Month: March 2025

What is impossible for man is possible for God. There is so much in that phrase – it tells us so much about you oh Lord my God.

“The eye of a needle – a camel passing through it. That is such a small thing against the backdrop of my whole creation. Wherever you look, if you would just see, you will see the possibilities I have made real. But the most impossible – salvation for men’s souls could only be accomplished at the cost of my dear Son‘s life. He had to die as the only answer to true forgiveness of the world’s sin and for the restoration which I desire so that I can have peace with My creation and enjoy an ongoing relationship with all of it. From that arises My glory and ultimately your glory as well. Enjoy meditating on these great truths.”

We go on to John ch 13:31-48. As Judas departed to set a series of events in motion which will ultimately result in Jesus being crucified, Jesus covered that leaving with a statement which is astounding. Now, He says , the Son of Man and God is glorified. The glory appearing now will reach its climax when Jesus ultimately takes the sin of the world on Himself at the cross.. Notice the interplay of glorification of the Father and the Son. Both are being glorified.

Now I must admit I am not sure I understand fully what this glory is exactly. In ch 17:5 Jesus calls on His Father to give Him the glory He has always had when He was together with Him before His earthly mission.

What is significant is that God has, throughout the scriptures sought to glorify Himself. That is His ultimate aim and here is a major step towards that. Then comes the surprising part – we are to share in that glory one day according to Romans 8:30: And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified and those He justified He also Glorified. In a wonderful way we have already received God’s glory yet our ultimate glorification will only happen when we go to be with Him. Well, what will that look like? We can only imagine and wonder and maybe get a bit excited.

As Jesus launches into what is often called “His final discourse” He again warns the disciples that He is going to leave them to go to a place where they would not be able to follow Him. That must have been most distressing to them. We have the benefit of seeing the bigger picture but these men had left everything and followed Him believing, rightly so, that this was going to be permanent. Yet here He is saying words which sound like He is abandoning them and leaving them to their own devices.

Peter, as impetuous as usual insists that no matter where Jesus is going he will follow Him. It is easy for us to be critical from a distance but we need to live ourselves into that moment to understand the confusion these men were surely feeling. Yes Peter is going to disown Jesus, but heh, the rest weren’t even there. They had all run away.

Now we come to the most important part of this passage. Can you see what it is? It governs every part of our Christian life. Vs 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another”. This command gathers all the rest together and is the most pertinent instruction to us today. What a challenge!

If God’s church is to be the witness He so eagerly desires, it should be characterised by genuine love demonstrated clearly between its members. No in fighting, no back stabbing, no “skindering”. No running to the news media about the sins of others. No court cases between members, I can go on and on as I look at the public face of many churches today. Let us all take a good look at ourselves and determine, with the help of God’s ability to overcome the impossible, to be known for our love for one another.

Plenty to chew on for this week. May you all receive His blessing.

What an absolute privilege it is to sit here this morning in Your presence knowing You have invited me – it draws great feelings of worship, praise and rejoicing.

”Yes Ian I have desired that you be with Me and spend time communicating with Me, just as I long for each of My children’s time devoted wholly to Me. This is precious to Me and it should be equally precious to you. Think about it, the creator of the universe here in the room with you, in you, around you. Although you cannot see Me you can experience My presence in so many ways by faith. Through My word especially and through the songs of praise, but in many other ways which involve every one of your senses. Spend time in quiet just listening and enjoying My presence.”

As we read John 13:18-30 we feel we are entering an unbelievably dark episode of Jesus’s life. It is succinctly described in the last vs: 30b: “It was night”. It was surely night but symbolically it was night as well as Judas leaves to do the deed he has been chosen to do.

I am sure every reader of this blog has at some time or another experienced the pain of betrayal. Someone who you respected and enjoyed turning against you and causing you some measure of harm and pain. Once again, because of our familiarity with this story it is maybe easy to gloss over the details of Judas’s betrayal.

Think of it however. Here was one of the close-knit “inside” group of Jesus’s disciples. What had they not all experienced in the three years of Jesus’s ministry? The teaching, the fellowship and especially the love that Jesus had surely been demonstrating them as the made their way by foot around the territory. Sitting now at the table, close enough for Jesus to reach out and pass him a morsel He had dipped in the wine. Judas, accepting this intimate gesture.

Once again I was struck by Jesus’s humanity as described here. It is, as I have said previously so easy to imagine Jesus’s feelings and thoughts to be different to ours because of His divinity, however John again draws attention to Jesus mental and emotional suffering in the brief sentence in vs 21 After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” So much like we would be, a perfect high priest who has suffered in every way we have so that he can understand and minister to us.

We know, of course that Jesus was aware of his impending betrayal a long time before, because of His continual references, reported in the various gospels to His impending death preceded by a betrayal. What is a timely reminder of all these events, which are depicted here in extraordinary detail, is that this was all planned long beforehand vs 18 This is to fulfill the scripture: ‘He who shares my bread lifted up his heel against Me’.

Just as you and I have been chosen before time to be adopted as children of God, so Judas was chosen before time to be THE betrayer, which set the ultimate rescue plan in motion. Maybe, like me, you may say “Was this really fair to him?”. The whole question of predestination is an enigma that we as mere mortals, looking through a glass darkly, may only understand, if at all when we go to be with the Lord. We need to focus rather on the certainty we receive from the fact that we have indeed been chosen before time, according to God’s mercy and grace for a specific purpose, which He will work out in our lives.

Once again we can only wonder at this plan of God which we are seeing being played out here in the scriptures. A plan so unique, so brilliant, yet so painful. Plenty to meditate on as we continue in this Lenten period.

May God bless you all as we draw closer to our celebration of Easter.

It is hard for me, as I meditate on the presence of the Lord and meeting with Him. It is hard for me to imagine the perfection and beauty of the Lord meeting me in my imperfection in a world which is broken.

”Ian, to understand and make sense of these thoughts you have been having you need to remind yourself of your new identity. The moment your eyes were opened to me you were taken into Jesus. Now your identity is no longer in yourself but in Jesus. So when you feel you are failing, I see not your failures but Jesus because He surrounds you and gives you your identity. Yes you need to and are continually growing more and more like Jesus through his Spirit and by His grace but your identity is constant. I see Jesus when I see you. I continually wash your feet to cleanse that part of you that is being contaminated by the world, but that does not reflect your identity. Your new identity was given you when I first washed the whole of you”.

We come today to a well known story that happened at the beginning of Passion week – where Jesus is described washing the disciples feet. John 13:1-17. It is easy to switch off when we read a passage like this while thinking we’ve heard it so often However I believe it is an extremely important passage, placed strategically to set the whole scene of what the Christian life is to be like. What must characterize it.

In Mark’s gospel the same teaching is taken up in one verse also placed at this time in Jesus’ life. “But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:42,43.

So as you read it let your imagination go. See the group of disciples with smokey lamps lighting the room, the smell of unwashed bodies and the lamp oil mixing with that of the food. The disciples would have been sitting on cushions on the floor with their feet extended behind them.

Now read the introduction in vs 1. Jesus knowing His time had come wanted to show His disciples the full extent of His love. Now notice the second part of the next vs. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power ……….. This act that is described must be seen against those two statements. The most powerful being, God Himself in human form who could have done anything on earth that he wanted, chose to demonstrate His love by washing the disciples’ feet. The most menial task, dirty travel-worn feet. No convenient baths and showers. Jesus bends down with water and a cloth and commences to wash each disciple’s feet. Notice, even Judas’ feet. The one through whose absolute betrayal was the first step to His horrible death.

Do you want to be important in the kingdom of heaven? Get down and start washing feet. Not necessarily literally but symbolically in your daily walk as you emulate Jesus’ statement in Mark “I did not come to be served but to serve”. Now read vv 14-17. That is exactly the instruction Jesus gives to His disciples. Wash one another’s feet. But more go out and wash the feet of every one whom you would serve.

In His enthusiasm Peter of course gets it wrong at first. “No please wash me completely”. Then Jesus adds the rider which is so important. I have already washed the whole of you. Well, washing feet in the kingdom, with the right motive should always flow out of a relationship with Jesus which was launched when we first encounter Christ and receive His forgiveness and Spirit, symbolically being washed all over as He cleanses and forgives us. It is not a way to win your membership to the kingdom.

Why do we call it a “service” when we meet on Sunday at the church? That is the opportunity for us to practise our service, but it should not end there it should go everywhere we go during the rest of our time. Unfortunately I do believe that there are many who get this order wrong and believe by going to a service and learning to serve is the way into the kingdom. We all know that is the wrong order, but there are many who don’t understand that.

Se friends go and serve. There is no better way than that to enjoy your life of abundance in Jesus. See the last vs in this section: “Now that you know these things you will be blessed if you do them” vs 17.

See you all next week again.

God has a bottle in heaven for each one of us in which he gathers all our tears. At the moment I feel as if my bottle is overflowing.

”My Love envelops you completely and every tear you shed is precious to Me as well as every shout of joy, every testimony of my love for you. Why? Because you are precious and I see and feel every tear you shed and enjoy every joyful moment you experience. It is My desire that when you have finished shedding your tears that you remember My instruction “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice”! It is my desire that you remember that though she has left you physically, Emily is now free to be the person I made her to be. That she is full of joy and therefore you can take down the guard you’re holding up to protect your grief and use that energy to express and feel the joy which is an innate part of My being and My love for you. The pain will fade away as you rejoice and it will be replaced by hope.

As we focus today again on John’s Gospel ch 12:3-50, this section opens again with several comments on the degrees of faith that the bystanders are expressing. It is not incidental that John does this. As Jesus approaches the cross, John wants the reader to identify with those people and ultimately examine their faith against what he has written about them.

Firstly we see from 37 – 40 the many who were present who refused to believe. This is like a backdrop to the way we understand people. The starting point as it were. He reminds the reader of the dire warning God gave Isaiah at the beginning of his ministry. Isaiah was to be prepared for the fact that most people would not believe and amazingly enough it is because God has blinded them. Wow! What a prospect for his ministry. While this was an hyperbole it was nevertheless a warning about the innate stubbornness of man who refuses to bow the knee to God. In this state the judgement of God is to settle them in that position.

The second group is described in vv 42,43. These people “believed”, even some of the leaders, yet they were afraid to confess their faith openly because of the possible consequences. Notice the summary in 43 b, “they loved praise from men more than praise from God”. This is clearly an insufficient faith which connects with v 47 “a person who hears Jesus’s words but does not keep them”.

This describes so many people today in varying degrees. Even people who attend church fairly regularly. They are literally on the threshold of saving faith yet something is holding them back. I sometimes think these people are the hardest to reach.

From vs. 44 Jesus starts explaining what real faith is. The sort of faith which is necessary for us to attain eternal life. Remember at this stage. Jesus has not yet been crucified so this is an open case that John is building up to. Doing it in steps like this is intended to help us understand real faith.

So what is it about real faith he wants us to understand? Can you see the main point he is making? Vv 44,45 Put it so beautifully. It is necessary to see and believe that when you have “seen” Jesus, you have “seen” God. That is the one whom you are to believe in. This is so important. God has revealed Himself totally in the person of Jesus. If you want to find out what God is like look at Jesus. Do you see Jesus like this? He is also the one who brings the light into the world that enables us to “see”Him, v 46. This is a mystical interaction which involves one’s attitude. Do you all want to know Him more than all the other interesting and important things in your life? But there still is a mystery which only God can understand as we read elsewhere like Ephesians 1:4, that every believer has been chosen before time.

Then Jesus goes on to reassure the reader that His mission to earth was a mission of salvation. This does not mean that judgement does not exist. It would not have been necessary to bring salvation if it wasn’t for the fact of judgement on the whole world. Ultimately that judgement will only be completed when Jesus comes again and He will then be part of that. However we should start off by seeing Jesus as Saviour and not as judge. So many people are turned away from Christianity because they have been hit over the head by the bible and God’s judgement. Obviously we cannot appreciate His salvation if we don’t see what we have been saved from, but the emphasis, according to this passage, of Jesus’s life was salvation.

With that then, let the joy of the Lord fill your coming week. God bless till next week.