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General Principles

Ministerial Qualifications

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This is taken from a blog I wrote back in 2012.

Of all the English translations I have read I have yet to come across one which brings out the distinctions in the Greek words for love in John 21:15-17. Knowing the differences significantly adds to the understanding of Jesus’ reinstatement of Peter and the qualifications for being a minister in God’s church.  Only the amplified version really brings it out but you can lose the significance in all the words.  Here is my version:

15 When they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you agape Me more than these? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I phileo You. He said to him, Feed My lambs.

16 Again He said to him the second time, Simon, son of John, do you agape Me? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I phileo You. He said to him, Shepherd My sheep.

17 He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you phileo Me? Peter was grieved that He should ask him the third time, Do you phileo Me? And he said to Him, Lord, You know everything; You know that I phileo You! Jesus said to him, Feed My sheep.

Agape means love like Jesus’ love when He died for us on the Cross.  A supernatural love that comes straight from the Father.  Peter knew he didn’t love Jesus like that – not after his three denials on the night Jesus needed him most.  He wasn’t going to make the same mistake he had made before the crucifixion (John 13:37).

But he also knew that he had phileo –  a brotherly affection and natural love for Jesus.  So he had responded honestly.  He didn’t mind Jesus questioning his agape love but he was upset when he questioned even his phileo love.  He would have been devastated to discover that he didn’t even have that!

But actually Jesus was out to encourage him.  For each time He questioned Peter and each time Peter answered honestly and without pretense Jesus found in him someone He could trust.  Someone who could feed the young and tend to the needs of and even feed the more mature.

Some teachers would say that Pentecost (Acts 2: 1-4) added the agape to the phileo that Peter had.  And perhaps it did.  But for me I think I know what answer I would give to Jesus if I was asked the same questions, Pentecost or no Pentecost.

Only He knows really how qualified I am, or anyone is, to spiritually feed and tend His lambs or sheep.  But the qualifications are definitely not academic ones.  You don’t have to learn the Greek to love His people enough to feed them.

General Principles

There I will meet with you

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42 “These burnt offerings are to be made each day from generation to generation. Offer them in the Lord’s presence at the Tabernacle entrance; there I will meet with you and speak with you.

Exodus 29:42 NLT

Now there is one sacrifice we can remember daily – the Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross – and there He – Resurrected – will meet with us.

The elements of this meeting with Jesus – the Sacrificed Lamb – are described in types and shadows in Exodus 29:37-41:

37 Purify the altar, and consecrate it every day for seven days. After that, the altar will be absolutely holy, and whatever touches it will become holy.

38 “These are the sacrifices you are to offer regularly on the altar. Each day, offer two lambs that are a year old, 39 one in the morning and the other in the evening. 40 With one of them, offer two quarts of choice flour mixed with one quart of pure oil of pressed olives; also, offer one quart of wine[e] as a liquid offering. 41 Offer the other lamb in the evening, along with the same offerings of flour and wine as in the morning. It will be a pleasing aroma, a special gift presented to the Lord.

The altar – the Cross – is absolutely holy, everyone who it touches (in the Spirit) is spoilt for anything else. The Lamb is first and last, morning and evening. Come to him with your crushed, anointed words of sincerity and truth and enjoy the wine of His pleasure in you. You are a pleasing aroma, a special gift presented to the Lord.

His delight is in you. There, at the Cross, He will meet with you. There is nothing better.

General Principles

Deliverance

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David, the anointed king of Israel, is on the run from another anointed king of Israel, Saul. Saul is jealous of him and trying to kill him. David, on the other hand, doesn’t want to lay a hand on Saul – the Lord’s anointed.

Volumes have been written on that relationship but I just want to look at one incident in this post:

10 That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. 11 But the servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one they sing about in their dances:

“‘Saul has slain his thousands,
    and David his tens of thousands’?”

12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. 13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.

14 Achish said to his servants, “Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? 15 Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?”

1 Samuel 21:10-15.

I have read that passage many times and often wondered how David got away with it. Pretending to be a madman would only likely increase the chances of him being killed. What was he thinking when he went to Gath (near the present day Gaza strip), that no one would recognise him? He slaughtered thousands of them. Surely, he should have been killed?

Apparently David thought so too. In Psalm 34 he sums up his delight and thankfulness to God for delivering him from Achish (also known as Abimelek):

Psalm 34

Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelek, who drove him away, and he left.

1 I will extol the Lord at all times;
    his praise will always be on my lips.
2 I will glory in the Lord;
    let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
3 Glorify the Lord with me;
    let us exalt his name together.

4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
    he delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant;
    their faces are never covered with shame.
6 This poor man called, and the Lord heard him;
    he saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him,
    and he delivers them.

8 Taste and see that the Lord is good;
    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
    for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 The lions may grow weak and hungry,
    but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
11 Come, my children, listen to me;
    I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 Whoever of you loves life
    and desires to see many good days,
13 keep your tongue from evil
    and your lips from telling lies.
14 Turn from evil and do good;
    seek peace and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
    and his ears are attentive to their cry;
16 but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
    to blot out their name from the earth.

17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
    he delivers them from all their troubles.
18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
    and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

19 The righteous person may have many troubles,
    but the Lord delivers him from them all;
20 he protects all his bones,
    not one of them will be broken.

21 Evil will slay the wicked;
    the foes of the righteous will be condemned.
22 The Lord will rescue his servants;
    no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.

Family, General Principles

Jesus and His Dad

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Everyone has a father even if not everyone has known who that was or even if they were not always there for them.

My observation is that absent or dysfunctional fathers are the root cause of a lot of people’s issues with authority, other men and God.

For those who had a reasonably good, or at least present, father in their early years you probably remember a time when you idolised him. You would have compared him with others and boasted about his various attributes, how important his job was or how good he was at various things, like kicking a ball into the sky or jumping a gate. You might have been about 5 or 6.

There is a sense in which Jesus seems to have never lost that sense of awe about his dad. I guess, in one way, that is not surprising considering Who we are talking about:

“My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch anyone out of the hand of the father. ” (John 10: 29)

The relationship between Jesus and his father was intense to say the least:

“Truly, truly I say to you that the son is able to do nothing from himself unless it is something he sees the father doing. For whatever he does the son also does in the same way.” (John 5:19)

“I am not able to do anything from myself. As I hear I judge and my judgement is righteous because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.” (John 5:30)

“I and the father are one.” (John 10:30)

“I have come from the father and have come into the world. Now I leave the world and go to the father.” (John 16:28).

Most of the time we don’t hear the father’s side of the ongoing conversation between the father and son but there are a couple of examples which show just how much the father also loved the son:

And lo, a voice came from Heaven, saying, “This Is My Beloved Son, In Whom I Am Well Pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)

(Jesus said) Father, glorify your name. Then there came a voice from heaven saying: “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” (John 12:28).

From the above quotations and many others it is clear that Jesus depended heavily on the father for everything. We see this again coming up to the day of his crucifixion:

“Behold, an hour is coming and has come when each one of you will be scattered and I will be left alone. But I am not alone because the father is with me.” (John 17:32)

But then, when he needed him most, the father abandons him.

Did Jesus see this coming?

About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). (Matthew 27:46)

If your dad left your mother unexpectedly when you were young and or vulnerable it may have been the most, or one of the most, difficult days of your life.

Jesus knows what that was like. (Hebrews 4:15)

General Principles

Letter to a Prisoner

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Remember the prisoners…. Hebrews 13:3

He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we may boldly say:

“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”

Hebrews 13:5-6

Dear T….,

I was glad to hear that D… & E… were in such regular contact with you. I know they have been helping you in your new situation. I trust that you have also been aware of the Holy Spirit’s tangible help during the times when no one else can be there for you.

I was sorry to hear about your father’s passing also. The Bible says that God is the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). I know that you know God. The Spirit of His Son dwells in you and you can cry out “Abba, Father” to Him and He will hear and answer you. In all your troubles He has and will comfort you.

In this letter I want to remind you of the things you already know so that you can remember how much Jesus has loved you and how He has shown that love towards you and will show it to you again. He has given you the Holy Spirit in your heart as a kind of down payment on the future he has planned for you with Him in heaven (Ephesians 1:14).

Jesus has gone to prepare a place for you among the many magnificent dwelling places that His Father has created for us in heaven (John 14:2-3). When you feel God’s presence with you in your prison cell that is a kind of foretaste of the future you will share with Him and the rest of us who are in His body. Feeling His presence is a great joy and privilege. However, even when we don’t feel the warmth and comfort of the Holy Spirit in us and around us, we can still remain confident that He has not left us. Once we become a son through His grace and because of Calvary, we never stop being a son. Once you were a slave to sin but then God met you and you became a son of God through the action of the Holy Spirit in your heart. A slave does not remain in a house forever but a son does (John 8:34-36).

These things that I have written to you are not my own words but those that God has inspired through the Bible. Now that you have a lot of time on your hands you should bury yourself in God’s word and meditate, think deeply, about these things (Colossians. 3:16). As you do this things will work out and you will begin to see the hand of God in all that is happening to you (Psalm 1, Joshua 1:8).

I hope to write again as God leads. D… and E… keep us up to date with your progress and news. I expect you will have heard by now about the good news concerning B…. Our God is very merciful and gracious.

May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face to continually shine upon you.

Your brother in Christ

Brendan.

General Principles

Glorifying God

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30 Having received the piece of bread, he then went out immediately. And it was night.

31 So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. 32 If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately.

John 13:30-32

When Jesus gave Judas the piece of bread he was putting in motion the events that would inevitably put Him on the cross. There was no possibility of turning events back at that point. It may have been the bravest thing He did.

Jesus was fully aware of what He had done and of the consequences of it. Now a son of Adam had been glorified in a way no man ever had before. Jesus knew that once a son of man had been glorified in this way that God was truly glorified in this man and that He was now going to be glorified by God.

8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:8-11

God glorifying Jesus in Himself explains why this particular man who grew up in an obscure part of the Roman Empire 2000 years ago, who wrote nothing that we know of and whose immediate followers were mostly persecuted and scattered is the Son of Man and Son of God adored by millions in ages past right up to the current day.

Only God could do that.

General Principles

Caterpillars & Butterflies

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Earth and Heaven

Paul writes: For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.

Romans 1:20.

Of all the creatures God has made surely none speak of how God can transform something earthy into something heavenly more than caterpillars being transformed into butterflies.

This caterpillar:

becomes this butterfly:

There is no obvious connection between any caterpillar and the butterfly it becomes. Unless someone told you, there is no way you would think that that caterpillar could turn into that butterfly. Apart from the obvious lack of wings and a very differently shaped body, there is not even a colour shared between the two.

John says:

Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

1 John 3:2

Paul casts more light on the meaning of this astonishing creation:

35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen and to each kind of seed its own body. 39 Not all flesh is alike, but there is one flesh for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory.

42 So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a physical body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the physical and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As one of dust, so are those who are of the dust, and as one of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the one of dust, we will also bear the image of the one of heaven.

The caterpillar is a picture of our lives in the physical bodies we exist in now. The butterfly is a picture of what we will be like in heaven. There will be a body but the spirit (wings) will be the prominent thing. What is invisible now about you will be displayed in all its glory there.

When you look at these butterflies and their corresponding caterpillars notice the following:

  1. There is no way of knowing what butterfly would emerge from what caterpillar.
  2. The caterpillars crawl along the ground with their heads down eating. Some of them have false eyes looking up to ward off predators.
  3. The defense mechanisms that the caterpillars have:
    • False eyes,
    • Horns and spikes
    • Camouflages (one looks like bird poo!)
  4. The lack of defense mechanisms in the butterflies.

So it seems caterpillars do a lot to preserve their lives but butterflies do not seem to see a need to do this.

I found this clip on butterflies in Mozambique. You will need to be able to access BBC iPlayer (from a UK server and you will need to register) to get it or you can watch it on the U & Eden channel on Sky. It is taken from the David Attenborough narrated Africa series episode 4. The relevant part starts at 09:20 and ends at 13:35.

Thousands of butterflies emerge from pupae deep in the Mozambique rain forest. The jungle is not an easy place to fly or find mates so the butterflies follow rivers upstream. After hours of determined flying they all emerge to the only open space there is – the treeless peak of Mount Marbu. Up here, free from the confines of the jungle, they hold a butterfly ball. Now they have all the space they need for their aerobatic courtships.

The point is that there are levels to our relationship/intimacy with God and higher heights to press toward.

General Principles

The Aim of the Commandment

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5 τὸ δὲ τέλος τῆς παραγγελίας ἐστὶν ἀγάπη ἐκ καθαρᾶς καρδίας καὶ συνειδήσεως ἀγαθῆς καὶ πίστεως ἀνυποκρίτου,

For the goal of the commandment is love from a clean heart and a good conscience and an unhypocritical faith

1 Timothy 1:5

While Paul was telling Timothy to do some rebuking of false teachers in Ephesus, he felt it necessary to briefly remind him of the aim of everything he was saying. It was not to promote knowledge (controversial speculations) but to bring about agape love – the same love that drove Jesus through the cross, grave and hell to get His bride – love from a clean heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith.

General Principles

Ego Eimi

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He said to them: “It is I! Do not be afraid.” They were willing then to receive him into the boat and immediately the boat was at the land they were going to. John 6: 20, 21

Ego eimi is a transliteration of the Greek which is often translated in this passage by “It is I” but literally means “I am”. The fact that it is “I am” who is with us is why we don’t need to be afraid. Of anything.

If we are willing to receive him into our boat, the world of our innermost being, we will find we will be at the place we are going to. He is the place we are all seeking to be. Maybe we are just not aware of that yet.

With him, in him and through him are all things.

General Principles

Trusting Him

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This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. John 6:6

Questions are God’s way of bringing us closer to him. A relationship develops during the outworking – the back and forth – of unanswered questions. Once the answer comes the relationship growth brought about by that interaction changes or ends. That is why Jesus spent most of his time on earth asking questions or being asked questions rather than answering them.

Most of us have unanswered questions in our lives. They can range from the global to the deeply personal, from the simply annoying to the existential.

“What will we do when we retire and our income is cut in half?”

“Where will I get a house to live in that I can make a home?”

“Where is my life partner that I can marry and form a family with?”

Or as in John 6: “Where are we going to get enough money to pay for the food to feed all these people in our lives?”

The thing is: Jesus knows what he is intending to do.

And it will probably be something unprecedented in our experience.

Our tendency is to judge future prospects by past experiences. History does repeat itself and as Solomon said in Ecclesiastes: There is nothing new under the sun. Even the feeding of the five thousand was not unprecedented. Elijah had done something similar back in the days of the kings of Israel.

However the disciples were not expecting the answer that Jesus brought and normally we don’t either. In our anxious going over of possible scenarios and calculations we usually never correctly predict what is going to happen.

For the really serious, heartfelt issues that we face about loved ones being sick or in trouble, or difficult changes ahead, or anything else that hits our heart’s desires, the answer will always be found when we find where Jesus is at rest in the midst of the storm, the answer he has to the cry of our hearts. “Rabbi,” (which is translated “Teacher”) “where are you abiding?” John 1:38.

He knows what he intends to do.