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General Principles

The Sheepfold

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Jesus sums up a way of looking at His arrival into this world, and, actually, at the world itself in the opening verses of John 10:

Truly, truly I say to you, he who does not enter through the door into the sheepfold but climbs up some other way, that one is a thief and a robber.

But he who enters through the door is the Shepherd of the sheep.

To Him the Doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear His voice and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he has put them all out, He goes before them and the sheep follow Him because they know His voice. And they will never follow a stranger but will flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.

John 10:1-5.

The Scripture does not make it clear how Satan got into the garden of Eden. For sure though, he didn’t enter through the door but went around some other way. Everyone who subtly insinuates their way into an oversight / shepherding role among Jesus’ sheep without express permission from the Doorkeeper, without going through the Door (who is Jesus v.9) is of that same nature.

But Jesus is the Good Shepherd. When He was coming into the world to redeem it by laying down His life, he came legitimately. The Doorkeeper – the Holy Spirit – was happy to open up the sheepfold to Him. The Doorkeeper only ever wants those filled with the Spirit of Jesus to minister to God’s flock, those who have express permission to enter the Sheepfold which is where the Church, His Bride is growing and abiding.

In the Sheepfold every sheep hears Jesus’ voice. Not everyone understands all they hear. However, they all know the sound of His voice, the tones He uses, the Spirit that inhabits those words He uses.

He also calls His own by name – He knows your name! This is not necessarily just that He knows you as Mary or John or Conor but that He knows what He has called you. You can spend a lifetime learning what God means when He calls your name. It’s your eternal name that has two clear components: the name that everyone else sees (Rev. 3:12) and the name only He sees (Rev. 2:17).

If you are His sheep, called by His name, you can guarantee that He will lead you out along with every other sheep into the battlefield, out of the safe confines of the sheepfold, that we may together be part of His plan and work with Him (Eph. 2:10) to see the world saved.

If you are His sheep you know His voice. You will never follow a strange voice but will flee from it. Really, you will know.

General Principles

Desire

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Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it are the springs of life.

Proverbs 4:23

It is a great secret to have the eyes of your heart opened so you know what is really going on down there. Paul prays that it might happen to us all: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, (Ephesians 1:18).

It is so important to know what you really want in your heart. As I have written elsewhere, the first thing Jesus (the Incarnate Word) is recorded as saying in John’s gospel is “What are you seeking?” or loosely translated, what do you really want?

God has put eternity in our hearts (Eccles. 3:11) so therefore what we really want will always have an eternal component to it. Actually, the eternal reality is the basis of our earthly most heartfelt desires. We are all looking for something that will eternally satisfy.

Some people know in their hearts that renting a house is just not it, they must own it. What they are doing is agreeing with God’s desire to give them an eternal permanent place they can call their own (John 14:1-3). They are sharing in the same hope as those who were looking for an eternal city among the fathers of faith (Hebrews 11:13-16). The hope in God that He will give to each one of us this place of security and permanence is a heart’s desire that cannot be denied. For some this will be the assurance of it coming in the future. For others a lot of that satisfaction can be found in this age here on the earth. As David said: “I certainly believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” (Psalm 27:13). It becomes a tree of life to those who find that desire satisfied (Proverbs 13:12).

The same applies to any desire of the heart. They are all rooted in eternally valid and appropriate fulfillments.

So let the Spirit search you out and let you know what it is you really want. And don’t be afraid of the answer your heart gives.

Because the heart is the seat of the emotions, intellect and will (according to the bible) there are always strong feelings, intense and oft repeated thoughts and actions that arise out of the desires of our heart.

For all of us it could not be more obvious what we spend most of our time thinking of and doing. What is your most commonly watched TV program (is it “a house in the sun” for example)? Or is it a program containing a lot of human forms and relationships (“Love Island” anyone)?

What do you do to relax? What are you thinking of in your unguarded moments?

One way of looking at the Christian walk is that of capturing all those thoughts and bringing them to the Christ dwelling with you in your heart (2 Cor. 10:5). For Christ dwells in our hearts through faith:

…you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 22 that, in reference to your former way of life, you are to rid yourselves of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you are to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Ephesians 4:22-24.

The process of being renewed in the spirit of our minds includes the taking of every thought of our hearts captive to Christ and asking him what he thinks about it. Sometimes you might be surprised at his answers. We are very often not like him at all in the way we think (Isaiah 55:8) but we do have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16) to call on at all times if we choose to do so. Putting on the new man is to continuously walk in submission to the thoughts of Christ over our own thoughts.

Keep a constant watch over what your heart is thinking. Let God show you how your desires correspond to his. He put those desires in the heart of every child of God. He hasn’t made a mistake when he lets you reap the consequences of that sowing.

You don’t really understand the heart of God if you think he wouldn’t want you to both eat the cake in this life and also have it in the next. However, he does also know whether having just the eternal version of those two or both the eternal and temporal would be best for you.

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalms 37:4.

General Principles

A New Approach

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And as He was going through, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him: “Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind?” Jesus answered: “Neither this man sinned nor his parents. This is in order that the works of God should be manifest in him. We must work the works of him who sent us while it is still day, night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this he spat on the ground and made clay out of the spittle and anointed his eyes and said to him: “Go now to the pool of Siloam” (which is translated Sent) “and wash.” The man then went away and washed and came back seeing.

John 9:1-7

Cause and effect is a usual way of thinking for us humans: Something happens and we seek a cause for it. In this case the disciples had been taught that the reason for illness is sin. The problem they had is that this man was born blind so there were only two possible explanations in their minds: either the man sinned while he was in the womb or his parents sinned and he felt the effects of that sin.

Jesus saw things differently. He knew that he was about to abolish sin on the cross (Ephesians 2:14-16, Colossians 1:13-14) and so change everything. 

Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:17). Sin is dealt with, so He doesn’t concern Himself with that. Now every disease, sickness, infirmity, addiction is an opportunity for God to be glorified. In this case God is glorified by restoring the sight of the blind man.

Let’s see every weakness of the flesh as an opportunity for God to work instead of trying to work out why it has happened. People don’t need our assessments, they need our love and the power of God working through that.

General Principles

Light

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12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” John 8:12

We must carry out the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. John 9:4

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), Ephesians 5:8-9

If you know the light or have understanding of what God wants you to be or do, then do that.

General Principles

The Word

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In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. 

John 1:1-2

So why does the apostle John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit call Jesus the Word?

God is Spirit and before anything else was, He is. 

We struggle to think of what was before God expressed the words recorded in Genesis and made things. There wasn’t even time so we can’t even say that that was then and this is now. All anyone can do is start with a beginning. In the beginning God created… In the beginning was the Word.

A word is a combination of symbols that express an idea. It can be either spoken or written. We need to understand the language or symbols if we are to consciously benefit from the words spoken or written.

The Word – Jesus – is God’s best idea, ever. He is the word. 

All ideas/ words ultimately have their origin in God. Even the ideas about what God is not, only exist because He is.

For any word to mean or do anything it needs to be expressed either in writing or speech. Jesus is God expressed – the Word (Hebrews 1:3).

This explains – I hope – why God has chosen to express Himself through symbols on a page that we read. The bible contains the ideas God wants to express in writing. It is Jesus become written for us. 

It is also a critical part of how we eat His flesh and drink His blood.

God created the idea of eating and drinking and made it an essential part of our being. We cannot live physically unless we eat and drink. When we eat and drink we assimilate animals and vegetables and convert them through the action of our blood into the substance of our flesh. 

In Chapter 6 of John’s gospel Jesus says we must eat His flesh and drink His blood. This is a picture of spiritual communion in which Jesus wants us to know how much he wants us to have his thinking, his ways of acting, his soul integrated and part of our soul.

We should really read the whole chapter. Here are some of the main points:

32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 

63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are Spirit and life.

There can be no more intimate a picture of getting closer to someone than eating them. It’s not that Jesus simply wants us to eat with him. According to John, Jesus is saying he wants us to eat him. In fact we have to eat his flesh and drink his blood because that is how we have eternal life.

As verse 63 above clearly shows this is not about eating anything physical. There is a particular religion extensively observed in Ireland and elsewhere which majors on physical things. But to do that completely misses the point of what Jesus is saying here and what he wants.

In the beginning was the Word and now, throughout time, there is no other created thing that so accurately expresses God than His Word made flesh in Jesus as He is expressed in the bible.

We must eat His flesh and drink His blood spiritually if we are to live in eternity. Learn the bible. Think no other thoughts, be no other way. Eat and drink the thoughts, the Spirit, of God expressed – the Word- and so become like Him.

This is fundamental to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

He who believes in Me will have eternal life. John 3:15

Autobiographical, General Principles

Comfort

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Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 2 Cor. 1:3-5

Perhaps its because of my age or heart condition but I find that unless I feel, very tangibly, the internal comfort of the Holy Spirit and some ease of pain or discomfort, I’m pretty well good for nothing.

The story of Jonah is one of God using discomfort to direct and teach Jonah and other men. In chapter 1, the extreme discomfort of a storm leads men to do something they wouldn’t do if the discomfort wasn’t there. In Chapter 2 Jonah knows comfort in the extremity of being deep underwater in the belly of a fish. In Chapter 3, the people of Nineveh make themselves discomfited in response to the Prophet’s word. 

But in Chapter 4 the impact of personal discomfort on our actions, thoughts and responses to God is shown most clearly:

5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, ‘It would be better for me to die than to live.’

9 But God said to Jonah, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?’

‘It is,’ he said. ‘And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.’

10 But the Lord said, ‘You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left – and also many animals?’

Jonah 4:5-10

It would be easy for us to judge Jonah but I for one can fully identify with his position. The sufferings of the people of Ukraine, Gaza or even those much closer to home are irrelevant to me when all I feel is pain or discomfort.

Which is why it is so good and important that God does comfort us. As Paul says: “Praise God.. who comforts us in all our troubles.”

It is clear that God wanted to teach Jonah and us all a lesson about the relative importance of things in this chapter. There can be no comparison between my sluggishness and tiredness in the morning and the appalling loss of home, possessions and loved ones that is happening everyday in Ukraine and Gaza.

But still He does actually comfort me. He cares so much about me that I am comforted internally and know regular relief from pain and tiredness as well. Why am I so blessed and others have to suffer so much?

I cannot tell. Grace I guess.

General Principles

Taking things literally

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One of the accusations often levelled against Christians who say that the Scriptures are inspired is that they take them literally. However, if you are into the words of God as spoken by Jesus then the one thing you can’t do is take some of them literally. At least He never intended that you should.

Jesus had a way of saying shocking things that strongly brings forth an eternal truth. John’s gospel has numerous examples of this:

Jesus says “Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days.”

The Jews reply: “It took 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days?”

But Jesus was speaking of the temple of His body. (John 2:19-21)

Jesus said: “Truly, truly I say to you, unless someone is born from above they cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus said to Him: “How can a man be born if he is old? Surely he can’t enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born can he?” (John 3:3-4)

Jesus said to her: “If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you: “Give me a drink” you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

The woman replied: “Sir, the well is deep and you have nothing to draw with. Where then do you get this living water?” (John 4:10-11)

Jesus said: “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you.”

“For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.”

His disciples said: “This is a hard saying, who can comprehend it?”

Jesus said to them: “The spirit gives life, the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” (John 6:53, 55, 63)

Jesus said: “I go away to the one who sent me and you will seek me and will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.”

The Jews said to one another: “Where is he about to go that we will not be able to find him? He isn’t going to go to the Greeks is he and teach the Greeks?” (John 7: 33-35)

And so it goes on. Jesus spent a lot of His time being misunderstood because people took him literally, physically, when he was actually talking about something spiritual. To Jesus, the spiritual is more real than the physical.

It is of course true that when you look at us under a very powerful microscope we are actually almost completely empty space physically. Our spirits are far more pervasive of time and space than our bodies are. So to look at us as primarily spirit beings is more logical. So also it makes sense to understand what Jesus is saying in a spiritual way rather than a physical way.

But as he said to Nicodemus you can’t see God’s kingdom unless he gives you the spiritual eyes to. And as Paul puts it: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened that you might see.”

This is also my prayer for you.

Discipleship Series, General Principles

Heart View

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In Him was life and the life was the light of men. John 1:4

If I don’t have love I am nothing. 1 Cor. 13:2

One of the most important things we can have as a believer in Jesus is a clear view of our heart. Like everything else in God, this is only available if you want it, if you want to look. Most of us don’t want to look.

We might not be consciously aware that we don’t want to look but there are ways of knowing that we don’t. Many people can’t live without constant distracting media. The TV always on, constant scrolling of social media, music streaming in the background.

Jeremiah captured the reason we don’t want to look at our hearts very well when he said it is deceitful above all else and desperately wicked, who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

Then God goes on to say this:

I the Lord search the heart
    and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct,
    according to what their deeds deserve.

Note the three fold engagement of God with us: Heart, Mind and Conduct.

So He starts with our heart- searching it out: “What do you really want?” He asks (John 1:38). A truthful heart will normally answer with some base need driven by a past lack or hurt. Or perhaps a resentment or grudge against someone that harmed it. Or any number of other evils (Matthew 15:18-20).

So God already knows the thoughts and intentions of your heart. When He shines His light on it and exposes your darkest thoughts and intentions it is for your sake not His.

Now the light has shone on your heart and its wickedness is exposed. What then? He examines your mind’s reaction to the thoughts and intentions of your heart. Hold that thought! (2 Cor. 10:5). This is where you decide what you really want.

The trouble with the heart is that it drives everything else whether you like it or not. Out of it flow all the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23). However our will is free so we can choose with our minds what to do with the intent of our hearts.

But really we only have one choice: Lay it before Him, trust Him with it. You may be surprised at the answer you get. God made everything good in the beginning.

As you let this happen, let him search and examine, then your conduct will change for the better. And in the end you will be rewarded based on your conduct (Matt. 25:14-30, 31-46).

But the best reward, as it turns out, is a clearer view of His heart.

Discipleship Series

The First Thing Jesus Says

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In John’s gospel it is recorded in Chapter 1 verse 38:

“What are you seeking?”

It’s a good question.

When you wake up in the morning let God ask you: “What are you really looking for?” Or “What is your heart searching for?”

There is no point in saying anything but the truth since this question is not for His benefit but for yours. Like all the questions Jesus asks, He already knows the answer.

And like all the questions Jesus asks this one is an invitation into a deeper connection with him.

Questions invite more relationship. Answers put a full stop in place. Jesus always asks questions, lots of questions.

But none are more deep and heart searching than this one.

And it is not as if our heart’s answer stays constant. It varies from day to day or even from one moment to the next. From one mood swing to another.

However, there is one perfect answer and its given in the rest of the verse:

“Rabbi,” (that is, Teacher) “where are you at rest?”

This is the perfect answer.

It also turns out to be another question to which Jesus gives another invitation: “Come and see” (John 1:39).

The perfect answer – “Rabbi,” (that is, Teacher) “where are you at rest?” – is the answer Jesus is creating in our hearts as He questions it.

This is the ultimate end of the heart’s desires. The only place His question (“What do you want?”) leads us too.

When we know Jesus, to find His rest is the only thing that satisfies. His rest is in the work He has prepared beforehand that we should walk in it (Ephesians 2:10). It’s the place where His yoke (or harness) is on us, that gentle harness that does not chafe (Matthew 11:28-30).

Circle around and in, be truthful but willing to yield. The question will eventually find the heart answering “I come to You, where You are, My Love.”

He is the great Teacher of hearts if we let Him.

General Principles

Judge Rightly

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μὴ κρίνετε κατ’ ὄψιν, ἀλλὰ τὴν δικαίαν κρίσιν κρίνετε.

Goodrich, Richard J.; Lukaszewski, Albert L.. A Reader’s Greek New Testament: Third Edition (p. 420). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.

“Do not judge according to the outward appearance but with right judgement judge.” (John 7:24)

Jesus was confronting the Jews of Jerusalem with a simple truth: “Why are you angry with me for making a whole man well on the sabbath when you circumcise men on the sabbath?” They did this to fulfil the law of Moses and Moses got that law from God.

Earlier, back in Jerusalem, he had made this statement about himself “My judgement is right” (John 5:30).

So to judge rightly we must have the mind of Christ about whatever it is we are judging. In this case, his mind was against hypocrisy.