Month: October 2024

Precious love – flowing like a river – washing sinners – me/you clean in its blood stained water. What a privilege to benefit from this grace.

”Yes, My love is like a river – more like a raging torrent – carrying everything before it, washing all the dross away and lifting you up into My very Presence where you can meet with Me. Remember the picture of Peter – walking on the water when he saw Me coming across the waves – till he doubted and when he did and started sinking I lifted him up again. So, I am also inviting you all to step out of the boat onto the storm tossed waters of this life and to walk to Me, to walk with Me into the future. The waves as fearsome as they may seem to be represent My love for you and the world – ready to wash clean and then to take you forward in power into My new kingdom. My invitation to you is to join Me in the great venture – building My new kingdom of which you are now an honoured member, invited by grace through My blood which washed you clean.”

Now let’s continue to listen to Jesus from John 8:31. Jesus is addressing the Jews who had believed in him, verse 31. Referring back to the previous verse. Yet as we read this passage it appears that they still do not understand the true requirements of discipleship. They have still not been set free, because they did not even understand what it was all about. They still believed that to be a true Jew you simply needed to be descended from Abraham. They believed that they had been set free from slavery when Moses took them out of Egypt. Therefore they were surely not slaves any more.

In reality they were slaves to the law and to sin. Jesus starts by telling them that a real disciple would be one that would hold to His teaching. If they did this then they would know the truth and the truth would set them free. But what did he mean by the Truth? We see the answer to that in verse 36 for it is the Son that is the one who sets us free and is the embodiment of Truth in a person. Once they had been set free they would be true sons not of Abraham but of the Father himself.

The proof that they were not yet true sons of the Father is the fact that they were planning to kill Him. We will revisit the whole question of fatherhood and who we belong to next week as we complete the piece up to verse 47. Please read through this passage and contemplate it and if you have any questions please place them on the blog.

Let’s gather our thoughts together now about what Jesus has said to us in this passage. The first question I found myself grappling with is whether I am in fact living in true freedom. In Galatians 5:1 Paul tells the reader: it is for freedom that they have been set free. He then tells them that although they have been set free they had moved back into a slavery to the law. The question I ask myself is, “Am I living in true freedom?” “Do I truly accept the full liberation Jesus offers me daily?” “How does that show in my life?”

I am also reminded again of the slow process that people seem to go through to gain understanding of biblical teaching. In a way it is discouraging because as I teach the Bible I know that many are not really grasping what I am trying to teach. Yet it is also in a way encouraging because many of these folk would eventually come to full faith and understanding of what it means to be a disciple and would become true followers of Jesus. Jesus’s timing is often so different to ours. Maybe our greatest need here is patience. As we consider these things it should encourage us to continue praying for people who we may have been praying for for many years already without any response because there is always a possibility that they may still come to faith in Jesus‘s time.

This teaching is so important and dense that I am going to leave it there till next week. May Our dear Lord be close to you and bless you all.

“My heart is steadfast oh Lord, I will sing and make music with all my soul, I will awaken at the dawn and praise you oh Lord….(Psalm 108:1). Thank you Lord for the gift of music which lifts our hearts and enables us to express our love for you Lord and to recognise and receive your love for us as you make the events of the past really come alive to us. “As I look at the cross your Grace takes a hold of me.”

“My whole creation is like a vast eternal song, with poetic lines which extends into eternity and you know what? You are part of that song. A vital note to make the whole complete – that is why I have said in Ephesians 2:10 that you are my “workmanship” – the exact word is you are my poem – part of the whole. That is why I call everyone of My people to be the special note I have made them to be so that the song will be perfect in the end.”

We continue today in John 8 from vs 21 – 29 as we listen to Jesus’s revelation of who He is. “Who are you? “ is the central question in vs 25. So we think to ourselves, “have they not been listening?” But we should not be too hard on them. They were being faced with concepts and ideas that would have stretched any mind. Just as Jesus has been speaking about His own testimony and His Father’s testimony backing that up, He now tells them that He is about to go away and what is worse, they are going to die in there sin verse 21.

So confusing. A reminder that He is not of this world and that they cannot go with Him when He goes and then He follows that up with, “ you are going to die in your sins.” But then comes the proviso: “if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be”. That is bracketed by his statement that they will die in their sins verse 24. But who is He claiming to be?

By now we should be used to that word which John has been emphasising right from the beginning of his gospel. BELIEVE. The problem that has been becoming more obvious as we read through this Gospel is, what were the people are supposed to believe? Who is this they are expected to believe in? And what was preventing them from seeing that?

So it becomes apparent that Jesus’s identity was slowly being revealed and the people that met Him would have had an incomplete understanding of who He was. In this passage He mentions for the first time that He has to go away which is a prediction of his death. Later on in the passage in verse 28 he refers to that again as He speaks about being lifted up. He has already use that phrase in chapter 3, however it was far from clear as to what exactly He meant. It is easy for us to look back after the whole story has been told and to recognise these revelations He was giving. Yet those people would have had little point of reference to understand it.

At the end of the passage in vs 30 we see that many put their faith in Him. However we know that later on most of those people deserted Him. The problem was that they were putting their faith in a person without completely understanding who He was and what He had come to do.

As I contemplated this passage I realised that each one of us goes through a similar growing revelation and understanding of who Jesus is even after we have put our faith in Him. In fact we continue to grow in knowledge and understanding of Him and His ways and expectations all our lives. It is important that we realize how we need to grow in this area so that our faith will be continually strengthened.

One of the problems with some modern day preaching is that an image of Jesus is presented which is shallow and incomplete and people are asked to accept him without understanding who He really is and what He went through to save us. This accounts for many who set off on a Christian trajectory and end drifting away.

We also need to understand how we should give an answer for the hope we have to those who ask us.

Well dear friends enjoy every day this week as one that the Lord has made and given to us.

As I sit at Jesus‘s feet this morning – looking up at His face – waves of love flow over me, yet I remind myself I cannot rely on my emotions because emotions are volatile, I must rely on a choice I make daily, even more often a choice I make regularly through the day – to love God, through Jesus with all my heart, body, soul and mind and to let that choice determine my actions, attitudes and words – praise the Lord hallelujah!

”You are coming to understand the statement in 1 John – “God is love”. If you see Me as Love personified you will experience every part of your relationship with Me as My expression of love to you. This will make it easier for you to respond in love to Me. Even as the high point of the demonstration of that fact was My death upon the cross, it continues to flow into every part of society, into every heart that responds, calling the many who are lost to come and drink of the Living Water from the Eternal Fountain. Yes make a decision to respond to Me in love and I will promise to overwhelm you with every aspect of My love for you”.

Now to John 8:12 – 20. We need to remind ourselves that Jesus has been speaking at the temple during the feast of Tabernacles. One of the traditional customs at that feast was to light a strong light in the temple to remind the people of the pillar of Fire which God used to guide His people through the desert on their way from Egypt to the Promised Land. Here Jesus identifies Himself as the reality of that light to show once again His fulfilment of a picture from the Old Covenant.

This is also one of the “ I Am” statements in John’s Gospel, which show that Jesus is identifying himself with the name that God gave to Moses when He met him. Remember: “I am who I am.” The other things to note in that sentence in verse 12: “Who ever follows me will never walk in the darkness…” are firstly that in the Greek the word never is a double negative which actually reads, “never, no never will you walk in the darkness. Then the Greek word which is translated as follow has a much stronger sense about it than the English. It involves more than just walking behind a person but denotes embracing the values of the one whom you are following and actively participating in his purpose.

From vs 13 to 18, the focus is very much on Jesus‘s identity. The Pharisees challenge him saying that He has no standing to testify about Himself as to who He is, so Jesus calls as His second witness his Father. The passage does not identify how the Father is the second witness but he is probably calling on the supernatural signs that He has been performing as the witness of His Father to prove His identity

What is important is His statement in verse 19 where He challenges them, suggesting that the reason they don’t accept His identity is because they actually don’t know the Father. Later in his gospel John is going to expand on how important this concept is. It is actually impossible to fully grasp the identity of Jesus without coming to know God as Father. This is the great barrier that prevents the Pharisees from understanding who Jesus is and how His own testimony points to His identity.

Once again we see the interesting reference in the last verse to the appropriate timing of Jesus‘s life on Earth. It is easily possible for us to think that it is only Jesus’s life which was appropriately timed, where in actual fact everyone of us has a time schedule with God which is hugely comforting.

So as we wrap this up I ask myself the question who do I really think Jesus is and I’m I truly following him according to the biblical concept? I am hugely comforted by Jesus’ promise that I will never walk in the dark again. I am also challenged as to my relationship with the Father because knowing God is a privilege we have through Jesus and that relationship with Jesus and the Father is the basis of our lives with Him which constantly needs to be practised and refreshed.

May you all experience God’s closeness and love till next week.

Singing Psalm 8 and 71 with Aaron Shust. “Oh Lord, my Lord, how majestic is your name In all the world, who is man that you remember him. Even when I am old and grey do not forsake me Lord”.

“Majestic is My name. I am described and My nature revealed by the names which I am known by in My word. Do you really grasp the meaning of the word Majestic? The full extent of My Majesty extends far beyond how I may look, to My Almighty power as Ruler and Creator of the Earth. I am everywhere, everything you see, handle, smell, taste experience – it all has my hand upon it. There is nowhere, nothing that is beyond my reach, after all I made it all and am still creating and sustaining everything. And within that I am inviting you into an intimate relationship with Me – made possible by the greatest love act in the history of the world – Jesus, my beloved Son’s sacrificial death upon the cross. The gap seems impossible for you to bridge, the power to do that, the power to understand it all comes from Me. Welcome to all of you as you draw closer to Me by My personal invitation through Jesus”.

We go on in John’s Gospel to chapter 8: 1–11. As John continues to reveal who this Man Jesus is, he re-visits the concept of condemnation vs 11, he had raised in chapter 3 : 17 and 18. Jesus makes it quite clear that His aim in coming to the world as a human was not to bring condemnation upon a people who had rejected Him. Instead He came with the idea to rescue us from the awful plight mankind is in. He came to rescue us in fact also from ourselves and all our evil intentions and the pain which spins off from that

It is clear from this passage that the Pharisees were using this woman who had been caught in adultery as a pawn in an effort to catch Jesus out in his interpretation of the law. They had no interest in her personal feelings or plight, or for the good name of Yahweh, they were simply using her to try and catch Jesus out. As far as they were concerned she was already written off as a human being and simply deserved to be snuffed out. However Jesus shows that no matter the sinful state of the woman she still mattered to him as a human, struggling and lost in a world which is broken.

This does not mean that He condoned her sinful life, as we read in His last words to her, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” vs 11.

I have been told by a neuro scientist that the human brain is programmed by default to keep comparing yourself to other people. This results in the way we see others and how we deal with them. This is mostly subconscious and we are usually not aware of it. It is a powerful force however and can clearly affect relationships on every level. Reading this passage reminded me of the importance of the Gospel power available to us through the Holy Spirit and the need to constantly reaffirm our attitude towards others of regarding everybody of deserving greater honour than ourselves. (Philippians 2:3).

I was also reminded of the importance of seeing each person we come into contact with as a human created by God in His image and no matter how difficult or evil they may seem to be, we should follow Jesus‘s example and not write them off or condemn them, but rather see them as deserving Jesus’s rescue and love.

May you continue to experience His love. Till next week then.

I am overwhelmed at the thought that the awesome, Almighty Creator of the whole universe, as large and as powerful, as magnificent in Majesty, should be concerned about me, about us – not only concerned but loving to the point of visiting us in human form to experience our lives and then to die on our behalf. What an awesome God we serve.

”If your eyes could only see, really see and perceive the vastness of My creation you would be even more taken aback, but I have revealed and am revealing enough that you can bury yourself in worship, that you can drown in the reality of all this. it is indeed a gift to have some insight into this universe – focusing on this world and the people in it. Each one known intimately by Me, loved to the utmost. The enjoyment I experience when they/you respond in worship and adoration. But also in being obedient and demonstrating your love for Me by loving one another. So – yes here I am in the midst of you all enjoying every minute of it”.

We continue in John ch 7 from vs 37. The key in this section comes in the second part of verse 37 and 38 as Jesus repeats the statement that he made to the woman at the well John 4:13. This closes the bracket around this whole section of teaching that Jesus is reported to have done. The main focus has been on his metaphor of being the Bread of life. Bread and water are the basic requirements for life. Jesus uses these metaphors to bring home to the listeners and us His very nature and purpose. Do you see that? He is the only provider of these essentials which are necessary for us to receive eternal life. Notice that it is not good enough to only know this, but one must actually partake of what he is offering. So we see in 6:53 that it is necessary to eat the flesh of the son of man and to drink his blood to have life and in today’s verse, it is necessary to drink of the living water to benefit from it. Notice also in vs 38 how Jesus equates drinking the water of life with believing in him. We have seen from the beginning of John how he has emphasised the role of faith in our developing and maintaining a relationship with Jesus.

To believe in him it is necessary to understand who he was/is. John is using the bystanders in their discussion about who Jesus is for us to draw our own conclusion. We can see here that there are basically two groups of people. One group who is for him and one group who is against him. The group that is for him discuss various possibilities as to his identity. John takes us right in to the community to hear what they have to say so that we can draw our own conclusions.

He makes a point of reminding the reader that the Spirit has not yet been given. This is important information since way back in chapter 3 and in other places Jesus has pointed out that no one will really understand who He is without the Spirit’s help and he had not been given yet. However we have the benefit of the Spirit’s help as we study this passage so that we can come to the correct conclusion. Ultimately he wants the reader to see that everything points to him being expected Messiah. The information about his birth is wrong as we know that he actually was born in Bethelehem not in Galilee as it was thought by those people.

What do we do with all this information? Surely it should bolster our faith, reminding us that faith is not just about believing but actually trusting and living by that trust and our hope for eternity is ultimately based on placing our trust on the Messiah who gave his life on the cross for us. Hopefully as we read through this Gospel our understanding of who Jesus is will grow stronger and more clearer over time thus strengthening our ability place our trust in him alone.

May he continue to bless you all with His living Presence during this coming week.