Category Archives: Discipleship

Being One in Jesus

Posted on 23/05/2016 | Leave a comment

Last time I wrote about how Jesus prayed specifically and most pointedly for you and me, as if it were the most important request ever . . . .

 That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You (John 17:21)

Can you see what that means? We are to be ONE together, with one another, with each believer, in the same way that Jesus is ONE with the Father.

We are ever so plainly told here what is the will of God for us, what we must observe, what we must obey.

You could not get anything more obvious about the will of Jesus and the will of the Father for you who love Him and follow Him.

It is as plain as the nose on your face.

Unless you are nose-less or even faceless or blind.

If this is the will of Jesus, then it is absolutely, beyond any shadow of doubt, that we do what He says, do what he so seriously prayed for us, our destiny, our identity, just before His immeasurable, unrepeatable, awful and costly sacrifice for us.

We cannot escape the carrying out of this ultimate imperative.

That is, if we love Him.

If we ignore this awesome destiny, it may be that all our efforts are a waste of time. Wood. Hay. Stubble.

If we fail to change our minds at this point and put it off till another time, we are living in disobedience.

How shall we escape if we ignore such a great desire and plan and purpose of the Living, Loving God? Something so close to His heart?

What shall we say to the Judge of all the earth when we stand before Him?

So how can we –you and all of us—who call ourselves Christians, who profess the faith of Jesus, who claim to be biblical, who believe in truth and righteousness, how can you go on identifying yourselves as Anglican or Baptist or Pentecostal or whatever, belonging to separate competing groups and religious structures, divided over doctrines and along denominational divisions, none of which were envisioned by our Lord, and all of which hurt Him terribly?

Does he ask the impossible?

Yes impossible, unless we abandon our fleshly ideas of church and ministry and start boldly and humbly relying on the Holy Spirit who is give to us for this very task.

All things are possible to the one who believes.

The first step is repentance. Change of the mind. And the will.

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One Together in God and His Christ

Posted on 06/05/2016 | 2 comments

Having prayed to the Father first for his disciples that they may be one “as We are”, Jesus then prayed for “those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me (John 17:20-23). He therefore prays for you and me —we believers are included in His prayer and ongoing intercessions!

So what is He praying for us, we who have believed in Him through their word? The answer follows with some staggering ‘purpose clauses’. In this post, we look at the first of these.

That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You;

This is the same request he made for the original disciples: that they may be one “as we are”, the Father in Jesus and Jesus in the Father. This is undoubtedly the will of God for you and me, for all followers. Nothing has changed, though we have changed and not for the better.

We are thus connected to the original disciples in the Spirit by the same will of God in Christ! We are meant to be together with them, immersed in the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. No change!  There is no change in covenantal privileges and responsibilities from them to us despite the passage of 2000 years. We live in the fellowship of the saints!

This awesome connection, oneness, S. Paul calls the Body of Christ. Jesus calls it My ekklesia.

This is of critical importance in how we understand our relationship with other believers, and how we look at ekklesia. That’s the original word used and badly translated into English as church, where it comes across as a religious concept. The word ekklesia in the original simply meant a gathering of people for a purpose. It had no religious connotation whatsoever. None.

The only ekklesia that is actually of God is the one Jesus is constructing—Matthew 16:18. Humans cannot build this. And we must not try. We are not commanded to do so.  And yet we fail to do what we are instructed—to bring in the harvest, to teach others to be disciples, to love one another and to be ONE together as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You.

But we can be so busy trying to help Him build churches, we fail to experience the glory He wants to display in us. He, not us, is the Architect and the Builder of His ekklesia. We are together members of His glorious Body, the living stones in this spiritual building. Together in Him.  ONE.

And in this glorious fellowship, this temple of God, we are to be one together. One not many.

Jesus’ prayer for you and me, all believers, constantly before the Father, is for our oneness. Do you see that excludes so much activity taken for granted in today’s religious organisations? Thus denominational exclusiveness is a grave error. Control of others is anathema. Selfishness, vainglory, hatred, self-righteousness, arguments, self-justifications, dogmatism causing splits, must all be thrown out.

When we are united together in actually doing what he has commanded—rather than what our precious theology or doctrines or opinions or religious organisations want—when we are abounding in the actual work of the Lord, filled with the Holy Spirit, bearing witness to Him, participating in the making of disciples, reminding, teaching, urging, persuading, encouraging others—in our joy and gladness in serving Him and one another, we leave behind those obstacles to oneness.  We forget our own agendas in favour of His agenda—our ONENESS.

 

It’s not about you. It’s not about us. It’s all about the Father and His Christ. Right?

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A New Covenant—Neglected

Posted on 26/04/2016 | 3 comments

Appallingly, today, we see a denial of much of the glorious features of the New Covenant—New Testament life. Instead of God’s laws poured by the Holy Spirit into their minds and written on their hearts, many are content to get their spiritual input not from the Lord Himself, but from middlemen with agendas—spiritual directors, priests, pastors. Instead of being the people of God, many see their identity as Baptist or Catholic or Evangelical and so on. The two-tier (clergy-laity) mentality persists.

Does not the Living God find fault with us in our unbiblical practices of assembly and hierarchy which we continue to hang onto?

Instead of all God’s people being in unbroken fellowship with the living God—knowing Him in their personal experience—they are dependent on professional Christians as mediators. The whole concept given to us by S. Paul—that of the one body with many active functioning members, each with gifts of the Holy Spirit—is ignored, seen as irrelevant or even mysteriously withdrawn. Millions even attend rituals in which it is believed Jesus is re-sacrificed again and again by a priest, clearly at great odds with the message of the New Testament—this sacrifice was made once for all and all time and is unrepeatable.

The key to much understanding of the New Covenant is that we are each born into a Body—the Body of Christ. Individualism is contrary to the New Covenant and to our organic, community life in the Body of Christ. We are many members and one body. God makes covenant with a people, not with individuals, but with the body of Christ, in Jesus.

When the Lord talks about a new agreement (covenant), he means that the first one is out of date. And anything that is old and useless will soon disappear. (Hebrews 8:13)

All kinds of spirituality that are inadequate or out of date have now been made obsolete by God’s flawless design; and what is obsolete and outdated soon disappears. And now what is not planted by the Father will be rooted up (Matthew 15:13). What is built, even if on a good foundation, if not with God’s specified materials, will be destroyed (1 Corinthians 3:10-15).

This New Covenant is made with Christ and we get under the New Covenant by being hid in Christ together. So it can never be broken! You cannot break it—it was not made with you!

So what are you going to do about this?

You have the wonderful power of choice. To change your mind and heart and actions.

Must we keep disobeying the Lord who gave Himself for us?

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Posted in Bible Study, Covenant, new, old, Discipleship

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A New Covenant—Ignored?

Posted on 22/04/2016 | Leave a comment

God’s first agreement (covenant) with His people, Israel, was defective, wrote the author of the New Testament book The Letter to the Hebrews (8:7-8) so a better was needed. This author shows how much more serious is our attitude and response to the New Covenant (how shall we escape if we ignore its implications, Hebrews 2:1-4).

The new must not be ignored. God’s design practices for corporate worship revealed in the New Covenant/New Testament must be followed. We must not lose His words or replace them by worldly or pagan ideas and practices like clergy—laity, pastor—people.

In this better covenant Jesus is not prevented by death and we are ALL called into the experience of the Lord Jesus in the power of his endless, indestructible life in which he works in us who draw near. He promises to energise within us, in our own life, breathing his life in us, so that it becomes our new nature to love him, delight to do his will—his own life in us.

Have believers gone backwards since Judaism with corporate matters?  In many ways our practices in churches as Christ’s people today are often more bound and institutional and domineering to that of many devout Jews in Jesus’ own day. Jews did not have a pastor or priest ruling over them. Nor did they meet in ‘house-of-the-Lord’ type buildings. Nor was the sharing of the word of God jealously guarded by one (or two) leaders.  The synagogue was a place of discussion and sharing of scriptures by the several.  Common meals were frequently shared together. Plus each synagogue was independently managed. They did not have to toe the line of any outside superintendent, C.E.O., denomination, statement of faith, or any head office!

These churchy practices plainly ignore the New Covenant.

How far we have drifted from the apostles’ teaching and practice! They were liberated from the practices of Judaism, yes, of religion and the Holy Spirit was living in each one! Yet today Christendom is weak, divided up into competing denominations, living “in the flesh” and generally not experiencing the New Covenant. It seems we have a similar situation today to that which our Hebrews author was addressing  (Heb 8:7-8) . . . .

 If the first covenant with God had been all right, there would not have been any need for another one. But the Lord found fault with them and said . . . . . .  (quoting Jer 31:31-34)

I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God, and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach or say to one another, “Know the Lord,”
because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’

Can we just go on and on ignoring the New Covenant made at the most tremendous cost to the Father by Jesus?

“If you love me you will keep my commands”  John 14:15

To be continued

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True Faith or Blind faith

Posted on 13/02/2012 | 1 comment

“I have no need of redemption.” someone bluntly told me recently.

Well, that’s exactly what I used to say. Now I can say it with some conviction because my redemption is a fact, though I cannot prove this to anyone. But there is some evidence.

My angry correspondent remarked “Unlike your god, there is a wealth of evidence from a variety of sources that you exist. Even in the absence of thought about you, you continue to be.”

I am flattered.

However denial of our Creator’s existence is common, yet he continues to exist and to sustain us all and the whole universe despite my correspondent’s affirmation of blind faith in his absence. Dismissal of belief in God won’t make him go away. You may not believe in him but he believes in you.

My trust in God is based on evidence. And I think there is a wealth of evidence from a variety of sources that God exists.

You want evidence? Writers like Richard Dawkins (are you one of his disciples?) consistently refuse to examine the available evidence which is freely available to anyone who wants it. I think there is also ample evidence that followers of Dawkins and the so-called ‘new atheists’ put their faith in their remarks without properly examining their arguments, a sort of religious faith which like a lot of other religious faith is not based on demonstrable evidence. It is “blind faith”.

The whole point of my post I made about a month ago was to reject “blind faith” and call for faith based on evidence and I gave several examples of this in everyday life. More. I believe the sun will “set” tonight and “rise” in the morning. Now this is not proof, note, but it is evidence. I cannot prove the sun will “move” in this way. I cannot prove that my wife truly loves me but I have really good evidence that she does.

There is no point in going to my dentist if there is no good evidence that he is competent. There is no point in setting out on a journey to a certain place if I don’t have evidence that it exists.

So my point is belief in the absence of evidence is not the sort of faith demanded by the Hebrew prophets and sages. True faith cannot ‘allow me to adopt a set of beliefs that make absolutely no sense.’ Neither does any ‘level of piety that I might exhibit in believing something, count for anything.’ I cannot pull myself up with my bootstraps (that’s why I needed redemption) yet that’s what at least some atheists think how the universe began! Blind faith. Come on.

Let’s think about this. You may judge me of denying reality. But do you know all there is to know about everything that is reality? If you think you do then you are claiming omniscience. Blind faith again. If you don’t then you should not be so sure of your presuppositions. Is it not possible that you are mistaken and I have discovered something that has changed my world view radically?

When we cannot face up to reality we take a leap of faith in the dark into some metaphysical idea. Blind faith. Now that is ‘an abdication from reality, an act of self hypnosis, a cowardly cop-out.’ But reality presents us with many questions.

Can one believe in love without evidence? Is love among human beings provable? Where does ‘love’ come from? Is it real, or just some chemical reaction in our brains? Why is there anything at all and not just nothing? Why do we exist? Why is there this particular set of natural laws and not some other? What is the nature of reality and how can it be measured? Why does our world provide just the right sets of conditions (numbering dozens of fine-tuning conditions) for life? Where did all this come from? Where did the minute bacterial flagellum come from –with millions of these tiny machines in every cell in your body?

Can my reader answer these questions? Well I think I can. And it’s called reality with the evidence that is available. Exciting stuff.

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Persons are us

Posted on 22/01/2012 | 3 comments

A few years ago, my grandson, Max, when his sister Sophia was a new baby, was pretty jealous of sharing his parents’ attention with this newcomer.  

 Max : “Dad, you are a person.”        “Yes.”.

 “Mum you are a person.”                    “Yes.”

 “And I am a person!”                            “Yes.”

 “But Sophia – a sausage, burning.”   Smiles.

 Still makes their Dad chuckle.

 So what is a person?  Yes, much more than a sausage! Even a sausage burning.

 For Jesus, the one whom God sent to show us what He is like, the most important thing was meeting people. Talking to them and showing that he actually cared that they were there. That they were persons. He heard the cry of their hearts. He entered into their lives.  

 I like what a friend wrote recently about music and song, wonderful though they are: “You may be the only person who connects with someone on a personal level who then shows them that someone actually cares.  This, to me, is more important than all the songs you can write, sing or play.”

 People really want to know that you care about them.  We so need to get to know them on a deeper level and create true relationships with them. We need to laugh with them, cry with them, eat and drink with them.

So where did Jesus meet with people in his days as a Jewish man? Yes, in the synagogue, as he was a Jew. But in the synagogue, it inevitably led to controversy with the strict religious, or conflict over his teaching and then forcible removal. So it was mostly on the street, in the open, at dinner parties, weddings, funerals and especially with his followers and ‘sinners’ over meals.

 And, he doesn’t suggest his followers attend anything like a ‘worship service’ or a church or to go to a synagogue service! Nor were they told to create such human constructions, but to simply go the houses of “people of peace” and accept their hospitality.

After his death and rising and the out-pour of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’  followers continued to meet in Jerusalem in homes and at public places to be part of a whole new community of the Spirit. It was all about loving, caring relationships instead of laws, rituals and legal requirements. Real persons.

 That’s because Jesus and his Dad are persons. We also are persons ‘made in his image’, wonderfully designed and wondrously equipped to be God’s friends.  And so God still meets persons on the street, in the open, at dinner parties, weddings, funerals and especially with his followers over meals.

 Why do we so often deny our uniqueness, our special-ness, our design, the purpose of our existence here on Earth?  Why do we continue to deny the greatest matter of all? Why do we keep on ignoring such a gracious and welcoming Dad?

 I would welcome your answer.

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Posted in Bible Study, Discipleship, Identity, Make disciples

The human desire for certainty

Posted on 18/01/2012 | 10 comments

“Faith is believing what you know ain’t true”  Mark Twain

No. No. No. Not so!  Faith, true faith, is trust and we need evidence to be able to trust! We need evidence.

That is how we live, e.g., we trust surgeons and flight captains with our lives. We trust that others will obey the road rules when we are driving. And we trust those we love. We cant see it, but we trust that there is this thing called love.  The scientist trusts that the world is really there, that her brain is working well, and that the laws of nature are in place.

We base such trust on evidence.

It is truly true that reality is that which is actually there even when you don’t believe in it and it’s an absolute certainty that disbelieving in God won’t make Him go away.

However it is fashionable in some circles to say “nothing is certain”. But there is this human desire for ‘certainty’. It’s everywhere. Here’s a good example.

In John’s biography of Jesus, Thomas was told by the others, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” But then eight days later Jesus appeared and said to Thomas “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” The record says that Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” And Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? How blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

I wonder if doubting Thomas actually put in his finger or his hand to Jesus’ wounds, evidence of who he was, evidence of his suffering and death, and of course, of his bodily resurrection?  

I can’t be certain, but one day I will find out.

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Posted in Bible Study, Discipleship, Identity

The Bible Story Conversation

Posted on 10/01/2012 | Leave a comment

Commencing next month, I am starting another small group project at my home at Ashgrove with the object of looking at the entire biblical message from Genesis to Revelation. This is a big project and will be rigorous. There will be some startling revelations as there will be stuff people don’t  get in regular Christendom.

We will meet to make conversation with one another and with its author about the teaching of the Scriptures.

This project will include much He has taught me and stimulated me deeply over the last couple of years, including uncovering the Messiah Jesus who has been overlaid for millennia by Big-Church, Christendom and commentators of a Greek mindset. There are many sayings of Jesus that we have in our English bibles which do not reflect accurately the Hebrew meaning. So much light will be shone on the difficult words of Jesus.

It’s a challenge to think like a Hebrew!

 There will be no assignments, no direct questions asked (lots of questions to the whole group though). And if you are new to all things Christian then there is a likelihood you won’t have to unlearn much. There is a cost involved. Not of money but of time, energy and commitment. He is worthy of that and more.

 This project is designed to yield not just data, the evidence, the facts, information, but also to make transformation, to come face to face with our Creator and Sustainer and Saviour.

Who would like to join with us in this great project? Do you know anyone else who might benefit from this offer? Please phone me ASAP on 33661633 if you want to join with us in this adventure or if you need more information. Our dining table is very limited for space. So last call.

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Gallery

Kid’s stuff movement

Posted on 09/01/2012

Have you read that little story where people were bringing little kids to Jesus for him to place his hands on them? And then when his disciples saw this, they tried to stop them. But Jesus called the children to … Continue reading →

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