Monthly Archives: March 2016

Self-aware Or God-aware?

Christian Life, , ,

SELF-AWARE OR GOD-AWARE?

The first thing the guilty pair lost in the Garden of Eden was their God-awareness. They were driven to hide from God because they knew they were naked. Did they suddenly become naked after their disobedience? Were they aware of their nakedness because they had no clothes on or because their spirits were naked before God? Why did they hide? Did they think that God could not see them or would not find them?

It seems that self-awareness overshadowed their previous God-awareness. They were conscious of themselves in a way they had not been before. Sin had turned them inward. No longer was their untainted fellowship with the Father paramount in their minds. They were afraid of Him because of their guilt. They had become slaves to the fear of punishment. From that time on, God-awareness was buried under a load of self-awareness and self-absorption.

Jesus, on the other hand, had a God-awareness that manifested as early as the age of twelve. He captivated a group of religious leaders with His questions in the temple, to the extent that He was left behind when His parents set off home after the Passover. His mother’s rebuke surprised Him when they found Him in the temple. Didn’t she understand that He must be about the Father? What other twelve-year-old would be consumed by a passion to be involved with stuffy old men who spoke nothing but religion? Would he not rather be out playing marbles with his friends?

Not Jesus! He was about the Father. Everything He was and said and did, He related back to the Father. He was sent by the Father; He came from the Father; He spoke the words and did the works of the Father and He would return to the Father when His work was complete. He lived in obedience to the Father and He did only what pleased the Father.

Jesus did not waste His time debating issues with the religious leaders on the grounds of what the sages had said. He went straight back to the Torah. What did the Word have to say? It was the Word that had the final authority, not the opinions of men, even if they were the wisest and most respected scholars of the day. He walked in the light of the Word because it was the Word of the Father, and He expected His disciples to do the same.

He had a passion for the Father’s glory. Let me give you two examples:

Jesus and His disciples were out walking. They encountered a blind man on the road – probably begging by the wayside. His disciples questioned Jesus according to their philosophy of suffering, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?”

Jesus’s response was typical!

‘Neither this man not his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.’ (John 9: 3)

Eugene Peterson understood the significance of the NIV’s more conventional translation:

‘You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do.’ (John 9:3, The Message)

What a way to look at adversity! Not a catastrophe but an opportunity! Jesus looked at everything through the Father. Nothing was coincidence or happenstance because God was there in the midst of it and, given the chance, He would reveal His glory in it.

On another occasion, Jesus was on the other side of the Jordan, waiting for the right time to reappear. The Pharisees wanted to kill Him but it was not yet His time. He had thrown the merchants and money changers out of the temple, arousing the wrath of the religious leaders, and He had to withdraw for a while to let things cool down.

While He was there, He got news that His friend Lazarus, was deathly sick.

When He heard this, Jesus said, ‘This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.’ (John 11: 4)

Did you get that? God-consciousness! Nothing happened apart from the Father, as far as Jesus was concerned, not even sickness. Every bad situation was an opportunity for God to reveal His glory – His mercy, remember? It all depends on one’s perspective and one’s expectation. If God was there and God was in it, it must, in the end reflect back on Him.

Instead of hurrying back to Bethany, Jesus lingered where He was for another two days. He said that Lazarus’ sickness would not end in death. Lazarus did die, but that was not the end. Lazarus had to be well and truly dead, decaying and stinking, in fact, so that there would be no doubt that it was God who raised him to life again. Imagine the risk Jesus took in letting it go that far. He was so secure in His awareness of and confidence in God that He could trust the Father to show His glory by raising a decomposing body to life.

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.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available.

The Father And I Are One

Christian Life, , , ,

THE FATHER AND I ARE ONE

Jesus’ testimony was unchanged throughout His earthly life.

I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can only do what He sees the Father doing because, whatever the Father does the Son also does. (John 5:19)

What He said and did was an echo of the Father. This presupposes that He spent time with the Father to nurture the unity and to get His marching orders. Even when the pressure was so great that His perspiration was stained with blood, He did not waver in His commitment to be a true Son.

He withdrew about as stone’s throw beyond them, and knelt down and prayed. ‘Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.’ An angel from heaven appeared and strengthened Him. And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly. And His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. (Luke 22: 41-44)

He was not shy to affirm His complete commitment to doing what pleased the Father, even to the use of “always”. How was it possible that the Father would not “always” be there to support Him when His loyalty was unwavering?

The One who sent me is with me; He has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases Him. (John 8: 29)

He offered Himself up to death to please the Father.

Yet it was the LORD”S will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer . . . (Isa. 53: 10a)

Jesus loved the Father passionately. His love for the Father was the motivation of His life. His commitment to unity with the Father was fuelled by His love. Anything He did that was not done out of love for the Father was of no value at all. Because of His own passion, He could make the same demand of His disciples. It was a given.

If you love me, you will obey what I command. (John 14: 15)

Jesus expressed His love for the Father through His submission and obedience and He expected His disciples to respond to His love for them in the same way.

The greatest commandment was undoubtedly to love God fully, completely and passionately as He had affirmed to the religion expert who had questioned Him. When He was asked on one occasion which was the greatest commandment, there could be only one answer:

One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.’ (Matt. 22: 35-38)

Not only did Jesus love the Father in this way and demonstrate it by His implicit obedience to the Father’s will, but He also drew His disciples into the circle of that love to share in the ecstasy He experienced with the Father.

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: 22-23)

Love was the sum of the constitution of the kingdom of God given to the people of Israel in the Torah. The love between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit spilled over into the whole of mankind, sinful though they were because love is the essence of God’s nature, and unity, fuelled by love, is the adhesive energy that holds everything together.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3: 16)

Jesus satisfied the Father’s love for the world by doing everything the Father required of Him with joy because He delighted in the Father and in His will, no matter how costly it was and what it required of Him.

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.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available.

The Heartbeat Of Jesus

Christian Life, , ,

THE HEARTBEAT OF JESUS

Everything we have talked about so far leads us to one thing – the heartbeat of Jesus. We cannot leave this study without exploring as deeply as we can, what made Him tick. Who was this man, Jesus? What was His essence? If we are to get anywhere near to what He modelled, we must explore and discover Him.

I want to make it as simple as I can by examining His relationships on every level, beginning with His place in the Trinity as the Son and going on to all the people He interacted with on earth, both friends and enemies. How did He relate to them; how did He treat them and how did He come across to them?

How did Jesus relate to the Father?

Let’s start at the beginning. Jesus said:

I and the Father are one. (John 10: 30)

That was a very bold statement to make and one which His opponents obviously understood, judging by their reaction.

Again the Jews picked up stones to stone Him, but Jesus said to them, ‘I have shown you many miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?’ ‘We are not stoning you for any of these,’ replied the Jews, ‘but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.’ (John 10: 31-33)

What was the oneness He was talking about?

 “When a Torah scribe asked Yeshua which was the foremost commandment in the Law of Moses, he quoted the Shema and its appended command:

The most important one is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’. (Mark 12: 29-30)

“He added the command to love one’s neighbour found in Leviticus 19:18 as a corollary of loving God.

“The scribe responded by affirming Yeshua’s answer. Then he shifted focus to what seems to be a veiled reference to monotheism — perhaps to tempt Yeshua to make a statement about his identity. 

‘Well said, teacher,’ the man replied. ‘You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but Him.’ (v. 32)

“Yeshua didn’t take the bait. Instead, “When Yeshua saw that he had answered wisely [about the command to love], he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God’ ” (v. 34).

“Yeshua didn’t take this discussion of the Shema as an opportunity to affirm a theoretical compound unity in the Godhead or his place in it. Rather, he pointed the scribe to the extraordinary passage in Psalm 110:1, which speaks of a “Lord” who sits next to YHVH.

YHVH said to my LORD [Adon], Sit at my right hand, Until I put your enemies beneath your feet.

“Then Yeshua tested him with an exegetical question about that Lord’s identity: “How is it that the scribes say that the Messiah is the son of David? [Ps 110:1] David himself calls him ‘Lord’: and so in what sense is he his son?” (Mark 12:35-37).

“The scribe and his theological comrades apparently could not, or dare not, answer Yeshua. Instead, “No one was able to answer him a word . . .” (Matt 22:46).

“Yeshua’s diverting attention from the Shema to Psalm 110:1 is a significant move. In fact, Psalm 110:1 is the most quoted Hebrew text in the NT, more than Deuteronomy 6:4, Isaiah 53 or Psalm 22. He set the exegetical agenda for all his followers — and for Israel.

“In essence, Psalm 110:1 is the other Shema in Hebrew Scripture, the one that completes the revelation of the one God to his people and to all peoples on earth.

“Yeshua’s shift of emphasis could become a vision-changing lesson for modern interpreters to follow his example — instead of the example of their teachers and rabbis.

“The statement by Yeshua, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), begs to be interpreted in light of this discussion of echad. In context, it seems clear that he was affirming a unity of purpose, will, and power with God the Father. His Father, who is “greater than all” (John 10: 29), had given him authority and divine power to keep all his sheep safe within the protected sphere of eternal life. He asked his Father that his disciples “may all be one, just as we are one” (John 17: 21-22). What all their unity may be, it does not mean they become united into the one Deity, as in New Age pantheistic religion.

Notwithstanding the accusations of the Jerusalem theologians that Yeshua, “being a man, [made himself] out to be God” (v. 33), he stood his ground that, as “Son of God” (v. 36), the Father was “in” him — not that he was God the Father.” (“Echad” in the Shema” by Paul Sumner).

(For a more thorough discussion of the meaning of echad, see Paul Sumner’s article:

http://www.hebrew-streams.org/works/hebrew/echad.html – retrieved in May 2015).

What did unity with the Father mean to Jesus?

Jesus’s claim to be one with the Father was not about equality with the Father as His right. He renounced that right when He became the Son, and lived on earth in a Father/Son relationship. In fact He delighted in His subordination to the Father. He made no bones about His submission and obedience to the Father, even to the point of embracing the Father’s plan that He become the atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world.

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.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available.

The Ministry Of The Holy Spirit In The Believer

Christian Life, , , ,

THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE BELIEVER

Although Jesus breathed on them and told them to receive the Holy Spirit after His resurrection, (John 20: 22) and before He finally left them, He told them to wait in Jerusalem for the coming of the Spirit in power. The powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit in the disciples was yet to come and would be twofold:

  1. He would be their internal power source, guiding and transforming them through the Word of Jesus and His sanctifying work.
  1. He would be their power source for being Jesus’s witnesses in the world. Whatever equipment they needed for Him to convince the world through them who Jesus was, He would supply. Gifts, ministries, miracles, and supernatural protection were all in Him and from Him.

He said to them: ‘Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people and they will get well. (Mark 16: 15-18)

When the Holy Spirit fell on the believers on the Day of Pentecost, His coming was the final and complete fulfilment of the prophetic word of the prophet Joel (Joel 2: 28-32) and Jesus’s promise to His disciples and for all His future followers all over the world. There is no need ever, for God’s people to beg Him to pour out His Spirit on us again. He has done it, once for all. The Holy Spirit has never left. And He never will.

Why is the church in many places so cold and ineffective? Is it not because God’s people have been led astray by false prophets or have wandered from the way of Yahweh because of sin and self-will. God’s call is for us to return – shuv – repent, change our minds and get back to His way and His Word. He has provided everything we need for godly living (2 Peter 1: 3-4). It is up to us to obey His Spirit, to believe and take hold of His “very great and precious promises” through which we participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

It is time for us to stop waiting for God to “rescue” us from our sinful and disobedient ways. He has done it all through Jesus and given us His Spirit to empower us to obey. Jesus said, “Follow me!” and He has given us all the equipment we need to do it. Now we must “just do it!”

Three words keep recurring in Jesus’s final words to His disciples before His death – love, joy and peace. He not only spoke about love, joy and peace but He also claimed ownership; “my” love, “my” joy and “my” peace. These qualities were very important to Him; they were the very energy supplied by the Holy Spirit that sustained Him through the rigours of His earthly life.

Now it was time to impart these same gifts as a legacy of love to His disciples before He died. He left no earthly inheritance, except His clothing for which the soldiers gambled, but what He gave His disciples was of far greater value than material goods. He promised to send them the Holy Spirit who would be in them and would impart to them the love, the joy and the peace that energised and sustained Him through trials, tests and suffering.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in His love. (John 15: 9-10)

The secret of living in the love of Jesus is simple – just do what He tells you. The outcome is a life without fear. According to the Apostle John, it is the fear of punishment that cancels out our experience of God’s perfect love (1 John 4: 18). It is fear that steals our joy and our peace and makes us uncertain of the love of God. The Holy Spirit reassures us that we are the children of God (Rom. 8: 15-16).

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. (John 15: 11)

Jesus was a man of joy, anointed with the oil of joy above His companions (Heb. 1: 9). His steadfast vision of the goal enabled Him to rise above His circumstances, no matter how tough they were, secure in the Father’s love and unfazed by what happened around Him and to Him.

His promise of joy arises first from their union with Him and obedience to His commands.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be compete. (John 15: 9-11)

As they lived in union with Jesus, experiencing His love and doing what He wanted them to do, His joy would sustain them through every trial because they would see, not the trouble they were experiencing but the end result – just as He was sustained by His expectation of the glory that would follow the cross.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world give. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14: 27)

He left His disciples in no doubt about the inner energy of His life. As His followers, the Holy Spirit would nurture in them the very same strengths which carried Him through His deepest, darkest valleys if they remained Him as branches in the vine. He left them His legacy but it was up to them to walk in the Spirit and be led by the Spirit so that the fruit of the Spirit would be nurtured in them.

Jesus’s disciples were to be no less dependent on the Holy Spirit than He was. The Spirit would be exactly the same to them as He was to Jesus.

And if the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to you mortal bodies through the Spirit who lives in you. (Rom. 8:11)

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.

Do you like this post? Then buy your own copy of my book, Learning to be a Disciple, which is also available from www.amazon.com or www.takealot.com in South Africa. You can also order a copy directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com

Watch this space!

My latest book, The Heartbeat of Holiness, will also soon be available.

 

Complete!

Pastor's Desk

Dear Family

I am so glad that our Heavenly Father sees us as complete in Christ. Whilst we are on a journey of being conformed to His image, we are, from His perspective, a perfected item waiting to happen. It’s like the concept of “back to the future”. We have not yet arrived but we are already there. Confused? Me too! Which is why I love what the psalmist says in Psalm 116:13: “I will take up the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the LORD.” The psalmist says this in response to his question as to how he could ever repay the LORD, the incredible God who saved him from the “chords of death” and the “anguish of the grave”. (Psalm 116:5). He has decided that the very best way to “repay” what God has done, is to declare God’s salvation boldly and unashamedly call upon His name.

The Bible is full of injunctions to offer to the LORD a sacrifice of praise. The words of our mouths, as reflections of our hearts in love with Him, are a pleasing aroma to God. We cannot be silent when we consider all that He has done, past, present and future. We deserved nothing, He gave us everything, and now we need to praise.

It is a strong indictment against our level of maturity when we find ourselves only able to praise Him when things are going well. A little child will struggle to see a bigger picture when a parent removes their toy from them because it’s bath and feed time. Whilst they have the toy and are playing with it, the world is bright and full of life. But take it away and everything becomes instant tantrum material. We are so often like this. When the weather is good, there is money in the bank, our children are behaving and our health is great, it is easy to praise the LORD. But when things are not looking too rosy, we struggle. Why? Well, quite simply because we need to grow up in Him and to realize that He does not leave us when things go wrong. In actual fact, maybe things have gone wrong for a specific purpose known only to Him. Maybe that toy is bad for us. Maybe it’s bath and feed time. But whatever it is, He is still there, working everything out for our good. He sees the end picture and knows what it will take to get me there.

So, as we journey with Him, let us leave the details to Him, take up the cup of salvation, and call upon His name.