Category Archives: General Principles

Guidelines to how I view the cosmos

General Principles

3 Things too Wonderful

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Three Mysteries

Three things are too wonderful for me;
    four I do not understand:
19 the way of an eagle in the sky,
    the way of a serpent on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas,
    and the way of a man with a maiden.

Proverbs 30:18-19

The way of an eagle in the sky.

An American bald eagle soars by NASA is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

As Jesus said in John 3:3: ” Unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God.” The present spiritual reality of someone walking in the Spirit is too wonderful for me, I don’t understand it. No one does unless they are born from above.

The way of a serpent on a rock.

Aberlemno Pictish Stone by Anne Burgess is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0

How did the devil get into paradise? What was he doing in the presence of God accusing Job, being a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets (1 Kings 22:22) or accusing Jesus before the Father (Zech. 3:1-2)? How the devil worms his way around the most holy things in my life and others is too wonderful for me, I don’t understand it. At least not naturally.

The way of a ship on the sea.

Ship at Sea by Albert Ernest Markes is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

In Scripture the sea represents peoples and nations and tongues. The ship is the church rescuing people from drowning. How She does that is too wonderful for me but I can follow my Saviour, the great Captain of the ship and see the works He is doing through her and partake of them. I won’t work out how to do that in the flesh though. Those who work religion in the flesh, manipulating and using men for gain – feeding off the sheep, instead of feeding them – these are not in the true Ship. They won’t understand those who are.

The way of a man with a maiden.

[Man and woman on park by Library of Congress is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

Not so wonderful. But definitely not understood!

General Principles

In your zone

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Speaking the truth in love

so that you might grow up in all things into Him who is the Head, that is, the Christ

From whom the whole body being fitted and united together

through each supporting ligament

according to the working within its zone of influence of each individual member

causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Eph. 4:15, 16.

make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is impaired may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

Hebrews 12:13

The phrase “zone of influence” is the word μετρον (“metron”) in Greek. The idea Paul is bringing out is that you as an individual are a member of the Body of Christ and vitally connected to other members. These other members are those that are within your zone of influence.

You have a responsibility towards those members of the body that are within your zone of influence that you do your part in building them up. Don’t wrench yourself from them or try to get away (or your way). God has placed you there, do your part in causing growth.

The opposite side of the coin is that you should also mind your own business. Don’t interfere where you are not connected. So many people think they have influence where they actually do not. If you are not vitally connected to someone don’t interfere with what God is doing with them.

Autobiographical, General Principles

A Revelation of Love

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God is Love.

1 John 4:8,16

Love believes all things.

1 Cor. 13:7

The Cross is the ultimate proof that God is love. If you have had the experience of being born again and filled with the Holy Spirit, one of the first things He does is convince us that the reason Jesus went to the cross was because he loved you personally. The rooting, piercing revelation of that fact pins down our motives, desires and all our will and gives the old man no wriggle room. As John points out, we really cannot continue to go our own way once that seed is planted (1 John 3:6).

But it is the daily ongoing revelation of the overwhelming love of God that still grips my heart and soul 45 years after I was born again. I can still regularly feel as though I never really knew that love such can be the ongoing revelation of the sweetness, consistency and exceeding great power of it.

He never gives up on me or, rather, there is no sense in which that thought ever even crosses His mind. He is utterly convinced that I will love Him forever.

Somehow I cannot express this. He gazes at me in love, wondering at His own masterpiece, while all the time attributing to me a love that never fails.

He gives me the credit for doing things that He has wanted, enabled and empowered. He says “Well done” without regard for all the obvious times I….

But “No,” He says gently, “I’ve already forgotten all that. I am too delighted in you and Us together to be bothered thinking about anything you may have done wrong in the past. And, anyway, I suffered enough for us all.”

When it comes to the things of love, I am still very much a child.

General Principles

You are dead but don’t be a zombie

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And you being dead because of trespasses and sins in which you once walked….

Eph. 2:1

The reward of sin is death..

Romans 6:23

The mystery of iniquity (2 Thessalonians 2) is very puzzling. On the one hand, I know in my mind what is right but in my body I see another principle or force trying to get me to go another way (Romans 7). Paul’s answer, like so much in Scripture, is simple to understand – just don’t follow those desires, follow the Spirit instead (Romans 8, Eph. 4) – but very difficult to do.

In fact we are in a war between two forces, one aggressive, evil and deceitful and the other standing firm, good and truthful.

Sometimes it amazes me how that works itself out in historical earthly battles also. It seems clear to me that Hitler and the spirit behind him was aggressive, evil and deceitful and Churchill, Roosevelt and the spirit behind them were standing firm for freedom, generally on the side of good things we all appreciate and on the whole truthful about what they were saying. The same thing happened during the cold war with Stalin representing one side and Reagan the other. The same can be said of the current conflict with Putin the aggressor and Zelensky and Ukraine the defenders of democracy and freedom for us all.

And it is not as if it is that difficult to see the difference between, for example, lies about the Jews and concentration camps on one side and the Marshall plan and the liberation of the Jews on the other. Or mass deportations, poverty and exploitation in the case of the USSR on that side and freedom, democracy and prosperity in the West. Likewise it is not difficult to see the difference between unwarranted aggression, lies and oppression on one side in Putin’s Russia and the desire for freedom and truth in Zelensky’s Ukraine on the other.

Of course things are not always black and white, not in the above conflicts nor in many others. For the Christian it can often feel that way also in our internal battles.

In Ephesians, Paul is very black and white. He clearly points out that the old man that we live with and struggle against is a real, powerful, enemy being worked on and directed by powerful spiritual forces (Eph. 2:1-3). However, he also says that if you have truly heard and learnt from Christ you know the answer and how to fight against it:

1. Put off the old man like a garment or something that clings to you.

2. Change your thinking thoroughly so your whole mind thinks or is infused by the Holy Spirit’s mindset.

3. Put on the new man, i.e. the specific image of Christ made for you by God in true righteousness and holiness.

You can read about this in Ephesians 4:20-24 which are core verses in all of Ephesians and many other of Paul’s writings. This was a revelation he received from God early on. He expects that anyone who has been born again or met with Christ will know what he is talking about. These things are spiritually taught (1 Cor. 2) so you need to be born again to understand and experience them (John 3). And if you are born again you will both experience this battle and know the answer, make no mistake.

According to Paul the stakes in this internal, spiritual war are every bit as high as that fought for in the world and the results of winning or losing are every bit as great.

So, paradoxically, you are dead but don’t walk in that death. Don’t be a zombie. Instead walk in the Spirit who is in you if you are born again. You are alive in Him, so put to death the works of the old man in your life and don’t give any place to the flesh or the devil.

How we will experience heaven, now and in the future, depends more than we know on how well we fight this battle here below (Eph. 5:5-6).

Discipleship Series, General Principles

Gazing at Someone

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John gazed upon Jesus as He was walking.

John 1:36

“We are designed for gazing, gazing, a lifestyle of intimacy beholding our God.

And the supreme excellence of His divinity exceeds the capacity of our customary speech for God is more truly contemplated than spoken of. And He is more real than our highest experience, greater than our greatest experience, exists more truly than He is contemplated, our God.”

Godfrey Birtill – Gazing.

John the Baptist’s gazing on Jesus led to revelation about Jesus – “Behold the Lamb of God” – and the loss of two of John’s most famous disciples to the One whose sandal he felt unworthy to untie.

To our western gentile minds at a remove of 2000 years John the Baptist doesn’t seem like such a big deal. Nevertheless John the Apostle opens the revelatory fourth gospel with a large chunk of words and actions by John the Baptist.

I think John likes John because he was like himself – self effacing. John the apostle mentions only one of the two of John the Baptist’s disciples that left him – Andrew – and we presume the other was John himself. Throughout John’s gospel he makes a lot of effort to not draw attention to himself. He is simply the disciple Jesus loved.

I want to be like John the Baptist, losing followers because they were so taken by my gazing at Jesus, and the revelation that produces, that they just wanted to follow Him instead.

General Principles

Repentance

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The Greek word for repentance is “meta noia” which means change your mind. It does not mean change your behaviour. It also does not even mean change the direction you are going in. Both of those interpretations are works based.

No, repentance in the bible means change your mind about God. It is often accompanied by the phrase “and believe the Good News.” The Good News is that it is by grace -undeserved favour – that we are saved through faith not by works so no one can boast. The Good News is that faith is also a gift (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Just change how you think God is and realise He is love and believe He loves you.

The rest will follow.

General Principles

Comfort

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According to the Scriptures, every human being has an inherent understanding of what comfort is and learns to trust in God through comfort from a very early stage in their lives:

Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb;
You made me trust when upon my mother’s breasts.
10 I was cast upon You from birth;
You have been my God from my mother’s womb.

Psalms 22:9-10 (NASB)

This is a creator’s touch, something He built into us. In these verses – written at a time of excruciating pain- David says that we learn to trust in the most intimate and comfortable of places and we, in our infant minds, ascribe that comfort to God.

Somehow people seem to lose that understanding through the contrary experiences of life afterwards. But that is not what God wants:

“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.

Isaiah 40:1

A long time after his own birth Paul speaks about the comfort that God gives him so that he can comfort others:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; 7 and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are partners in our sufferings, so also you are in our comfort.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Comfort should be everyone’s experience who has a relationship with God. There are times He allows situations that make us feel distinctly uncomfortable. In those circumstances He wants us to know comfort from Him.

This is what many people call knowing His presence. The primary characteristic of God’s presence is comfort. This is the same comfort you felt when in the womb or on your mother’s breasts; that recognisable comfort that you inherently understand to be from God, the comfort you remember from that early time because you were created by God to remember it in that way – as from Him.

My father-in-law passed away in 2022. He was a dignified and very influential man. His life long employers called him the “Eminent Gris” of their estate and they gave him a grave in their own private family graveyard such was their regard for him. He was comforted on his deathbed by the presence of his grand daughters and daughters and passed peacefully to the other side. He was a man of peace who had that wonderful characteristic of thinking before he spoke and so guarded his own and other people’s souls:

One who guards his mouth and his tongue,
Guards his soul from troubles.

Proverbs 21:23

Those of us who are left to grieve his loss on this side of the great divide have known God’s comfort.

It is more than enough to know that comfort – God’s presence – in any situation. We learnt that when we were babies.

If you don’t know that comfort then ask yourself this question: Do I know God?

God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). He made us to know what that love feels like by creating a wonderful built in comfort which we have all known at an early stage in our lives.

If you have lost sight of that comfort and love, God wants you to find it again.

General Principles

A Word(le) for Today: Canny

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Today’s word is “canny” which was yesterday’s wordle answer.

We are more familiar with the opposite word “uncanny” which describes something mysterious. “Canny” is used in Scotland to describe something nice but in common English it is an adjective more or less equivalent to the word “shrewd”.

In Luke 16:1-15 Jesus tells a parable in which he seems to be commending shrewdness to the point of deception. Actually what He does is put words commending shrewdness into a master who has been deceived by his steward. The master admires and commends the way the steward dealt with his money even though he lost out as a result.

Later (in verses 10-12) Jesus makes it very clear that He does not commend the steward’s behaviour, pointing out that you couldn’t trust such a person and He certainly won’t.

But He does bring out this point about Christians in general: “the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.” (v.8b). In other words there is, in general, something wrong with the way Christians regard and deal with each other when it comes to money. The people of this world use money more shrewdly to gain influence and make friends with each other than Christians do.

The overarching point of this parable is that if you want to be a canny Christian then use any money you have to make friends with those that are able to repay you in the next life (v.9).

Don’t serve money in this life (v.13), use it to make friends with your brothers and sisters in Christ and so build up the body (see also Eph. 2:22).

16 He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. 2 So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’

3 “Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’

5 “So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.

9 “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. 10 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. 11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?

13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

14 Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him. 15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

Luke 16:1-15

General Principles

A Word(le) for Today

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May 7th, ’22

The word(le) was “midst”.

Sing, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has taken away your judgments,
He has cast out your enemy.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
You shall see disaster no more.

16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
“Do not fear;
Zion, let not your hands be weak.
17 The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:14-17

The wonder of our relationship with God is that He is in the midst of us both corporately and individually.

As Jesus said: ‘The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, “Here it is,” or “There it is,” because the kingdom of God is in your midst.’ (Luke 17:20-21)

“Midst” is a lovely word when you think of it in terms of God being in our midst.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ (Revelation 21:3,4).

General Principles

A Word(le) for Today

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I have been doing a small devotional with my family based on the Wordle answer for the day before. I am reproducing it here so others can benefit also.

Yesterday’s word(le) was “badge”.

A badge is something you wear in a prominent place to show that you support the thing the badge stands for.

A tattoo is a form of badge.
It says something about what or who you are.

In the OT the High Priest Aaron had a badge made for him called the badge of holiness. It was attached to his turban (so very prominent) and had written on it “HOLY TO THE LORD” (Exodus 39:30-31 NLT). In a sense Aaron had this badge foisted upon him, it said something that was true about him whether he wanted it to be or not due to the position he had been given.

In this new covenant we are free to choose what badge(s) we wear.

So what badges will you wear today?

See also Ephesians 4:20-24 (NASB):

20 But you did not learn Christ in this way, 21 if indeed 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.