Tag Archives: compassionate

MOLLY AND ME – A TENDER LOVE

Christian Life, ,

Molly is just a dog. She isn’t a puppy any more but I still call her my “baby girl” because she is small, vulnerable, and dependent. I treat her like a dog. I don’t dress her up like a child, I try not to feed her human food, (although I once did), I try to fall in line with her “dog-ness”.

She has limited understanding so I don’t expect her to understand what she can’t because she is a dog. Instead, even though she is naughty at times, stubborn, disobedient, fussy, and even independent, I still treat her like a dog. I crank up what she does understand, tenderness! Soft, kind tones…togetherness…
companionship…closeness…
exercise… praise…treats… and even routine which makes her feel secure.

My efforts pay off when I receive the kind of unconditional love and loyalty only a dog can give. My greatest reward is that moment when Molly lies on my lap, comfortable and warm under our “red blankie”, and gazes adoringly into my eyes.

I’ve learnt to be a good dog owner by the way my Father treats me. He knows my capacities and limits. Someone once wrote a song (which I can’t find on YouTube), “I’m only a child in His eyes…” The Father knows my child-ness just as I recognise Molly’s dog-ness and He treats me accordingly.

His tenderness is unmatched. His compassion is limitless. His mercy is as high as the heavens are above us. He us the Father of all fathers, the one we need more than anyone else. How precious is He to those who call Him “Abba!”.

Psalms 103:13-16 NLT
[13] “The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. [14] For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust. [15] Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die. [16] The wind blows, and we are gone— as though we had never been here.”

There is no one like the Lord who accommodates Himself to who were are, who knows our weakness and failures and forgives. He covers our sin with the blood of His own Son and removes the pollution of our rebellious acts as far as the east is from the west. He changes our stubborn hearts from rebels to adoring children. Thank you, Father, for such tender love!

Learning To Be A Son – Chapter Four – The Disposition Of The Son

Book Reviews, , ,

CHAPTER FOUR

The Disposition of the Son

Moses was up the mountain, pleading with God to forgive Israel for breaking the covenant. He requested to see God’s glory and God responded by revealing His name – gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness. Since it was the Father’s representative on earth, the second person of the Trinity who met with Moses, the revelation of His disposition on Mount Sinai indicated what His disposition would be as a human being on earth.

As we follow Jesus through the pages of the gospels, we read the record of how He lived out His disposition as the Messiah whom the Father sent to reveal His true nature to His people. Jesus made enemies of the religious leaders because they did not like His exposure of their ungodly lives which they covered up by their strict adherence to their interpretations and additions to God’s directions for living.

Jesus taught His disciples and demonstrated to His people how to interpret the Torah as God intended. They were to be generous and merciful to all people because God was always merciful and generous towards them. As a rabbi, He had the right to teach them His “yoke” His interpretation of the Torah according to God’s intention. He invited people to take His yoke and learn from Him because He was gentle and humble in heart. His yoke would release them from bondage to the yoke of the other rabbis which was a straightjacket of rules and regulations, and bring them into God’s true rest.

Jesus also enraged the religious leaders because of His claim to be the Son of God. Both the testimony of the Father and the works He did bore witness to who He was, but the religious leaders refused to examine the evidence. They repudiated His claims and looked for a way to get rid of Him.

Jesus did not only claim unity with the Father and sonship – He lived it out as a submissive and obedient Son. His relationship and fellowship with the Father give us the clue to the “password” which allows us access to all that the Father has given us through Jesus. It is only because we have the rights as sons and daughters of God that we can approach the Father in prayer and receive from Him everything we need to live godly lives in this world as followers of Jesus.

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 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 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), 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.

To order your 0wn copy of either book, contact

Toll free – 0800 990 914 (South Africa)

orders.africa@partridgepublishing.com

www.partridgepublishing.com/africa  or

+44 20 314 3997 (outside South Africa)

ISBN: Hardcover – 978-1-4828-0891-9                                                                                     Softcover 978-1-4828-0890-2                                                                                                              eBook 978-1-4828-0889-6

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

Show Us Your Credentials

Christian Life, , , ,

SHOW US YOUR CREDENTIALS

“One day He was teaching the people in the Temple, proclaiming the Message. The high priests, religion scholars and leaders confronted Him and demanded, ‘Show us your credentials. Who authorised you to speak and act like this?’

“Jesus answered, ‘First let me ask you a question. About the baptism of John — who authorised it, heaven or humans?’

“They were on the spot, and knew it. They pulled back into a huddle and whispered, ‘If we say ‘heaven’, He’ll ask us why we didn’t believe Him; if we say ‘humans’, the people will tear us limb from limb, convinced as they are that John was God’s prophet.’ They agreed to concede that round to Jesus and said they didn’t know.

“Jesus said, ‘Then neither will I answer your question.'” Luke 20:1-8 (The Message).

Jesus was smart. He knew that the religious leaders had no interest in the answer to their question other than to use it against Him. They were building their case against Him and the answer to this question was an important weapon in their arsenal.

Jesus was a rabbi with authority, which meant that He had the right to determine how He would interpret the Torah and how He would apply His interpretation in His own life and teaching. This was called His ‘yoke’ and was binding upon His disciples as well; they were obligated to wear His yoke and to ‘bind’ in on their followers, loosing them from the yoke of any other rabbi. Any deviation or addition meant that they were automatically disqualified from being His disciples.

Since Jesus had the supreme authorisation of His Father and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, (“When all the people were being baptised, Jesus was baptised too. And as He was praying, the heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, you are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.'” Luke 3:21, 22. NIV), His yoke carried more authority than the yoke of any other rabbi.

The religious leaders were following the yoke of the chief rabbis of their day, which was in conflict with Jesus’ yoke. They strictly and rigidly stuck to the Law of God, and the many additions made by their religious authorities through the years, which distorted the character of God until He was unrecognisable as the God of their fathers. The God who had revealed Himself to Moses as “gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness, forgiving sin…” Exodus 34:6, was buried under a terrible weight of do’s and don’ts which effectively made the people slaves of religion.

Jesus came to reveal the true nature of the Father and to set His people free from the terrible yoke of legalism. No wonder He earnestly extended His invitation to His harassed people, “‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.'” Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV).

Since Jesus came to reveal the heart of a loving and compassionate Father, it was inevitable that He would clash with the religious leaders because they held the power over the people and would not easily relinquish it to the likes of Jesus who continually humiliated them by the way He applied His yoke of mercy and compassion to suffering people. Like all false religions, they ruled the people by the fear of punishment and hated the exposure of their own wicked hearts.

Jesus was always one step ahead. Instead of answering their question as they wanted Him to, which would have been, for them, an admission of blasphemy, He asked them a question, ‘Who gave John his authority?’ Their response would incriminate them, one way or the other. To admit that John was a prophet of God would expose their guilt because they refused to acknowledge or believe him, and he had come to introduce Jesus as Messiah! To deny his heavenly calling would be to admit their guilt and risk the loss of their power over the people.

The very fact that Jesus lived and acted in harmony with God’s revelation of Himself in the Torah was proof enough that His credentials were impeccable – He was the living embodiment of the Father and the religious leaders could not fault Him. In fact, they had no answer to His challenge, ‘Who of you convinces me of sin?’

They had trapped themselves and they had to concede defeat.