. If you think otherwise, just start with always walking blamelessly and always doing the right thing or being righteous. It’s just not going to happen—if you think you are then you’ve already missed the plot!

I prefer to think that these things are the fruit of true God-lovers. These things will follow those who follow hard after God, who love him with fullness of heart, soul, mind and strength. God’s attributes flowing through his people. The new covenant teaches us in many different ways that “It does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” It’s really all about what he has achieved on our behalf—his righteousness become ours because of what he has done for us. What a relief! My end of the agreement to is keep loving him and allowing him to change what needs to be changed. Co-operation with his ways, led by his Spirit is what’s needed, not an exhausting attempt to keep a list of rules and regulations. When I look around at the practices of some “Christian” churches and see the cloaks of religious practice in order to please God, I am just so thankful that this is not what Jesus came for! I choose to enter His rest rather than my struggle.

Real And Unchanging Love

Bible Study, , , ,

REAL AND UNCHANGING LOVE

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us. He sent His one and only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. This is love; not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4: 7-10).

This is one of the most profound passages of Scripture in the whole Bible. Strange that it should come from the pen of one who was once nicknamed, together with his brother James, “Boanerges”, sons of thunder. These two brothers were real hotheads.

Jesus had to rebuke them for wanting the fry the Samaritans in a certain village in Samaria for refusing hospitality to Jesus. It’s quite understandable that the Samaritans didn’t want this Jew in their village. After all, it was the Jews who despised the Samaritans, not the other way around. Why would they accept Him into their homes and then have Him ridicule them to their faces? Of course, they did not know Jesus.

This same hothead wrote these words, Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. What brought about the transformation? Just being with Jesus and being loved by Him! Three years in the Master’s company did wonders for the disposition of these two brothers. But it was even more than that. John himself was loved – deeply loved by Jesus. Jesus loved him not only for who he was but also in spite of who he was. Did you get that? That’s the miracle of God’s love. It’s so different from human love.

We love those to whom we are drawn because of their looks, their personalities, their way of treating us etc. Our love is mostly reciprocal. Have you ever watched a new father gazing into the face of his new-born baby? There is nothing but wonder and love in his eyes. He holds in his arms a helpless little person who is utterly dependent on him, and he rises to the occasion. He resolves in his heart to protect, provide and care for the little one for the rest of its life.

But gradually things change. The helpless baby becomes a stubborn, self-willed toddler who throws temper tantrums, refuses to obey and causes the father great frustration and embarrassment, especially when the child kicks and screams in rage on the shop floor when he cannot get his way. The same father who adored his baby son now beats him mercilessly or shouts at him endlessly when the child begins to show the same characteristics that are in him.

By the time his son reaches teenage, father and son have lost connection with one another. Love has given way to indifference or ever rejection. Why? Because the child did not come up to the father’s expectations, or even worse, the son was so like his father that the father couldn’t bear to have him near. Where is the love for his child now?

But the love of God is not like that. God loves because He cannot help it. Love is the very essence of who He is. God loves us, not because of but in spite of who and what we are. We are His offspring, made in His image, alive by His breath in us. He loves us because of Himself, not because of us. Nothing we do or do not do changes or affects His love. He cannot love us any more or any less than He loves us now.

Is it any wonder that the devil works so hard to keep us from believing in the love of God? Who would run from a love like that if we really grasped the enormity and the reality of a love that embraces the worst of us and transforms us from hotheads to lovers of God?

How can we be sure of this love? Love is an action, not an emotion word. Love reveals its nature by what it does. God’s love reached its highest point in the gift of His Son to a world that hated and rejected Him. How great that love gives, but what about a love that gives the very best you have, to have it thrown back in your face? That’s what His people did to the Father. He knew it would happen but He gave anyway.

It was not only the Father who gave. The Son also gave – His life for the sins of the world. No one will ever know what He endured for the sake of love. His love was written in blood on the soil of His beloved land, spilled at the feet of those who hated and crucified Him. How reciprocal was that!  No, God’s love is pure giving love.

It is this love that melts our hardened hearts and calls for a response of love. We love, because He first loved us. It was this love that melted John’s heart and transformed a hothead into the apostle of love. It was this love that changed Paul from a murderer to a passionate lover of Jesus who was unafraid to pour out his own life blood for his Master.

If you gaze at this love long enough, you too will be transformed.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

Truth Is Indestructible

Bible Study, , , ,

TRUTH IS INDESTRUCTIBLE

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and, therefore, speak from the viewpoint of the world and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognise the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood (1 John 4: 4-6)

Really, John! Are you so arrogantly cocksure of yourself? How can you say that you are from God and that anyone who knows God listens to you? What about the times you said things that drew a rebuke from Jesus?

No, John was not being arrogantly cocksure but calmly confident for several reasons. Let’s examine them one by one.

  1. John was a disciple of Jesus. He was not chosen simply to trail around behind Jesus for three years. Discipleship in Jesus’ day carried with it some very specific privileges and responsibilities. He was chosen because his rabbi believed that he could become more than his rabbi did. He was to learn to imitate his rabbi in everything He said and did until he was an exact replica of his master. He was to learn His teachings (His yoke) and pass them on without adding or taking anything away. He would eventually do more than his rabbi did because Jesus was at the Father’s right hand representing him to the Father (John 14:12).

 

  1. As a disciple of Jesus, John carried His authority to interpret His yoke in the spirit and disposition of his rabbi. Jesus taught His disciples that His yoke (His interpretation of the Torah according to God’s original intention) was mercy and His disposition was gentleness and humility (Matt. 11: 28-30). This was the yoke John was to pass on to those who believed in Jesus through his witness.

 

  1. John was equipped with the Holy Spirit who was poured out on the believers on the Day of Pentecost. Jesus promised His disciples that the Spirit whom He would send in His place would lead them into all truth and would remind them of everything He had taught them. They could rely on Him to represent Jesus and His teachings accurately.

 

  1. John was writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Although at the time he was writing this letter, he may not have been aware that it would be included in the Holy Scriptures. It was nevertheless recognised as inspired and authoritative by the early church fathers as they accepted the writings of the apostles and others into the canon of Scripture.

For these reasons, John had the right to claim authority to write these words of confidence, not arrogance and to claim that he and his fellow disciples were from God and spoke for God. Unlike the claim of the papacy down the centuries who believe that they are the vicars of Christ and whose words carry more weight than the very Word of God, John wrote, not to contradict the words of Jesus and set up his own standards but to affirm and expand on Jesus’ teachings in the spirit of Torah and in harmony with the nature and teachings of his rabbi.

The Spirit of truth in John would never allow him to set up his own standards. John was assured that, as long as he taught the truth revealed to him by his Master, and in harmony with the nature of Jesus, he could be sure that he was in line with the revelation Jesus brought about the Father and His work through Jesus. Those who received his teaching as the truth became part of a fellowship of believers in whom the Holy Spirit resided and continued to reveal the truth about the one in whom they believed.

The truth is indestructible. Those who received and believed the truth Jesus taught and steadfastly obeyed His words, could not be caught up in the ways of the world and stray from the path of obedience to God. The world represents beliefs and ways that are opposite to the kingdom of God. It is impossible to think and behave like those who are in the world’s system and to live as citizens of the God’s kingdom at the same time.

John assured his readers that their citizenship in the kingdom of God nullified the world’s power over them because they had, living within them the Holy Spirit with all His power and truth. No amount of false beliefs propagated by unbelievers could overpower and neutralise their confidence in the truth of God. They had the edge because lies will never outlive truth.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

What Is The Spirit Of Jesus?

Christian life, ,

WHAT IS THE SPIRIT OF JESUS?

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 recognise the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus 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).

John was aware, in the first century after Jesus, that there were already false teachings growing up around Him. It does not take long for unscrupulous people to twist the truth to suit their own ideas and very often their pockets. Those who have no inclination to follow Jesus and abide by His requirements for being His disciples, need to accommodate sin in all its subtle forms. Rather than match their lives with His, they change Him into someone who is less demanding so that they can water down His standards and carry on with their sin.

Unfortunately for them, what they teach does not change the truth of who He is, but it does disqualify them from having any part in the life He promised those who believe in Him. Even more tragic is that they drag others down with them in their unbelief.

How do we know that we are on the right track in the midst of the outpouring of false teaching all over the world? John gave us one test, but there are many others which will help us stay on course. How do we recognise the Spirit of God? By the testimony of Jesus.

Now I know that John wrote that people who cannot confess the name of Jesus or who deny that He was truly human are manifesting the spirit of antichrist. However, there are far more subtle forms of denial within the church which gullible believers swallow without giving it another thought.

We are aware of the cults which teach that Jesus was not true God or true man. But what about the preachers and teachers who add their own prescriptions to the simple invitation of Jesus, “Follow me”?

These imposters are not always easy to recognise because they masquerade as the ministers of Christ but they are even more dangerous than those who openly deny the truth of the word. Paul warned that anyone who adds to the finished work of Christ is under God’s curse (Gal. 1: 6-9). That’s pretty serious, isn’t it? Anathema – he said; cursed by God.

There are both blatant and subtle additions to the gospel of Christ in all streams of the church. What about the rituals and paraphernalia that have been added, for example? The elevation of certain people above others. When did Jesus ever tell His disciples that only certain “ordained” priests are permitted to administer the Lord’s Supper or baptise believers? It’s an imposition.

Jesus expressly declared that true leadership steps down to lift others up while false leaders lord it over the laity. Whether people operate officially in the church as priests or whether they claim titles for themselves like Prophet So-and-so” or “Apostle So-and-so” that make them think they are superior to others, makes no difference. It is an imposition and not of the spirit of Jesus.

When did Jesus set up an elaborate religious system with candles, incense, a priestly hierarchy and special garments, and bowing to an altar? Imposition! How does any of this fit into “Follow me,” and, “Go and make disciples”? What about teachings like “born-again”, “Spirit-filled” and “tongues-speaking” Christians versus the rest? Did Jesus ever teach these things? Did he ever put people into categories and treat them accordingly? No, He did exactly the opposite. He affirmed those who were despised and marginalised by society – lepers, “sinners”, women, children, prostitutes, tax-collectors etc.

What about those “spiritual leaders” who milk their congregations through guilt to enrich themselves by pretending to have compassion on the poor? Among the genuine ones who create opportunities for us to channel our money into ministries all over the world which help needy people, are the imposters who teach the “prosperity gospel” from which they benefit handsomely.

And superstition abounds in the so-called “preaching” of the Word. The fear of punishment is a big one. Have you heard this one – that people’s prayers for healing, for example, are not answered because they do not have enough faith, or that their business failed or their marriage fell apart because they sinned? What about “It is finished”? Jesus paid sin’s debt once-for-all, didn’t He?

How can we recognise the spirit of antichrist which is rife in the world and in the church? Does it measure up to Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, His work that He died and rose again, and does it fall in line with His simple call, “Follow me, “ and “Go and make disciples”?

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

 

Believe And Love

Bible Study, , , ,

BELIEVE AND LOVE

And this is His command: to believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and to love one another as He commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in Him, and He in them. And this is how we know that He lives in us. We know it by the Spirit He gave us (1 John 3:23-24).

John’s recurring refrain through this letter is “we know”. How different from the religions of the world which can only say in the end, when they have presented all their fanciful theories and ideas, “We don’t know.” How tragic to get to the end of life, to pass on and to discover that they were wrong all the time.

There are so many reasons why those who believe in Jesus can say with confidence, “We know.” I know that we have been accused of pride and arrogance, that we have no right to force our beliefs on other people, that we are intolerant and guilty of “hate speech” and many other accusations but why should we not be confident in what we believe when we have concrete evidence of its truth.

Take, for example, the historicity of the person in whom we put our confidence. Did Jesus Christ really live? Was He a historical figure? Some have tried to disprove His existence but, apart from the testimony of the Bible (which is a historical document with more early manuscripts to verify the reliability of its records than any other ancient document in history), there is the evidence of secular documents from that period of history that Jesus really lived.

Not only was He a historical figure, but He also did what He said He would do. He was accused of blasphemy by the Jewish Sanhedrin, found guilty and referred to Pilate for sentencing. Pilate found Him not guilty of treason against Rome but sentenced Him to death by crucifixion as a concession to the Jews. He rose from the dead on the third day and appeared to more than five hundred people at different times.

His disciples were so convinced of His identity as the Son of God and His resurrection from the dead because they saw Him that they went everywhere preaching and passing on the good news of the kingdom of God. They were mercilessly persecuted as blasphemers and enemies of Rome because they refused to bow to Caesar as Lord, but they refused to recant. In spite of the threat to their lives, thousands of Gentiles turned from the idols to believe in Jesus and to worship the true and living God.

Was this whole interlude just a series of events which took place in history? God’s trump card as far as authenticity goes, is prophecy. Hundreds of details about God’s Messiah were written into the text of His holy book centuries before they happened and accurately fulfilled in one person, Jesus Christ. This is impossible unless God both planned the events and executed them exactly as He had predicted because He knew the whole scope of history before it happened.

What is even more amazing is that He was able to marry His will and human free will in such a way that He could never be accused of treating human beings like puppets. Peter captured this thought accurately on the Day of Pentecost when he said:

This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men put Him to death by nailing Him to a cross (Acts 2: 23).

Peter could also triumphantly declare:

But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him (Acts 2: 24).

Jesus Himself prophesied that He would be arrested and put to death by the Jewish leaders, not because they had power over Him but because He willingly laid down His life for His sheep.

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord (John 10: 17-18a).

The rabble who came to arrest Him had no power to take Him until He handed Himself over to them (John 18:3-6). He had every opportunity to evade arrest, but He approached them and willingly allowed Himself to be taken.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost sealed every word Jesus had spoken and every promise He had made. The disciples were transformed in an instant from frightened and cowering men to bold and confident apostles of Jesus, facing the wrath of the Jewish leaders with courage and refusing to back down on their message because they knew it was true.

We also, who believe in Jesus, have every right to say, “We know,” because we share the same Lord, the same message, the same Holy Spirit and the same experience of transformation from selfish rebels to submissive and obedient sons and daughters of the living God as they had.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?