Monthly Archives: July 2023

GROW… IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

Christian life, ,

GROW… IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

“And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him— speaking of these things in all his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction. You already know these things, dear friends. So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.”

2 Peter 3:15-18 NLT

Error is rife in the church today as it was in the early church. Peter warned against falling for lies propagated by false teachers and those who call themselves “apostles”, complicating the simplicity of our fellowship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. “Change your focus,” Peter cautioned.

“Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.”

2 Peter 3:18 NLT

This is one of those gems of truth which I love but don’t always understand or know how to put it into practice in my daily life.

“How do I grow in the knowledge of Jesus?” I asked the Lord one day as I was meditating on this verse.

He began to show me and is still answering my question.

Thus began another part of my journey with the Holy Spirit. He answers questions in stages lest I miss the impact of His explanations.

Stage 1 – DISCOVER  – Grow in grace…

He showed me how to learn by observation – how He reveals Himself by the ways He responds when I call on His name. The smallest details become opportunities to recognise His love and goodness through His interventions.

Difficulties, which I used to struggle through on my own, now become opportunities to grow in the knowledge of Jesus. His grace is always enough for every situation.

An illustration. My frustration with my old router, my worn-out tyres,  my forgotten password, my lost dome…

Stage 2 – DRINK

Recognising God’s interventions was so exciting that I began to praise Him more and more. I remembered David’s words in Psalm 116:12-13

“What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.”

Psalms 116:12-13 NIV

The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

Psalm 145:18 NIV

The best way to say thank you is to drink from the cup of salvation. Everything we need is in that cup. I do so by calling on the name of the Lord in every situation because God is a Father. He loves to meet our needs.

Stage 3 – DO

My journey led to a third step in this process of knowing Jesus and His grace…perhaps the most powerful and precious of all lessons.

It came about this way. For close to 5 years, my daughter has struggled to put my grandson through university. The Covid interlude made life extremely difficult for them as a family. She was retrenched, the tardiness of government officials ribbed her of all but one payment of uif. She fell behind with university fees until, in his final year, she was unable to catch up, disqualifying my grandson from studying online.

She was not eligible for a bank loan because she had not worked in her place of present employment for two years. She had nowhere to turn for help. In the nick of time, I was able to lend her the money to pay of her debt to the university.

The story didn’t end there. She began to repay the loan with two payments and then… I felt a strong impression to write off her debt as my contribution to my grandson’s future. Then I sensed the Holy Spirit’s quiet, inward response, “Now you are getting it!” He reminded me of God’s words to Josiah’s son, Jehoiakim, in Jeremiah 22:15-16…

“And the Lord says, “What sorrow awaits Jehoiakim, who builds his palace with forced labour. He builds injustice into its walls, for he makes his neighbours work for nothing. He does not pay them for their labor…. But a beautiful cedar palace does not make a great king! Your father, Josiah, also had plenty to eat and drink. But he was just and right in all his dealings. That is why God blessed him. He gave justice and help to the poor and needy, and everything went well for him. Isn’t that what it means to know me?” says the Lord.”

Jeremiah 22:13, 15-16 NLT

Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God…”

I learned that to “see God” is to share His heart for those in need, to do whatever I can to lift the burden wherever I can in my limited capacity as the Holy Spirit leads me, whatever it costs because His grace is always enough.

This is a tough assignment because I am always in conflict with the greed and selfishness of my flesh but… Peter said, “Grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ”. So, if I have breath, I have opportunity to grow and so do we, as we travel this road together.

GOD IS LIGHT

Devotion, ,

GOD IS LIGHT

5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5

The big tree in my neighbour’s yard has gone, cut down a few months ago. Now the sun shines in my eyes in the early morning, a blinding light I can’t escape unless I draw the curtain.

I can’t help thinking of descriptions of God in Scripture, so bright a light that He outshines the sun. “God is light,” wrote John, “and there is no darkness in Him.” He cannot cast a shadow because there is no light brighter than He. His light is all-consuming; none can stand alone in His presence.

A great hymn, written by Thomas Binney (1798 – 1874}, encapsulates this awesome truth, that no human can gaze on God’s glory and not be consumed… but God has made a way for us to see Him and not die.

Eternal Light! Eternal Light!

How pure the soul must be

When placed within Thy searching sight

It shrinks not, but with calm delight

Can live and look on Thee.

The spirits that surround Thy throne

May bear the burning bliss,

But that is surely theirs alone

Fot they have never, never known

A fallen world like this.

O how can I, whose native sphere

Is dark, whose mind is dim,

Before th’ Ineffable appear

And on my naked spirit bear

The uncreated beam?

There is a way for man to rise

To that sublime abode,

An off’ring and a sacrifice,

A Holy Spirit’s energies,

An Advocate with God.

These, these prepare us for the sight

Of Holiness above;

The sons of ignorance and night

May live in the Eternal Light

Through the Eternal Love.

What a reason to praise and adore Him, the three-in-one God!

GIVE GOD YOUR BODY

Christian Life, ,

GIVE GOD YOUR BODY

I have been thinking about the significance of Paul’s words in Romans 12:1-2…

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Romans 12:1-2 NLT

These words follow Paul’s extended explanation of salvation, focusing on God’s righteousness in the gospel. He did the right thing by forgiving our sin and restoring us to fellowship with Him as His sons and daughters because He made Jesus an atoning sacrifice for our sin.

Therefore (and so – NLT), because of all that God has done in Christ for us, we are obligated to give Him our bodies as living sacrifices. Why our bodies? Why not our lives, or our souls, or spirits? Is there something significant about giving our bodies to God, especially the bodies that are weakened by disease or disabilities, or even age?

Let’s look at our bodies for a moment.

1. Our bodies are the temporary residences in which we live on this earth. They are subject to all the effects of Adam’s sin, including death.

2. Our bodies are the vehicles through which we are tempted to commit sin. We use every part of our bodies to disobey God.

3. Our bodies experience the suffering that debilitates us and affects our moods, attitudes, emotions and even our trust in God. Our bodies are frail and fallible and because we suffer in our bodies, we are thrown into doubt, insecurity, anxiety, and feelings of abandonment and betrayal.

4. Our bodies are also the vehicles of worship. We are prompted, through our senses, to acknowledge God’s greatness and to honour Him for who He is and what He does.

5.We connect with fellow humans through our bodies. We express love and hatred through our bodies. We communicate through language we hear and speak and through body language we see.

6. We are a unit of body, soul, and spirit, created in God’s image to express Him to the world of people around us.

7. Our bodies, though temporary in a fallen world, will be transformed into the likeness of Jesus’ resurrected body when He returns to set up His kingdom on earth.

8. Our bodies become the “Holy of Holies” of God’s dwelling place through the presence of the Holy Spirit when we are made alive and adopted into God’s family through faith in Jesus.

9. Our bodies are the subject and object of so much prayer especially when they go wrong. We spend a great deal of time and effort on focusing on keeping our bodies alive.

It seems, then that our bodies play a significant role in the participation and enjoyment of our salvation both now and in the life to come. Is it any wonder, then, that Paul instructs us to present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice!

Why is this so important?

If we maintain possession of our bodies, we are responsible for taking care of them and for what we do with them. We retain the right to do with our bodies what we choose and must bear the consequences of our choices.

Paul explicitly states that we are to give God our bodies (a deliberate act) as a living sacrifice (for a specific purpose) as an act of worship. Since there is so much bad stuff going on in the world through peoples’ bodies, giving them to God as a living sacrifice is a safeguard against using our bodies for the wrong purposes.

We transfer responsibility for the care and use of our bodies to God and we take responsibility only for obeying His instructions.

God wants our bodies as a sacrifice, not as a loss to us but as an exchange. Jesus gave His body as a sacrifice and received, in return, millions of brothers, and sisters just like Himself. What does He give those who give Him their bodies as a sacrifice?

Paul tells us, in Rom. 12:2, that He will give us renewed minds to know, understand and enjoy His perfect will.

“Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Now that’s a great trade-off, isn’t it? To know that God’s will, including everything that happens to your body, even the debilitating illnesses, diseases, malfunctions, accidents, etc., that you are suffering, are God’s perfect will for you because He is working on a bigger plan than you know or understand.

When you give God your body as a sacrifice, He is free to work in and on your body, whatever pleases Him for you highest good and to give you back something far better and more glorious than you ever gave Him.

Resurrection day is coming, as surely as the day Jesus rose from the dead. Your permanent body will be perfectly suited to the environment of God’s eternal kingdom. If you give Him ownership of your body now, He will, through it and whatever suffering He calls you to endure, perfect your body to be fully compatible with the realm in which He dwells and reigns.

What am I saying? God wants to take you into a place where you will never question or doubt His goodness, whatever is going on in your body. It’s His now. You gave Him the right of ownership. He bought it at a great price. Now take your hands off His property and allow Him free rein to mould you into the image of His Son even through what He is doing in your body.

I love the words of Joni Eareckson Tada, when she was struggling with an infection of Covid-19…

During her darkness, the Lord asked her, “Joni, do you trust me?” She responded, “Yes, Lord, I believe.” In the days following this encounter, she developed a strange calmness, “almost an indifference” she said, “to what it would feel like and how it would end.”

She felt Him drawing her into His shelter and resting under the shadow of the Almighty.

Quoting the writings of another sufferer (I could not identify the name on the video), she said, “When the suffering soul reaches a place of calm, sweet carelessness, when he can inwardly smile at his (own) suffering and not even ask to be delivered, then it begins to work its blessed ministry. Then the cross we are carrying begins to weave itself into a crown.”

In conclusion, said Joni,

“When we give our suffering over to God, and sink ourselves into His will, He will make every pain work its divine purpose in our lives.”

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”

James 1:2-4 NLT

No more interfering with His working in you, then, through begging, pleading, believing for, crying, whining, or thinking that healing is the only right and best outcome for you. God’s will is good, pleasing and perfect for you. Celebrate His will with joy through your pain and let’s see what God can do.

FULLY MATURE

Christian Life, ,

FULLY MATURE

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13

Spiritual maturity, like holiness, is one of those Bible “goals” that we often dodge or ignore because we don’t know what it means or how to get there.

The Apostle Paul often wrote about being “complete” in Christ, or “fully mature”. He expressed, as his goal, the desire to present his beloved saints across Europe and Asia Minor…little pockets of believers who came to Christ directly or indirectly through his ministry… fully mature.

Paul was not content to make converts. His goal was to make disciples. He wanted his converts to be so connected to Jesus that they would, like new-born babies, thirst after and grow into mature believers in Christ.

How would he achieve his goal?

“He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”

Colossians 1:28-29 NIV

Paul worked with the Holy Spirit to achieve his goal. It was a divine/human partnership led and energised by the Spirit and carried out by Paul.

There were many obstacles to overcome on this journey to maturity – false teachers sowing seeds of deception, fallen human nature demanding to gratify the desires of the flesh, power struggles and conflicts among individuals and groups wanting their own way, baggage from their pagan past that kept reappearing, etc.

Paul was patiently sowing truth into the minds and hearts of people whose life philosophies were formed in a godless environment. What an impossible task… if he had to do it alone.

What are the elements of spiritual maturity?

“My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Colossians 2:2-3 NIV

The Apostle John, in his first letter, gives us the two commandments of the New Covenant.

“And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.”

1 John 3:23 NIV

So, essentially, Paul and John were in agreement regarding the goal of the Christian ministry. Through teaching and admonishing, i.e., the tools by which every believer is rooted and grounded in “the faith” – who Jesus is and who we are in Him – and through guiding them by teaching and example, into expressing their new life in Christ by loving one another, believers live out in practice the life of Jesus in them.

So, that’s, what it means to be fully mature.

Do you get the picture of maturity now?

A mature church is a group of people who are

1. Secure in the knowledge and understanding of who Jesus is and who they are in Him so that they can fully trust Him in every circumstance no matter what life throws at them.

2. Doing life together, caring for and serving one another out of, and expressing their love for Jesus by being givers and not takers.

We are mature, then, to the extent that we know God through Jesus and live out in our everyday lives the love and trust that we have in Him.

We express that love and trust by the way that we relate to one another through humility and mutual submission, honouring one another and meeting each other’s needs at our own expense.

Therefore, we all need teaching, correction, encouragement and fellowship to become a fully mature body in the body of Christ. According to Jesus, this is the greatest demonstration to the world of His life in us.

“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.  Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

John 13:34-35 NLT

” I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.”

John 17:21 NLT

It’s quite simple, after all. Trust Jesus in everything and love each other and together you will become fully mature.

FROM Ist JANUARY TO 31st DECEMBER 2020

Christian Life, ,

FROM Ist JANUARY TO 31st DECEMBER 2020

Covid 19 has come and gone, leaving behind for many, the memories of loved ones snatched away by the disease and for others a distant past of restrictions and inconveniences which finally came to an end. Covid is still around, knocking one down here and another there, but it’s not unseen the ogre that stalked the land for two years. So, we ask ourselves, what was that all about?

I wrote this musing at the end of the first year of the pandemic.

This is the last day of a very significant year in the history of the nations and in the church of the Lord Jesus at this time. I say this in faith because the biggest thing that has happened in this year is the global pandemic of Covid-19 which has affected every nation on earth. What has it meant for the church?

According to Paul, despite the way things appear…

“… God raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church.”

Ephesians 1:19-22 NLT

So, I believe that even this global catastrophe is part of the ALL THINGS over which Jesus is head and in control for the sake of the church.

The first day of 2020 began for me with the Holy Spirit giving me this cryptic message without any explanation… “Something big is going to happen this year.” I was left to wonder what the “something big” would be.

As the months went by, I began to understand what the big thing is, a global disease over which humans have no control, that has affected every person in every nation on earth.

However, although it has affected every person on earth in some way, God is using this disease in some way for the church, and eternity alone will reveal what its significance is for the church right now.

Where the first day of 2020 began with a message of gloom and warning, the last day began with the unfolding of a beautiful truth which not only explains my past but will also carry me to the end of my days.

I was looking for a picture which would vividly illustrate the final Scripture of my “Bible in a year” reading.

“Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street.”

Revelation 22:1 NLT

What a beautiful vision… the water of life flowing from the throne of God!

My thoughts turned to Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman who came to draw water at the well. What did Jesus see in this woman? Someone who was filthy with sexual lust? An adulteress who just couldn’t stop sinning? Did He accuse and condemn her for her sinful lifestyle?

No. He saw a thirsty woman who kept drinking water from the wrong fountain. She went from husband to husband, lover to lover, desperately longing to be truly loved, only to find that so-called human “love” failed to satisfy her thirst.

Jesus saw her, not as a sinner who had offended God but as a thirsty woman desperate to be loved. Her sin was the result of the quest for love that took her to the wrong fountain.

Let’s put it another way. When someone is sick, the disease or malfunction produces symptoms which are not the real problem. They are signs of the problem in one’s body. The doctor does not treat the symptoms. He looks for the problem that causes the symptoms which will go away when the problem is solved.

Likewise, sinful behaviour is not our real problem. What is it that results in sinful behaviour? We drink water from the wrong source!

Jeremiah penned God’s diagnosis when he wrote,

“For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me— the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!”

Jeremiah 2:13 NLT

Now I understand why I have gone astray so many times in my life, producing guilt and shame but no solution to my thirst for love.

Jesus gave a life-changing promise to those who believe that He is the source of true, unfailing and eternal love…

“On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me!  Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”

John 7:37-38 NLT

Jesus is the only fountain of living water that satisfies. His love is freely given to those who come to Him and drink.

“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.”

John 15:9 NLT

When we fail to seek Him in every circumstance of our lives, forgetting that He is our source, we will try other fountains, only to discover that there is nothing outside of His love that can truly quench our thirst.

Our attitudes and behaviour will always reveal the fountain from which we are drinking.

So, at the beginning of 2021, let’s remind ourselves that Jesus is the fountain of living water. To navigate this year in peace and contentment, let’s keep ourselves in His love in every circumstance and let’s stay away from polluted fountains because they will never satisfy our thirst.

But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.

Jude 1:20-21 NLT”

Despite Covid and all the unpleasantness and pain it caused, we who are forever joined by faith to Jesus, have this source of eternal love from which we can never be separated.

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39