Tag Archives: hope

THE BOOK OF ACTS – A HOSTAGE OF HOPE

Bible Study, , ,

A HOSTAGE OF HOPE

“Three days later Paul called the Jewish leaders together for a meeting at his house and said, ‘The Jews in Jerusalem arrested me on a trumped-up charge, and I was taken into custody by the Romans. I assure you that I did absolutely nothing against Jewish laws or Jewish customs. After the Romans investigated the charges and found there was nothing to them, they wanted to set me free but the Jews objected so fiercely that I was forced to appeal to Caesar. I did this not to accuse them of any wrongdoing or to get people in trouble with Rome. We’ve had enough trouble through the years that way. I did it for Israel. I asked you to come and listen to me today to make it clear that I’m on Israel’s side, not against her. I’m a hostage here for hope, not doom.'” Acts 28:17-20 (The Message).

Paul was finally in Rome. What would be his first step on this tightrope he was walking across an uncharted chasm? He was not out to curry favour or to get the Jews on his side. He was above that sort of thing.

It was always his earnest desire to set before them Jesus as the fulfilment of their Scriptures and the Messiah they were expecting. But from town to town, city to city across Europe and Asia he had been rejected because of one thing — the cross. No self-respecting Jew was prepared to accept a crucified Messiah. Not all the proof in the world would convince them that the man Jesus, the humble Galilean, was the Son of God and the fulfilment of the prophecies of the Old Testament.

It was Paul’s hope that here in Rome he would be able to communicate this truth to the Jewish leaders by his own mouth before they were contaminated by misinformation from their fellow countrymen. Their eternal destiny was at stake. He wanted to share with them the unadulterated truth that Jesus of Nazareth was sent from God, not to get rid of the Romans and make them rulers of the world, but to get rid of sin and make them kings and priests of God.

Because he was already a dead man as far as his own life was concerned, he did not see his imprisonment as a hopeless situation but as a stepping stone to bringing hope to as many people in Rome as he could influence. It did not matter to him where he was or who was in the company. His circumstances were always an explosion of potential and opportunity.

In his letters Paul tried hard to make his readers understand what had happened to them when they bowed the knee to Jesus. Everything changed. This was not a new religion they were espousing but a new domain they had entered. Their allegiance to their old masters, self, sin and the world, had been broken and they had entered a new realm, the realm of God’s rule. They were under the dominion of a new Master, Jesus. He had rescued them from a life of selfishness and self-destruction and set their feet on a new path — loving service fired by a passionate love for Jesus.

They were dead to all their old slave-drivers and alive to their new Master, motivated by His selfless sacrifice for them, and this message was not confined to the Jews but was for the whole world, regardless of their contempt for the Gentiles. They were no better than the Gentiles in their hypocritical attitude, as Paul pointed out in his letter to the Romans. Since Jew and Gentile were both guilty before God, Paul’s message was equally applicable to the whole world and he was going to deliver that message, come what may.

It was Paul’s hope that, on the threshold of his sojourn in Rome, whatever the outcome, he would be able to win as many of his countrymen to Jesus as he could before the crazy crackpot Caesar, Nero, decided on his fate. Dying was not his problem. He was ready for that. It was the interlude before his death that occupied his attention and he would do everything he could to win his brothers before he left.

Eternity was a long time to enjoy the fruit of his sacrifice!

Beauty For Ashes

Christian Life, , , , ,

BEAUTY FOR ASHES

Remember our talk about travelling light?

Many of us carry the baggage of grief and loss. Loved ones top the list, but there are other kinds of losses we sustain that cause us as much pain as the loss of a beloved family member or friend.

We live in a time when children are the victims of great loss. Ruthless predators violently rob them of their innocence and childhood. You may be one of them, carrying the wounds of guilt and shame deep into you adult years because you were violated in your childhood..

There are those of you who have suffered the devastating loss of your home and the security of a roof over your head through the unexpected crash of the great institutions that support our economy on unsteady legs. Your job was terminated, the money you earned which undergirded your security was suddenly gone. You have a family to support and, though you walk the streets day after day, there is no employment available because many others are out there, snapping up any possible job to earn enough money to keep food on the table.

There are many predators around who will rob you of whatever they can without a conscience. Unscrupulous thieves take your money, your possessions, invade your space, violate your homes and think nothing of the devastation they leave behind, not only because of physical loss but also through the psychological damage they inflict.

What about the loss of a good conscience because, in a moment of temptation you gave way to the demands of your flesh? A baby conceived out of wedlock will not go away. You can kill it in the womb, but it will ever remain in your heart, accusing you night and day of a terrible deed which made your loss worse than the loss of your integrity.

You may have lost a spouse to another – your husband left you for another woman; your wife betrayed you, robbing you not only of a life partner but also of your children. Your life has been thrown into turmoil and all you have left is anger, frustration, bitterness and…memories.

Your losses may be co-incidental, the outcome of living in a sinful world or the self-inflicted loss of a good conscience. How you wish you could turn the clock back and make your failures disappear! However, whatever form your losses take, you have been left with the hopelessness and helplessness of grief and mourning.

I have good news for you. God never asks why? He has a better solution to offer than a meaningless question to which you have no answer. He sent His Son, Jesus, to take the pain of your loss and transform it into something much better than grief and mourning.

…To provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes , the oil of joy instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. (Isa. 61:3)

“Beauty instead of ashes…” what does that mean? There is nothing beautiful about wearing ashes. It was part of the grieving process in Hebrew culture. Wearing a garment made of rough material and sprinkling ashes on one’s head told everyone that they had suffered great loss. It was a sign of hopeless and deep emotional pain.

What is beauty? Our eyes have the capacity to register pictures by the light that they allow in which is sent as signals to the brain. Our brains have the marvellous ability to turn the light signals into pictures which we “see” and interpret as beautiful. A friend gave me a moth orchid which is perfect in its beauty. I cannot get enough of its exquisite perfection and I stop and gaze for a few moments every time I go in and out of my front door.

However, there is another kind of “beauty” which is not visible to the naked eye but is equally captivating. Peter, writing to believers in his first letter, encouraged wives who were married to unbelieving husbands to win their husbands, not by adorning their bodies but by living lives of purity and reverence.

You beauty should not come from outer adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewellery or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. (1 Pet. 3:3-4)

Whatever the cause of your grief, Jesus invites you to give it to Him. He will take your turbulent emotions with their heaviness and despair and replace them with the beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, with joy and praise because He is the source of hope. Whatever your loss, it is never the end. If you trust Him, He will bring good out of your suffering and strengthen your confidence in His perfect love.

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.

Talk About Power!

Bible Study, , ,

TALK ABOUT POWER!

I pray also that the eyes if your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints and His incomparably great power for us who believe (Eph. 1: 18-19).

Once again we must remember the background of these Ephesian believers. Many of them had come out of witchcraft. After their conversion, they had made a huge bonfire of their witchcraft paraphernalia in the city. Their lives had been invaded by the power of God, the God of pure love. From then on, they could no longer have a part of anything that misused other people.

Why do people dabble in witchcraft? Why do some even sell their souls to the devil? He promises them power! But the only power the devil can give is power to control and power to destroy. It is evil power because it affects the lives of other for the worse. The next problem with demonic power is that it diminishes the person who uses it. Every time one person brings harm to another, he is diminished and dehumanised.

These ex-witches and wizards burned their past when they burned the tools of their sorcery, to tell the world and the devil that they had finished with that life. They were now under a new Master, one who also had power, a different kind of power of which they had never dreamed. Perhaps at that point of their new-found faith, they did not know the magnitude of the power that resided in them.

What did they need? Enlightenment. Understanding. Knowledge. Up this point in their lives, they had been fed and had believed lies. Since the early history of man, a false religion had grown up around Nimrod, great-grandson of Noah, and his evil wife Semiramis and her illegitimate son, Tammuz. Through a series of fabricated stories that Semiramis spawned, she had deified Nimrod as the sun-god, Baal, and she became the moon-goddess, known as Ashtaroth, or Astarte (Diana), or by other names in many parts of the ancient world.

Behind these false stories, the father of lies was garnering worship for himself under a variety a nom de plumes, which was exactly what he craved, even if he had to do it by deceit. Paul came to Ephesus with a blistering message of the truth. Satan, alias Caesar, alias Baal or any other name behind which he hid, was not Lord. Jesus was Lord and He proved it by His resurrection. Satan, through the evil religious leaders in Israel, tried to destroy Him but, instead, his plan backfired and Jesus destroyed him.

Those who were held captive to the devil and were enslaved to live in wickedness were now free to escape the devil’s clutches. Jesus had rescued them from their hell, forgiven their sin, power-washed them clean by His blood and relocated them to the kingdom of God where they had always belonged. Satan was the squatter, the hijacker and the felon who had usurped God’s position on His earth. Paul said, “If you want to know real power, that’s power.”

Many of us have seen effects of the raw power of nature. Fire, wind, water, earthquakes, rip through a region and leave utter devastation in their wake. But have you even noticed the power of a seed. I have seen buildings split open by the force of a growing seed. That’s power! Power does not only destroy. God’s power is able to restore, renew and recreate. He can heal broken hearts, broken people, and broken relationships. He can give people whom the devil has destroyed, a fresh start. Jesus said that it’s like being “born again”.

Paul wanted these people, who had only known destruction in their lives, to experience that kind of power. He prayed that they would have their spiritual eyes opened to the truth of what had happened to them. God had removed the cloud of doom that hung over them, and the deep-seated fear of death which was the legacy of those who gave allegiance to the devil. He had replaced it with hope, the unseen end product of what He had done for them through Jesus.

Their faith in Jesus had cancelled fear. They were safe in God’s kingdom – under His authority and protection from the one who had now become their arch-enemy. Jesus had bought them back from slavery. They were legitimately His. They now belonged to God, body, soul and spirit, and He had the power to keep them from wandering back into enemy territory as long as they kept their eyes on Him.

But the power of God didn’t end there. He had put a power source in them that had created the universe. Take that, devil! Satan is not a creator; he can only counterfeit what God has created. Even the people who worship him do not belong to him. He stole them and put his mark on them, the mark of rebellion in their hearts. God put His plan right back on track by rescuing the ones the devil had kidnapped, cleaned out all the evidence of his ownership and replaced them with His Spirit, His guarantee of ownership.

What power is there in the universe greater than the power of the Holy Spirit? His power is recreating, regenerating, restoring, and renewing power. “That’s the power of God I want you to know,” said Paul. God alone can give you understanding and experience of His power that is able to set aspects of your life right that went horribly wrong when Adam rebelled against God – your relationship with God, and your relationship with people. When these two areas of your life are back on track, everything in your life will come back into focus.

God’s power does something amazing inside of you. He enables you to take control of yourself. That’s it! When you have your own heart in check, through the power of the Holy Spirit in you, your world will turn right side up. It’s part of the fruit of the Spirit and it’s called, “self-control”!

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 ?

 

Two Mighty Statements

Bible Study, , ,

TWO MIGHTY STATEMENTS

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible (Heb. 11:1-3).

Two mighty statements! A superb definition of faith and a magnificent explanation of creation!

The writer referred to faith as the vehicle through which we enter this life in Christ, sustain this life and participate in all the benefits of Jesus’s sacrifice and high priesthood. Faith. What is faith? Two words describe faith in a nutshell – confidence and assurance. Faith reaches out from our hearts into the unseen realm and lays hold of spoken words to pull them into the natural until the unseen becomes visible. The believer puts his confidence in the trustworthiness of the one who spoke the words.

Not every word spoken into the atmosphere has weight. Many, many of the promises spoken by unreliable people vanish into oblivion as soon as they are out of their mouths. What about the empty promises made by politicians to hopeful electorate to gain their vote? Their words have not weight because they cannot fulfil them or because they have no intention of honouring their word.

What about words spoken by parents to children which are never carried out, leaving their offspring disappointed and disillusioned about the trustworthiness of their promises, spawning frustration and rebellion. How can God be trusted when His representatives don’t follow through on a simple promise? But God is reliable. That’s who He is!

Assurance! Confidence gives birth to assurance based on the credibility of the one who has promised. Although the promises of fickle humans do not always offer assurance, we can have absolute assurance that the word of our reliable God cannot be broken. His word is based on His character. He cannot deny Himself. He is God, after all.

“Look at the universe,” urges the writer. “How did it come into being?” God’s word! God spoke and stuff happened. That’s how powerful and trustworthy what God says, is. When He releases a word from His mouth, it has creative power. It can make happen in the visible world what is invisible in the atmosphere. God releases from His mouth what is already inside of Himself and it will translate into what He says because of who He is.

Faith = confidence and assurance. This is our invisible link with God’s promises and His power to do what He has said. It is His chosen way and He cannot act outside of faith. When we fail to trust Him enough to rest in what He has said, His hands are tied. There is no link between the unseen and the seen realm. Faith is the fine gossamer thread that links the temporal with the eternal.

Let’s look at the writer’s illustration. Contrary to the “ex nihilo” – out-of-nothing – explanation of the theologians, the Bible tells us what He did. God spoke into the physical what was already in existence; He made the visible out of what was invisible – atoms, energy – which is within Himself. Out of His own divine energy He formed the universe by the power of His command.

It is by the same power of His command that He brings into the visible world that which already exists in Him – His will. If He could fashion the universe out of the energy that was already within Himself, how simple it is for Him to bring into visibility the promises He has decreed by His word. The fact that His delays are connected to His timing does not negate His faithfulness in fulfilling His promise.

The issue, then, does not lie with God’s reliability but with our response. It is through faith – holding on to the gossamer thread that connects us to Him – and patience, the willingness to wait for His time that will see the promises fulfilled. Faith and hope, confidence and assurance, seeing the end result encapsulated in the promise and being confident that He who promised is faithful – reliable and secure.

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.

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

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

 

 

Now Let Us . . .

Bible Study, , ,

NOW LET US  . . .

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another  – and all the more as you see the Day approaching (Heb. 10:23-25).

There is always the need for a positive response to what God has done for us. One wonders who and how many of them were sowing discouragement among them in this community of Jewish believers, and urging them to go back to Judaism where they could practise their religion without harassment.

They knew very well how their ancestors had responded to discouragement and a bad report. When the twelve spies returned from their reconnoitring trip into Canaan, they thoroughly disrupted the camp and destroyed their morale by their discouraging words.  Wonderful country, yes, but oh, the giants! Forgotten were the promises of God and the many evidences of His power and provision along the way. And so they got what they anticipated – death in the desert – and not even at the hands of the Canaanites whom they feared.

There was great need – and this writer jumped in to fill it – for his readers to be encouraged to persevere in spite of the hard times because there was so much at stake.

They needed to take a long look at Jesus. Who was He? What did He do? Why must we trust Him? What’s wrong with our old ways? Without true understanding and recognition of who He was, they could easily give up and slide back into so-called peace and safety, and lose the very salvation they were seeking in their incomplete religion.

‘Hold on,’ urged the writer, ‘and never let go of the hope you have in Jesus.’ Hope? What is hope? Not just a vague wish but an assurance, underwritten by God Himself, that everything promised in Jesus has a predetermined outcome – something like building a jigsaw puzzle. Ever done one? Your hope of the outcome lies in the picture on the box. All the disconnected pieces make no sense when they are all laid out on the table. As long as you put the pieces in their correct places, you know that your puzzle with be exactly like the picture on the box.

‘Live in community,’ said the writer. ‘It’s an important piece in the puzzle.’ When coals fall out of the fire, to change the metaphor, they lose their heat. The only hope we have of remaining in the faith is to stick together, and keep the fire burning in spite of the efforts of outsiders to put it out.

Community is much more than coming together once a week to have “church”. Community is doing life together as a family, with a strong support base of love and sharing. We don’t need complainers. We need encouragers. We need oil, not water, to keep the fire burning. Keep up the good deeds. Look around you in your community. Where can you fill the gaps? This is one sure way to show the world that you have a new heart.

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers (Gal. 6: 10).

We live in a world of takers. Stinginess and greed are the name of the game in the ungodly communities around us. God calls us to be different. God is a giver. Look around you. There is lavish generosity everywhere in God’s world. Gods transforms us from takers to givers through the power of His Holy Spirit. We look at God’s mercy in our own lives, forgiving our sin, restoring us to His family as His beloved sons and daughters and providing everything we need to live godly lives. Our response can only be one thing – pour out our love and gratitude by meeting the needs of others.

Did the writer mean meeting together at church on a Sunday? I believe it is much more than that, important as that is. We can “meet together” in many different ways – sharing hospitality, a phone call to encourage, popping in for a cup of tea and a chat, praying over a need. Opportunities are endless to be a true community of God’s people. What better witness to a dog-eat-dog world that God is real and that He can make new people out of what we were!

And all because Jesus came, and gave His life for us. Now let 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.

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

Available on www.amazon.com or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublshing.com and order from your branch.