A great day at Sychar's well...

It has been a long time since I wrote a post on this blog. One of the things I am happily finding is that the Lord continues to reveal Himself to me almost to the point that lately I don't have time to write it down. One of the things I always find a challenge is that I have so much to share with no venue to share it other than this blog but lately I have so much that I just don't know where to start, so I haven't started.
Those who have been to this blog before will know I promised to share simple thoughts on the Tabernacle and I haven't completed that but the Lord still chats with me about the wondrous truths of Jesus Christ shadowed in the Old Testament and I will definitely return to this soon.
You know I think it important to receive the truth that the Bible, the Word of God, is really totally and completely about the Word of God, The Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, and throughout every page we can behold His glory, full of grace and truth. As you read the Bible don't write off the Old Testament as here Jesus is seen shadowed in types but the truths held here are just so beautiful. Seek Him out in every verse. When you read ask the Holy Spirit to reveal Him for He is everywhere in everything because He is the everything of God, God revealed and expressed; the heir and creator of all things, the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of God's nature, the upholder of all things (Hebrews 1: 2, 3).

Anyway enough on that.
This morning I was reading a book and it sent me to a section of the Bible, John 4. This is the story of the Samaritan woman and her interaction with the Living Water, Jesus Christ. Now there is a lot that could be said about this I'm sure but I was impacted by two simple thoughts and I trust they might impact you today.
The first is the statement Jesus made in verse 10. '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."'
If you KNEW the GIFT OF GOD! Who or what is the gift of God? Easy answer. Jesus Christ He is the gift of God.
Now many a gospel message has been preached on this verse encouraging people to 'know' Jesus and this is right but there is so much more here. I am pretty sure that most people who have taken the time to read this are probably already believers in Jesus so I want you to receive the truth of this statement for you, now, today.
My prayer is that you might KNOW HIM in all that He is for you right now, today.
Let me ask you something.
What do you need? Or dare I say it, what do you want?
Recently I visited a little church. I was so blessed by the preaching because the preacher didn't preach the favour of God that is appropriated by me by my striving via this strategy or that strategy as is the case in so many places (sadly). Rather she declared that the Bible, the book of promises is in fact a book of provision.
On my phone I have a list of scripture that the Lord has blessed me with through other people as they have been inspired by the Holy Spirit and I had entitled the file 'Promises'. After this morning I changed the title of this file to 'Provisions'. What do I mean by this?
Beloved, whatever you need or want Jesus is the PROVISION not just the promise. A promise suggests that something is yet to come, it is promised but it is yet to arrive and we, the receiver, can have no way of knowing when the promise will be realised. This is a wholly unsatisfactory situation for me and is not the nature of God. Why? Because my precious friends Jesus Christ is the provision of God and all that He promised was realised in Jesus 2000 years ago. He promised restoration, freedom, hope, glory, blessing, favour, provision, healing,...I could go on and on and on...whatever you need today or want was realised in the GIFT OF GOD...the question is DO YOU KNOW IT?
Let me direct you to another well know scripture, sadly misrepresented on many church pulpits today. In 1 Corinthians 11 the writer, Paul, talks of the truth of the Lord's Supper, the New Covenant meal instituted by Jesus Himself the night of His betrayal. In verse 27 he talks of eating and drinking unworthily and goes on in verse 29 to speak of not judging the body of the Lord rightly and then says in verse 30 that this is the reason many are weak and sickly among you, weak and sickly because we don't correctly discern His body.
Now this passage has been used  by many to heap condemnation upon the people of God, to drive blood bought righteous people, righteous by the blood of Jesus, into a place of self examination seeking whether or not they are unworthy. Oh please, beloved, how many times do we have to crucify the Lord? If you only KNEW the truth of Him then you could embrace your freedom from every stronghold of the enemy of God and truly be free. The Bible is clear that Jesus, my Jesus was wounded for my transgressions, He was bruised for my iniquities, He was chastised for my peace and He bore the stripes for my healing. BY HIS STRIPES I AM HEALED! Is this just physical healing? No. Is this just salvation? No. Beloved, rightly discern His body and so eat rejoicing in the absolute TRUTH that His body bore the stripes for your healing, total and complete, everything! He is EVERYTHING. He is every provision you will ever need for whatever it is that you need or want. HE IS OUR PROVISION, already ours, not just a promise but THE provision. Oh, hallelujah!
Why do you think the Lord's Supper is consigned in our churches to an afterthought, partaken maybe once a month and then often as an interruption to our sermon? Because we don't correctly discern the Lord's body and so many are weak and sickly among us and many live under constant condemnation, bound and bent, oh yes Christians but not walking in true freedom but bound by our own doing when freely available to us is liberty in the already done, the finished work of our Lord, Jesus Christ. So as Jesus said 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."' My prayer today is that you will KNOW HIM.

The second thing that impacted me from the Samaritan woman story was this. When Jesus arrived at the Sychar's well He was tired and hungry. The disciples went off to the town to get some supplies and while they were away Jesus met the woman. You know this was a divine appointment revealed in the wonderful precision of the Bible in that He 'had to pass through Samaria' (John 4: 4). He didn't 'have' to at all, in fact most Jews would avoid Samaria like the plague but Jesus had to go that way, why? He had a woman to meet! But that's another post.
When the disciples returned Jesus was refreshed and sustained to such an extent that the disciples seemed to think that He had rung for a takeaway and the Domino's scooter had beaten them to it! But the fact is that Jesus was sustained by His administration of His love to the woman who deserved nothing but received 'living water', the eternal nourishment and refreshment of the Grace (the unmerited favour) of God, Jesus Christ.
Now the staggering point of this truth is this. Many a preacher today would go on to give you a nice burden by telling you that your nourishment and sustenance is only in 'doing' the will of the Father but this isn't the point at all. The point is this, rejoice with me in this, that when we draw from Jesus He is sustained all the more, He is an endless, complete and wonderful source of eternal sustenance and the more you draw the more there is to receive, more refreshment, more restoration, more freedom, more favour. So much but we do not receive it because we don't know Him. I think of Mary at the feet of Jesus, sitting there being fed. The more she fed the more she received.

So, beloved my prayer is today that you will KNOW Him and that knowing Him you will receive Him as your endless provision. He gave His life at the cross to restore all that our first father gave away and nothing is left out. The Bible is clear when it declares for you today that 'He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?' This isn't just about us getting what we want this is everything about KNOWING the truth of Jesus and the wonder of the Grace of God.
With your face unveiled receiving the truth of the provided One we are 'transformed from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.' This is 2 Corinthians 3: 18 which is often quoted but I want you to see the previous verse. It says that 'where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.' LIBERTY! Liberty from what? Liberty from everything that is not of God, liberty from everything not glorious, beloved know Him in truth. He is EVERYTHING for every situation in your life and I do not believe anything is excluded.
Rejoice in this, receive Him and praise Him for He alone is worthy.

Blessings to you today. Have a great day.

God made a covenant...

God made a covenant with Abraham based on the ‘I will’ of God. The full story of this is found in Genesis 17 and surrounding chapters. Abraham received this in faith and it is recorded in scripture that ‘Abraham believed God and it was credited, reckoned to him as righteousness’, Romans 4: 3, Galatians 3: 6, James 2: 23. Abraham’s righteousness was based in the promise of God which he received in faith.

God made a covenant with Moses on behalf of the people that was based in the ‘you will’ and the ‘you won’t’ of the Law, the ‘yes’ and the ‘no’ of the Law, see it clearly it Exodus 20, even written on stone! It is holy and absolutely right but it was unattainable for human kind and it’s only purpose was to reveal sin because before the Law sin was in the world but it was not imputed, not revealed, not exposed, Romans 5: 13, and so it is because of the revealed Law that we declare ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’, Romans 3: 23

God always would restore the covenant of Abraham, the covenant of faith, the covenant of the ‘I will’ of God and not the ‘you will’ (the yes) and ‘you won’t’ (the no) of man because man, sadly, couldn’t do it. Listen to these words, ‘so that, as sin reigned in death, (the law brought death because the holiness of God revealed in the Law demanded death), even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Glorious words! Jesus came because we were unable to save ourselves and we are still unable, even if we have accepted Him…do not be alarmed. I will explain what I mean by that statement right now.

God restored the covenant of faith in the ‘I will’, the YES of God, the person of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Our salvation, our reconciliation, our eternal life is in HIM, not in us. Yes we receive it by faith, that is, we position ourselves to receive Him and we are saved but once saved we don’t then move to a place of receiving the working out of our salvation by works (our yes and no), it is still by faith, still in Him.

Do you get it?

It is ALL IN HIM, not you, HIM and we just receive it by faith. Faith is our position, not our work. Work entails movement, activity, action on your part but faith is sitting at His feet (like Mary), ‘seated …with Him in the heavenly places…so that in the ages (from now for all eternity) to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in… (In what? In who? In our works? In our ‘yes’ and ‘no’? In what we do?)...NO, eternally NO!... but in Christ Jesus’ and in Him alone, no-one else, nothing else, only HIM, Ephesians2: 6, 7.

Now, listen to these words, Romans 4: 16, ‘For this reason it is by faith , that it might be in accordance with grace, in order that the promise may be to all descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.’ Another version says it like this, ‘Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all seed, not only those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all…’

Listen very carefully…this passage has just been saying that if the promise made to Abraham was based in keeping the Law and not through the righteousness which comes by faith (faith that comes by receiving THE righteous One, Jesus Christ) and if the Law produces heirs then faith is made of no effect, useless, a waste of time and the consequence is the promises of God are also made of no effect, useless, a waste of time, Romans 4: 13, 14.

Verse 15 then declares that the Law brings wrath, (the wrath of holy God against the sin of one who turned his back on God and consequently we, by descent, have all turned our back on God), and that our violation was revealed by Law. Law, keeping Law, no matter how hard we try, is impossible and so the only way available to us to be reconciled with our God is through faith.

Now we don’t now run off and try real hard to be faithful for that is not what we are talking about. Rather now we position ourselves to receive grace, ‘therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace’… What is grace? It is Jesus Christ, the ‘exact representation of the nature of God’, Hebrews 1: 3. He alone reveals the unmerited favour of God, the nature of God, and He alone is the basis of our acceptance. You see what the verse goes on to say…’…that it might be according to grace, SO THAT THE PROMISE MIGHT BE SURE TO ALL SEED…’ Not just those of the Law, the people of Israel but to you and me, those who are children of Abraham, this means those who like Abraham received the promise of God by faith, those who position themselves, like Abraham, to believe God and it is on this basis, and this basis alone, that God declares we are ‘the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, 2 Corinthians 5: 21, and that our sins are remembered no more, Hebrews 8: 12, 10:17. This is the foundation clause of the New Covenant, which is the fulfilment of the Covenant of Faith made with Abraham. It is fulfilled in Jesus Christ because He came without sin and fulfilled the absolute requirements of the Law on our behalf, doing what we couldn’t do, so we only need receive Him. Our need to ‘do’ is gone. swallowed up in His ‘done’, when He declared “IT IS FINISHED” at the cross. At that moment the veil separating us from the Holiest of Holies was torn in two and the way was made. He is THE WAY, He is THE TRUTH, and He is THE LIFE!

Can you see it?

Therefore the ONLY way the promise could be sure, the only way the promise is sure is by GRACE, by Jesus Christ. There is no other way.

God has given me a mission and that mission is to preach His Grace to the whole world! Please don’t think I am big-noting myself for I am not, I take the ‘call’ of God over my life very seriously indeed. My prayer is that you will receive His grace, yes in salvation but then in life. Too many times in our churches do we preach salvation by grace and then life by works, an alloy of Law and Grace, lukewarmness!

I will finish today with this, listen to these words…’For the Son of God, Christ Jesus (just in case we had forgotten), who was preached among you by us…was not yes and no, but is yes in Him, 2 Corinthians 1: 19.

Oh, hallelujah! The ‘yes’ and ‘no’ of the Law is removed from us and replaced with the ‘yes’ of Jesus Christ!

So, yes to what?

It goes on…’For as many as may be the promises of God, in Him they are yes; wherefore by Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us’, 2 Corinthians 1: 20.

Woohoo! The promises of God are ‘YES’ in Him! Not only that our AMEN is by Him, and not only that it is by Him God is glorified in us.

What is it saying?

The requirements of our input in all these things are removed and are perfectly established in HIM. WE receive ALL the many promises of God in Him, HE is our AMEN, and God is glorified in us in HIM.  EVERYTHING in HIM, Jesus Christ.

What has God promised you?

They are established in Him. Jesus said that even heaven and earth will pass away, but His words will never pass away’, Matthew 24: 35.

God has promised many things to me and to WTL and God’s team for WTL. He has revealed through His word and through His revelation to many people the magnitude of the call He has placed on my life. Are they established in my faithfulness? NO, a million times no!

They are established in His faithfulness and His true declaration that what He has said will never pass away and this is truth because they are established in Him and He is their Amen and He will bring glory to God in me. That’s all!

So who does all this?

Read on…’Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge’, 2 Corinthians 1: 21, 22.

God was well pleased with the finished work of His Son. Jesus went into the Holiest of Holies, the very presence of God, with His own blood and it was accepted. He was invited to sit down at the right hand (the hand of blessing and favour) and we are presently positioned there to receive His grace, His favour. We are Benjamin, the sons of His right hand, favoured and blessed in Jesus Christ.

We are established in Christ by God Himself. We are anointed by God Himself. We are sealed by God Himself and the pledge is the giving of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. We are sealed by the magnitude of the truth that Christ lives in us!

‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places… (this does not mean our blessings are only spiritual…we are blessed with all the blessing of the hand of God as He pours out His favour and love over His Son in the heavenly place, and us in Him, as we are seated with Him in the heavenlies…positioned to receive not striving to receive!)…in Christ Jesus, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him… (We are holy and blameless in Him, in the righteousness of Christ; we are the righteousness of God in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5: 21). In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.’

In the Beloved we are accepted as heirs, as sons and daughters.

Receive Him by grace and then live by grace.

Reject the lie that Life is by works…Life is by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God, rest in His promises.

 He is EVERYTHING.

Burden lifted...

I love my Bible and there is nothing I love nothing better than to sit with it in the morning and gather something from it for each day.

This morning I want to share something with you and I have entitled this post 'Burden lifted...' because what I want to impart to you is the most burden-lifting truth you will ever hear.
You know that Jesus said in Matthew 11: 30 that His 'yoke is easy' and His 'burden is light' so I think that Jesus was in the business of burden-lifting and He continues to be our burden lifter, after all He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Also what I am about to share is 'burden-lifting' for Christians and for soon-to-be-Christians alike.

Now it is a sad truth that many people who desire to be reconciled with God look for the 'way' in many different places. Usually this involves us seeking what we must 'do' to achieve that reconciliation.
And then combined with this there is an enemy of God who will do anything to divert us from finding the burden-free way which is Jesus Christ and he does this by constantly bringing the Law of God before us to (a) convince us that keeping the law is the way to God, and (b) continually point out to us how we fail, which inevitably do, or by (c) even providing some counterfeit to the truth of the gospel to draw us away completely.
Then for Christians one of the great challenges that burdens us is finding how we do what is required of us to remain 'right' with God and again the same enemy gladly comes and continues to try and convince us that being 'right' with God means keeping the Law, and then when we fail he gleefully points this out to us knowing that we will quickly be discouraged and give up.
Those are the sad but true facts.
You know even our preachers lead us down a path of pursuing the 'doing' for God as the means for righteousness and growth.

So...This is your burden-lifting moment.
Are you wondering what is required of you to do the works of God? Are you wondering what you need to do to do what we are so often told God requires of us? Are you struggling with misguided direction to do this or do that to be 'right' with God?

Once upon a time Jesus, when He was here, took five barley loaves and two small fishes and He blessed it and He fed 5000 men plus numerous women and children and there were twelve baskets of leftovers, all from five loaves and two small fish!
The people were mightily impressed and followed Him wanting more.
He said to them that they were following because they had been fed and had been filled. Then He said to them, "Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal."

The first thing I want you to see is that the sealed centrepiece of God is our Lord, Jesus Christ.
He is the key to EVERYTHING.
He is EVERYTHING.
It clearly says elsewhere that He is the fullness of God and we are complete in Him (Colossians 1: 19, 2: 9,10).

Then the people ask a question..."What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"
Woo...isn't that the very same question that we all ask and that a myriad of writers and preachers down through time have given breath and ink to answer, and sadly very often have totally missed the point.

So here is your moment of release because we have the answer from the very mouth of God Himself, The Word of God manifest in flesh. We don't need all the strategy, ideas, law, five-point plans, seven-point plans, three-point plans, etc. etc. because The Word took the time to answer our question and then record it in His Word to us and here it is...

'Jesus answered and said to them,

 "THIS IS THE WORK OF GOD, THAT YOU BELIEVE IN HIM WHOM HE HAS SENT." '

Out of that place we are right with God because He is our Righteousness; out of that place we receive our healing because by His stripes we are healed; out of that place we receive our breakthrough because He is our provider and provision; out of that place we receive our ministry and purpose because He is our guide and strength...we could go on and on but we must say this because out of this place you can receive salvation, the certainty of sin forgiven and the absolute surety of being right with God.
This is the greatest miracle, the greatest breakthrough, the greatest provision and it happens not by us trying to 'save' ourselves but by simply believing that Jesus Christ did all that was required to save us from eternal damnation and to give us eternal life.
Let me finally ask you this simple question...if the greatest miracle comes by just believing, why should lesser miracles of healing and financial breakthrough, or guidance in life and purpose be any different?
Fix your eyes on Him, He is the author and the finisher of faith.
He is everything.
Seek His exaltation and everything else just falls into place.

Rest...

The way it works for me is this, God gives me something from His word and it sits with me sometimes for months.
Ephesians 2: 4 - 7 has been one of those scriptures. Read it for yourself.
This part of the Bible has sat with me and I have chewed over and over it...a bit like a cow chewing the cud (if you have no idea what I am talking about, sad, I guess you needed to grow up on a farm...)

I have spoken about this scripture before in this blog so if you have nothing else to do you can look back through past posts and you will see that I have been impacted by this passage.

This morning as I was sitting with the Lord the Lord showed me something that is awesome and I want to share it with you. Please keep reading.

The first time 'grace' is mentioned in the Bible is in Genesis 6: 8.
Oh we 'see' grace much earlier than that, like when the Lord provided coverings of animal skins for Adam and Eve, but here is the first time the actual word is mentioned.

'But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord.' (NASB)

'But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord' (KJV)

Now there is nothing particularly remarkable in this statement on the surface but dig a little deeper and the wonder of our God comes rising to us.

Firstly this was written way before the cross and God was a God of Grace even then...what does this say to us? When you read the Old Testament seek the Grace...not the law...seek Jesus, He is Grace and He is everywhere.
Secondly, we could ask why did Noah find favour in the eyes of the Lord? Maybe because he kept the Law? But there was no Law to keep! This was hundreds of years before the Law was given to reveal the need of man. So how did he find favour in the eyes of the Lord? How did He find the Grace?

You know the answer is found in the meaning of Noah's name.

Noah means 'rest'.

So rest found grace, grace found rest.

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord because He 'rested' in the Lord. You remember Abraham, it is recorded of him 'that he believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.' Abraham rested in the promise of God.
It was the same for Noah.
Come on think about it...God came to Noah and called him by telling him to build a big boat because it was going to rain. Better scholars than I will ever be tell us that up to that point there had not been any rain at all on the earth and Noah was expected to build a big boat in anticipation of a big rain which would bring a big flood to destroy the inhabitants of the earth.

(As an aside...that action on the part of God doesn't sound much like grace does it? Let me just point this out to you, the Bible says that 'all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth' (Genesis 6: 12). There is an enemy who has a mission to steal, kill and destroy...that has always been his mission, from the beginning. In the carrying out of his mission he had his demons corrupt mankind by mating with them and so all flesh in Noah's time were giants, full of violence, not humans at all, a cross between demons and mankind...only Noah and his family stood pure and so God stepped in to preserve man and wiped out the work of the enemy by the flood...wow! What Grace! See the grace of our God on our behalf? What love! What grace! What favour!
If you want a New Testament example of our God acting in grace and favour to preserve His people then look to the story of Ananias and Sapphira...you remember in Acts 5? Read it for yourself. Now often people say that God dealt very harshly with these two, especially since they were Christians and part of the early church. Do not be deceived, Ananias and Sapphira weren't believers, they were agents of an enemy with a mission to steal, kill and destroy the early, fledgling church, the Bride of Christ and God dealt with this attack of the enemy. See it again? What Grace! What love! What favour! Church would not be except for the favour of God in dealing with the enemy as he tried to destroy the blossoming Bride of Christ.)

So back to where we were...
Noah, whose name means rest, rested in the promise of God and in that rest he found grace. It was not about what he did, it was about what God did, would do, about resting in the promise of God.
We are so blessed because we sit on the other side of the cross, the pinnacle of all history (His-Story), and in the day described as the Day of Grace, the Day of the Lord's Favour...

Why, oh why, then do we insist of making our own way.
Why, oh why, do we seek the approval of God by our work, by our law-keeping, by our pious strategies to be 'like Christ'?
Rest? How can we describe rest?
Rest equals me saying "I can't, but You, Lord, You can."
I can't deal with this issue in my life, but You can.
I can't deal with this sickness, but You can.
I can't deal with this financial crisis, but You can.
I can't deal with my lack of work, but You can.
I can't deal with this marriage crisis, but You can.
I can't deal with my wayward and rebellious child, but You can.
I can't be 'Christ-like' and grow in You, but You can grow in me...if I will just rest in You.
I could go on and on...

I can't deal with the need of my ministry, my call, the vision You have given me, BUT YOU CAN!

Oh, hallelujah!

So...I don't know about you but for me I say this...
I can't do it Lord but You can and I will rest there. I trust your promise that when You give a vision You will not fail to give the pro-vision.
I will sit. 
I will rest in the promises that You have made to me and WTL; I will sit and receive Your word which says to me that I am 'seated with You in heavenly places so that You might show me the surpassing riches of Your grace in kindness toward me in Christ Jesus', Ephesians 2: 6 - 7.
Woohoo!

I choose to sit there!

The tabernacle continued...

Last time we considered the Altar of Burnt Offering, the Bronze Altar, which is the first item of furniture as we enter the court of the Tent of Meeting of the tabernacle. We are now within an area 50 cubits by 100 cubits surrounded on all sides by curtains skillfully made. The entrance faces the east.
Within this area apart from the Altar of Burnt Offering the only other item of furniture is a basin.

Remember, we have been accepted on the basis of the shed blood of the sacrifice. We are covered by the blood and as New Covenant believers our covering is the blood of our perfect burnt offering, Jesus Christ. The acceptable offering for the Israelite was a male without defect; the sacrifice is slaughtered before the Lord, its blood is sprinkled against the altar on all sides and all is burnt on the altar. What a picture to us of the all encompassing, complete and perfect sacrifice of our Lord on our behalf. Can we ever really doubt that we are accepted in Him? There is so much we could say concerning the perfection and completeness of His sacrifice for us.
In Him we are accepted and we can rejoice in the mighty fact that on the basis of His sacrifice we are priests, 'To Him who loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood, and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.' Revelation 1: 5 - 6.
The role of the priest was to minister to God on behalf of themselves and the people, it was a role that was determined by birth. So it is for the New Covenant believer, we are welcome to come on behalf of ourselves and the people to the God of heaven, a role determined by our new birth in Jesus Christ, our perfect sacrifice.
You know for the Israelite, as we have already said, the failing of the sacrifice of bulls and goats is that they could never take away sin (Hebrews 10: 4) and so the offerer was required to come time and time again, offering for sin time and time again (please read Hebrews 10: 4 - 18) but not so for us. The blood of our sacrifice is perfect and complete...the priest in the day of law, under the covenant of Law stood daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which could never take away sin 'but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,...' Hebrews 10: 11 - 12. Please also receive the final verse of Hebrews 10 which is so wonderful and says that where there is forgiveness of our sins and lawless deeds there is 'no longer any offering for sin.' Hallelujah!

So the New Covenant believer has passed by the Altar of Burnt Offering and is perfectly accepted covered by the blood of the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the once-for-all perfect sacrifice. On this basis we are priests accepted by cleansing and by birthright and so can proceed to the basin.

The basin was made of bronze and sat on a bronze stand. It was for washing and had water placed in it. It was situated between the altar of burnt offering and the Tent of Meeting, the next 'structure' we see before us in the tabernacle. The priests, Aaron and his sons, were to wash their hands and their feet whenever they entered the Tent of Meeting, to meet with God. This washing was imperative 'so they will not die.' (Exodus 30: 17 - 21)

So what is this referring to for us today? What is the encouragement of this type, this shadow of our Lord Jesus Christ? Ephesians 5: 26, speaking of Christ and His bride, the church, says, '...that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,...' What word? The Word of God as a prescription to holiness and blamelessness, NO...God does require daily washing with the word as a prescription to holiness although this is desirable that we go each day to His word...so what word? The word of His Love, the word of His Grace, just as the husband is encouraged to love his wife the word that we are to wash with is the precious word of His Love and Grace so vividly demonstrated in that He 'gave Himself up for her', Ephesians 5: 25. It is in His love demonstrated that He presents 'to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless', Ephesians 5: 27.

You see if our diligence in washing with the water of the word daily then our blamelessness and holiness rests on our 'work' of washing. But we are free from sanctification through our works for we are under grace not under law.
So as we enter His presence, as we meet with our God we come daily, minute by minute, every moment washed with Him, washed with the word of His Love and Grace, washed with Jesus as He is the perfect expression of the love and grace of God, He perfectly presents the heart of God to us. Covered so we are confident that 'we will not die', in fact, this is the only way to Life, there is no other way. Jesus is the Way and He is the Life and we rejoice in life everlasting and abundant and never failing because He is faithful, 'for He who promised is faithful', Hebrews 10: 23.

So the second item of our acceptance shadowed in the tabernacle of old is the basin, the washing place, where forever we are washed in His Love and Grace, washed in Jesus. Oh yes, I would definitely encourage you to go to His Word constantly, receive His Word at all times, take a scripture daily and chew on it, meditate on it throughout your day, not because this is prescriptive for your acceptance in the presence of God but because the Word reveals Jesus Christ, the Word is Jesus Christ, He is our Word and in Him we find the word of the love and grace of God in which we can declare we are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 21) and accepted in Him.

Be encouraged...wash today in His word to you that in Him, in Love, in Grace you are accepted, a gift, not of works, bathe in it, receive it every moment for it is yours every moment. Hallelujah!

The tabernacle...

Everything 'written in earlier times was written for our instruction so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope' (Romans 15: 4). Why? That God, who gives perseverance and encouragement may grant us to be of one mind according to Christ Jesus to the glory of God our Father. So those things written before were written to point us to Jesus that we may receive Him and praise our God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ( Romans 15: 5 - 6).
Lately I have been thinking of the tabernacle. Maybe you have not read much about it. The details of the tabernacle are presented in the latter part of the book of Exodus and into Leviticus; you can look for yourself. The tabernacle was determined by God as the place where the people of Israel could meet with Him. The design of the tabernacle and its layout, and the sacrifices established are all shadows of Jesus. Whenever you open your Bible you are looking for Jesus. Jesus is the centrepiece of God and whether it is the Old Testament or the New the centre is no different, you are looking for Jesus revealing the grace of God. You know God is never changing, He is grace, He has always been grace and He always will be grace. When we read we are not looking for the strategy how we can do better, how we can please God more, or for the strategy to be 'like' Jesus; we look for Him and it is my hope and prayer that more and more we can seek Him, receive Him, meditate on Him, preach Him for it is as we 'see' Him we are transformed more and more to His likeness. It is not in our strategy but in our seeing Him that we are more like Him. Yes it is a progression which will have its ultimate fulfillment when we will be like Him when we see Him as He is (1 John 3: 2) but as we have the desire to be Christ-like it is in our seeing Him that we are transformed.

So the tabernacle. As we enter through the outer door of the tabernacle we arrive in the court of the 'tent of meeting' and the first item we see is the Altar of Burnt Offering. This is significant. The burnt offering sacrifice, the shadow of Jesus, Jesus THE WAY to God. To meet with God we must enter through The Way, our Lord Jesus Christ (John 14: 6).
There is significance in the construction of all the items of the tabernacle but I do not want to consider that here but you can read of the altar of burnt offering in Exodus 38. We are looking for Jesus.
So we come to Leviticus 1 and we find the prescription of the law of the burnt offering. Leviticus 1: 5 says this, 'He shall slay the young bull before the Lord; and Aaron's sons the priests shall offer up the blood and sprinkle the blood around the altar that is at the doorway of the tent of meeting.' So I am sure you can see the significance. When we meet with God the first place we come is the altar of burnt offering. The altar speaks of the claims of God on the righteousness of man. To approach God man must be righteous, nothing impure or defiled can approach God. So it is for this reason that an offering must be killed and its blood sprinkled all around the altar and its body burnt completely on the altar before the person is counted worthy to enter the presence of God.
As the Israelite stood under the cover of the sprinkled blood they could enter the meeting place and meet with God. Without the sprinkled blood they could not meet God and even when they sinned they were covered by the blood until the next time they came to meet God and brought again the sacrifice so they were again covered by the blood of the burnt offering.
Now this is a shadow of Jesus. Can you see Him? But there is a difference. The Israelite came many times under the law and always was required to come with the unblemished sacrifice. This is what they must do to find favour and meet with God.

Now I want you to rejoice with me because today if you have received Jesus as your sacrifice then the fulfillment of the shadow seen in the burnt offering is perfected for you because you sit today on the other side of the cross, you sit under the terms of the New Covenant and the burnt offering for you is perfected in Jesus Christ. If you read the book of Hebrews you will find that it is the book of BETTER, the revelation of Better with a capital 'B', Jesus Christ.
The blood of the burnt offering in Leviticus 1 speaks of the blood of Jesus. However, His blood is so much better than the blood of bulls and of goats...why?..because the blood of bulls and goats was effective only until the next time the Israelite wanted to meet with God but the blood of Jesus is EFFECTIVE FOREVER!
If you take your Bible and read Hebrews 9: 11 - 14 you will see the better offering of Jesus that in all points is better and you can rejoice that today you sit under the shed blood of Jesus as you meet with God.
Hebrews 10: 4 says that 'it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins' and yet I can sit here today and seek to encourage us all with words of truth...please receive this today.

• You can rest in Him because every single claim of God on man and the righteousness of man (there is none righteous) is COMPLETELY SATISFIED in Jesus Christ.
• God is COMPLETELY SATISFIED because of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus as our burnt offering...even if you fall into sin you can turn to the blood of Jesus.
• There is more...your sins are not just covered but by His blood they are WASHED AWAY COMPLETELY...'To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood.' Revelation 1: 5
• More than that God REMEMBERS OUR SINS NO MORE! Two times in Hebrews God declares this truth within the scope of two chapters...do you think maybe He wanted us to get it? 'And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.' Hebrews 8: 12; 10: 17
• Maybe this is enough but there is more...Jesus is our perfect offering and by virtue of His perfection WE ARE PERFECTED. 'For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.' Hebrews 10: 14
• Rejoice! Jesus not only sanctifies you, makes you HOLY, but He also PERFECTS you, and not only that He PERFECTS YOU FOREVER.
• So today you can enter and meet with God boldly because God sees you the way He sees His Son...PERFECT FOREVER! Hallelujah!

Now this is the first item we see when we enter the tabernacle, next time we think of the next. 

Important point we must receive is that when we enter in through Jesus we enter forever. Under the New Covenant no more do we come with sacrifice after sacrifice...because Jesus is our perfect sacrifice we enter in the the presence of God once and receive His shed blood once never to go out again. We no longer come and crucify Him again and again, His sacrifice is sufficient for us to enter in through Him and be perfectly received forever. We are forever in Him, and He in us.

My Call...

You know I write this blog because I have stuff to share but no platform on which to share it. I really want to thank you for taking the time to read it.
The fact is I have never really achieved anything. I'm not telling you that to encourage you to feel sorry for me but it is a foundation for what I need to share with you all.
I want to declare to you all today my call. I believe that it is important that I declare this to you all. I have no real earthly achievement because God had other plans.

I won't make this long because I want you to read it all.

In 2001 I received a call from God. This was a voice which said "I am giving you this country as your mission field." The country was Cambodia. The speaker was the God who gives dreams, places visions within us and then provides the provision.

I remember one time when I was young, maybe about fourteen, when I had this sense that my future was to be a missionary. What followed was a lifestyle that was pretty much opposed to that (I apologise to all I have hurt along that path) until one day God spoke to me for the first time and said. "I will restore the years the locusts have eaten." That was 2000.

2001 I travel to Cambodia and while there God speaks again.
A lot has followed that. God has been good and given me opportunity to preach in Cambodia and thousands have received Him.
One of those good things was a vision that I experienced in Cambodia in maybe 2005, not exactly sure but the picture is extremely vivid to me. The story is longish so I will just tell you that it culminated in me and a number of Cambodian people lifting a flagpole and driving it into the soil of Cambodia and the flag, attached to the pole, unfurling which read 'JESUS IS LORD'.
For years I have only seen my role in that vision which has inspired me to preach but I have failed to see the other people until...
In 2012 God called me again this time to receive His radical grace. Radical grace gets a bad rap but let me make this clear, grace isn't radical because I receive it radically but rather because God is radical in His unmerited favour toward us. Jesus Christ is Grace, radically expressing the Love, Blessing and Favour of God. That is what I believe. I can't explain all that here so you will just have to accept that from me, whether you agree or not.
In the realisation of the radical grace of God He showed me again the flagpole but this time I saw the Cambodian people involved in raising the flag.
He then called again to prepare the people of radical grace who would raise the flagpole with me. These people are the Benjamins, the people of radical reliance on the boundless grace and favour of our God in Christ Jesus.

So...my call.
I am called to take Cambodia for Jesus Christ. 
I am called to raise up the generation of grace, the Benjamins.
The call of God on my life will have global impact which will reach far beyond Cambodia. God has promised many things which I embrace and receive without hesitation. I speak out those promises daily. I receive Jesus in the Lord's Communion everyday, I speak in tongues and use anointing oil and I assign all praise and glory to the King, Jesus, the fullness of God, my Saviour, My Lord. I believe the Lord will provide the millions of dollars that are required to follow the vision He has given me. I believe that He is already raising up the team of Cambodians who will raise the flag, the banner of the Lordship of Christ over Cambodia, and which the whole world will see.

So that is it. I speak it out and God will give it life, for He is The Life.
If you receive it or reject it it does not matter for that isn't the point but I do thank you for reading.

Graeme Shephard.

The blood of Jesus...

A month or two ago I had the privilege of hearing Reinhard Bonnke preach the gospel. He said that he made no apology for the fact that the gospel he would preach was no 'different' to what he had preached a thousand times before, preaching as he watched in awe as the Lord gather more than 70,000,000 souls for His Kingdom!
Reinhard spoke on the power of the blood of Jesus.

Since then I have been thinking about the blood of Jesus. Each day it is my practice to take Communion, Holy Communion, Lord's Supper...call it what you will. Each day, as I do so, I am reminded of the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus. The Bible encourages us to correctly judge the Lord's body (1 Corinthians 11: 29), not merely to 'remember' His sufferings but rather to remember His body broken and striped and bring the truth and reality of that event right into today, right into our individual lives. As we do so we can 'see' that 'by His stripes we are healed' (Isaiah 53: 5) and we can believe and receive His abundant grace in healing.
Then as we take the cup we 'see' His righteousness become ours as we discern and embrace the blood of the New Covenant (1 Corinthians 12: 25). The shadow of this is seen in the Old Testament when the High Priest went into the holiest of holies, once a year, with blood and sprinkled it on and before the mercy seat which was over the ark of the covenant which contained the law, the manna and Aaron's rod that budded.
This event took place once a year but Jesus shed His blood once for all and went in to the Holiest of Holies, the presence of God Himself, and His shed blood was accepted, to put away sin, a once for all shedding of blood. In His acceptance we are accepted.

The shed blood of Jesus is powerful. The shed blood of Jesus is pivotal. As Jesus went in to the presence of God with His own blood everything changed. Everything! Why? Because all covenants in scripture are ratified by the shedding of blood. The New Covenant was ratified by the shedding of the blood of Jesus and on the basis of His acceptance by God the base line, the foundational truth of the New Covenant is as found in Hebrews 8: 12; God speaking, "For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." On the basis of this God will write His law on our hearts, and our minds, and He will be our God and we, His people. I pray that you receive this truth because this is the most freeing, bondage releasing truth in all of scripture. In this truth we are truly set free. No longer is our 'righteousness' dependent in any way on us but solely rests in the acceptance of our substitute. The shadow of this is the burnt offering of old. The offerer placed his hand on the head of the unblemished offering and in that type the offering was accepted and the offerer was set free from the burden of sin and establishing their own righteousness before God. The difference for us is that what the blood of bulls and goats could not do (Hebrews 10: 4) Jesus has done to perfection and in Him we are eternally free from the need to establish our own righteousness and we can rest eternally in His righteousness. We are 'the righteousness of God in Him' (2 Corinthians 5: 21)

Everything was changed at the cross as Jesus shed His blood. The veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. I am sure that man hastily took needle and thread and sowed it up again because today we see precious Christians trying, striving, labouring to establish their own righteousness. They receive Jesus and say it is by grace, and so it is, and then continue to try to keep the law rather than resting in the truth of the imputed righteousness of Christ and there be led by grace to Christ, and Christ-likeness.

You know the epic truth of the Cross changes everything. Everything before is changed.
Take the Lord's Prayer (Luke 11: 2 - 4) as it is known and prayed in churches all over the world...does this prayer apply to us today under the New Covenant? I don't think so! What! I hear you say? How can you say that! Oh please understand me, God is unchanging and ever glorious and worthy so as always and forever we will 'hallow' His name. Oh yes, forever and ever we can call down heaven on earth but frankly the truth and reality of this calling down came only as Jesus died and opened the way. It was after Jesus shed His blood that the Holy Spirit was given to dwell 'in' those who believed.
But Jesus gave this prayer I hear you exclaim! Yes He did.
But He gave it prior to the Cross to an audience under the law and He gave it under the terms of the covenant in place at that time, Moses covenant, the law. It is under the terms of the law, the old covenant which the book of Hebrews says is obsolete (Hebrews 8: 13) that Jesus encouraged those listening to pray, 'And forgive us our sins'. The tax collector in Luke 18 who beat his breast and exclaimed "God be merciful to me a sinner" went away justified but under the law he would have been back to beat and exclaim again, and again. Beloved not so with you...you exclaimed your need and you received His justification the moment you accepted, post-Cross, the finished work of Jesus and today, now, and forever you sit in rest under the terms of the New Covenant that says that He remembers your sins no more. How can we continually plead forgiveness for sins already forgiven...the Apostle Paul likens this to crucifying Jesus all over again. Crucifying Jesus over and over is consigning our salvation and acceptance to the terms of the old covenant which required repeated sacrifice over and over and we have been set free. How can we receive the truth that God remembers our sins no more and then be continually requesting that He forgive us our sins?
Is this teaching encouraging us to fail to accept our humanity? I don't think so but I am sure that to refuse to accept the fullness of the finished work of Jesus by insisting that we have some input into our total and never failing acceptance in Christ is certainly failing to recognise Jesus and what He has done.

Dear friend, the cross of Jesus and the shedding of His blood changed everything. We cannot receive things prior to His cross in the same way after His cross. We must put on new glasses, glasses of Grace. Colossians 3 from verse 12 encourages us to pursue a whole list of wonderful attributes but the mistake is that we could then try to pursue them in our own strength, with our own will, to establish our own 'righteousness'. Many do this today. Looking through the glasses of Grace, with eyes of Grace our gaze is diverted from ourselves to see only one, Jesus, the fullness of Deity. The attributes listed in Colossians 3 are HIM, put on HIM, sit at HIS feet, receive HIM, talk about HIM, exalt HIM, proclaim HIM, preach HIM. The more we talk about us and our strategy to be 'like' Him the more we see only ourselves and we become veiled to the truth of who He is. Who He is unveiled in abundant Grace, this is glory to greater glory revealed by the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3: 18).

We need to see Jesus and put Him on. This is freedom. As we put Him on we are set free from the need to 'do' for our own acceptance. That is freedom. The enemy wants us to focus on our condition, to do this he uses the law with which he constantly challenges us. Jesus declares a new position for us under the New Covenant and so for every temptation of the enemy we have but one answer, JESUS, in Him we are accepted, in Him we are righteous, in Him we are free. Filled with Him how is possible but for us to NOT be 'like' Him. It will be impossible for it to be any other way - Christ likeness, the absolute desire of every Christian.
 What a wonderful truth it is, Jesus did nothing to be made sin for us so that we need do nothing to made righteous in Him.
Hallelujah! Rejoice with me and give Him the praise, He ALONE is worthy.

More thoughts on the 'good life'...

The Bible is clear and says that the Law was given to reveal sin, without the Law sin would not be revealed; Romans 3: 20 says that 'through the Law comes the knowledge of sin'; Romans 5: 20 says the 'Law came in that the transgression might increase'; Romans 7: 7 says that 'I would not have come to know sin except through the Law'.

The Law was based on a set of rules that required our performance.

Now I need to point out that the Bible is also clear when it says that 'by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified' (Romans 3: 20), and that 'the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ', why?..so 'that we may be justified by faith' (Galatians 3: 24) and 'where sin increased, grace abounded all the more' (Romans 5: 20). And then we come over into Hebrews 8: 13 and we find this that 'When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete.'
There are so many scriptures that direct us away from Law and towards Grace.
Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians in Galatians 3: 1 - 3, "You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly  portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?'

Beloved, the Law is obsolete to you who are in Christ, the Bible is clear and anything else you may be told is a lie. The enemy, the devil, wants you to continue to focus on the Law because he wants to continually challenge you over your CONDITION before God.
Please hear me...Jesus wants you to see your POSITION, in Him.
'For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.' Colossians 2: 9 - 14

Can it be any clearer? We are IN HIM; He has SET US APART to Himself (circumcision); our body of flesh has been BURIED WITH HIM; we are RAISED WITH HIM through faith in the working of God (His work, not ours); He has made us ALIVE TOGETHER WITH HIM; He has CANCELLED OUR TRANSGRESSIONS; He has CANCELLED THE CERTIFICATE OF DEBT CONSISTING OF DECREES (what is this? This is the Law) and He has taken it out of the way because He nailed it to the cross.
Oh Hallelujah! The burden of sin is lifted, the accusation of the enemy is gone, we are IN HIM.

Now if we want a brief definition of Law and Grace these are mine...if it requires my input, if it is subject to my performance, if its outcome depends on me then it is Law; if it rests in the unmerited favour of God then it is Grace.

Last words...a question? Who wants the 'good life'? Hands up. My hand is up.
If we refuse to accept that abundant life does not include the 'good life' then we are saying that the good life depends on me. Anything less than total dependence on the Lord is Law.
Beloved, you can't alloy Law and Grace. Revelation 3, lukewarmness, is the alloying of Law and Grace.
Rest in Jesus for your everything for He is EVERYTHING.
Be like Mary and position yourself at His blessed feet. She reclined there for instruction, for comfort and for service and today that is where we need to be. Remember those feet at which Mary sat went on to be pierced by the malice of mankind and in that piercing He made the way for us to be restored. He has restored to us the Life that our first father so meekly surrendered to the enemy but will we receive?
Insisting that the abundant life of Jesus is something less than complete is saying there is still stuff that we need to do when Jesus has said 'It is finished', the work is done, salvation is procured, mankind is restored, sit here with Me at the right hand of My Father and receive the bounty of His endless, boundless, complete favour and blessing. This is the day of the Lord's favour, the day of Grace, the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

'See', Jesus says, 'I make all things new'...'And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." (Revelation 21: 5)

The 'good life'...just some thoughts

Recently this statement was made...'Jesus did not come to give us 'the good life'. He came to give us abundant life.'
This raised the questions immediately to me...what is 'the good life' and what is 'abundant life'; how can they be defined?
I contemplated that for a few days and the only real thought I had was that while I understood the sentiment behind the statement made I had a great deal of difficulty in separating the two 'lives'. Yes I agree that Jesus 'came to give us abundant life' and I agree that the abundant life of Christ declared in John 10: 10 is much, much more than just 'the good life' but I am unable to separate the two because I cannot believe that He came to bring us an abundance of Life that excludes 'the good life'.
Our first father, Adam, gave away his blessed position. Part of that position was a life of total harmony. He did not toil for toil came with the curse following man's fall (Genesis 3: 17 - 19); whatever he wanted he just took, he could eat of any tree, God provided all he needed (Genesis 1: 29 - 30). The second man, Jesus Christ came to restore all that our first father gave away. Oh yes I agree much more was restored in Christ but can we say that Jesus did not come to restore 'the good life'? I'm sorry I can't buy that!
As I thought of this and during my daily reading and thinking I was drawn to some verses in Luke 5. Jesus is under fire from the scribes and Pharisees for forgiving a man's sins and He replies to their pious declarations by asking "Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins have been forgiven you,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins," - He said to the paralytic - "I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home." The man did.
I contemplated this. What was Jesus saying? He was asking a question...which is easier to say, 'your sins are forgiven', or 'be healed, get up, and walk'. What do you think? I can tell you that the easier thing for me to say is 'your sins are forgiven'. Why is that easier? Simply because that statement requires no physical proof. If I speak healing and the man stays lying on his bed then I look like a goose. Speaking healing requires physical proof, forgiving sins requires no physical proof.
What has this got to do with the statement? As I thought of this I thought, yes, it is easier for me to say but was the forgiveness of sins easier for God? I think not! Forgiveness of sins required God the Father to give up His beloved Son to the depravity of man's cruelty, to a cross of shame, requiring God to lay on Him an eternity worth of our iniquity, and have Him give up His life remembering that death had no claim on Him, He freely gave it up for us. Was that easy? No! It is simple for God to heal, it was not so easy for Him to forgive sins!
Now here is my thought...God gave His very BEST. Can I really say in response that His gift given to restore me cannot, does not, include the restoration of the 'good life' that Adam gave away? Oh yes I hear you, there are many not living the good life, many fine Christians, and yes we live in a fallen world awaiting its redemption but I am sorry despite all that I cannot receive that the restoration of Jesus is only half-hearted in its effectiveness. You know I feel that if we seriously believe the lie that God is in the business of withholding something from us then we are implying that that something is greater than the forgiveness of sins which Jesus gave Himself to give us. I have to say nothing can be greater than the forgiveness of sins. It is the basic clause of the New Covenant under which we are saved...read the terms for yourself in Hebrews 8.
Some time ago I wrote a post to this blog in which I referred to Romans 8: 32. In that post I said this...

'...from one of the most momentous chapters of the Bible, the Word of God.
'He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not with Him freely give us all things?'  Romans 8: 32

This speaks of God. Who? The One who spoke and the stars where in the heavens...that 'word' continues unabated the stargazers tell us. How a stargazer could not believe in God just astounds me!
To describe God is difficult, limited by our finity against His matchless glory! I could choose many declarations of our God but this one will have to do...'...He made the stars also.' A throw-away line from Genesis 1, declaring the absolute immense awesomeness of God!
He declared what He thought of us.
How? He gave us His Son. Why?
Grace. Unexplainable, unmerited, ridiculous!
Why? To save us from our sin? Yes.
Is that all? Is the gift of God just salvation? Many think so. They receive Jesus as Saviour and say it is by grace and then beetle off and insist on doing everything else as if we are required to 'merit' the rest in some way.
Sorry I don't buy it. Dear, dear people...I can't walk that anymore. Jesus came to restore to us what our first father gave away in pride and disobedience. Consider what those things were.
As I consider God (matchless in all things) and the scale of His gift (His own Son) I cannot believe anymore that having given everything He now holds back on His grace and requires us to strive and toil for the rest. It is an offence to His matchlessness and the priceless, infinitely valuable scale and worth of His Gift!'

Can we really accept that abundant life is something reduced from 'abundance'? When Jesus declared abundant life I have to believe He meant abundant life, much more than 'good life' but 'good life' nonetheless.

So what is the key now to this abundance? I believe it is all about positioning. One of the great strategies of the enemy of all Christians, the devil, is to get you to contemplate continually your condition before God when Jesus died to restore your position before God. So it is all about positioning.

One of the things about preachers to me has always been that they speak good words but often miss the practical application. I don't want to do that. I hear your question...'so how do we position ourselves'?

I think of Mary. Remember Mary? Mary was the sister of Lazarus, who Jesus raised from the dead, and Martha, who was a good cook. You can find her in Luke 10, and John 11 and 12.
Mary liked to be at Jesus feet. Was that because she was lazy? I don't think so. Jesus said it was because she chose 'the good part'. In fact three times you find Mary at Jesus feet in the Bible. In Luke 10: 38 - 42 we find her at Jesus' feet for instruction, she was listening to the Lord's word. In John 11: 32 we find Mary at His feet again, this time for comfort following the death of her brother. As Jesus saw her He was so moved He wept John 11: 35 records! What compassion, what comfort! To have the God of All Glory weep with compassion over you! How wonderful! Then in John 12: 1 - 3 we find Mary at the feet of Jesus again this time in service as she worshipped Him and anointed His feet with very costly perfume and wiped His feet with her hair. Oh Mary! Truly she chose the 'good part'.
Now there is so much we could say about Mary and her time at the feet of Jesus but I want us today to just think of her positioning. Sitting at the feet of Jesus all three times she was making a declaration...Mary's declaration was that Jesus is God, He is Lord of All.
You know there are two scriptures in the book of Colossians that I love. The first is Colossians 1: 19 where it says, 'For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him...' The second is Colossians 2: 9, 'For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form...' Jesus is the fullness of God and He died to position us at His feet. At His feet for instruction, at His feet for comfort, at His feet for worship and service. Without Him we can do nothing.
I could go on and talk about who we are in Christ; I could go on and talk about the three feet sojourns of Mary, I could go on and talk about many things of the all abundance and amazing blessings of the unmerited grace and favour of our Lord. I could take us to Ephesians 2 and talk about the our seated place with Him at the right hand of the Father. We could discuss that the right hand is the hand of blessing. So much to share!
I will finish with this.
In Psalm 103: 2 the writer  says this, 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits'. His benefits? Yes Jesus came to give us abundant life, so true but not the 'good life'? I think not. The gift of God restored us in every respect. So great is the gift of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, that nothing is withheld from us. Do like Mary, declare Him to be God and that you are not, and sit and receive. Sitting is the place of rest. What does this signify? That it is not about what you may DO to merit His blessing, there is nothing you can do to merit God, but thank God that Jesus has done all that was necessary and in Him you are accepted. Remember Colossians 2: 9? Well verse 10 goes on to say that 'in Him you have been made complete'. In Him we are complete...how can this exclude anything? No!
Receive Jesus, receive Him and with Him receive the fullness of the restoration of God.
Give Him praise, anoint Him with the perfume of your praise for He is worthy.

Is God real...really?

This blog is my ramblings...my thoughts. I like to write, I admit I am no good at it  but I like to do it.

The thing that sets the human being apart from every other created being is the gift of 'choice'. We have a choice. We have a choice to believe in God, we have a choice to accept that 'God so loved the world...', we have choice whether or not we accept that '...He gave His only Son...', we have a choice whether or not we '...believe in Him...', we have a choice whether we accept that we '...will not perish, but have everlasting Life.' We have a choice over whether we believe, and what we believe. This is true. Your choice extends to this blog...if you don't like it then it's okay to turn it off.

I have just been to Cambodia. I stand in my call, not in any strength I have, but in Christ I stand and in great weakness I deliver Jesus to the people. They have a choice. Many receive Him and we rejoice in that. In October we go again, and then again in December.

But today is today and today I say, 'Is God real...really?'

John 10: 10 is an interesting verse. In those few words we have two kingdoms standing side by side. One of God and the other, the enemy of God. There was a book around that I think was entitled, 'Listen to me, Satan', or words to that effect. Frankly I have no interest in the enemy of God and deem him not worthy of my consideration. His ministry is clear...'steal, kill and destroy' and I will not give that ministry any power by my words or actions. Focus on him only results in my eyes being turned away from the 'Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End'. I'm sure the book is a great read but put it down now and pick up Jesus, He is our Word.
Yes, I do ramble.
Where was I?

I was driving home just now and into my mind comes the thought, 'Is God real...really?'
If no then why am I bothering?
If yes then how should I respond?
I return from Cambodia. The blessing was great, the promises are immense, the words are powerful and encouraging, the sense of the presence of God is tangible and real, and then the response comes. The analogy of war is one we often use and I guess this is perpetuated by references like Ephesians 6 which talks of armour and battles not against flesh and blood... The response comes...it is like I step off the edge of a cliff. I know my brothers in Cambodia experience the same. Everything is easy game it appears, my family, my children, my marriage, my work, my finances, my hope, my peace, my trust...no doubt many more things could be listed.
The most vulnerable receive the fiery darts...on and on it goes. We receive Jesus, for crying out loud we are Jesus...His prayer was that just as He and the Father are one, so are we one in Him. But still the response comes. The promises of God so vivid seem to pale...I cannot believe that He pales so why do they pale, why is so much challenged? Why? God are you real? Really?
My daughter, innocent and holding on, is the centre of the vitriol of two girls at school, girls we have welcomed with open arms into our home, one who has slept in our house and eaten at our table many, many times and been made one of our family, now criticizes and bullies my daughter. How can this be? Why is this so?
My marriage. My work. My trust, my hope, my peace, everything is challenged...why?
I don't know the answers to any of these questions. The cliche ridden Christian community gives all the usual responses, 'when you put your head above the trench you will get shot at'...'trials come to make you stronger', this is a good one, 'take heart, if you come under such interest then you must be doing something right'. Forgive me, I know they are well meant, and there is undoubtedly truth in them but still, why?
So I am contemplating this as I drive home. It is then the question comes, 'Is God real...really real?' Do you think that question is from God or from the enemy? The most likely response is that this comes from the enemy, but I'm not so sure. I think that only God is capable of asking that question without His glory, position and I AM-ness being challenged. I think that question actually comes from God. Do I really believe He is real?
The command of God that is relevant to me as a New Covenant Kingdom citizen is to 'BELIEVE'. All other commands are as obsolete as the Old Covenant of Law, totally superseded by Grace. If you don't believe me read the book of Hebrews, and then Romans, and then Galatians...I could go on.
The point is do I really 'believe'?
I could give you scripture after scripture after scripture of the promise of God...the Bible is absolutely full of them if we take off our law glasses and put on grace glasses...from beginning to end the promises flow, and flow, and flow. But do I receive?
You know I think we pick and choose. We read a promise and then we rationalise that promise and ultimately we pick the bits we deem to be acceptable and we discount, reduce, seive out the rest and discard it. It's a bit like our juicer...you shove in an apple, it goes 'brrrrr' and out comes apple juice, and the body, the pulp gets chucked out.
So, as I said this is my blog. These are my thoughts. Let's take one promise, one out of thousands upon thousands...when God says to me, 'The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want', what do I do? I affirm that He is indeed my Shepherd. I marvel that the Shepherd is, in fact, the Lord, Yahweh, God...GOD but then I rationalise the promise, 'I shall not want', and am left in a quandary.
This is my blog, my thoughts...the Lord is calling me to greater things and this is impossible, this will be hamstrung until I can 'receive' the truth, the absolute glory and majesty of the promise that 'I SHALL NOT WANT'. That is where God is calling me. That is the question He is asking me when He says to me, 'is God real, really?' My daughter left me a note in my suitcase when I went to Cambodia, it said, 'Nothing is impossible to God'...awesome words and true but have I, can I, will I receive them?
I have stepped through the door of the call of God but I look back.
Oh, Lord 'I believe, help my unbelief'.

Radical Grace

This post will not make me popular. Too bad.
The time has come to declare myself.
One year ago, after a lifetime of searching, I received the grace of God.
Huh? Haven't you been a Christian a longer time than that I hear you ask?
Yes.
I was born in law, I grew up in law, I received a law salvation (lukewarm), law brings death, I ran away before it killed me, I went into a far country, I spent all, I came back, my Father received me and spoke to me, and day by day until today I am receiving the robe, the ring, the shoes and the party. And it never ends...for all eternity.

One year ago Grace came to me and it was like an oasis in my desert...without any degree of hesitation I went and jumped in, boots and all. And at the risk of censure the grace of God to me is getting more and more...radical...everyday.

Now I could talk for so long...but my battery is declining and I have no powerpoint.
I am not in the business of trying convince you and if you want to depart now, no hard feeling.

So with declining battery I will say this...from one of the most momentous chapters of the Bible, the Word of God.

'He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not with Him freely give us all things?'  Romans 8: 32
 

This speaks of God. Who? The One who spoke and the stars where in the heavens...that 'word' continues unabated the stargazers tell us. How a stargazer could not believe in God just astounds me!
To describe God is difficult, limited by our finity against His matchless glory! I could choose many declarations of our God but this one will have to do...'...He made the stars also.' A throw-away line from Genesis 1, declaring the absolute immense awesomeness of God!

He declared what He thought of us.
How? He gave us His Son. Why?
Grace. Unexplainable, unmerited, ridiculous!
Why? To save us from our sin? Yes.
Is that all? Is the gift of God just salvation? Many think so. They receive Jesus as Saviour and say it is by grace and then beetle off and insist on doing everything else as if we are required to 'merit' the rest in some way.

Sorry I don't buy it. Dear, dear people...I can't walk that anymore. Jesus came to restore to us what our first father gave away in pride and disobedience. Consider what those things were.
As I consider God (matchless in all things) and the scale of His gift (His own Son) I cannot believe anymore that having given everything He now holds back on His grace and requires us to strive and toil for the rest. It is an offence to His matchlessness and the priceless, infinitely valuable scale and worth of His Gift!

So I believe in radical grace. An outrageous God, outrageous in creation, outrageous in love which made Him outrageous in giving which resulted in an outrageous Saviour which when received results in outrageous grace...radical grace.
When the cross was done did He cease to be outrageous? I don't think so.
Or did He then suspend His outrageousness for our lifetimes until we pass over, or the Lord comes, to then kick-start His outrageousness again? Sorry, I can't buy that anymore.
To receive that offends the nature of God.
He just isn't that, well, changeable.
He is the same, yesterday, today and forever...outrageous.

So my declaration?
I receive with my whole heart and being an outrageous God, who created outrageously, loved me outrageously, gave me personally His outrageous gift, and who pours His outrageous Grace upon me day by day. My future is in Him, my everything is in Him, my Life, my Truth, my Way. He is my future and I will trust Him. No more begging, no my foolish strategy, no more half measure Christianity...we want to be real? Ask this question...is He real or not because that is the only question that is valid. Squabbling, hypothesising over words and meanings get me nowhere...from here on I will trust the Lord.

Mission

Mission is a big word at the moment and, recently, significant time has been devoted to considering it. I am personally aware of two churches who have been making this the subject of the moment...and as we have been encouraged to all have an opinion by the study we have undertaken I guess you may as well hear mine...or alternatively you can close this page and go and do something else!

I have to say that, for me, making 'mission' a subject is somewhat akin to making grace a subject, it cannot be because grace, and mission, is a person and His name is Jesus.

Mission is Jesus and Jesus is mission.

You know there is one thing that confuses me about the human race and that is our penchant for taking something that is immensely simple and complicating it almost out of existence. That is what I feel we are doing with the subject of mission. We are intellectualising it almost to the point of extinction when embraced as Jesus intended I believe it is the most liberating and purposeful of life's pursuits.

For me it is the only one that really matters. Now please don't misunderstand what I just said for I did not say that 'mission' was the only thing that mattered because that would be glorifying the mission - Christ is the Exalted. The great purpose for my life is to exalt, to glorify, to lift up Jesus...that, for me, is 'mission'. I don't really care for your cleverly crafted interpretations, or your wonderfully designed strategies because the only point is to share the love of Christ.
Now I run the risk, I guess, of being accused of being simple, or something, but frankly I don't care. You can make mission a subject of as many sermons, the theme of as many conferences, the purpose of as many programs and strategies as you like but the bottom line remains. Mission is as simple as receiving Christ. It requires only to believe. It doesn't rely on you to any degree, it is just a response to Him.

If you want to be 'missional' then you must receive Jesus. That is the only strategy you need. If you want scripture then this one will do... 'We love because He first loved us.' Unless you receive His love then your mission sits with you, depends on you and will be frustration, fear and failure. I'm sorry but Jesus is Grace and grace is unmerited favour, favour that is not dependant upon us (Praise the Lord) born out of righteousness which is not ours but His freely given (unmerited favour).

This is the strategy for mission.
Exalt Christ, receive Christ, receive His love, relish His grace, bathe in His grace...He gives more than we can ever contain and so we become an overflow of grace to those we touch,  you can't help it if you receive Him, you can't contain Him, He will spill out of you like a mountain stream in spring-time, a living fountain bubbling up to everlasting life.

Mission accomplished.

The feet of Jesus...

Hands up who likes feet? No, me either. You see some pretty dodgy ones that's for sure. Somehow because they are so far away from the CPU they obviously don't get a lot of attention and often they look pretty neglected  but we would be very lost without them.

I have been thinking about a verse and it made me think about feet.

The verse goes like this:

'But the multitude were aware of this and followed Him; and welcoming them, He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing.' Luke 9: 11

 The church, of which I am a member, has adopted this verse as its vision and we have declared ourselves to be:

'Following in the footsteps of Jesus by Welcoming, Proclaiming and Healing.'

www.communitylifechurch.org.au

 

Together with this vision are eight core values which you can see by looking at the website.

Lately we have been encouraged to consider our missional response to this vision and our values.
It made me think about feet. The reference to 'footsteps', I guess, was the inspiration.
If we are Christians I don't think we could reasonable argue with the thought that we are the sent ones of God. Just as Jesus was sent so are we sent...Jesus was pretty plain when He said that. Undoubtedly this is a great challenge to some, if not all. We are the sent ones, like ambassadors sent to a foreign land to extol the virtues of our land of origin. Our role is to extol the virtues of the King of our land of origin. When we accepted Jesus, the King, we moved to a new land and so as we are still here in this world our primary role is to do whatever we can to bring to light the virtues of the King of our land. I guess there are a myriad of ways in which we can do that but one thing is for sure that is the purpose of our remaining. Not to extol the virtues of any organisation, even dare I say it, if that organisation is a church...our purpose is to bring Jesus.

Feet...feet propel us on our journey.
Where do they take us? I have no interest to know where your feet took you this week but I want to give you a thought.
Think of Jesus' feet, (I wonder what they were like?) they took Him to places where there was lack, and disease, and rejection, and condemnation, and even death.
My thoughts are these...He went there so that we, in our own lives need not. He went there so that you need not personally accept and suffer these things. So it is on the basis of what He did that you can say no to these things.
And...He went there so that we would know where to go to co-mission with Him. Oh, I accept that not everyone will know the strength or inspiration to go to these places but God will certainly give you a role to play in touching hopeless, diseased, rejected, condemned and dead lives.

Consciously make yourself available to that role...

You know I think He was serious because after a lot of 'going' He went to the cross where His feet were pierced in the most barbaric way man could conceive. The enemy undoubtedly rejoiced in the thought that he had ceased the ministry of going in Jesus but not so, because having done what was necessary we read in John 20: 19 that when the disciples were gathered together after Jesus had been to the cross 'Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you." '
Luke 24: 40 says that 'He showed them His hands and His feet.' Great significance in this act, I think.

I think Jesus stood on His feet as He said, "Peace be with you; as the Father sent Me, I also send you." Still standing He breathed on them to receive everything they would need to fulfil this commission...the Holy Spirit.

Take heart, you have all you need, He will not fail you, just stand up on your feet and make yourself available to the role He has for you to bring the kingdom...not the church...beloved hear this truly, we aren't here to build the church, we are here to build the Kingdom.

Stand and make yourself available to Him and He will show you His Kingdom purpose for you. You see it isn't about what you will do for Him, it's about what He will do through you. No burden there, make yourself available to Him.
Bless you.

Chicken or egg...?

No doubt you have heard the dilemma question...'which came first the chicken or the egg?'
I have been thinking about that.
The great oracle 'Wikipedia' declares that this 'causality dilemma' goes back a long way and that to 'ancient philosophers the question about the first chicken or egg also evoked questions of how life and the universe in general began'.
Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) apparently got a bit hung up on this question and came to the conclusion that the chicken and the egg must have always existed. 'If there had been a first man he must have been born without father or mother - which is repugnant to nature. For there could not have been a first egg to give beginning to birds, or there should have been a first bird which gave beginning to eggs; for a bird comes from an egg. The same he held good for all species, believing, with Plato, that everything before it appeared on earth had first its being in spirit'. Interesting thought!
Plutarch (46 - 126) wrote that '...the problem about the egg and the hen, which of them came first, was dragged into out talk, a difficult problem which gives investigators much trouble. And Sulla my comrade said that with a small problem, as with a tool, we were rocking loose a great and heavy one, that of the creation of the world'.
I've got a headache.
I am not a philosopher and make no claim to match with these great minds of the past but the fact is that despite the phenomenal advances we see since Aristotle and Plutarch had their moments the question still frustrates us today. It is frustrating me right now. It is about dilemmas. We are presented with dilemmas. The chicken and egg question is really about the dilemmas we face. Well it is for me.
One thing to note from the references I have shared above is that these blokes clearly had a view that the dilemmas like the chicken - egg tapped into something far greater than just chickens and eggs. Statements like 'creation of the world' and 'first its being in spirit' opens something greater than what we mere mortals are capable of producing.
Now you may not agree with me, there isn't a lot I can do to convince you, but the fact is that I am personally convinced that the greater depths of these questions and considering such things as 'creation' exposes me to God. And when I am exposed to God then I must position myself.
In fact I think mankind experiences this dilemma everyday. Everyday we are exposed in some way to God. We see a beautiful vista and we wonder; we look into the night sky and we wonder; we have a near miss and we wonder; we receive some amazing blessing and we wonder; we receive the blessing of a new born child and we wonder; we get a text and we answer 'OMG'...and in the midst of our 'wondering' we consciously or sub-consciously position ourselves in relation to God. I guess in all those moments we actually make a decision whether we believe in God or not...whether it's all about us or all about Him.
Anyway back to the question...which came first the chicken or the egg?
This question has come to me in recent days and it is a dilemma.
This is about WTL.
If you want to know about WTL can I suggest you go to our webpage, www.cambodiawtl.org.au.
We are standing before a door.
Some time ago God clearly declared that we were entering a period of growth. In fact WTL exists only because God said that WTL would be an 'avenue that we must walk down into growth'. We have been waiting for the growth.
Now I am often a bit slow and in my dullness I have been believing that growth equalled increased funding. The sad fact is that for WTL to do what WTL is called to do we need money and so I have 'believed' that growth equalled more money.
A dear friend said recently words to this effect, "But what does growth look like? Is it more money, or is it something else?"
It didn't hit me right there and then but it has slowly seeped in.
A few other things have happened, (there is a lot going on), and we are standing in front of a door.
We know a little of what lies beyond the door but only a little and frankly it is scary.
If we go through the door we are going to need a lot more money.
Which comes first? The chicken or the egg?
What is he talking about?...I hear you ask.
In our walk before God we absolutely declare Him to be the provider of all things, the One who hold us in His hand and will never let us go, the One who gave everything He had to restore us to Him, the One who is waiting for us to position ourselves to receive the absolute magnitude of the 'riches of glory in Christ Jesus', the One who wants to 'bless us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus', the One who wants us to sit at His right hand in Christ and receive 'the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness', the One who wants us to experience His favour...I could go on and on.
Our dilemma of faith is this...
'Do we wait for the funding, or do we just walk through the door anyway?'
Take Abraham who is one of the giants of faith presented to us in Hebrews 11. God clearly declares there in verse 8 'when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going'. Hmmm...
Isn't it funny how people who preach often get challenged by their own words? I have taken some young people to Cambodia on mission trips. Part of being on one of our little trips is that you have the opportunity to speak...you don't have to but you can if you want. I always encourage these people to prepare their testimonies as a good place to start when preaching because there is nothing, I find, more powerful than our own stories under the hand of God; it is our story given to us by God and we can easily get passionate about our own story. There are a significant number of times when I have had a young person before me quivering with apprehension as the time approaches for them to speak. I always say the same thing...'Don't worry, you have done some preparation, Jesus is here, He is with you, just get up and go to the front and He will meet you there. God doesn't meet us when we are sitting in our chair, He meets us on the way. He wants us to start walking first and then He meets us on the way. Don't worry, He will meet you there'. You know what? He always does. I have seen quivering wrecks go to the front with their little testimony in their shaking hands and watched them not refer once to their little piece of paper and bring the house down, in Jesus name.

My dilemma...
To step through this door we need a lot of money which we don't have...that is that hand.
The other hand says that this is the call of God, step in, get up and go, move forward, step through, get underway, go!...and I will provide.
Which comes first the chicken or the egg?
I hear God say, 'Step through'.
I hear God say, 'Do you need the egg before you have the chicken?'
I hear God say, 'Do you really believe that I need the egg before I can give the chicken?'
I hear God say, 'Take the chicken, I will provide the egg'.

Remember Plutarch who thought that the chicken - egg dilemma was really about the creation of the world? This is all really about the creator of the world. Does God really need an egg to produce a chicken, or a chicken to produce an egg? God spoke and 'made the stars also' (Genesis 1: 16).

Does he really need our bank account full before we step through His door?

What would you do?

What would Jesus do?

What would Jesus do?
We hear this question a lot.
Well maybe not so much of late but a few years ago this question was hanging on the wrist of every young person of the Christian faith in the land, and some not so young.

It's raining outside and I have nothing to do but think.
I suppose I could just think of nothing because that is one of the talents that we males have but that seems a bit of a waste of time.
I suppose I could contemplate the latest Facebook thought 'Good thinking demands periods when we have no idea what other people are thinking'. (Alain de Botton) but frankly I have enough trouble knowing what I'm thinking let alone even trying to have any understanding of what other people are thinking. I have no idea.
Yes there was a time when I thought I had some understanding of what the significant people in my life were thinking but that is gone now. I don't know.
So I just think what would Jesus do?
I've spent every spare hour I have had over the last week re-designing the website for Cambodia WTL Incorporated and I wonder what would Jesus do? Would Jesus use the internet? Would Jesus have a Facebook page? Would He be on Twitter or Linkedin? Was my effort a waste of time? We have had a fairly mediocre website for nearly a year now and I have no real idea whether it has made any impact or even whether anyone has looked at it. One thing I do know is that, sadly as our missional activities need to be funded and therefore the primary purpose of our website is to provide information that encourages people to give, not one cent has been contributed from the website and so I contemplate that fact and everything around it and I ask, would Jesus have had a website... what would Jesus do?
And then there is my own personal stuff...sorry to talk about my own personal stuff but I guess it's my blog and you don't have to read it.
I am at a crossroads in my life. In the past year I have had three separate and entirely unrelated people talk to me about my direction touching on one particular area of my life and it has put me in a quandary. I am not talking of a direction as in my 'walk' with God, I am talking of a physical change which impacts not only me but also my family. I ask God and He says, 'Trust Me'. I want Him to say, 'Go...' or 'Do...' but He doesn't, He just says, 'Trust Me'. So I think what would Jesus do?
In the midst of this God is leading me on a path that is both exciting and scary. Now I am talking about my personal 'walk' with God. This path is not scary to the point that I wouldn't step on it but scary in that the pursuit of it could even have significant impact on my relationships within the circles in which I move. Confused? Yep, me too! I ask God and He says, 'Trust Me'. But let me tell you that I will trust Him and I am walking this path. I should also tell you, I guess, that I recently visited a church and the speaker had prepared a message that spoke into this just for me. I'm not sure what the other couple of thousand people were doing there because God sent that speaker for me so that was good. But still I contemplate it all and I think, what would Jesus do?
A question for you...do you think Jesus ever experienced disappointment? I don't think I have ever had a period of my life when I have experienced so much disappointment. Significant people in my life have disappointed me and this in the midst of all the other stuff going on. Jesus was  tempted, constantly criticised and often tested so I guess He experienced disappointment. I guess He was also overlooked and ignored by many so can I expect anything different? Please understand I hold no anger or malice but it is hard not to feel the disappointment even when I am so thankful for those few who faithfully stand with me. So I feel it because I'm human and I think, what would Jesus do? (He was human too.)
And then as I think about that I wonder whether or not I should allow disappointment to be a factor in whether or not I do or go and I think; did Jesus allow disappointment to influence where He went or how He moved? When the people of Nazareth, His home town, rejected Him was this the factor that influenced Him to move on to Capernaum? And isn't it interesting that when He arrived in Capernaum He healed a demon-possessed man (no mean feat!)  and then went to Simon's house where many were healed right to the very setting of the sun (Luke 4, if you want to read of it yourself). And so I contemplate that and I think what would Jesus do?
I even think of my future and the future of my family as the two are absolutely intertwined and I wonder what am I to do? You see I am seriously un-prepared for retirement, for 'old age', for the 'twilight' years. I could worry about it, maybe I should, but rather I just hear the words, 'trust Me' and I think what would Jesus do? I guess Jesus had no need to contemplate His retirement plan as He knew His path and was set upon it but in my life every second TV advertisement admonishes me to consider my retirement and my level of preparedness and my hand goes immediately to the remote to find an ad more palatable to me. So even though Jesus had no need for superannuation I think if He were me, what would He do?
Even as I write this I hear a voice say, 'Trust Me'. Booming out comes the words 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight'. (Proverbs 3: 5, 6)

I have a friend who I like and respect a lot even though I never see her and I asked her to pray.
She is faithful and so I know she prayed.

This is what I get from her...

'I've been praying but I have to tell you I've never been asked to do this before and much as I do deeply desire for God to give me words of knowledge for others like this, I'm not sure that I've heard anything specifically for you yet. So, in the meantime, let me share with you a couple of thoughts that I always tell my kids - kinda like a life motto we live by. In Jeremiah 29:11, God says "I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you a future and a hope......" What I love about this verse is that even when we don't know what the future holds or which direction to take, God KNOWS. Then He tells us in Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths". So, we need to pray about every decision we have to make (acknowledge the Lord in all our ways) and then we need to move ahead IN FAITH, that God will do what He has promised, and that is - He WILL direct our paths. I know that there are times to wait on the Lord, but I also believe He directs us as we make our decisions prayerfully and that sometimes we need to just get on with life TRUSTING that He is directing us. So, it works like this. Pray about everything. Then go ahead and do what you think best TRUSTING that the Lord is directing you in all your decision making INTO the plans that He has for you, the plans that He KNOWS about.
Apart from that, this morning I have been reading Genesis 7-9 and 2 Peter 3. Another great way that God leads us is through the peace that He gives. 2 Peter 3:14 says "Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless." A devotional thought I read said, "My fear made peace elusive, but it finally came when I got alone, read the Psalms and prayed. Yes, I could trust God" '.
 

So there we have it...God says 'Trust Me'.
What would Jesus do?
What would you do?

If you think you know what Jesus would do then you can make a comment if you like!
Or if you would rather not do that publicly then you can email me.