Discipleship Series, General Principles

First Tested then Trusted

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“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” (Matt. 4:1)

So God decides to face the tempter head on immediately as a man. We shouldn’t think it strange when we face various trials (1 Peter 4:12). God is confident that we will overcome (1 Cor. 13:7). Later on though Jesus teaches His disciples to pray “Lead us not into temptation”, which is a good idea (Matthew 6:13).  He probably remembered the trial of it and wouldn’t want us to go through that if it could be helped.

Jesus deals with all the temptations in the same way – He quotes the Scriptures.  The devil does too but the heart of what he is saying is wrong.

Once Jesus passes through this He is ready to call disciples after Him. First tested, then trusted.  That’s a sequence we all have to follow.

Matthew 4:1-22

Discipleship Series, General Principles

This is My Beloved Son

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Matthew skips straight from the dream led wanderings of Joseph – Jesus’ step father – through the ministry of John the Baptist to the baptism in the Holy Spirit (and fire) of Jesus. And then the Father is recorded as saying, without more ado:

“This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Matthew 3:17

I think Matthew is trying to bring out the point that the well pleasing of the Son was there anyway independent of anything He had done to that point. That is the way a son ought to be to a father, well pleasing. The beloved aspect starts at birth and goes on through all their mutual lives. The well pleasing isn’t always consistently the case for any normal father son relationship. In that way this particular relationship was different.jesus-being-baptised

But if there was any thing that triggered the comment from the Father that He was well pleased with Jesus, it was His submission to all the righteousness of the Spirit of God through baptism. There is something significant about obeying God that way. In this case the baptism in water was accompanied by the baptism in the Holy Spirit and both could be seen happening.

Matthew 2:19 – 3:17

His Story, Prophetic Writings

Magi, Empires and Prophets

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When Herod was king of Judea, there were two great empires that disputed the ownership of his land. On the one side were the Romans who had conquered it some years earlier. On the other were the Persians who had been there long before the Romans.

Hundreds of years earlier (586 BC) Jerusalem had fallen to the Babylonians. Through a number of miraculous events that you can read about in the Book of Daniel, some Jewish exiles had risen to a place of great prominence in that empire. It wasn’t long before the Medes & Persians conquered the Babylonians. Remarkably, Daniel and his friends kept their positions of power through the transition.

The Pleiades

Daniel was probably the first of the Magi, the kingmakers of the Persian Empire. There is some speculation here but it would appear that he knew what star (or events in the heavens) to watch out for and told his successors. You can read all about the Star of Bethlehem and the astonishing (and verifiable) astronomical events that surround the birth of Jesus at this site.

When the Magi of Herod’s day saw the signs they headed off to Jerusalem following the star. There were probably a lot more than three of them. This was the Persian empire setting off a Cuban missile crisis type of event with their arch enemies the Romans. They were laying claim to the land of Judah. Herod and all Jerusalem were disturbed with bloody results.

A King had been born. Wise men sought him. They still do.

Matthew 1: 1-18

Creation, Family, General Principles, good news, His Story, Worship & Song

The Infinitesimal Drama of the Virgin Birth

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Incomprehensibly constrained to the size of a pinhead, the Lord of the Universe marches down through the ages and arrives Immanuel in a young girl’s womb.

From the first glorious image of Adam through patriarchs and kings, Matthew parades the central march of God’s history before us and brings us to a place of wonder – a few cells in a wonderful dwelling.

“Did You wrap yourself inside the unexpected
So we might know that Love would go that far?”

That whole long march, funnels down and focuses like a laser on this tiny point.

Matthew 1.

Music taken from the album “Music inspired by the Story” 2011.  Song sung by Francesca Battistelli.

Discipleship Series, General Principles

The threefold nature of success

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Nature

Just like you had no control over what parents you have, the colour of your eyes or hair or where you were born, so also you do not have control of the talents you were born with. God the Father gave them to you and expects you to use them (Matt. 25:14-30).

Nurture

We are all given opportunities to develop at least some of our talents.  Hard work is a key to success when directed along the path of our natural God given talents.  It is Jesus who enables this also though.  As Paul said: “I worked harder than all of them–yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” (1 Cor. 15:10)

Anointing

If someone could bottle and reproduce the form of Leicester City in the Premier League or an athlete breaking a world record when they are not on drugs they might be able to capture the thing many observers call “flow”.  Flow is something that seems most akin to anointing by the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:20) .  David knew it as did the prophets and we can know it too.  It is that difficult to explain thing that causes upsets in competitions and enables anyone to make the fullest use of their God given talents and hard work.  Ask and you will receive.

Discipleship Series, General Principles, Wisdom

The Lord is my Shepherd

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The image of us being sheep and God being our good shepherd is sprinkled lavishly across the Scripture both new and old.  Whole chapters are devoted to the idea (Psalm 23, John 10).  Men are like sheep to be slaughtered (Psalm 44:11), lost sheep (Luke 15:1-7) and scattered sheep (Matthew 9:36).  Sheep bully other sheep (Ezekiel 34:17-22).  The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep (John 10:11).

sheep

There are 7 billion people on the earth.  Of those a tiny fraction are ever in the news personally.  Often groups of people are mentioned and people are tarred with the same brush, but that never tells the story of a single soul.  There are wars and rumours of wars and too many people live in absolute poverty and in ignorance.

But lift your eyes from the news and see what God has done.  There are 7 billion people in the world and most of them are at peace.  For many the Lord is their shepherd and where that is the case they lack nothing, He supplies good food, He leads them in peaceful places and restores their souls.  These ones – and I like to count me and my family among them – walk in righteousness so as not to bring shame to the character of Christ.  Yes we go through bad times but He is always there with us.  He uses the long, thin rod of discipline to keep us on the right path at such times and we know that His staff is strong enough to beat away all wolves.  Even in the midst of the devil and his angels, thrown down to the earth and as angry as hell, we still enjoy His presence and our lives are full and overflowing.  He takes what we are and have and anoints us to bless us and cause our works to multiply.  As we go on with Him, we leave a legacy of goodness and mercy behind us.  It is truly wonderful to know that this living with Him continues forever. (Psalm 23).

The grace of God has abundantly produced good in this world despite the depravity of man.  Let us think about those things instead of always watching and believing the news.

church, General Principles, Worship & Song

Worship

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I believe worship is primarily presenting our bodies a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) before God. Worship is surrendered presentation of our bodies, an out poured soul and an entering into the joy – sometimes ecstasy- of the Holy Spirit’s rejoicing in the finished work of Christ. He spends all His time rejoicing and we enter into that when we worship.

Corporate worship is something better again. This is worship together, ascending to the assembly of the first born in heaven, the spirits of just men made perfect and, again, the blood that speaks a better thing than Abel’s did – the vengeance was poured out on Christ and now, His blood, forgive them, oh forgive, it cries!

18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20 because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” 21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

25 See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks.

Hebrews 12:18-25

So when we worship together we join angels and others worshiping around the world as well as those who have died in Christ. But our focus is on the mercy seat where the blood is sprinkled (Daniel 7:13,14) and the Father is satisfied and comforted in the work His Holy Spirit is doing in His creation. For He is making us those who lift Him up, he sits enthroned on our praises (Psalm 22:3).

General Principles, Worship & Song

The most beautiful name

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Jesus is the most beautiful name of all.

Not the letters in the name or even the sound of the name itself.  No, it is His character that is the most beautiful.  The ideal image of a man as portrayed in movies by any hero strives to capture His character but never can fully.  Only Jesus has that combination of absolute authority, compassion, vulnerability and humility that comes with being the Son of God and Son of Man.

No one else can compete with Him either imagined or real.Superman

church, General Principles, Prophetic Writings

Prophesying in the name of the Lord

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25 “I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ 26 How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? 27 They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal worship. 28 Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the Lord. 29 “Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?

30 “Therefore,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. 31 Yes,” declares the Lord, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, ‘The Lord declares.’ 32 Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” declares the Lord. “They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least,” declares the Lord.

33 “When these people, or a prophet or a priest, ask you, ‘What is the message from the Lord?’ say to them, ‘What message? I will forsake you, declares the Lord.’ 34 If a prophet or a priest or anyone else claims, ‘This is a message from the Lord,’ I will punish them and their household. 35 This is what each of you keeps saying to your friends and other Israelites: ‘What is the Lord’s answer?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ 36 But you must not mention ‘a message from the Lord’ again, because each one’s word becomes their own message. So you distort the words of the living God, the Lord Almighty, our God. 37 This is what you keep saying to a prophet: ‘What is the Lord’s answer to you?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ 38 Although you claim, ‘This is a message from the Lord,’ this is what the Lord says: You used the words, ‘This is a message from the Lord,’ even though I told you that you must not claim, ‘This is a message from the Lord.’ 39 Therefore, I will surely forget you and cast you out of my presence along with the city I gave to you and your ancestors. 40 I will bring on you everlasting disgrace—everlasting shame that will not be forgotten.”

Jeremiah 23:25-40

The Lord makes a point about prophesying in the name of the Lord in Jeremiah 23:34-40. He says that that phrase: “Thus says the Lord” and others like it have been misused so much that they now bring dishonor to His name. People have used this kind of phrase to give authority to their own ideas and in so doing have turned the words of God on their head.

In Jeremiah 31:34 God says no one needs to teach those who know the Lord. You don’t need to say “Thus says the Lord” or anything like that to a listening ear. If it is the word of the Lord He can speak for Himself.

Autobiographical, Discipleship Series, General Principles, Wisdom

Resting in God’s Protection

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The Psalms have several recurrent themes. One of them is that God’s protection is around those who trust in Him (see for example Psalm 125:2).

I have found that trust is an active thing on my part – I have to actively trust God by committing things to Him, praying to Him, spending time with Him and, very importantly, obeying what I believe He is saying to me. I can’t just carry on my own way and then say that I am trusting God.

There are things I have to do deliberately to ensure that I am trusting Him. One of these is to discipline my time so that I have set aside times in the day and the week to spend time praying alone with Him and reading the Scriptures. Another is to obey the commands that I am not to worry or be afraid, that I am to rejoice always, pray without ceasing and in everything to give thanks (1 Thess. 5:17). These are not always easy commands to obey and work is required to carry them out.

We have just finished a series of studies of James at our local church, Open Arms. Works and faith go hand in hand.

A Christian in a relationship