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.

“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.

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.”

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.

On Monday evening last Olive and I were invited to dinner with two dear friends who we hadn’t spent time with for some years. To be in their presence was to be in the presence of two spirits which were regal.

They covet the dwelling of the Holy Spirit in their own and other’s lives. Nearly everything we spoke about together was in peace & love. Once I brought up a topic which affected that rest or dwelling. It was the exception that proved the rule of His abiding in our lives. The sense of rest and His presence in our hearts left us all for a short period before I dropped it and peace was restored again.

My godly wife opened up like a flower in the presence of the One she is so at home with and Who was so manifested before us in their conversation.

We are blessed also to know others who so walk and sit with God that His presence is a continual feast for them and those who are with them. One such joyous man suggested that Romans 8 is the most important passage in the Scripture and that we should spend time being in it. The queen of the regal couple who I mentioned above also suggested that the Lectio Divina technique of meditating on a short passage of Scripture is a good one to follow.

When God speaks to us nothing much else matters (Luke 10:42).

Today He spoke to me about dwelling or abiding. He showed me that my emphasis to date has been off a bit. I was considering how I should abide or rest so He could dwell in me. But actually the need is to consider the way in which the Holy Spirit is happy to dwell or abide with us – a subtle but important difference.

To continually dwell with us He needs us to live according to the Spirit (Romans 8:4) and have our minds set on the things of the Spirit (Romans 8:5-8). Christ died to ensure all the righteous requirements are fulfilled for the Holy Spirit to indwell us (Romans 8:4). We need to keep our minds on that and other things that are above (Phil. 4:8, Col. 3:1-3) so that the temples of our bodies (1 Cor. 6:19-20) stay in the fit state that Christ has made them to be in, so He can abide there.

But these things are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:6-16). God has to teach you these things (Hebrews 8:11). Thank God if the light of His presence is so illuminating your inner most being (Matthew 6:22) that you can clearly see the difference between what your heart believes and what your head believes. Our hearts are truer guides to connection with the Holy Spirit than are our heads (Romans 10:9).

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all sat like godly royalty in each other’s and the Holy Spirit’s presence?

That the Holy Spirit can be content and happy to abide in us is part of His promise to us, to the ones who are loved beyond all deserving.

Every believer has drunk from the waters of life which Jesus has given them. This has produced in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14). Spiritually, they don’t thirst anymore and they don’t have to go out to some far off source of life to slake their thirst – the source of eternal spiritual satisfaction is within them.

As fellow believers one of our main aims in our interactions with each other should be to allow room for the Spirit in the other person to speak. This means giving time and space to your spouse and children, friends and wider family to nurture their secret place relationship with God.

Jesus has a unique one-on-one relationship with every child of His Father through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in those who have been born from above. In any person’s life nothing is more important than that relationship. Everyone needs to watch over their heart with all diligence for from that relationship springs all the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23). As brothers and sisters we have no more solemn and pressing duty than to ensure that others experience and are allowed to nurture that relationship.

In the Kingdom of God, He has decided in His creative wisdom that everyone is free. This freedom doesn’t depend on external circumstances – actually there is a sense in which no one is free from constraints externally. This freedom comes about because God has preserved for each believer a single dwelling place (John 14:1) where only He and they commune. No one else ever sees into that place or has anything to do with it. In that place, God communes and enjoys Himself.

Jesus comes to that place first as a Teacher (John 1:37). He teaches us what to be by example as He rests and places His left hand under our head and His right arm embraces us (Song 2:6). It is actually an easy thing for a believer to spend time with Him in their heart because it is with Him that our deepest needs are met. Sometimes we may not realise that and we might kick against His wooing and drink from other wells. The way you know that you are drinking from other wells is that they leave you thirsty after a while, their satisfaction is short lived.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 

Rev. 3:20

³⁷ “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. 

Luke 6:37

We see in a glass darkly (1 Corinthians 13:12) if all we see of a person is some narrow definition of their gender or sexual preference. Our limited minds conjure up all sorts of stereotypes if someone describes themselves as “Gay” or “Lesbian” or “Transgender” or any number of other variations of those terms that are available these days.

Some people like to make a big deal out of these labels of themselves and want us to identify them that way for any number of reasons related to attention seeking, group politics, power plays, fame, a cry of pain or lack of acceptance, confusion about how they feel and a need for reassurance. But for most of us, that kind of label is dreadfully restricting and doesn’t describe us properly at all. Having our identity labelled in this way fails to bring out the fullness of who we are and so we can try to add qualifiers related to our profession for instance.

But the labels still fall short. I am far more than any label you could put on me. For instance you could call me a white, evangelical telecoms consultant, a father of three grown up children and a husband of one wife. But you still haven’t got me. You are looking at me through the dark glass of your understanding of all those terms.

During His time on this earth, Jesus refused to approach people according to the labels people put on them unless they really, really wanted to be identified that way. The Pharisees, Sadducees and Teachers of the Law, flaunted their identities as a matter of pride, power and control. Jesus was never impressed by their labels and pointed out clearly what they really meant as far as the group behaviour was concerned.

But when it came to individuals that might be labelled something by others, Jesus brought perfect knowledge of who they were and combined it with perfect love to ensure they were told just what they needed to hear at the time He was speaking to them. The labels of Samaritan Woman or Pharisee, a Ruler of the Jews were incidental to the perfect knowledge that Jesus had of the women at the well (John 4) or Nicodemus (John 3).

If we claim to have the Spirit of God then we ought to be able to have His understanding and approach to any person no matter what they call themselves. In the presence of Jesus people should be set free from judgements based on labels.

To be judged as anything, any label, is to do you an injustice. So be careful before you adopt one. The label “Pharisee” has become a by-word for hypocrisy. No one wants to be labelled as a Pharisee these days though at one time it was a badge of honour – pride – if you like that term.

Be set free from your label. Trying to constrain yourself to comply with society’s image of whatever label you have put on yourself is a burden you shouldn’t have to bear.

As far as your gender is concerned God made you with gender identity markers in every cell of your body. You have either XX (female) or XY (male) chromosomes in all the trillion cells that make up your physical body. No amount of mutilation or hormone treatments can change that fact. No matter what you feel or believe about your inner being that physical fact was with you at birth and will stay with you until the day you die.

It used to be that most people accepted their birth gender – male or female- and it was thought abnormal, a dysfunction, not to. I think most people still think that way.

Life is difficult enough for children these days without them thinking they have to make a choice about something they, in fact, have no choice about.

But always remember, even your gender doesn’t define you. To describe you as simply a man or a woman, wonderful as both those things are, is to do you an injustice. You are far more than just your gender.