Tag Archives: the Father

GOOD STILL SPEAKS…SUNDAY SCHOOL DAYS – 1

Christian Life, ,

In recent days, I have listened to many stories of ex-Muslims who have been transformed by encounters with Jesus…sometimes in dreams, sometimes in person, and sometimes even in death. Every meeting with Jesus that has led to profound change, has ended with an instruction…

”Tell your story!” 

Of course, we have all have a story to tell because, every time we meet Jesus and He speaks, He sets us on course for a whole new life…a new season… and a new episode in our own story…

…and God still speaks. I know He speaks because I’ve heard His voice…not in my ears from the outside but in my spirit on the inside, many times.  He has told me things that have shaken me…changed my thoughts…and beliefs…and altered the direction of my life. So, I want to tell you some bits of my story…

…in episodes…not in one continuous tale but in a series of encounters on specific occasions that corrected…adjusted…explained…and instructed me…by a loving Father who is determined to keep me on track until I reach my destination…forever… in His realm…with Himself. 

My story may seem disjointed. I tell the highlights as I remember them because each one may touch you,  my reader, in some significant way. 

My first story is about a tiny child who went to Sunday School long before she could read or write. God was preparing me for a lifetime of living and growing under His care and authority. My earliest memories of those times on a Sunday morning were…learning to recite the Lord’s Prayer. 

Why was this so important to me? This seemingly random experience was the link between God and me…the bridge I crossed on the day my life changed forever. 

There are two things that have been my anchor throughout my life and more so as I get older…prayer and the Word of God. God began to lay the foundation in those very early days when I had no idea of what He had in store for me…sitting on a little wooden chair, my legs too short to reach the floor, listening to stories I thought were fairy tales…and memorising the Lord’s Prayer. 

Only as I grew order did I realise that those stories were about a real-life person called Jesus. My heart was slowly beginning to awaken…the first glimmers of light in a life that was already darkening with the thoughts and works of a sinful nature with which I was born. 

My Sunday School days extended from toddler days through childhood, adolescence, teenage, and into young adulthood. Those Sundays paralleled my school days because, as I learned my lessons in school, so I was learning the Word of God in Sunday School. Every year, faithfully, without a break, I wrote the Scripture exams prepared and provided by my denominational authority. How grateful I am that I was laying down, by God’s grace, a solid foundation of Bible truth upon which I built my life in later years. 

Then, one day, as a teenager, all the fragments, the strands of my life up to that point, came together. As I reflect now, I see how gracious was the hand of God in my life. Sin had spread its tentacles deep into my soul already. No, I was not an evil child. I was obedient and compliant in my home and at school but…in secret…I was stained. 

God could have rightfully snuffed me out…but He didn’t. Instead, He was moving me, slowly, inexorably, towards Himself. Guilt, shame, fear, could have alienated me from Him forever…but loneliness drew me to Him…and the early in my toddler life, I was learning the Lord’s Prayer…the trigger. 

Jesus promised…

“All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”

‭‭John‬ ‭6‬:‭37‬ ‭NIV‬‬

…and

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

‭‭John‬ ‭6‬:‭44‬ ‭NIV‬‬

How mysterious are God’s ways! Young and ignorant as I was, the Father drew me…and I began to follow…until the moment everything changed…in an instant…forever…on a day I can never forget…the day the world calls “April Fool’s Day”. 

To be continued

A TRUE SON

Bible Study, ,

A TRUE SON

“‘Who are you?’ they asked. ’Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,’ Jesus replied. ’I have much to say in judgment of you. But He who sent me is trustworthy, and what I heard from Him I tell the world.’ They did not understand that He was telling them about the Father. So, Jesus said, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; He has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases Him.'” John 8:25-29 (NIV).

Another outrageous claim if it were not true! “I always do what pleases Him.”

This was the hallmark of the Son of God. He always did what pleased the Father. Have you ever wondered what that was? What do you think it is that pleases the Father more than anything? We can speculate and find many answers to this question. He was generous and merciful just like the Father — that would be a good answer and it would be true. He glorified that Father in everything He did — that would also be true.

But what is it that surpasses everything else that pleases the Father? To find the answer we have to go back to the beginning. At the beginning of human history God gave Adam one instruction in the Garden of Eden, ‘Leave that one tree alone.’ If that one tree was going to be an issue between man and God, Satan made sure that man would focus on it until it became so important to him that it would become the reason for their disobedience.

The history of God’s ancient people was a history of disobedience, focusing especially on God’s instruction, ‘Do not worship idols.’ They worshipped the idols of the surrounding nations until they became vile, like the thing they loved (Hosea 9:10). Disobedience took them to Babylon and eventually to crucifying their Messiah.

God had a different verdict on David, their model king, the man who followed their first king, Saul, who was rejected because of his disobedience. “After removing Saul, He made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.'” Acts 13:22b (NIV).

Books have been written about David, the only man in the Bible of whom God said, ‘A man after my own heart’, giving many reasons for God’s approval, yet it is recorded plainly in the Word that God was pleased with him because ‘He will do everything I want him to do.’ David may have slipped up on more than one occasion but the drift of his life was that he ‘inquired of the Lord,’ and then followed through on God’s instruction.

Compare him with his predecessor, King Saul; Saul failed to carry out the two instructions we read about in Scripture. God could not trust him to be the leader of His people because of that. Saul had a dangerous self-consciousness that made him a people-pleaser and he disqualified himself from being the first of a dynasty of kings.

Jesus could claim, without a qualm, that He was the true Son of God. His obedience to the Father was absolute and unquestioning. Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He wrestled with the horror of the cross until the blood ran, He still submitted to the Father’s will and endured everything without resistance. “When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.” 1 Peter 2:23 (NIV).

Is it not true that God is more interested in our obedience than in our achievements? It is our obedience that makes our achievements of significance to God because obedience gets the job done. “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him…” Hebrews 5:8, 9, (NIV). Obedience is best learned by obeying!

Obedience presupposes that one knows what God’s requirements are and that presupposes that one spends time with the Father and in His Word. We have the pattern of the Son, perfect in every way… and we can’t say that of the Pharisees!

Don’t you also want to please the Father? Then find out what He wants of you and do it!

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

WHICH GOD?

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WHICH GOD?

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the people – the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you.” Colossians 1:3-6a.

Some religions claim that we all believe in and worship the same God but just in different ways. Is this correct? How can we be sure we are worshipping the true God?

Paul gives us a simple test to check whether we are worshipping the one true God or the creation of human imagination. Apart from the Bible, where we learn the nature and ways of God through revelation, we have an infallible way of knowing that we are believing in and following the ways of the God who is who He is and will do what He  said He will do. We must be sure of the truth if we stake our lives on what He says and what He has promised.

Our God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the great dividing line between the truth and the lies that are spoken about Him by people who refuse to believe in Him. The Apostle John stated it like this:

“Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist – denying the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.” 1 John 2:22, 23.

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.” 1 John 4:1-3.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit cannot be separated. If someone tells you that they believe in God but reject Jesus as the Son of God, no matter what he may claim, he is lying because the Father and Son are one. We cannot know God apart from the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is God in the flesh. He told Philip that whoever has seen Him has seen the Father (John 14:9). Jesus is the exact reflection of the Father and His purpose was to reveal the Father so that we might believe in Him and return to Him.

Without Jesus, we will never be able to go home to the Father because Jesus is the only way (John 14:6). It is a lie to believe that all religions will take us to God. Although it sounds like and has been branded as hate speech and intolerant to claim that Jesus is the only true God, He said it and He is the only way.

Imagine taking a journey from your home town to the capital city of your country. You go to the train station, buy a ticket to that city and then look for the platform from which your train will leave. How confusing it would be if there was a notice on every platform saying that this train will take you to your chosen destination. You choose a platform, climb on the train and settle in, believing that you will arrive at the city of your choice only to find, when the train stops, that you have gone in the wrong direction.

Believing that every god will take you to heaven is as foolish as believing that every train will take you to the capital city and yet that is what people believe. But how can we know that Jesus is the way to the Father? We have to examine His track record to see whether He was telling the truth about other things. How did he prove that He was not a liar?

People make all kinds of promises. Gods are also said to make promises to their followers. How do you know they are telling the truth? There was one promise Jesus made that no one else has ever dared to make: He said He would be put to death by the religious leaders but, after three days He would rise again. He raised dead people to life but how could He raise Himself and in a body that could never die again? He did come back to life because the Holy Spirit resurrected Him by His power.

If Jesus did that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be sure that He will do everything else He promised to do because He is the Son of God. What more do we need to know to believe that God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and that He is the one and only true God in three Persons?

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.

2 – ENGAGING THE POWERS OF THE KINGDOM – THIS IS IT!

Christian Life, ,

2 – ENGAGING THE POWERS OF THE KINGDOM 

 THIS IS IT!

Finally, my blindfold came off. I read this passage with understanding for the first time yesterday morning. Do you see it, precious people?

The reason I have never understood how God’s power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead applies to me is that I failed to appreciate Jesus’s authority in the world right now.

“I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that 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. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.” Ephesians 1:19-23 NLT

Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection qualified Him to be the supreme authority, ruler and head over everyone and everything that goes on in the world, and He rules over every situation and circumstance for the benefit of His body, the church.

During His life on earth, what mystified the religious leaders most was the source of Jesus’ authority. They refused to accept His testimony that He acted under the authority of the Father. They killed Him for claiming to be the Son of God.

By raising Him from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Father not only vindicated Jesus’s claim, but also gave Him the title, position and function of “Lord” – supreme authority over the universe.

This has huge implications for us. If Jesus has authority over everything that happens in the world, (and that does not mean that He causes bad things to happen but that He works all things for our good), then He is actively involved in every detail of our lives both good and bad.

What is He doing? He is training us for life in His kingdom in eternity. This life is an apprenticeship for the life to come. Everything that happens in our lives is a test of our progress in becoming like Him.  It is also an opportunity to engage the powers of the kingdom to overcome the effects of the fall so that we learn to reign over our old sin nature.

“For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:17 NLT

Since Jesus has the authority to use every circumstance for our good, He has given us the same power that raised Him from the dead to overcome every obstacle to our becoming like Him. His power has many facets, like a diamond, and each situation we face has a facet of that power we are exploring to meet our need.

God’s ultimate design for our lives on this fallen planet is to reproduce Jesus in us so that He can have an eternal family of sons and daughters like His Son.

“God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation. So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters.” Hebrews 2:10-11 NLT

So, the whole point of this study is to help us recognise and understand each facet of this power God has given us so that we can use this power to overcome what is in us that contradicts the nature of Jesus.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – STEEP YOURSELVES IN GOD

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STEEP YOURSELF IN GOD

”What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, not to be so pre-occupied with getting so that you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way He works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how He works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.” Luke 12:29-32.

There is fervour in these words of Jesus. What He is talking about here is the very foundation of life. Until we get this right, our experience of God will always yo-yo between doubting and trusting. Our worries and cares come from our being so us-aware and so close to the circumstances that we cannot step back, as Jesus always did, and look at the big picture.

The first thing to settle in our hearts is the non-negotiable truth that God loves us. Since He has taken the trouble to come Himself to redeem us at the cost of His own life, our physical needs and wants are miniscule by comparison. He did this for one reason, to restore us to His family as His sons and daughters. Settle that one too! Everything God has promised and does for us fits into that context – family.

Jesus urged us to approach the Father as little children, not teenagers who always think they know better but as little children who are helpless without their father. This is the amazing thing about life in God’s family. He is not training us for independence as human parents do their children. God is training us for complete dependence; in fact, in His scheme of things, the more dependent we are on Him, the more mature we are in the faith!

Jesus insisted, “Without me you can do nothing.” John 15:6 (NIV). To God, maturity means going back to infancy! Why has He built such a contradictory principle into our relationship with Him? It takes us right back to His dream – to create beings who would be one with Him (echad) because oneness in the Godhead is who He is. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Deuteronomy 6:4 (NIV), Israel’s creed.

Although He gave us the gift of choice, He knows very well where it takes us when we use it to enforce our independence. The same capacity to choose becomes a powerful tool when we recognise our dependence on Him and align ourselves with Him as helpless infants. The benefits of this attitude are ‘out of this world’ – access to the limitless supply of God’s resources, a carefree life in the care of God, and the inexpressible joy of being responsible partners in His kingdom, bringing His rule of love and truth into the mess we humans have made because we insisted on being independent.

If we keep on viewing God as a blown-up version of our human fathers, we will forfeit the most unpredictably exciting life. Instead we will spend our lives chewing our fingernails, chasing ‘things’ as though this life were all that mattered, and missing the journey that takes us deeper and deeper into the heart of the Father. If we are to be the disciples of Jesus we claim to be, then we have to learn to think like He did. Jesus was joined to His Father at the hip. He was a mature Son who depended on His Father like a new-born infant. That’s the paradox of the Christian life. Growing up means becoming more and more like little children. In this way, Jesus said, the kingdom is ours.