Tag Archives: honour

NO SENSE OF NEED

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NO SENSE OF NEED

“‘For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son of Man gives life to whom He is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent Him. Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.'” John 5:21-24 (NIV).

Wow! That was a mouthful for His opponents to swallow!

Did these men who thought and acted in the natural, understand what Jesus was saying? What was their first impression?

Even if they did not get what He was saying, they could not miss that fact that He was talking about unity, partnership and authority in His relationship with God that clearly put Him on the same level as the Father. This must have riled them to the core because no one would have the gall to make such claims unless he were either crazy or speaking the truth.

They were face to face with someone who was evidently completely human and yet He was talking about God as His Father and claiming intimacy and unity with Him and the functions that belonged to God alone; raising the dead and judgment. And then, on top of that, He was demanding equal honour with the Father as though He were on a par with Him! To them, this man was a complete lunatic or a dangerous blasphemer.

Yet Jesus did not behave like either. Could someone who was out of his mind do the things He was doing? He had just healed a man who had been paralysed and helpless for thirty-eight years. Was that the action of a madman? And the way He did it was equally miraculous — He simply spoke to the man; told him to get up and walk. That’s how God worked — spoke the universe into being and it happened!

The facts stared them in the face but their minds could not process the facts or the explanation He gave about the facts. On top of that, they had their prejudice and their resistance because they did not want to believe in Him. If they did, their comfortable lives and the power they wielded over the common people would be shaken to the core.

What was the problem that lay at the heart of these religious leaders’ thinking, and the difference between them and the tax collectors and “sinners” they despised? They had no sense of need. Religion is the most difficult disease to cure because it infects with such self-righteousness that no sense of need remains.

What was Jesus doing when He spoke to these stubbornly insensitive men? He was trying to awaken in them an awareness of how far they from the truth, as one insightful preacher said, “He offended the mind to expose the heart.” Jesus’ words do that. He either offends or informs His hearers in order to expose the deception they have swallowed and followed. People either react or respond to Him according to their sense of need.

The Samaritan woman, by contrast, responded to His exposure of her unsavoury lifestyle by telling the people of her home town what Jesus had revealed. She was neither ashamed nor embarrassed by His disclosure. She was transformed and she wanted everyone to know it.

The Pharisees reacted in anger towards Him and schemed to kill Him rather than respond to Him because, unlike the Samaritan woman, they felt no guilt and had not sense of need. Their self-righteousness, based on their performance which they put on for the sake of their audience, left them with the idea that God was obliged to them because of their “goodness” and they had no need of His mercy or grace.

There is only one thing that will keep us aware of our need of God’s mercy — our utter inability to reach God’s standard of perfection. We can either keep trying and failing or we can fall upon His mercy and receive His forgiveness and the gift of His perfect righteousness which Jesus gives to us at the expense of His own life.

Have you received His mercy with gratitude and relief?

Acknowledgement

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.

RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIPS

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RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIPS

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honour your father and mother’ which is the first commandment with a promise – ‘so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.’ Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Eph. 6:1-4).

Have you noticed how relationships always work in pairs? They are never one-sided. People on every level function interdependently but, at the same time, one group sets the tone and the other responds, and vice versa. Take the relationship between parents and children or, as Paul instructed here in his letter to Ephesian believers newly rescued out of paganism, fathers and children.

Why did Paul single out fathers for their specific role in the family? Is it not because, again, fathers have the responsibility to take the lead and to set the tone for the whole family. This, of course, assumes that there is a father in the family and that he recognises and understands his role as the head of the home.

With today’s rebellion against God’s beautiful idea for marriage, the world is full of biological fathers who have abdicated their role as real fathers, procreating offspring like animals whose main purpose is to pass on their genes, while ignoring their task of raising their children in a godly environment. Is it any wonder that the world is also full of ‘orphans’ who have no identity, no security, no home and no name because their fathers are not fathering them as Paul instructed?

It was not God’s idea to set boundaries around human behaviour to spoil our fun. Belief in the lie of evolution has a spin-off. If human beings are no more than a higher order of apes, evolved over millions of years to walk upright and to have superior intelligence, then it is in order for us to behave like apes, ignoring such things as decency and morality. (From where do morality and conscience come if we are only human apes)?

We can only be safe and flourish within the boundaries of well-defined moral behaviour. God’s prescriptions for children and fathers in the family circle constitute the safety zone in which they are protected and can live in harmony with one another.

When roles and functions are blurred, the power struggle begins and the result is chaos and unhappiness. It is the father’s role to set the standards for the child the moment he or she enters the world. Baby is not king in the house and the sooner he learns that, the better.

God has only one requirement for children – obedience to their parents. This does not mean that parents must beat their children into submission. They must apply discipline where necessary but always in the best interests of protecting love and preserving unity, not venting their anger and frustration on the child because they are bigger and stronger.

Why is obedience to parents of primary importance? A child is naturally selfish and independent – the hallmarks of Adam’s nature in them. If he is left to himself, his potential for selfishness and independence will come to full bloom in a life of lawlessness and rebellion against all authority, and he will end up a hardened criminal living a wasted life, probably in a prison cell.

It is the father’s role to tame that potential for rebellion by nurturing his child in the atmosphere of love and acceptance, to submit to his authority in the home. That presupposes that the father will love his child enough to set reasonable boundaries and to reinforce them lovingly and not in anger or frustration. Again, that presupposes that he is submitted to Jesus Christ as Lord and that he honours God and obeys His Word just as he expects his child to honour and obey him.

Once again, there is no place for one person lording it over another even if they are father and child. No child will honour, respect and obey a cruel or abusive father. He will do so if his parent treats him with respect. That implies and includes reasonable boundaries which, of necessity, will change as the child grows older.

This interconnected, interactive behaviour is intended to foster loving and harmonious relationships in the home that produce order and contentment. Each one in the family must know his or her place according to God’s Word, within which he or she will be safe and contented. When one or another steps out of line, the result is chaos, confusion and unhappiness.

There is a pitfall every parent must avoid – the idea that it is important to be your child’s ‘friend’. Some parents are afraid to exercise discipline and to teach their children to behave in a civilised way because they don’t want to lose their child’s ‘friendship’. That is a lie from the devil. Parents are parents, not friends. God placed parents in the home to guide and shape their children for responsible adulthood, not to be on the level with them or to please them.

It is only within this environment of interactive living that children can be their real selves and can develop to their full potential in the atmosphere of harmony and peace. The world is full of angry people, angry because Dad was either missing or a tyrant in the home. God’s way is the only way that really works.

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.

 

THE BOOK OF ACTS – THE CHURCH AT REST

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THE CHURCH AT REST

“Things calmed down after that and the church had smooth sailing for a while. All over the country — Judea, Samaria, Galilee, — the church grew. They were permeated with a deep sense of reverence for God. The Holy Spirit was with them, strengthening them. They prospered wonderfully.” Acts 9:31 (The Message).

Whew! What a relief!

Sending Saul back home to Tarsus was a good move for the believers. They were able to stabilise and regroup for a while in preparation for the next wave of persecution which was sure to come.

Luke does not give us a time frame for these events but it could not have been many years before the church had fulfilled at least some of its commission to take the gospel from Jerusalem to the rest of the known world.

Already the three provinces of Israel were saturated with the Message. With the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch, there was a witness in Africa and Saul was no doubt actively preaching Jesus back in his home town of Tarsus in Asia Minor. There was already a strong church in Damascus in Syria. Who knows where else it had spread, with believers being scattered through persecution?

What was it about this new movement that made it so powerful? One would have thought that, with all the efforts to exterminate it, people would have been scared off instead of being drawn to it. It is not persecution that kills the church but a deadly disease that destroys the church from within. Like dry rot, which destroys the wood but not the structure, a church may have all the outward trappings of functionality but lack the activity of the Spirit that keeps it alive.

Luke drops a few clues that give us insight into the nature of the early church. Whether they were in a phase of peace or persecution, there was an inner resilience that came from the heart attitude of the people.

“They were permeated with a deep sense of reverence for God.” Could it be that this is one of the most important ingredients missing from the church today?

Here is Paul’s diagnosis of the terrible state of the world he lived in — and he was quoting a psalm which reflected the times of the psalmist!

“There is no fear of God before their eyes” Romans 3:18 (NIV).

This should tell us that this is an inborn characteristic of humankind which comes from Adam himself when he chose to disregard God’s authority and go his own way. The history of God’s people was evidence of a massive disrespect for God which they lived out in sinful rebellion and blatant disobedience to His Word.

The symptoms of this disease are easily recognisable. Number one is treating God like a mate or a servant. It’s “God, do this, and God do that,” and if He doesn’t, they call His character into question and even walk away.

Number two is usurping His authority in the church. How many church leaders are attaching people to themselves, acting like dictators and twisting God’s word to suit themselves, garnering the spoils of their greed to feather their own nests?

God’s response is clear and sobering. “What right have you to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips? …These things you have done and I kept silent; you thought I was altogether like you. But I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face. Consider this, you who forget God or I will tear you to pieces with none to rescue. He who offers thank offerings honours me and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God.” Psalm 50:16b; 21-23 (NIV).

But there is another response from God to those who give God the honour due to Him. “The Holy Spirit was with them strengthening them. They prospered wonderfully.” The Holy Spirit has not left the church but He is often quenched or grieved into silence because He is no longer honoured in the church.

Learning To Be A Son – Chapter Thirteen – Lest We Forget

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LEARNING TO BE A SON

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

LEST WE FORGET

Fellowship with God as His sons and daughters can lead to problems if we forget who our Father is. We must beware that intimacy with God does not become familiarity which borders on disrespect for who He is and contempt for His word.

Moses had problems in the Israelite camp with two of Aaron’s sons who offered profane fire on God’s altar. God put them to death. Moses himself was refused entry into the Promised Land because he disobeyed God and struck the rock twice. The people in Malachi’s day were sliding back into sloppy worship and had to be warned.

David knew that God was inescapable, but it comforted him, not terrified him because he knew that God responded to those who fear Him. Jesus was the perfect model of one who feared the Lord. He honoured the Father by His submission and obedience to Him.

What is friendship with God? Abraham was known as the friend of God. How did he get a title like that? God put him to the test and he trusted God so implicitly that he obeyed Him immediately. Prompt and complete obedience is the acid test of true friendship with God.

Jesus called His disciples His friends but He qualified His statement with these words:

You are my friends if you obey what I command. (John 15:14)

The fear of the Lord opens the way to intimacy with Him (Psa. 25:14). The fear of the Lord is also the foundation of true wisdom. Everything we do in life in obedience to God’s word works and shows us that respect for God which issues in obedience is the foundation of success in life.

Our relationship with God stands firmly on two legs. He is our Father and He invites us into fellowship with Him. He is also our Creator, source and sustainer. He is sovereign over us and we honour Him and obey Him because He is the Almighty God.

We are to keep these two aspects of our relationship with Him in balance. He calls us to separate ourselves from the world and its evil desires and to be His holy temple in which He dwells by His Spirit.

 

 

The Ministry Of Angels

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THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS

It is not to angels that He subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified:

‘What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? You made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour and put everything under their feet.’

In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. (Heb. 2: 5-8)

Angels have their place in God’s order of things but, unlike mankind, they do not rule. They are spirit beings but they were not created in the image of God. They praise, worship and serve God; they rejoice over the works of God; they are instruments of God’s judgment; they carry out God’s will on earth; they protect God’s people and accompany those who have died. Although they are spirit beings, they are personalities who possess intelligence, emotions and will.

Whatever the Bible says about angels in the context of their most important function, to serve God, one thing is clear – they have a lower position and function in God’s order of things than human beings. They may be beautiful and powerful in their specific roles but they are lesser beings than mankind for three very good reasons:

1. They were not created in the image of God.

The glory they have is not the glory of God which He breathed into the first human pair at their beginning. God’s glory is manifested in His nature. Although the whole of mankind fell from that glory when Adam and Eve sinned, it was always God’s intention to restore Him image in redeemed humans so that they may be a reflection of Him to all of creation, and especially to the fallen angels who are against God.

As part of our inheritance, God has restored His nature to those who are reconciled and reconnected to Him by faith in His Son. Through His very great and precious promises we appropriate that nature and, by doing so, we escape the corruption that is in the world caused by evil desires (2 Peter 1: 4).

2. They were not created to be one with God.

In His great love, God opened the Trinity to the human race to become one with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to share the love and intimacy they enjoy with God and with one another, just as there is perfect unity and perfect harmony within the triune God.

Jesus’s prayer on the eve of His crucifixion reflects God’s highest intention for the human race.

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one even as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me (John 17: 20-23).

3. They were not given the mandate to rule over the earth.

God created the human race to be managers of His world. They were not to control one another but to rule over the natural world and to manage it under Him and for Him. Although the first human pair fell for Satan’s deception and changed allegiance, God did not withdraw His intention for them to rule. Whatever we have done with God’s creation, He holds us accountable for the way we have managed the earth and used His resources.

His intention has not yet been fulfilled. Humankind has squandered God’s resources through our greed and desecrated His world but there is a promise or restoration and renewal yet to be fulfilled.

Watch this space!

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.