Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast - as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
(1 Corinthians 5.7)
The central problem that Paul was dealing with among the Corinthians has been identified in 1 Corinthians 4.8: ‘we’ve arrived!’ This is continued in chapter 5, by this emphasis in 1 Corinthians 5.7, on the paschal lamb. We haven’t arrived. We’ve embarked on a journey.
Some people get to the starting line, take one step, and say ‘that’s that then!’ The Corinthians had fallen for this. They thought they had arrived. No-one was fooled but themselves.
Today, people are looking for a meaningful journey to enter and engage in. Most searchers are not looking to join a club who know they are right. People look for leadership and direction. They need to find people who are followers, not simply believers in, Jesus Christ.
Friday, 31 October 2008
Monday, 27 October 2008
Empowered weakness
Reading 1 Corinthians 3 & 4 for yesterday's preaching makes me freshly aware of the heart of Paul’s appreciation of Jesus. He really does resonate with Jesus’ own teaching in the Gospels. He’s calling people to a life of ‘empowered weakness’ - a life where the power of God is not understood in terms of attaining private goals or goods, but in being strengthened to walk the way of Jesus Christ.
The trip to Bulgaria brought the focus on this right back for me. To minister to people and to touch their lives with healing, hope and a deeper understanding of the way of following Jesus. This is what ministry is all about.
The trip to Bulgaria brought the focus on this right back for me. To minister to people and to touch their lives with healing, hope and a deeper understanding of the way of following Jesus. This is what ministry is all about.
Sunday, 19 October 2008
Lom
2 Peter 2.1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.
It is always a joy and privilege to come here to Lom. The welcome is always sincere and heartfull. This is the 6th year of bringing teams to Lom from Bristo Baptist Church. The relationships as well as ministry support in both directions continues to grow, and Stoicho will be coming with me to teach in Moscow Baptist Seminary next month.This morning, we looked at the issue of holiness and deceit. It is something God has been speaking to me in upon my heart. There are some practices that are central to the work of the Lord, such as Forgiving and humbling ourselves, in seeking to love and serve others. But a further aspect of Christian discipline is the call to holiness and avoidance of ‘deceit’ - living a lie.
‘the medium is the message’. Deceit is to be avoided
The Christian life involves being rooted in Jesus – if we are in deceit, it pulls us out off Him
The Holy Spirit is quenched by deceit – it hurts him and stops him filling us as He wants to
May the Lord show each of us any areas of deceit we need to deal with, to build our lives into credibility and effective witness. May each of us find the will to repent and be filled afresh with the Holy Spirit of God.
Tuesday, 14 October 2008
Seasons
righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14.7)
The changing of the seasons. The warmth of summer passing through into the cool of winter. The rhythm of God’s Creation. Truth is, though, many of us prefer one season over another. Perhaps we love the light and heat of summer. Or maybe we like to retreat inside in winter.
It’s tempting to become a ‘one season’ Christian. Perhaps with a radical, social consciousness; pursuing causes and voicing concerns. Or maybe a deeply contemplative type, reflecting on the wonder and beauty of life, meditating on Scripture and Nature and seeing the reflection of God and finding peace all around. Then there’s the one who pursues joy and exuberance, confident for God’s prosperity, healing and demon defeating.
When I see people stuck in one season, it makes me sad. They’re missing something of the majesty and beauty of what God has given us in Christ. We need to learn to thank Him and follow Christ through each and every season in life. To embrace them all. To find a place for each of them in our life and worship.
The changing of the seasons. The warmth of summer passing through into the cool of winter. The rhythm of God’s Creation. Truth is, though, many of us prefer one season over another. Perhaps we love the light and heat of summer. Or maybe we like to retreat inside in winter.
It’s tempting to become a ‘one season’ Christian. Perhaps with a radical, social consciousness; pursuing causes and voicing concerns. Or maybe a deeply contemplative type, reflecting on the wonder and beauty of life, meditating on Scripture and Nature and seeing the reflection of God and finding peace all around. Then there’s the one who pursues joy and exuberance, confident for God’s prosperity, healing and demon defeating.
When I see people stuck in one season, it makes me sad. They’re missing something of the majesty and beauty of what God has given us in Christ. We need to learn to thank Him and follow Christ through each and every season in life. To embrace them all. To find a place for each of them in our life and worship.
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
A Song for the Rich Man
(Matthew 19.16-30)
You’ve called me to a path, O God
To walk on through this land
Through full atonement I’ve been bought
To serve the Risen Lamb
To one who shows me how it is
To praise and worship you
To touch the heights of heaven
And to really bring good news
Yes the selfish life I have walked
Looking for your blessed hand
To fill my bank and give me all
My fancies could demand
But now I see another way
That changes me inside
That lets the light of God break through
This stumbling sinner's mind
No easy path do I seek
To walk on through this land
You’ve called me to a different path
From the one instincts demand
No selfish life, no earthly place
Where I can feel secure
But a path that speaks of Calvary
And that reaches to the poor
I want to tell you now, O God
It’s no small thing you demand
For me on follow on the way
Of that Galilean band
Yet a journey from my bankrupcy
Entices me to life
To walk forever as a friend
Of the One called Jesus Christ
A Son of man He truly was
Right human to the core
But the Son of God He’s proved to be
Through all that He endured
With righteousness and justice
He faced the cunning rich
And from conflict with the darkness
He never once did flinch
So take me God and fill me
With your Holy Spirit’s power
And guide me now with those around
To walk His path right now
Help me to see and love the truth
That You’ve called me now to own
To bless and help and heal and serve
And carry your Shalom
You’ve called me to a path, O God
To walk on through this land
Through full atonement I’ve been bought
To serve the Risen Lamb
To one who shows me how it is
To praise and worship you
To touch the heights of heaven
And to really bring good news
Yes the selfish life I have walked
Looking for your blessed hand
To fill my bank and give me all
My fancies could demand
But now I see another way
That changes me inside
That lets the light of God break through
This stumbling sinner's mind
No easy path do I seek
To walk on through this land
You’ve called me to a different path
From the one instincts demand
No selfish life, no earthly place
Where I can feel secure
But a path that speaks of Calvary
And that reaches to the poor
I want to tell you now, O God
It’s no small thing you demand
For me on follow on the way
Of that Galilean band
Yet a journey from my bankrupcy
Entices me to life
To walk forever as a friend
Of the One called Jesus Christ
A Son of man He truly was
Right human to the core
But the Son of God He’s proved to be
Through all that He endured
With righteousness and justice
He faced the cunning rich
And from conflict with the darkness
He never once did flinch
So take me God and fill me
With your Holy Spirit’s power
And guide me now with those around
To walk His path right now
Help me to see and love the truth
That You’ve called me now to own
To bless and help and heal and serve
And carry your Shalom
Monday, 6 October 2008
Choosing Life
If by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8.13)
We have a choice. We can live the life of Christian hypocrites, or live a life characterised by the presence and the ministry of Jesus Christ. And if we choose the latter, we can only succeed by the enabling presence of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is described as Holy for good reason. We can be enamoured by and desire to see signs and wonders, and this is potentially good. But if this is not set in the context of prioritising holiness, it can and will be disasterous. Holiness is the context that allows what we do do carry the flavour and savour of Jesus Christ.
And for this we need the Holy Spirit. We need to seek Him. Thirst for Him. Ask the Father to pour Him out, through Jesus Christ. We must learn to yearn, as the Christians at the first Pentecost had yearned. And we must not stop yearning until the HOLY Spirit breaks through to touch our lives with holiness.
But we also need to desire to walk this way. The outworking of holiness in our lives is not automatic. There has to be a harnessing. A discipline to seek Him and then, when He comes, to walk with Him.
At the Reformation, the Reformers saw something of this. Martin Luther saw our absolute inability to please God of ourselves, or to walk the way of Christ. John Calvin sensed it and argued that Christians should seek to walk in the guidelines of the Law of God. But it was the anabaptists who most clearly grasped it - that Chriatians are called to walk Holy lives, which can be enabled only when we seek the Spirit and resolve to change the way we live.
We have a choice. We can live the life of Christian hypocrites, or live a life characterised by the presence and the ministry of Jesus Christ. And if we choose the latter, we can only succeed by the enabling presence of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is described as Holy for good reason. We can be enamoured by and desire to see signs and wonders, and this is potentially good. But if this is not set in the context of prioritising holiness, it can and will be disasterous. Holiness is the context that allows what we do do carry the flavour and savour of Jesus Christ.
And for this we need the Holy Spirit. We need to seek Him. Thirst for Him. Ask the Father to pour Him out, through Jesus Christ. We must learn to yearn, as the Christians at the first Pentecost had yearned. And we must not stop yearning until the HOLY Spirit breaks through to touch our lives with holiness.
But we also need to desire to walk this way. The outworking of holiness in our lives is not automatic. There has to be a harnessing. A discipline to seek Him and then, when He comes, to walk with Him.
At the Reformation, the Reformers saw something of this. Martin Luther saw our absolute inability to please God of ourselves, or to walk the way of Christ. John Calvin sensed it and argued that Christians should seek to walk in the guidelines of the Law of God. But it was the anabaptists who most clearly grasped it - that Chriatians are called to walk Holy lives, which can be enabled only when we seek the Spirit and resolve to change the way we live.
A prayer
Lord, this day help me to see and recognise afresh the way of Jesus Christ. By Your Spirit, let me sense true holiness. And strengthen me in my will, that by Your Holy Spirit's enabling, I should walk that way.
In Jesus' name, Amen
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