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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.

General Principles

On the Edge of Tomorrow

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“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God created beforehand so that we should walk into them.”

Ephesians 2:10

The 2014 sci-fi film “Edge of Tomorrow” is like my favourite film – Groundhog Day – but for geeks rather than romantics.

Like all the best plots it includes a Messiah like figure and a bride to be rescued. In this one there are the added bonuses of the Messiah laying down his life for the bride and being resurrected again.

There are a surprisingly large amount of films involving time loops. The feature of the Groundhog Day type that I want to bring out is the ability they give their protagonists to map all the details of their looped day down to the smallest detail.

Of course this is the same level of detail that God knows about every day we wake up. In the film, the man in the time loop can tell the woman every thing she needs to know to make the day the most effective it can be.

Jesus can do the same for us. Every day.

General Principles

Feeling like a Fraud

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It seems to be a common expression I hear among many who would be considered “saints” in the biblical sense of that word that they often feel like a fraud. The holy persona they show at church doesn’t reflect the person they know they are in the middle of the night.

Well I have news for you: that doesn’t get better as you walk longer with the Lord at least not in my 43 years experience.

When I was a young Christian many years ago an old saint said something similar to me. I can’t remember who it was but I remember what they said: “The old man doesn’t get any better as you get older, he actually gets more corrupt.” Somehow in the years of holiness teaching that I experienced along the way I lost sight of that. In my case I didn’t lose sight of it for too long. I could never reach the artificial standards of behaviour that such groups set, I would quickly say the wrong thing and prove to those around me what they always suspected: I hadn’t attained to the holy life/ wasn’t really born again/ wasn’t baptised in the Spirit/ wasn’t of the first fruits. If you have experienced that type of judgmental atmosphere in a church then you will know what I mean.

I was having a conversation with someone recently about this. She felt a fraud because of the desires and thoughts and some actions she had carried out that were obviously not meeting the standards that the bible sets. Welcome to the club was my response.

The answer to this dilemma is beautiful. It is a three stage process:

  1. Put off the old man. It’s getting worse, being corrupted like a rotting corpse (a body of sin) by deceitful lusts. These lusts deceive you into thinking you can get some benefit out of indulging them. Like a zombie the old man resurrects itself out of the muck and comes back to haunt us whenever it can. There is only one cure for it – crucifixion. Deny yourself, take up the cross and follow Jesus.
  2. Change your thinking. In fact change the whole spirit of the way you are thinking about these things. Eat Jesus’ flesh and drink His blood. Fall in love with Him again as you consider how amazing He is and what He has done for you. Be thankful for eternal life. He promises He will raise you up on the last day (whenever that will be).
  3. Put on the new man. If you don’t feel holy pretend you are by clothing your self with the character and actions that Jesus is and would do. That’s what I am doing as I write this. Paul’s two prayers in his letter to the Ephesians are pointed at enabling you to see what this means and to be empowered to carry it out. They are good ones to pray for those you love.

You really don’t need to know what I was thinking in the middle of the night last night. What you need from me, and I need from you, is encouragement to live a holy life. The consequences of sin are too serious. Make no mistake, we are in a battle for our minds, souls and lives.

But it’s alright Jesus has got this. He isn’t disillusioned with you, He had no illusions in the first place.

For those who are not so familiar with what the bible says or are skeptical about my knowledge of it here are some references you can look up: Ephesians 1:17-23; 3:14-21; 4: 22-24; John 6: Romans 7-8. Or as a poster campaign I am seeing around the place says succinctly: “Read your bible.”

General Principles

There is no Law

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Where there is no law there is no transgression. Romans 4:15

blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us. He took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross Col. 2:14

How it was made known to me by revelation Eph. 3:3a

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! Gal. 2:21

10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’ 11 Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because ‘the righteous will live by faith.’ 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, ‘The person who does these things will live by them.’ 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.’ 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. Gal. 3:10-14

However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:

16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.

18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.

20 The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.

Deuteronomy 28:15 – 68 (not all reproduced here – it gets much worse)

10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.’

Acts 15:10-11 (Peter at the council of Jerusalem).

One of the things that strikes me about the Law as given to Moses is why there are always far more curses in it and warnings about the consequences of disobeying it than there are mentions of blessings in it. Moses seems to reach a crescendo of over the top cursing in Deuteronomy 28. Some of it is so dreadful that I would be cautious before I gave it to children to read. And that passage is not alone in being graphic in its descriptions of the things people could end up (and actually did end up) doing if they put themselves under the Law and then didn’t keep it.

The other thing that strikes me is how Paul was able to throw out all the consequences and obligations of the Law on the basis of revelation. His authority to do this is based on the resurrection power of Christ that so mightily worked within him sending him like a burning knife through the world of his time and, by his writings, through all subsequent ages.

Let no one be under any doubt: if we call ourselves Christians we are not under the Law. All things are permissible. But not everything is profitable. (1 Cor. 6:12). All things are permissible (Paul says again) but I will not be mastered by anything (1 Cor. 10:23).

The love of Christ constrains us (2 Cor. 5:14) and it is that wonderful, inworking law of love that we are under, through thankfulness, to a Person internally as we believe. Keeping in constant touch with our Heavenly Guide within, the Holy Spirit, enables us to more than fulfil any law anyone could write down on tablets of stone or anything else.

We are not under obligation to a cold, external written code no one can keep – or even remember or understand properly.

Instead we are in love.

General Principles

Workmanship

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For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus upon good works which God prepared before hand so that we might walk in them.

Ephesians 2:10

One of the good things about learning bible verses by heart is that you can spend a long time ruminating on the thoughts of God. His thoughts are usually not shallow. Plunging into them is like falling into a wonderful well, a portal to another dimension.

So here’s the thing about Ephesians 2:10: It is not just you in your wonderful created self that God thought about when He made you. He also made you fit for the circumstances, times and relationships that He has made around you for you to walk in.

God prepared the whole masterpiece of the weavings and tapestries of all our lives in the context of beneficial possibilities and pre-destinies so that both together and individually we can be His workmanship, glorifying His name.

So, walk and act like the glorious child of God you are as His workmanship – a masterpiece in a beautiful world of integrated creative glory.