Category Archives: Father God

Apr 10 2013
Bible, Christianity, Church, Diamond Geezers, Evangelism, Faith, Family, Father God, Friends, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Manchester, Men, Message Trust, Prayer, stress.

The most tragic verse in the Bible?

I believe that this Saturday, God is going to do something supernatural in the lives of the men who come to the Diamond Geezers Day here in Manchester, releasing our potential for supernatural greatness.

If you’ll come along to the Message building and connect to God’s presence there, hearing His Word and doing what He says, I believe that God is going to raise up from the day some spiritual leaders to make a massive difference in this world. And the reality is that this is so important because there’s a huge shortage of godly men in our nation. In the church men too many men have relegated themselves into passivity, or fallen to compromise and shame.

One of the most tragic verses in the Bible is Ezekiel 22:30:

I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it…

God said:

I looked for a man like that…

How many did He find? The Bible tells us:

...but I found none.

NONE. Zilch. Not one; not one man who’d stand in the gap! Perhaps if God were speaking that verse today, He’d say:

‘I’m looking for a man with guts, integrity and commitment. I’m looking for a man who will use the strength I give him to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves; I’m looking for a man to impart spiritual truth to the next generation. I’m looking for a man who would stand in the gap.’

If that’s you (or you want it to be) please book in now and join us at the Diamond Geezers Day on Saturday. It’s not too late there are still spaces. There are various great speakers and activities, lunch thrown in with the very low price, the very first opportunity to buy my Diamond Geezers audio book (at a special price) and various freebies to equip you to make a difference where you are, standing in the gap!

Book in here http://www.message.org.uk/shop/diamond-geezers-mens-day/

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Mar 23 2013
Bible, Christianity, Discipleship, Faith, Father God, Healing, Heaven, Jesus, Prayer, Religion, stress., Theology, Worship

‘Could You Not Watch One Hour?’ – Er… to be honest… no.

Matthew 26:36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. 38 Then he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.”39 And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.”40 Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, “So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? 41 Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial;[e] the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 Again he went away for the second time and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” 43 Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words. 45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Years ago, when I was new to church – not long a Christian, our church put on a musical about Easter. It was pretty awful mostly. They had an old guy sing mournfully a hymn solo over and over… ‘Could you not watch one hour?’’

Over and over…

I’d invited someone to come with and I did pray a bit, mostly thanking God  that they hadn’t come…

But I also felt so bad… about prayer.

I felt so GUILTY about prayer! I was always so rubbish at it.  Anyone else?

Maybe it was working shifts in the Police? No!  It happened a lot at theological college too - maybe it was Taize chants or something, but I would regularly know just how Peter and the guys felt with those heavy eyes and often fall asleep in the prayer times in church. Head on pew in front. Trying to focus. Daydreaming away as we all just really prayed Lord for all the really lovely children Lord in the really lovely world Lord… on more than one occasion waking to see a pool of slobber below me…

Could you not watch one hour?? 

I was struggling to break through to five minutes.

I got a book called ‘The Hour That Changes The World,’ to help me pray an hour a day. Here’s how that says you get the breakthrough -

prayerwheel

Personal training for prayer! He shows you how to man up and push through an hour, splitting it up 5 minutes at a time.

‘GIMME 5!! GIMME ANOTHER 5!  Do me an Hour! Could you not do that?’

Well isn’t half an hour okay? No! What kind of a Christian are you?

‘Could you not watch, one hour with me..’ 

But I’m busy! I have all these other things going on. How do I get 25 hours in a day? I’m rubbish at praying!

So I got more and more books about prayer, all guaranteed to help me feel worse about my struggling prayer life.

Now some of you, this is your thing. You don’t understand why every Christian doesn’t find it easy to spend hours and hours in intercession.

You need to know – nobody likes you. You make us feel bad!! You make me feel guilty.

Then over the years as I’ve gone into church ministry somehow I picked up that preparing for sermons doesn’t count as praying, that’s work, not proper praying at all… (what?!)

So I had to do a lot extra… how?

Well get up an hour earlier!  All the mighty men of God do this… get up really early, apparently.

‘Could you not watch one hour…’ 

It felt fine, once or twice… but then I started to get grumpy. With my family, With myself. Even with God if I’m honest for bothering me at that time…

‘Could you not watch…’ NO!  I want to sleep Lord! I want to snuggle up..

(This is the first part of my notes for my talk tomorrow at Ivy MCR. I’ll put the rest up in the week). 

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Feb 14 2013
Atheism, Bible, Christianity, Discipleship, Father God, Funerals, Healing, Heaven, Jesus, Prayer, Religion, Worship

What To Say At A Funeral?

ImageI have been invited by my friend J.John to contribute to a few books, one of the new ones will be a collection of funeral talks. I include my submission below. I have done so many hundreds of funerals but it’s always a great privilege. I offer the below to anyone who finds themselves in the position of doing a eulogy but more particularly Ministers of Religion leading services. Names and details etc have been changed.
Notes –  I am delighted to be asked to provide a talk in this collection. I believe that the opportunity to present the love, truth and hope of Christ at funerals is so great, and so often so greatly missed. Jesus must weep again at the graves of his friends as horror stories abound of Vicars forgetting the deceased person’s name etc. Not good enough! To be asked to speak at a funeral is one of the greatest privileges of ministry or indeed life. It deserves our prayerful hard work, full attention and every skill of pastoral ministry we can muster.  My old Vicar the late Alan Buckley told me to ALWAYS start by saying ‘I am very sorry,’ sincerely, at the beginning of the address – to the family. I have never forgotten to do so and it has always been well received. People don’t care what you know until they know you care.  

These notes are from the funeral some years back of a well known local pub landlady and animal lover. I had spent some time before visiting her in the hospice and preparing her for death which came as a welcome release for someone with a deep, personal faith. I always get details of the person’s biography and intersperse something of their life story and interests within the talk. There was more of that in the original talk. It makes the event less preachy and more personal.

 

I always conclude by praying for comfort for CLOSE family (and friends if appropriate) BY NAME.

 

I also as you will see at the end pray for the person by inviting everyone present to remember them ‘as you knew her..’ and painting a little word picture. I usually ask the family beforehand, ‘If you were only allowed single words not sentences, what words would you use to describe the type of person she was?’

 

I also ask, ‘If you were to picture her at her happiest, what would she be doing?’ I make notes on all this and that forms much of the content of my prayer. In doing so I invite everyone to remember with thanks the person in prayer and in some way that memory brings the person to life again…

 

 

 

 
Once again I’d like to say to Jim and the boys how sorry I was to hear that Mrs. __________ had died. It was such a privilege to get to know her, thank you for the invitation to lead the service today.I doubt that there’s a better known passage of Scripture than the 23rd Psalm. I read it to Ruth as I prayed with her and it’s kept coming to me as I’ve talked with Jim in recent weeks too. I have read this passage so many times at so many funeral services I have given, because after the death of a loved one, people need to be reminded that God walks beside you.God knew Ruth before she was born, walked with her since she was born in ____ , and he still does now.She was a remarkable lady. Brought up a farmer’s daughter with her younger sister Ann in a small village in Cambridgeshire, encouraged to know her bible and trust God from her early childhood she said yes to Jesus’ love at the age of 6 and was baptised in a bath at 10.Now I suppose the words of the 23rd Psalm have offered more comfort, calmed more fears, and encouraged more hearts than any other poem ever written, and that’s what it is: A poem written by King David, from the perspective of a sheep. I don’t know what kind of farm it was Ruth grew up on but I can’t imagine a farm without sheep. And I always picture a sheep in this Psalm as enjoying a pretty peaceful and contented life – because the sheep has the ultimate shepherd watching.King David wrote this Psalm to convince us that God has our best interest in mind- God wants to give us a fulfilling, hope-filled life, and that even extends beyond the grave. David had learned to care for people by first learning to care for animals, something you all know was true of Ruth hey?

David understood from the time he served out in the Judean fields how vital a shepherd was to the well being of the sheep.

I’m a city boy, though I’ve lived and worked in various rural settings.

I’m no sheep expert, but I’ve stayed awake counting them enough, and I do know they’re not the smartest animals in the barn and they smell pretty bad. That’s about the limit of my knowledge of sheep. But David knows his stuff when he talks about being a shepherd. This is his old stomping ground, literally. He knows what it’s like. To him, all the sheep were individuals, they all had names- he cared for each one.

Year ago as part of an outreach I’d been invited to speak at I had the opportunity to stay on a farm. A real, working farm. I’d never been that close to nature and this was something of an adventure. As I went to bed I asked the farmer to wake me up in the morning. A few minutes later it seemed I heard a knock at the door. The day on the farm starts early! We were off to go and look after the animals. I walked ahead of him to a field, and saw it was full of sheep. I didn’t know what to say to them. I nodded a ‘Good morning,’ and they all ran away!

I should have known – in The New Testament, the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, said Sheep don’t follow a stranger’s voice but flee from him. Suddenly the farmer turned up, made some strange farmer noise, and all the sheep came running to him- or more precisely to the feed in his buckets.

Where do you look for comfort – on a day like today? People look for comfort in the bottom of a bottle, or in buying something new, but there’s not much comfort there. There’s some comfort from friends who love you. And there’s great comfort in the voice of the Good Shepherd.

I wonder what your favourite line is from that well known psalm? Look what it tells us -

Psalm 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.

The Hebrew word here literally means that nothing will be lacking. Where? He goes on to say: “He makes me lie down in green pastures.” In other words, God provides a place of rest for us. // For you, me, Ruth. To get sheep to rest, they must be free from fear and sickness, there must be no worry among them, they must not be aggravated by the weather conditions, and they can’t be hungry. They have to learn to trust the shepherd for all these things. Then they can lie down, because they know the shepherd.

Verse 2: “He leads me beside quiet waters.”  God is not behind us shouting ‘go on’! He goes ahead of us bidding, inviting, “Come!” He is in front, clearing the path for us, making the way straight and safe. On the night before his death, Jesus reassured his friends, ‘Don’t be worried or afraid – I am going to prepare a place for you, so that you may be where I am.”

I love verse three: “He restores my soul.” I’ve had so many people tell me time and again (whether they would describe themselves as believers or not) that they came into this church just feeling down, sad, exhausted, but something happens in this place and they walked out like a different person with a different attitude. What happened? The Good Shepherd restored your soul. With hope. He will restore your soul today if you ask him to. He is the good shepherd.

He directs; because sheep go astray. They’re needy, defenseless, they get nervous. They are easily led. Sheep on their own are soon lost. That’s why we have the picture in the New Testament of the good shepherd leaving the ninety-nine to go and get the one.

That time I was on the farm, somehow the farmer was counting all the sheep. They just looked like a dirty cloud of hooves and teeth to me. But he said, ‘One’s missing!’ Then he marched off to the far end of the field, and looking far into the distance, I saw that missing sheep too. The farmer made that funny noise again – and the sheep set off full speed toward him, and food, and safety.

Maybe that’s why there are so many comparisons to people and sheep in the Bible. Maybe that’s why God is like a Shepherd. We can all lose our way, especially when times are hard- when we need some divine intervention from the Good Shepherd to get back on track.

Now in the first three verses of Psalm 23, God is referred to as He, but in the next three verses the focus shifts his thoughts – he calls God You. At first we were you’re seeing God from a distance, but now He’s up close and personal. Why do you think that it?

Because of where he’s going; Psalm 23:4; “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

“The valley of the shadow of death” is an actual location in Palestine. A narrow pass through a mountain range. It’s four-and-a-half miles long with sidewalls over 1000 feet high in places, while it’s only ten or twelve feet wide at the bottom. Travelling through that valley is dangerous and scary. But if you stick close to the shepherd, you have nothing to fear. There is one who will protect you, who’ll walk beside you through that temporary darkness, and bring you out into the light.

Shadows can be frightening, especially the one cast by Death. Without a shepherd we’d be entirely fearful here. But it’s just a shadow. We can struggle with other enemies like pain, suffering, disease, and injury. But we can’t make it through this valley without the Shepherd leading us.

You all know Ruth was an overcomer- she achieved amazing things in this life that will echo in eternity and in a moment we’re going to remember them and her. But no amount of courage, strength, imagination, perseverance – can finally overcome death. We can’t do that ourselves!

Here’s the hope I offer you all today. Christians believe there is one person who can walk with us through death’s dark valley and bring us safely to the other side. It’s not wishful thinking, it’s historical fact that  Jesus, our Good Shepherd, experienced the cruellest death but then conquered the grave. He’s been there! And you can trust him when He says, “I’ll take you through…”

Time and again I have been at the bedside of someone who knows they haven’t got long ahead of them in this life, as I was with Ruth in the morning of her last day here. People ask me – ‘What do you say?’

Well what would you say? What do you think happens when you die? Where is your hope? Is it just for this life?

I try to remind the person… The Lord is Your Shepherd.

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death… David writes; I will fear no evil, (WHY?) for you are – — with me.

Who you are with makes all the difference. Thank you to all the friends here today to support the family – I know they’d want me to say it makes all the difference. We need each other. In the same way, sheep need the companionship of a shepherd. The Good Shepherd who provides for our needs, protects us through the shadow of death, and finally he promises to reward us.

Psalm 23:5b, 6: “You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

“My cup overflows.” What a lovely picture of hospitality! Bedouin shepherds have an ancient tradition that when travellers are coming through they always let the visitors stay in their house. When the travellers want something to drink, they fill their cup up to the top. But after they have worn out their welcome and stayed longer than they should, the next day, their cup will be only half filled. It’s a nice way of saying, ‘Time Gentlemen Please!’

That helps me understand what the writer of this Psalm is saying. Ruth would know it too from her years of hospitality at the Ox and Plough. “My cup overflows.” The image is that when you come to the table of the Lord, just come as you are today when we pray in a minute – he welcomes you in, and says, “Stay. Stay as long as you want.”

He keeps filling the cup full. I don’t have to rush away and he has nothing and nobody he would rather be with. The cup’s not just full, it’s overflowing.

“Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

As we commit Ruth now to that person, in that place he has prepared -

Let’s pray… (here’s how I’d start to pray)

Ruth has been described by those who knew her best as a kind, funny, thoughtful lady who always had a word of encouragement and treated people like they were welcome guests, not just customers.

Maybe you’ll picture her as you pray, standing ready to greet you at the pub, or walking her dogs around the village, or as she was at their Golden wedding celebration surrounded by her kids and grandkids…

However you remember her – why don’t you offer that picture to the Lord now, the Good Shepherd…
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Jan 12 2013
Apologetics, Atheism, Bible, Christianity, Faith, Father God, Friends, Heaven, history, Jesus, leadership, philosophy, Religion, Theology, Worship

J. John puts down Darwin the dog (humanely)

aCPuQ

 

 

I met with my friend @canonjjohn this week and was interviewed by him on my life story for UCB TV. The guy is a force of nature! Always a great encouragement.

I subscribe to regular updates in my email from him (available free from the Philo trust) and was amused, informed and challenged by this one that arrived today -

New Year, New Atheism, New Challenges
12 Jan 2013

It’s rather a scary thought that we are already over one eighth of the way through the twenty-first century. And even though year seems to follow year at an increasingly rapid rate, our culture changes even more speedily. One feature of the last decade that shows no sign of going away has been the rise of the ‘New Atheism’. It’s easy to dismiss the New Atheism as no more than a warmed-up version of old-fashioned humanism and in terms of substance there is little new. What is truly novel and troubling is the movement’s aggressive and bitter hostility to religious faith in general and Christianity in particular.

A fascinating revelation into where things are going with the New Atheism is to be found in a website www.kidswithoutgod.org, created to help children and parents live ‘a life without God’. Actually, the very existence of the site is significant. For years atheists have been saying how unfair it is of Christians to teach or – as they charmingly term it – ‘indoctrinate’ our children about God. In the past sceptics used to claim that children should be left to make their own decisions on matters of belief. Well this website suggests that such guidance is now buried: it is apparently legitimate to teach children about ultimate values.

There is actually a great deal of unintended amusement to be found on the site. So, for instance, children are introduced to a dog called Darwin. Darwin tells us that he is a ‘humanist’. At this point isn’t any smart child going to wonder why Darwin isn’t a ‘doggist’? Actually, it may simply be that Darwin the dog is stupid because reading on we are told that he only believes in things that he ‘can see in the real world, like friendship, and being nice, and learning’. Well, when I last looked friendship, niceness and knowledge were actually invisible. It’s also a little unfortunate that Darwin’s exclusion of anything ‘unseen’ prevents him from believing in such rather useful things as electricity, scent, sound waves, X-rays, infinity and gravity. This tripping up over logical shoelaces is all rather embarrassing given the New Atheism’s claim that it is seizing the intellectual high ground.

Another feature of the site is the way in which it inadvertently reveals some of the gaping problems in atheism. One of the difficulties in talking to children is that you have to use plain language and plain language allows very little scope for the sort of fancy wordplay that atheists can use to cover over difficulties. Such problems are highlighted when the site’s authors attempt to give children a moral code. Darwin the dog suggests that his young readers might like to follow his principles. (He doesn’t actually call them ‘principles’ presumably because as a dog sympathetic to modern worldviews he knows better than to try and impose his values on others; instead they are ‘things he has promised to do’.) There are seven of them:

  • “I promise to be nice to other people, just because it’s the right thing to do.”
  • “I promise to help take care of the Earth, because this is our home and we need it to stay healthy and safe.”
  • “I promise that I will think about the questions I have, and learn as much as I can about how things work.”
  • “I promise that before I say something or do something to another person, I will stop to think about how I would feel if somebody else said that or did that to me.”
  • “I promise that I will always tell the truth and take responsibility for my own actions.”
  • “I promise that I will help those who are sad or angry by being a good friend to them.”
  • “I promise to eat healthy, get plenty of sleep and exercise, and practice good personal hygiene.”

Why is ‘being nice to other people’ the ‘right thing’ to do? Says who? If the only basis for morality is evolution then why not push and shove your way to the top and, in the process, make sure that your genes get circulated as widely as possible? Why ‘be a good friend’ to those who are sad or angry? Doesn’t evolution demand that we walk over life’s losers? I could go on.

Yet beyond all the accidental amusement it provides, ‘Kids without God’ is a troubling website. You do not have to go far in it to find Christianity ridiculed and misrepresented. For all the proud claims that atheism is about truth there is no attempt at discussion, only distortion and sneering innuendo. What this website does present is a much-needed reminder that as Christians we are, like it or not, being increasingly drawn into a bitter conflict with the New Atheists. Traditionally, most Christians have adopted a bemused, live-and-let-live attitude towards atheists. That attitude was something that we had assumed was mutual. Yet it is now plain that for the New Atheists, the world has changed and tolerance is not a virtue. Christians are now clearly seen as an enemy to be fought and beaten.

At this point it is easy to shrug and say that the Church has faced such challenges before and survived them. Yes, it did, and God is greater than all the powers of this world put together, but it is worth remembering that the Church survived because Christians were prepared to pay a heavy price. The followers of Christ lived better, thought better, cared better and, quite often, died better than their opponents. Will the same be true of us?

Agapé,

Revd Canon J.John

www.philotrust.com

 

 

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Nov 23 2012
1 Comment
Brennan Manning, Discipleship, Father God, Jesus

Do You Know How Much You’re Loved?

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Oct 13 2012
Bible, Center Church, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, Faith, Father God, Friends, history, Ivy Manchester Grow Group Notes, Jesus, Liberation Theology, Message Trust, Prayer, Religion, Theology, Tim Keller

We don’t need Divine Rehab but Divine Rescue

CENTER CHURCH – Tim Keller 

(Ivy GG notes – much of this material comes from today’s Ivy GG Leaders Day; thanks so much to all who made time to attend and for all you’re doing at ‘the church that meets at your house.’)

I have been very inspired as I read Tim Keller’s latest book, Center Church.

Check out the video summary at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_ZWlPUmVug

I downloaded it on my Kindle and began to highlight in yellow important phrases and concepts as is my usual practice, but there’s so much there it ended with what looks like a Christian version of the Yellow Pages!

DISCUSS:

Do you read regularly or is that something you find hard to make time for? If so how might you overcome that challenge so you keep on growing?

What have you read recently that’s encouraged, inspired or challenged you?

I outlined my understanding of what I’d read in the book to our leaders as follows:

The ‘model’ of church isn’t what’s most important.

We have at one end (D.F.) the DOCTRINAL FOUNDATION. What we believe – and as a result of that there will be some things we don’t believe too). We have a central core of belief – the Gospel – that doesn’t change.

DISCUSS: What is ‘The Gospel’? What’s the Good News as your group understands it?

Look up the word ‘gospel’ now in a concordance. Have you covered any of the elements of what the Bible says the gospel is?

Keller is keen to stress the gospel is good news about what’s been done FOR us.

As I read I thought, ‘It’s not divine rehab but divine rescue.’

Optional question: How might we twist this message and make it either ‘Good things we out to try to do’ (RELIGION) or ‘We don’t have to  live holy lives because God will forgive us anyway?’ (IRRELIGION).  Keller says the gospel is neither of those two, but something entirely different; GRACE! 

At the other end we have (M.E.) the MINISTRY EXPRESSION(S) – What we DO because of what we believe. Our church services in the club, cinema, warehouse, your home – are all ministry expressions. What else can you think of that are ministry expressions?  Ministry Expressions CAN change – whether we like change or not, it happens all the time. Some people get frightened by the pace of change and might want Ivy to just go back to doing things ‘the way we used to do them.’ Here’s a picture someone just sent me of that that might look like:

(Consider this a caption competition! Thanks to Paul Nattrass’ Dad.

Comment at the bottom -winner gets a free copy of either of my three books they’d like) 

In the centre is our (T.E) THEOLOGICAL VISION. – Who we ARE (because of what we believe).

Around Ivy we’d call that our DNA I suppose, it’s what makes us distinctive.

You can download the DNA here  if you want to look at it in more detail but from the earliest days – even before we had the banner and the pram push down the street, Ivy was founded to be Relevant to people far from God, Confident in God, Welcoming because nobody’s perfect and all things are possible, Outward-Looking because our God is on a mission in the world and wants us to join him, and Adventurous because nobody ever really met with Jesus and stayed the same.

DNA is important in how you replicate. Spend some time discussing our DNA.

Read John 20:10-18

Notice: Jesus said, “Go…and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 

Tell the people next to you, ‘You have your Father’s DNA!’  We don’t need divine rehab but divine rescue has happened so now his Divine DNA is at work in you!

PRAY for one another.

Pray for me!

Pray for our church, and especially the new ‘Ministry Expression’ at Ivy Sharston – and please plan to join us for its launch Sept 21st 4pm at the Message, Lancaster House, Harper Rd, Sharston  M22 4RG

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Aug 09 2012
Father God, Graham Cooke, Heaven, Holy Spirit, Ivy Manchester Grow Group Notes, Jesus, leadership

How are you known in heaven?

Ivy MCR grow group notes; content inspired by Graham Cooke/ Keys to the City

You can grow up with a negative and positive part of your personality. You’ll act out of either –

maybe you’ll be judgemental, fearful, prone to deception, or too self conscious.

OR you can be someone who loves a challenge, a risk taker, trusting, self aware. 

Both of these personalities are in us, to a greater or lesser extent. 

Jesus wants to bring out all those positives in us.

 DISCUSS: Which of these two personalities is usually dominant in you? 

Read Mk 827  And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples,“Who do people say that I am?” 28 And they told him,“John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” 29 And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”30  And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

This is an occasion where Peter got it RIGHT!

DISCUSS: Can you recall the times he got it wrong?

GC: ‘Don’t worry about things you haven’t been able to do perfectly. You learn by failing.’ 

Why do we find it easier to recall failures than successes?

Jesus was always making I am statements. 

So was God the Father. 

Because when we have an identity we have to declare that so others know how to relate to that.

Read Exodus 33:12-end

Moses was asking to see the glory of God. God says ‘My goodness will blast you – I’d better just show you my back.” 

Then he declares his IDENTITY - God says, ‘I am compassionate. merciful, slow to anger etc…’ 

DISCUSS: What other words would you want to add to describe God? What’s his identity to you? 

Look at Luke 4:16 Jesus came to his home town, stood up to read – and read from the wrong place! Isaiah 61. ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

What was he saying? ‘This is how I am known in heaven…’

In John 16, Jesus says ‘It’s better for you if I go away.’  They’re saying, ‘No way.’

Jesus replies, ‘Yes it is – so HE can come!’ Who? The IDENTITY of the Holy Spirit is described:

Here’s how he is known in heaven: He’s going to convict the world of sin and righteousness. He’ll lead us into all truth. He’ll glorify Jesus in us and to us. He’s a comforter and helper. 

Discuss: What would you like to be known in heaven for? What are you going to do with this one short life to make a difference? 

Luke 1. The angel shows up to talk to Zechariah about how his son John is known in heaven – and he’s not even born yet!

- ‘He’ll be great in the sight of God. He’ll make a way for the Lord.’  

When you get a prophetic word, it’s God describing you. God is telling you, ‘This is who you are.’ Then for the next while, everything in your life is training you for who you are. If you get a word that you’re a warrior when you’re a wimp, you’re on a journey now! In the place between prophecy spoken and fulfilled there’s some boldness to walk in now. Every situation is designed to help you become that. AND even if you don’t accept that word, he’s going to do in you. 

He also gives us scripture. He loves to tell us who we are from his word. He wants you to have very specific passages that are talking to you about how he sees you.

DISCUSS what passages and words have been spoken to you and resonated recently? Pray that you’ll co-operate to become who you’re known in heaven to be!

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Feb 07 2012
1 Comment
Bible, Christianity, Discipleship, Failure, Faith, Father God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, leadership, Men, Prayer, Sorted Magazine

Beware. This may not build your self esteem.

Is it an insult to be called a Jar of Clay? It’s not the worst thing I’ve been called by a long way, but last week I had the pleasure of speaking three times on the same passage; 2 Corinthians 4, where Paul described himself that way. The deeper I dug into the passage, the more instructive and inspiring I found it in a world where sometimes we feel all too frail and inadequate and others are only too glad to affirm that picture.

Opponents – in the church –  were saying Paul was unimpressive and ugly, a rubbish speaker, manipulative, a deceiver, a false teacher, money grabbing (anyone would think he was trying to do ministry in the 21st century! If you want to see vociferous nastiness like this just google Rick Warren’s name – look what bloggers galore write about him, and the guy’s amazing!).

What was Paul’s response?

Well it wasn’t like mine. I’d step right up to defend myself on every point. I’ve done it before for sure, perhaps because we are taught to defend our image and self esteem at all costs. Now Paul does declare that he has nothing to hide, because integrity matters – but then he also shows that he’s got nothing to prove either. How?

They said, “You’re rubbish!” And we’d want to affirm our self worth etc. but Paul says the most surprising thing…

‘You’re right.’

You’re absolutely right.

‘…we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.’ 

Remember Paul described himself as being the ‘chief of sinners.’ He said at the start of this passage he only had any ministry at all because of the MERCY of God.

The God who puts his treasure not in the best china, but disposable containers.

The greek word he’s using for ‘earthen vessels’  (ostrakinos) denotes not a decorative item but a pot used for dishonourable things, the slop buckets, containers you wouldn’t let the guest see what was in it. The wheely bin.

Cheap, common, breakable, replaceable. Not essential but essentially valueless. The only value they had was the service they performed. Again, this may not build your self esteem!

Paul says, “We have this treasure in a waste basket, in a slop bucket.” In other words, ‘It’s not about me.’

Whole talks I’ve heard about this passage and blogs I read around it etc talk about being ‘cracked pots.’ There’s a problem with that.  It’s not in the text. It doesn’t say anything about the pots being cracked. I wonder whether we want to add that in because we want to make it about US again. The point is not about your cracks. Don’t make it about that.

The point is, the container is NOT the point. It’s what’s inside that matters.

We’re made to contain God! To be containers of God! In Ephesians it says God wants to put his FULLNESS in us. We’re made in his image to carry his glory! This sets us apart from everything else in the whole of creation! We’re meant to carry and contain GOD IN US. That’s why it’s accurate to describe anybody  living without God as living an EMPTY life. Don’t let them fool you. Jung said the world’s suffering “a neurosis of emptiness.” Whatever a person tries to eat, drink, sleep with, sniff, buy or sell to temporarily feel full, will never last or satisfy. They’re empty of what they were made to contain and sometimes some people feel that. Like hollow men and women, dressing up outward shells of busyness – inside resounds echoing emptiness.

Many of us have found that if you ask Jesus, he will give you life to the FULL (John 10:10). You will become a container for God’s glory.  Jars of clay don’t have to be pretty. They’re the most ordinary containers. But there’s something different about them. What? They don’t have TRASH in them but treasure!

That’s how it is with us Christ followers. We’re nothing special filled by Someone Awesome! We have HIM in us who is ‘the hope of glory.’ People may look at us and say, ‘Nothing special…’ But if they take a closer look maybe we can show them what we contain, because we’re containers for God. We’re made in His image to carry his glory! We shine His light! We are valuable – as containers. The treasure inside is priceless!

That’s why the Bible says the Lord didn’t choose many mighty or noble or wise people… (anyone else qualify ?). But it says He chose the lowly and weak, the humble, the despised, the ordinary.

So  they said to Paul…”Give up! Stop trying to make a difference! You’re RUBBISH! You’re weak, ugly and unimpressive, you’re a rubbish preacher, too ordinary, not clever, you didn’t go to the right schools to learn the rhetoric, you’re too old…”

He said, “I know, I know, I’ve gone to pot.” (groan!)

But there’s treasure in the pot.

And when Jesus came looking for containers of his glory and messengers for his message he didn’t chose the brightest, the bestest and the beautifullest!

He bypassed people who thought  they were wisest and wonderfullest; the kings and religious experts, powerful politicians and everyone who was so impressed with themselves. He called peasants, prostitutes and fishermen, tax collectors and so on – clay pots – who knew they were empty – to be filled with him and go for him and do what he wanted to do and what he would do if he was there, because where they went, HE IS!

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Mar 06 2011
Bible, Christianity, Church, Father God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, wisdom

Ecclesiastes 5: Motor Mouth.

Kris Tucker at Ivy Mcr.
This forms our grow group notes for this week:

‘I will let my words be few…’

Read Ecclesiastes 5:1-7

Some of us love silence. Others can’t wait to fill it with something.
which are you?!

Kris shared a time when he went to the beach to get really quiet, but there was no way he could get quiet inside. Even when we are in silence- do we wait ‘long enough to hear the silence itself.’

Mother Teresa: ‘God is the friend of silence.’
Are you? How do you get on with silence? Do you see it as a friend?
Have a time of silence… Then discuss!

God said to Kris: ‘Your worship is one style – you come to me with lots of words.’
This passage tells us, there is a time for silence. How do we make time for silence in busy lives?

Kris then showed us a video clip from The Blue Planet- about a Blue Whale. Watch something like that, (link below) then put your hand over your mouth, and silently stand in awe of your God!

http://m.youtube.com:80/?client=mv-vf-uk#/watch?xl=xl_blazer&v=1fzT6ifrhL8

We then sat in silence for a loooong time.

And later – after the some people shared a word of encouragement,

…eventually!

Don’t be rash with your words. Don’t be too hasty to speak.

Prayer point:
We are going on a six week journey to hear God at Gorton monastery. It is an awe inspiring place. Kris talked about when he went & visited & sensed that in that different place, in a different way, God will speak to us about our future. Discuss how you feel about this as a group- how will you get there? Encourage each other.

Please be there, every week you can, give a lift if you can, let’s be there as a community as we get to listen to God. In the meantime, pray hard about it – and let your words be few.

Suggestion for this week: let’s practice the silent treatment for the first few minutes of the day, and listen to God before we even speak to him or anyone else.

He is ‘the one we must fear.’ Revere him, he is awesome, so be inspired, and he is singing a song over your life – but how will we know what He is singing, if we don’t get silent & listen.

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May 14 2010
Bible, Christianity, Father God, Jesus, Uncategorized, wisdom

Soil test

I’m no gardener. No interest in it. Left to myself, I’d leave it to itself. Weeds everywhere. Some weeds look good.

That’s why I always feel unqualified to comment on Jesus’ farming metaphors, even though I’ve lived in rural areas, none of that green thumbedness ever rubbed off. In fact I like to keep my thumbs clean. But I don’t think Jesus was trying to teach us to be good gardeners or organic farmers. He wanted us to check our hearts, not our sheds. You know this story I’m sure:

“What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams. Are you listening to this? Really listening?

The question is, What kind of soil are you? The seed’s always good, it’ll do its work, but what really matters is where it lands.

Let’s look at some soils…soil tests measure fertility

1)      HARD – unreceptive. The seed is wasted, but the farmer is generous enough to be thought wasteful. Some people are hard soil. It seems  they give no attention to the gospel at all.  They don’t even hear what they’re told about God. resistant, they want nothing to do with God and his kingdom. I’ve met some people who seem like hard soil, but percentage wise it’s very few actually. Sometimes people who seem like hard soil are just trying to pretend. Like Saul did, he even persecuted Christians – no Christians were going to get near enough to put any seeds his way – but when Jesus sovereignly revealed himself in a vision he said, “It’s hard FOR YOU to kick against the goads.” Something was going on inside this toughest of hard cases all along, and God knew that… he can work with hard soil.

2)      SHALLOW – there are people who seem to get the message at first, it makes them happy. But they just added ‘God loves me’ on top of their lives rather than letting the reality of a relationship with the Supreme One change anything deeper inside. Because there is no real depth (no real repentance?), there’s no true commitment – the soil is shallow. Maybe they were not told to count the cost, and when the heat of persecution comes, or even when the troubles of an ordinary life in a fallen world continue, they respond by shrinking back.  Blaming God even. they though the gospel was just a comfort blanket they needed – something to make life feel better for a while). They give up on the choice they seemed to have made – like someone joining the gym at new year, and go looking for a different kind of hope to make life easier for a while.

3)      THORNY. Agriculturalists measure the soil for ‘contaminants.’ I’ve been excited to meet people who quickly receives good news when it’s preached, maybe at a hard time of their lives when drowning in despair they reach out to grab salvation’s passing lifeline – but they’re more interested in getting on a luxury liner than manning a lifeboat to help others out. Jesus talks about the riches of this world, and the worries that accompany such things. You can’t have one without the other. Weeds of worry  and desire for finer things in this life choke out what the seed was trying to produce. Striving for more of what will end up as somebody else’s antiques or junk ensures that no lasting fruit is borne.  The commitment is to a life of comfort more than a life of service – saying and singing all the right things about Jesus, but in the end it’s their own desires that rule their lives.

4)      GOOD SOIL – is productive! You can’t tell by looking at ‘soil’ what it will end up like. thats’ why teh seed goes everywhere. But eventually you can tell because good soil will produce fruit. And Jesus is optimistic about that soil – he says it’ll produce thirty, sixty or onehundrefold! All that potential placed in the seed, just waiting for the right soil.

So, perhaps a quarter of people have no interest. Half of those who seem to accept the message fizzle out and bear no fruit. Pretty depressing statistics!

Churches often try to appeal to the bad soil and keep them happy, trying to tell them that following Jesus really requires little effort or sacrifice – just come once a week if you’re not too busy and have fun. Be passive not active, we don’t expect fruit, just sit there like good soil…

How often do we hear the common complaint that twenty percent of the people do eighty per cent of the work, give eighty per cent of money the money and so on. Re-read this parable and you know why! It wouldn’t surprise Jesus.  There’s a lot of bad soil around.  Consumer Christians, educated beyond the level of obedience.

How much of a Christian does your church require you to be?

We’ve not done well with this. Don’t a lot of our programmes and so on say, ‘You can be totally uncommitted to the cause of Jesus and his kingdom, distracted by focusing on the accumulation of stuff, and we’d still love you to be a member here?”

Who’s responsible for bearing fruit? YOU ARE.

You’re accountable. Are you good soil or bad soil? I don’t know, but time will tell – and eternity will keep on telling. Life is like a coin; you can spend it any way you like, but you only spend it once.

Most of us would be very pleased with a 10% Return on Investment. 20% is great! Jesus says if you’re good soil you will bear fruit at either 3000%, 6000% or 10,000%. That’s a lot of fruit! He says, “Abide in me and produce much fruit.”  This is an enterprise worth investing in! I want to invest myself in people who want to bear fruit!

Jesus never forced himself on the disinterested. He never altered his call or message to suit the hearer.  Read the account of the rich young ruler in Mark 10:  This guy would fit the bill for the ideal church member! And Jesus loved him, but didn’t chase him.

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