General Principles, His Story

Mere Christianity

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C.S. Lewis was asked by the BBC to give a series of talks on the radio during the second world war called “Mere Christianity”.  These were later expanded into a book which is one of the best summaries of Christianity out there.

One of the most famous passages from this book is the following statement about who Jesus is.  It is commonly known as “Lewis’ trilemma” or  the “Mad, bad or God” argument.  It is well worth reading this passage in context and, indeed, reading the whole book:

“Yet (and this is the strange, significant thing) even His enemies, when they read the Gospels, do not usually get the impression of silliness and conceit. Still less do unprejudiced readers. Christ says that He is ‘humble and meek’ and we believe Him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man, humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute to some of His sayings. I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Lewis, C. S.. Mere Christianity (p. 24). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.

My Book, Prophetic?

Frontispiece

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In Millennium the author combines deep biblical study with an active imagination to create an account of what life might be like for those living on the earth during the predicted 1000 years of Christ’s rule on earth.

In his account the millennium reign of Christ starts on a “possible” date of 2037 shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem by a nuclear explosion.  He deftly weaves in various biblical prophecies to create a compelling account of what it might be like to live during those times.

One of the fundamental theses of Brendan’s account is that during the Millennium there will be two types of humans living on the earth: those who are mortal and those who are immortal.  The immortals are the faithful, called and chosen ones from all ages past and up to the time of Jesus’ return who reign with Him for the Millennium.  They have a number of super powers and govern the earth ushering in an age of peace and security – unless you happen to oppose them.

Discipleship Series, History of Faith

Faith and Waiting

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There is a pattern of God’s working with men that seems almost like He is teasing us, but the aim is to test and show our faith, remove idolatry and make us more dependent on Him.

When Abraham was told at the age of 75 that his descendants would be like the stars of heaven or the sands of the seashore (Gen. 15:1-6), his expectation was probably that he would have a son almost immediately and that there would be at least tens of descendants before he died.  As it turned out, he had just two descendants (Isaac & Jacob), to whom the promise applied, by the time he died 100 years later (see Gen. 25).

Joseph might have been forgiven for thinking that the trajectory of his life would not have involved kidnapping, prison and servitude from the age of 17 to 40 after getting dreams of his parents and his siblings bowing down before him (Gen. 37 – 40).

Moses probably didn’t anticipate Pharaoh making things much harder for the the people of Israel when he was sent to deliver them from bondage (Exodus 5).  Watching the bondage actually increase when he was told that God would deliver them must have been hard.  God didn’t tell Moses that that was going to happen first and it didn’t exactly inspire faith in his story in the ones he had come to deliver either (Exodus 5:21).

Another significant example of the same principle in practice can be seen in the life of David.  He was anointed king at around 17 (1 Sam. 16:1-13) but was running for his life for a large part of his career after that and didn’t see the fulfilment of the promise until he was 30 (1 Sam. 18 – 2 Sam. 5).

So, if you have been given a promise from God and the exact opposite seems to be happening don’t be surprised.  You are in good company.

God will come through for you.

“..we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

Romans 5:3-4

My Book

Condescension

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2047 AD.  One of the great things about being an immortal is that you didn’t have to go around with a security contingent everywhere you went.  That and the ability to conceal yourself meant you could turn up unannounced, and if you wanted, unnoticed at any venue.

Martin wanted to call up on an old acquaintance who was still mortal.  She had missed out on the chance to be immortal through… well actually Martin wasn’t quite sure why she had missed out.  He knew of other cases of those that seemed as they would have qualified to be transformed but didn’t.  The problem in those cases seemed to be a lack of genuine relationship with Jesus.  He didn’t know why Genevieve hadn’t made it though.  Her relationship seemed genuine and she had blessed him many times during his mortal past.

He stood outside her door and rang the bell.

Genevieve arrived at the door looking rather disheveled.  Martin had toned down his appearance to look as much like his mortal self as possible but she knew what had happened to him  – and hadn’t happened to her.

Genevieve’s husband shouted out from a room somewhere in the back of the house: “Who is it?”

“An old friend”, Genevieve called back.

“Tell him to go away.”  It seems Genevieve’s husband wasn’t the most sociable of people.

“Let’s go.” Genevieve grabbed Martin’s arm and went out to the car.  Martin was thinking that he didn’t need a car to go anywhere but he let it pass.  They got into her old Nissan Leaf (it was 30 years old) and drove to the nearest restaurant.

“What happened, Genevieve?” asked Martin getting straight to the point, “I remember when, even as a mortal, I could see you shining with the Holy Spirit.  You blessed me and everyone around you.”

“I didn’t want to leave him.”

Martin thought about that for a minute.  He could understand how that might be possible but he was surprised anyone could resist the loving tug that he had felt during the time leading up to his transformation.  He could have asked whether she thought it was worth it but her appearance and her husband’s response back at the house seemed to make the question redundant.  Martin decided to ask the question anyway.

“No.” Came the simple reply followed by a sigh.

Discipleship Series, Eschatology, General Principles

Faith and Desire

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God knows your deepest desires and isn’t surprised by any of them.  I believe that He has an answer to them all in Christ both for this life and the next.

As believers one of the things we have to get used to is that the line between this life and the next is very thin indeed.  There is a major transition involved, we need to shake off this mortal body and put on an immortal one.  But apart from that nothing else changes – much!  It does take faith to look over that gap and see our lives continuing on.

However, one of the keys of living a contented Christian life here is to hope and believe in satisfaction and contentment throughout our existence.  Some desires will be satisfied here during this mortal life, many will be satisfied there during the immortal stage.

God commends this kind of faith.  In the letter to the Hebrews, the writer ends up his panegyric about the heroes of faith in chapter 11 by saying this:

“All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised.”

The saints of the Old Testament are still waiting for our time to come to a close before they will get all they desire.

So, if you are facing unfulfilled desires in this life, ask yourself whether God hasn’t planned to fulfil them in the next.  No, better still, ask God.  You might be surprised at His answer.

 

Creation, General Principles, His Story

Basic Faith

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Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

It is impossible to please God without faith.  Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God exists and that He rewards those that sincerely seek Him. (Hebrews 11:1, 6 NLT)

When people ask me what we have to believe I have often said the Gospel requires very little faith in reality, at least to start with.  All we need to believe is that God exists and that He is good.  Everything else can be logically built upon those two foundations.  If God exists and is good then it follows that He would do all that the bible says He has done.

No one can prove God is, but then neither can any of us prove that anything ultimately exists since we cannot know the basic materials on which matter is built.  The more we split the atom, the more there is to split.  So, rather than being unreasonable, we logically believe in some basic building blocks (atoms, nucleus, protons, neutrons and electrons) and our engineered inventions (everything from fridges to freight carriers and beyond) are built on those beliefs.  They work because the things we believe about materials are true, i.e. God made materials the way we have found out (Proverbs 25:2).  We then build our lives on these beliefs even though we cannot see the basic building blocks of anything.  Depending on what we work at and, to some extent, what we want to find out, we know these things at different levels.

Take the example of a microwave oven.  You can “know” a microwave at different levels.

  1. A user might just know how to turn it on and what level to set it at to heat up the food he puts into it.
  2. A curious person might get to learn that a microwave works because it heats up the water in food using a specific type of electro magnetic wave.  This might help them to understand why some things shouldn’t be put in a microwave.
  3. At a deeper level someone else might understand the size of a water molecule and the wave length of the electro magnetic wave used in a microwave.  The connection between the two is what causes the water to heat up.
  4. The manufacturers of microwave ovens may need a team of people with different understandings of how it works and how to improve the design to stay ahead of the competition.

And so it goes on.

In the same way, the bible tells us to be reasonable.  Believe in some basic things: God is and He is good.  After that, everything God has caused to be written in His book is reasonable and makes sense.  And you can go as deep or be as shallow in knowledge as God and you want to be with that book – and Him.  Whatever about knowledge (1 Cor. 8:1-3) just make sure you are not content with being shallow in His love (Eph. 3:19).

God says: “I AM” (Exodus 3:14).  He is.

The bible goes onto say that God gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).  He is not willing that anyone should perish (1 Tim. 2:4).  In other words He is good.

Start there.

Discipleship Series, General Principles

Faith

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“Faith, according to St. Paul, is the means by which the whole being of the believer—his intellect, his heart, and his will—enter into possession of the salvation which the incarnation of the Son of God has purchased for him. Jesus Christ is apprehended by faith, and thenceforth becomes every thing for man, and in man. He imparts a divine life to human nature; and man thus renewed, disengaged from the power of selfishness and sin, has new affections, and does new works. Faith (says Theology, in order to express these ideas) is the subjective appropriation of the objective work of Christ. If faith is not an appropriation of salvation, it is nothing; the whole Christian economy is disturbed, the sources of new life are sealed up, and Christianity is overturned at its base.“

D’AUBIGNÉ, J. H. MERLE. HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY (All 20 Volumes In 1 Complete Book) (HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION by J. H. MERLE D’AUBIGNÉ) (Kindle Locations 947-953). http://www.DelmarvaPublications.com. Kindle Edition.

The above was written by a French man in the early 1800’s.  

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  He is the source of new life .  If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation.  Christ in us is our hope of glory.  Apart from Him there is salvation in no one else.  God has proven His love for us in that, while we were still sinners, He sent His One and Only Son that He might die for us and give us eternal life.  He made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us that we become the righteousness of God in Him.

Hopefully you can see why it is so important to immerse yourself in the Holy Scriptures which are able to make us wise unto salvation.

Have you been transformed by the renewing of your mind?  It is by faith we are saved, through grace. It is a gift of God.  However, the way we get faith is by hearing the living Word of God. 

Listen to Jesus – the Word – speaking to you through His Scriptures first and foremost.

Scriptures:

John 14:6; John 4:13-14; 2 Cor. 5:17; Col. 1:27; Acts 4:12; Romans 5:8; 2 Cor. 5:21; 2 Tim. 3:15; Romans 12:2; Eph. 2:8; Romans 10:17; John 10:27, 2 Tim. 3:16-17.

 

Discipleship Series, General Principles, Worship & Song

Understanding the Closeness of God

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When we are dealing with the God who made everything, including every cell in our physical bodies and all the space He inhabits within our atoms – in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28) – there is every justifiable reason why we might get confused about hearing His voice or experiencing His presence.  He is so close!  In fact the English word “close” does not do justice to the amazing interaction of God with those He has an intimate relationship with.

So we can often think we are just imagining things when it is in fact God speaking to us.  One of the great things to learn how to do is to recognise that still, small voice that speaks to us out of the chaos and noise of everyday life (see 1 Kings 19:11-13).  To know His presence is even more intricate.  It is so intangible, so outside of, and yet works through, our emotional state.  We forget that we were made, designed, to know these things.  God’s voice and His presence can seem so natural we can just dismiss them as our imagination.  But even our imagination was made to enhance and help us understand the voice and presence of God.

“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” (Hebrews 3:7, 15).  Actually, this is the nub of the matter: Do you really want to hear what God is saying to you (see John 7:17)?  Might He be saying, get out of the way and let Me work?  Possibly, though He will say it, if He has to, more graciously than that.

Eschatology, My Book

Mesmerised

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2250 AD Martin was in front of the four living creatures and had fallen over onto his face again.  “I thought you said he would be able for this,” an angel said. “He will be ok it’s just that even in his new body he finds it hard to cope with things that don’t relate to anything else he has experienced before,” Jesus responded.

Martin began to come around.  As he regained consciousness he remembered to prepare himself for the shock.  He didn’t want to go into that catatonic state or whatever it was he had just experienced again.  So he concentrated hard and managed to get a hold of all the various impulses coming to him through all his senses and extra sensory perceptions.  The flood of impressions coming at him from the four living creatures this close up was the closest thing to pain he had felt this side of the rapture.  He could feel himself wobbling again and getting giddy.

“Look at Me.”  It was Jesus saying the only sensible thing to do.  So Martin looked into Jesus’ eyes.  Strength and power flowed through his new body and he found he could stand firm.  His admiration for John, Ezekiel and Daniel grew.

Patricius, the angel, asked Martin if he was ready for a short journey to the regions beyond.  Martin thought he was so he went with the angel into the living creatures.

church, Prophetic?

Family Values

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Dr. Carle Zimmerman, a Harvard sociologist who examined the rise and fall of empires through the centuries, paid close attention to the correlation between family life and national life. His book Family and Civilization concludes that deteriorating civilizations follow a reasonably definable pattern and that “atomistic families” dominate the social landscape in decaying cultures. When civilizations began to unravel, they had five characteristics in common.

  1. Marriage lost its sacredness, divorce became commonplace, and alternative forms of marriage were accepted.
  2. Feminist movements undermined complementary and cooperating roles as women lost interest in mothering and pursued personal power.
  3. Parenting became increasingly difficult, public disrespect for parents and authority increased, and delinquency and promiscuity became more commonplace.
  4. Adultery was celebrated, not punished; people who broke their marriage vow were admired.
  5. There was increased tolerance for incestuous and homosexual sex, with an increase in sex-related crime.

Carle C. Zimmerman, Family and Civilization (Wilmington, DE: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2008)

Zimmerman’s conclusions are so current, they’re frightening. He appears to have observed the United States in the twenty-first century and then summarized his findings. In fact, he wrote them in 1947.

The whole above passage is copied from Charles Swindoll’s book: “Abraham: One Nomad’s Amazing Journey of Faith” (Kindle Locations 2229-2239). Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

A Christian in a relationship