Isaiah 55:6
Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
Some people called it a miracle an act of God. I didn't see it that way. I believe in miracles, I believe that God can move in extraordinary ways beyond our comprehension. However, in this instance I think this wasn't the case. One man had the lives of hundreds in his hands. It looked like a certain disaster with the loss of many lives. All power was gone. All hope seemed to disappear as well. A plane with no engines, in a built up city, with no runway within reach. The odds weren't good and the outlook looked worse. Yet one Chesley Sullenberger was at the controls. He coolly and calmly landed his plane, it's crew and 148 passengers safely, not on a nearby runway or open road but on the Hudson River. People called it the "Miracle on the Hudson", but as I said before I don't think it was. Did the passengers on that plane pray for a miracle. my guess is many of them did. Could God have performed a miracle, I know he could. So, why didn't he? Because Captain Chesley Sullenberger was in control. I guess he had about 2 minutes from realising they were going down until they hit the river. Mr Sullenberger didn't have time to refer to the manual, I guess even if he had have done there wouldn't have been much info on how to land with no engines in a river. However, Captain Chesley Sullenberger had been a fighter pilot and he had been a commercial pilot for 29years. All his training, all his experience pointed to this one event. He knew how to fly this plane, he had flown in every weather condition and had flown for thousands of miles. He had trained, he had prepared, he had practise and because of that, he was ready! He got that plane down safely and saved the lives of those 148 passengers and his crew. It wasn't because of some miracle it was one man was trained, experienced, ready and willing.
Now most of us won't be called on in our lives to land a plane on water or to do anything so dramatic. However, as Christians, we are called day in and day out to make decisions for Christ. If we are trained, willing, practised, experienced and ready we will make wise, discerning decisions. If we are not, the chances are our decisions will be far more touch and go. We need to put in the hours to train ourselves in godliness and righteousness in order, not only to be ready when Christ comes or we are called home, but in order to live the lives God has in store for us. I believe that the Holy Spirit will rarely bring to mind a verse that we have not put into our minds beforehand. If we don’t study God’s word, if we don’t put in the effort it can inhibit the work of God in our lives. If we put in the work, if we study, if we pray , if we seek God we begin to know the heart of God. We can live our lives in the knowledge that He will direct our paths and decisions we make when on auto-pilot will be good and wise ones. When the plane of our life faces a sea of uncertainty it will be the hours of training that we have put in that will make the difference to whether we sink or swim.
1 Corinthians 13: 11
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
Hebrew 5: 11-14
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Saturday, 20 March 2010
To Judge or Not to Judge
Many Christians feel it is wrong to Judge - is this a right belief?
So is it true that as Christians we shouldn’t judge others? Many people believe that Matthew 7: 1-2 means that we should under no circumstances judge others.
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Let’s face it, it sounds pretty conclusive. However let’s look at in it’s context and also at other parts of the Bible.
So if we take this passage at face value it means that we can never point out a fault in others, even if it is a truly constructive comment. It means that we can not practise any sort of church discipline as that would require some sort of judgement. We would not be able to expose any who teach in in error. We can also not speak out against Christians who live in homosexual relationships, live together outside of marriage or indeed do anything that we believe is contrary to the Christian lifestyle.
So is this right?
Let’s have a look at what James 2: 12-13 says.
Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!
Does this shed a bit of light on the passage? After all we will all face judgement at some point, whether we judge or not.
If we look at the context of these verses we see that in some cases correct judgement must be made. In Matthew 7: 5-6
You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
We see that judgement can be made in the right way. We can take the speck from our brothers eye once we have removed the plank in our own eye. This will involve examining our motives in judging. Are we judging for the furtherance of God’s kingdom or to build ourselves up and make us feel better or look batter.
Verse 6 shows us that we need to make judgement as to who are dogs and who are pigs.
If we look further a field in Matthew 7: 15-20
Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise very good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
We can see that we are actively encouraged to judge good prophets from false prophets.
So let’s have a look at other parts of the Bible:
John 7: 24
Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.
So, we are warned to not make wrong judgements, judgements based on appearances. However, we are told to make right judgements.
1 Corinthians 5: 9-13
I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you.
Here is a clear call that we must judge those who call themselves our Christian brothers. Not only are we to judge there actions we are called to harsh action and not even associate with them.
1 John 4: 1
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Testing the spirits requires judgement, not just of the spirit but of the prophet.
What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
So is it true that as Christians we shouldn’t judge others? Many people believe that Matthew 7: 1-2 means that we should under no circumstances judge others.
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Let’s face it, it sounds pretty conclusive. However let’s look at in it’s context and also at other parts of the Bible.
So if we take this passage at face value it means that we can never point out a fault in others, even if it is a truly constructive comment. It means that we can not practise any sort of church discipline as that would require some sort of judgement. We would not be able to expose any who teach in in error. We can also not speak out against Christians who live in homosexual relationships, live together outside of marriage or indeed do anything that we believe is contrary to the Christian lifestyle.
So is this right?
Let’s have a look at what James 2: 12-13 says.
Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!
Does this shed a bit of light on the passage? After all we will all face judgement at some point, whether we judge or not.
If we look at the context of these verses we see that in some cases correct judgement must be made. In Matthew 7: 5-6
You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
We see that judgement can be made in the right way. We can take the speck from our brothers eye once we have removed the plank in our own eye. This will involve examining our motives in judging. Are we judging for the furtherance of God’s kingdom or to build ourselves up and make us feel better or look batter.
Verse 6 shows us that we need to make judgement as to who are dogs and who are pigs.
If we look further a field in Matthew 7: 15-20
Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise very good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
We can see that we are actively encouraged to judge good prophets from false prophets.
So let’s have a look at other parts of the Bible:
John 7: 24
Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.
So, we are warned to not make wrong judgements, judgements based on appearances. However, we are told to make right judgements.
1 Corinthians 5: 9-13
I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you.
Here is a clear call that we must judge those who call themselves our Christian brothers. Not only are we to judge there actions we are called to harsh action and not even associate with them.
1 John 4: 1
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Testing the spirits requires judgement, not just of the spirit but of the prophet.
What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Truth and Relevance
Christianity must be relevant. I hear this so often nowadays. Our church won’t grow until it becomes relevant. People in our community won’t join us until we show them that Christianity is relevant to their lives. Do you hear this? Do you agree with it?
I agree with it. I believe that we need show that the church is relevant. We need to provide people with ways into the church ways to discover it‘s relevance. These things might be parenting courses or toddler groups or things of this sort. However, we need to be careful. Are we, in trying to make the church relevant, providing people with their pudding without providing them with their main course? In today’s society people believe that truth is found in the fact that something works for them, makes them feel good. If something makes you feel good it must be right. You go to yoga and you feel more relaxed and therefore you agree that the systems behind it holds some truth for you. You go to your doctor with a headache and he gives you some medicine and it works you therefore have trust in that medicine and in the doctor (even if all he gave you was a tic-tac). What if the church is doing this? We are providing things for people that make everything feel ok. We’ve looked after their children, we’ve taught them to be better parents and how to drug-proof their kids. We’ve made them feel relaxed and comfortable. They feel good about themselves, they feel there is truth for them in what they’ve been experiencing. The question is though, what have they been experiencing? It isn’t Christianity. It might be the love of Christians, it might be some life skills initiative, but where is the challenge of the gospel? Where is the connection between what Christians can offer and what they really believe.
The church has something that is relevant. Our job is to show people just how relevant it is to them. At present aren’t we acting like a company who finds a cure for HIV, Cancer and all other known diseases and markets it as a cure for a headache? People buy it thinking that it is relevant to them as they get headaches. It’s only years later that, in a bored moment, they read the little leaflet and find in the small print that it also cures everything else. Yet they’ve only been taking it twice a year to cure a headache. These people may have died because they were only shown a superficial aspect of the drug and therefore not put it’s saving powers to work.
If, as we believe, Christianity is true and the claims of the Bible and Jesus are true then Christianity is relevant. We need to celebrate it’s truth and relevance. Are we not moving towards putting the trimmings of Christianity on display and not showcasing it’s truth, relevance and main draw. We are trying to sell Christianity through offering parenting skills, children’s groups, youth entertainment and so on when Christianity has to offer the complete forgiveness of sins, eternal life, a relationship with our creator, help on earth and a hope for the future, being a part of the body of Christ and so much more. If that is not relevant to people’s lives I don’t know what is.
Footnote: Please don’t get me wrong I believe that such initiatives that reach out into the community such as parenting courses and toddler groups (I run one myself) are brilliant and I’d love to see more of them. However, I do believe that we need to look at the whole picture and see how these initiatives are used to move people from the fringes of faith to a full belief in the saving power of Jesus Christ. We have a huge responsibility to the people on the fringes of our church not to let them stay there.
I agree with it. I believe that we need show that the church is relevant. We need to provide people with ways into the church ways to discover it‘s relevance. These things might be parenting courses or toddler groups or things of this sort. However, we need to be careful. Are we, in trying to make the church relevant, providing people with their pudding without providing them with their main course? In today’s society people believe that truth is found in the fact that something works for them, makes them feel good. If something makes you feel good it must be right. You go to yoga and you feel more relaxed and therefore you agree that the systems behind it holds some truth for you. You go to your doctor with a headache and he gives you some medicine and it works you therefore have trust in that medicine and in the doctor (even if all he gave you was a tic-tac). What if the church is doing this? We are providing things for people that make everything feel ok. We’ve looked after their children, we’ve taught them to be better parents and how to drug-proof their kids. We’ve made them feel relaxed and comfortable. They feel good about themselves, they feel there is truth for them in what they’ve been experiencing. The question is though, what have they been experiencing? It isn’t Christianity. It might be the love of Christians, it might be some life skills initiative, but where is the challenge of the gospel? Where is the connection between what Christians can offer and what they really believe.
The church has something that is relevant. Our job is to show people just how relevant it is to them. At present aren’t we acting like a company who finds a cure for HIV, Cancer and all other known diseases and markets it as a cure for a headache? People buy it thinking that it is relevant to them as they get headaches. It’s only years later that, in a bored moment, they read the little leaflet and find in the small print that it also cures everything else. Yet they’ve only been taking it twice a year to cure a headache. These people may have died because they were only shown a superficial aspect of the drug and therefore not put it’s saving powers to work.
If, as we believe, Christianity is true and the claims of the Bible and Jesus are true then Christianity is relevant. We need to celebrate it’s truth and relevance. Are we not moving towards putting the trimmings of Christianity on display and not showcasing it’s truth, relevance and main draw. We are trying to sell Christianity through offering parenting skills, children’s groups, youth entertainment and so on when Christianity has to offer the complete forgiveness of sins, eternal life, a relationship with our creator, help on earth and a hope for the future, being a part of the body of Christ and so much more. If that is not relevant to people’s lives I don’t know what is.
Footnote: Please don’t get me wrong I believe that such initiatives that reach out into the community such as parenting courses and toddler groups (I run one myself) are brilliant and I’d love to see more of them. However, I do believe that we need to look at the whole picture and see how these initiatives are used to move people from the fringes of faith to a full belief in the saving power of Jesus Christ. We have a huge responsibility to the people on the fringes of our church not to let them stay there.
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
When did church become so different?
When you look at the western church today what do you see? Well, I don’t know about you but this is what I see both personally and when trying to look at it from a non-church-attendee’s point of view.
1. A building
2. Services on a Sunday
3. House groups - attended by about
10-20percent of attendees
4. The odd prayer meeting
5. Some social action
6. A cluster of peripheral groups
7. Occasional meals together
8. Some youth work
Now this isn’t, of course, the whole picture. Churches differ but the majority would have something of the list above about them. So then I look at the early church, a church started by Jesus and build upon Peter and I see.
1. Devotion to the apostles teaching
2. Devotion to the fellowship
3. Devotion to prayer
4. Devotion to the breaking of bread
5. All believers were together
6. All believers had everything in common
7. Together they met the needs of the fellowship
8. They met together every day
9. They met in public
10. They met in each others homes
11. They ate together
12. They praised God
13. They enjoyed the favour of all the people
And the result… The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
When you look at the two lists they are poles apart. So it begs the question when did the church change so much? To my mind the 13 points of the early church should be our basis for church today. After all it certainly worked as the Lord added to their number EVERY DAY! When was the last time we had even two consecutive days when the Lord added to our church those who were being saved? (don’t stop and try and work it out - you’ll be there far too long). We can look at the list and find some things that we are doing - I guess praising God would be the obvious one. However, I’d also guess that the first 9 are pretty far from what most churches are doing today. The word devotion would defeat most of our churches in the first four items, Yes, we pray as churches but could we honestly say that as a church we are devoted to prayer? In reality most of us pay prayer a bit of lip service and wonder why we don’t get answers.
When you look at that second list, don’t you just pray that we could capture something of that list in our lives and in our churches? Just think for a minute what it would feel like to be a part of such a church? Just think what it would feel like and how encouraging it would be to have people added to your church everyday not just once in a blue moon? To be apart of something that is vibrant and moving and united and encompassing and driven must be a wonderful feeling. The church has changed from a movement to a stop. When did the idea that a church had to be housed in a grand building separating it from the rest of the community come from?
When I look through the early church list something in my spirit yearns to get back to that. Do you feel the same? I’ve thought of a few ways that I might start - though most of the ideas I have hinge on finding likeminded people (it’s pretty hard doing church on my own). I’d love to find a couple or couples (or families) where we could meet each week and have a meal together and talk about Godly stuff. Where we can build such a depth of relationship that prayer, sharing, devotion to one another, praising God and learning from each other becomes natural, becomes the norm. I believe that God would use such a gathering powerfully. I’d challenge you to have a think about how you could implement an early church ideal in your life. I’d love to hear your ideas and any progress you make.
1. A building
2. Services on a Sunday
3. House groups - attended by about
10-20percent of attendees
4. The odd prayer meeting
5. Some social action
6. A cluster of peripheral groups
7. Occasional meals together
8. Some youth work
Now this isn’t, of course, the whole picture. Churches differ but the majority would have something of the list above about them. So then I look at the early church, a church started by Jesus and build upon Peter and I see.
1. Devotion to the apostles teaching
2. Devotion to the fellowship
3. Devotion to prayer
4. Devotion to the breaking of bread
5. All believers were together
6. All believers had everything in common
7. Together they met the needs of the fellowship
8. They met together every day
9. They met in public
10. They met in each others homes
11. They ate together
12. They praised God
13. They enjoyed the favour of all the people
And the result… The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
When you look at the two lists they are poles apart. So it begs the question when did the church change so much? To my mind the 13 points of the early church should be our basis for church today. After all it certainly worked as the Lord added to their number EVERY DAY! When was the last time we had even two consecutive days when the Lord added to our church those who were being saved? (don’t stop and try and work it out - you’ll be there far too long). We can look at the list and find some things that we are doing - I guess praising God would be the obvious one. However, I’d also guess that the first 9 are pretty far from what most churches are doing today. The word devotion would defeat most of our churches in the first four items, Yes, we pray as churches but could we honestly say that as a church we are devoted to prayer? In reality most of us pay prayer a bit of lip service and wonder why we don’t get answers.
When you look at that second list, don’t you just pray that we could capture something of that list in our lives and in our churches? Just think for a minute what it would feel like to be a part of such a church? Just think what it would feel like and how encouraging it would be to have people added to your church everyday not just once in a blue moon? To be apart of something that is vibrant and moving and united and encompassing and driven must be a wonderful feeling. The church has changed from a movement to a stop. When did the idea that a church had to be housed in a grand building separating it from the rest of the community come from?
When I look through the early church list something in my spirit yearns to get back to that. Do you feel the same? I’ve thought of a few ways that I might start - though most of the ideas I have hinge on finding likeminded people (it’s pretty hard doing church on my own). I’d love to find a couple or couples (or families) where we could meet each week and have a meal together and talk about Godly stuff. Where we can build such a depth of relationship that prayer, sharing, devotion to one another, praising God and learning from each other becomes natural, becomes the norm. I believe that God would use such a gathering powerfully. I’d challenge you to have a think about how you could implement an early church ideal in your life. I’d love to hear your ideas and any progress you make.
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Test Everything
I love to learn new things and with the Christian faith there is always more to learn. However, with learning new things you have to be careful. I have learnt, as much as possible, to test everything. This is imperative when the teaching comes from a new source, but also with teaching from trusted sources.
The other day I was listening on-line to a sermon about Noah. The preacher stated that we had been led astray by teaching on Noah. He said we’re told in our Sunday Schools and Churches the following story of Noah...
God had created man who had sinned and was cast out of the garden of Eden. Man was left to his own devises and became more and more wicked. This was of course apart from Noah who was the only righteous man. God decided to wipe man from the earth but to save Noah as he was the only righteous man to be found along with his wife, children and their wives.
He continued to say that we therefore see a story about the wrath of God punishing man and God’s justice in saving the one righteous man. He said that he believes that our misreading of the story helps us to massively miss the point. That the story of Noah is a story of God’s grace. This is because, he says, the Bible doesn’t say that Noah was a righteous man, but that Noah found favour in God’s eyes and the word for favour used was the word for Grace.
For days I thought this was great. A story that I had always considered to be about God’s anger and might was actually about His incredible saving Grace. I had even started to write something about it. I then decided to check it out before I went further. The first thing I read was “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among people of his time....” So, his theory of the Bible not saying Noah was a righteous man is immediately blown out of the water. It only took a minute, but, as can be seen, was worth the effort.
The other day I was listening on-line to a sermon about Noah. The preacher stated that we had been led astray by teaching on Noah. He said we’re told in our Sunday Schools and Churches the following story of Noah...
God had created man who had sinned and was cast out of the garden of Eden. Man was left to his own devises and became more and more wicked. This was of course apart from Noah who was the only righteous man. God decided to wipe man from the earth but to save Noah as he was the only righteous man to be found along with his wife, children and their wives.
He continued to say that we therefore see a story about the wrath of God punishing man and God’s justice in saving the one righteous man. He said that he believes that our misreading of the story helps us to massively miss the point. That the story of Noah is a story of God’s grace. This is because, he says, the Bible doesn’t say that Noah was a righteous man, but that Noah found favour in God’s eyes and the word for favour used was the word for Grace.
For days I thought this was great. A story that I had always considered to be about God’s anger and might was actually about His incredible saving Grace. I had even started to write something about it. I then decided to check it out before I went further. The first thing I read was “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among people of his time....” So, his theory of the Bible not saying Noah was a righteous man is immediately blown out of the water. It only took a minute, but, as can be seen, was worth the effort.
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