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Josh

So here Paul is writing that there are good and bad values within us all, and that we must learn to keep the good and get rid of the bad. Then we would be ‘made holy and become useful to the master, prepared to do any good work.’

But then Romans 9 says
Romans 9:21 NIV84 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?

The words used, noble and common use are the exact same words used in the verse in 2 Timothy. So in one context it says that we are to purge these ‘ignoble’ values out of our lives. But then in another it shows that God has and will use his authority to make some things for noble purposes and some for ignoble.

What this just says to me even stronger than I have already learnt is that there is a lot more purpose behind our weaknesses than we think. I think we do just put sin in a box, that God has purposed us to live holy lives, but the fact is he hasn’t! Yes we are to work towards holiness but realistically we will never get there, and God brings much goodness out of the struggles and battles we face all the time.

Paul kind of explains it in the next verse:

Romans 9:22-23 NIV84 What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath–prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory?

So he is patient with the objects of his wrath, our sins and mistakes, so they may become the objects of his mercy. Without out failings we would never experience Gods mercy. And it is God who makes known the riches of his glory to us, the objects of his mercy. This is the age old message of him higher, us lower. Mercy does not elevate us, it elevates God above us. Grace elevates us to experience the likeness of God, but mercy elevates God to allow us the experience the effects of mercy and grace.

Its like when we are reaching out to non believers, we wait for the opportunity for when they would offend us or abuse us, and instead of fighting back we show them grace. Through that they witness the biggest revelation ever and it challenges them morally. That is a picture of mercy and is exactly what God does to us.

We expect to receive his wrath, but instead we find his mercy at work in our lives. Similarly people expect wrath from us when we are abused or persecuted, but mercy must be there for them to see Christ in us.

So really the whole point of this thought is that there is a lot more purpose to our sins and mistakes than we think. God destined us to be sinners, our mistakes are intertwined with our destiny and God knows every one of them! So yes lets live for holiness, but know that if we don’t get there then it is not a failure, but just part of our lives.

Have you ever wandered why you always struggle with a certain thing? Perhaps that is an inoble item God has placed in your heart for a greater purpose…

“Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists. Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him”

I have always found this passage quite bizarre, I thought it strange to see how much detail there is in it. But in reading it tonight, I can relate it to how God rescues us from situations, from temptations and trials. The first thing to note is angelic intervention. As I have already learnt, angels play a much bigger role in our daily lives than we think. They guide us into directions full of life and away from death.

1) Rousing

The angel struck Peter to wake him up. Often when we have fallen spiritually asleep, it takes an angel in our lives to slap us in the face with a situation. They need to wake us up from our slumber and complacency. I can’t tell you how many times I have witnessed angelic intervention when walking towards areas of sin. It makes you look at yourself and where you are.

2) Response

It is not 100% God’s effort to rescue us though, we have to do our part. We must respond and obey the command we have been given. The angel told Peter to get up, and he did. Imagine if he had never gotten up though, imagine if he was too lazy or too complacent to follow it through! Even though I have witnessed these events in my life, unfortunately I have very frequently ignored them in a sense of curiosity about what would come about. The thing is, I don’t think God is in the habit of repeating himself and nagging, if we dont listen and heed his intervention the first time, often there is rarely the second.

3) Release

The Bible says that if we resist the devil, he will flee from us. This part of the story is exactly that. Once we commit our actions to God, choose to respond to Him, we make it clear that God is our master and the devil is definately not. Notice how it requires response first, Peter didn’t say “I can’t stand up because of my chains”, he got up regardless and then the chains fell off. We will find release after our response.

4) Reinstitution

Once Peter had got up, the angel gave two more commands, to put on his clothes and sandals, and to wrap his cloak around himself. This is the angel reinstating Peter practically and psychologically. The clothes and sandals were to make him warm and comfortable, when rescuing us God will reinstate our human values of peace, joy and comfort. Practical values to make us feel better and restored. Secondly he asked him to put on the cloak, which showed he was no longer a prisoner, since only important people would wear cloaks. God also reinstates us spiritually, letting us know that we are forgiven, restored and righteous in his sight.

5) Realization

Peter was instructed to follow the angel and that is what he did, he followed him out of the prison. We follow God through our Spirit in our nature, not our conscious minds. We must be nature led, not will power led. What gives this away is the fact that Peter didn’t even realise it was going on, not because he was sleep walking but because he was leading/following out of nature. When we do this we don’t even recognise the change in ourselves until well after, because we just naturally follow the way of the spirit. It is our task therefore to invest in our spiritual nature, feeding and growing it.

6) Rock

We may know we are out of the prison of temptation and sin, but we are not free yet. If we don’t get far enough away we will end up back in there. We may be looking at the issue like a pair of giant iron gates like Peter did, “How on earth am I going to get past them”? The gates represent the powers of the kingdom of sin and darkness. Its amazing how when Jesus renamed Peter, he told him that he would build his church on him (the rock) and the gates of Hades would not overcome it. I think this was a subtle hint to this story, the gates were Peters final obstacle in getting free from prison, much like the powers of darkness are our obstacle from getting free from sin. Blessed that we are though since we have Jesus with us who commands all authority. So much so that the gates did not open with a kick, a push or a word, they just opened by themselves! Out of authority…

7) Reflection

The angel walked with Peter for one street length before departing him. This was to ensure safety, to make sure no one pursued him and that he didn’t end up going back. With God, the last thing he wants is for us to go back into that sin prison. So after every rescue there is a reflection period, something that we learn or grow in that would stop us from going back. God still journeys with us in the ‘theme’ of that weakness until we have obtained all that we need to know from it.

The reason I ask is because it is death which is crucial to understanding how God did it, and where we stand in the never ending conflict of Creation vs Evolution. You see evolution is based on the idea of death, its the very foundation. Through the process of death and natural selection species are shown to evolve as they adapt to their environment.
Yet as Christians we believe in the Bible, and the Bible says that death came into the world through sin (Romans 5:12)

Therefore the processes evolution relies on didn’t exist before the fall (when Adam and Eve sinned)
This we guesstimate from the Bible to be about 4000 BC, so around 6000 years ago.

So therefre the idea that death could have been in the Garden of Eden before this time is obviously a flaw to this belief.
Romans 5:12 says that through Adam, sin came to all men. So perhaps there was death in the animal kingdom, but humans lived on?
But then we read in Romans 8 about creation groaning under the curse of sin. So the death that we see in the animal kingdom is a result of sin, which started after the fall.

Also in Genesis 1:30 it says that God gave every animal green plants for food. So this really shows that there was no death, no carnivores or predators, just animals eating plants.

This then is also how Adam and Eve knew about death, through observance of the plants around them. Animals and even themselves would eat of the garden and so obviously those plants would die as they were digested.

OK so no worries there then….I still have my faith in a young earth!
But what do you think?

But I read Romans 11:28-29 and saw something different:
“As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable”

Here you can see that Paul makes a distinction between the gospel and election. In light of one, Israel is an enemy, yet in light of the other, they are loved. This does not really sit tight with what is held about election, since the common thought is that the gospel and election are very similar, if not the same thing. If you believe the gospel then you are elected, or the elect belong to the gospel.

Yet how come Paul makes a point about them being different?
Because election is more than just salvation.

Look up the word election in the greek and you will find it says,
“the act of God’s free will by which before the foundation of the world he decreed his blessings to certain persons”

You see election is more than just salvation, but gifts, calling and blessings too. In fact it is every way that God can choose us in life.
In the verse above it shows that Israel are loved in light of their election, why? Because they are descendants of the patriarchs and so carry the irrevocable gifts and calling. They are loved because God has chosen/elected them to fulfill their inherited calling with their inherited gifts.

2 Peter 1:10 says “Therefore brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure”
So even Peter has the same idea, that election is not just about salvation but the life’s calling of each individual.

Anyway, just a thought….

Im sure we can all think of the times when we are asking God for things, and yet we are thinking… “Should I just be in faith for it?”. And so really there is a difference between prayer and faith, where prayer is us asking and pleading for God to do something, and faith is decaring that he will!

So which is greater then? Which should we adopt when encountering situations that test us? What should we do when praying for the best?

As I was talking about this with a friend of mine, God really showed me something, and it was built upon what I had previously learnt and blogged about.
I wrote a blog a short while back called “faith first, devotion second” about the phases that David went through when encountering tough situations.
What God taught me was a more detailed version of that.

As David experienced many tough times, when people were trying to kill him, namely Saul, he went through various phases of prayer.

At times he was in full FAITH that God would deliver him and smash all his enemies.
Other times he just REQUESTED God to rescue him, pleading humbly with Him.
At some points he was just DEDICATED to give it up for God, realising his death was just one step away.

David went through 3 phase prayer, starting off faithful, then requesting of God, until finally just being so ready to give up his life.

We go through these phases too, which is shown in 1 Cor 13:13 “And now these 3 remain, faith, hope and love”
Our prayer life for things should aways start off in FAITH, expecting for God to bring about the best.
If not, we should remain HOPEFUL and keep praying and persevering.
Finally out of our LOVE for God, we should accept our situation and be willing to sacrifice for God.

There comes those times where we have to face reality and accept whatever God is doing in our lives. In those moments it is foolish to be in faith for an immediate rescue, but rather to be in faith that God will pull you through!

So in answer to my initial question, “Which is greater, prayer or faith?”, the answer is neither. Because the second half of 1 Cor 13:13 says “But the greatest of these is LOVE”
What is most important is remaining committed to God. The rest depends on which phase you are in…

Certainly the message you get from reading 1 John is the message of love. He won’t stop talking about it, Gods love, our love and the love Jesus walked in everyday.
It seems to be his life message, his calling to share, his purpose in life.

And yet what I find most interesting is that John was the disciple that ‘Jesus loved’. You see it?
That Jesus showed much love to John, and it is love that John cant stop talking about.

Johns identity reflected his relationship with Christ. He had a ‘loving’ relationship, and so had a ‘loving’ purpose.

What goes in must come out!

Whatever your relationship with God is, will be reflected in your life. Your relationship becomes your identity.
However you relate to God and what God does in your life will define how you relate to others and what your purpose is in life.

Abraham was a Traveller and God appeared to him as 3 travellers.
Jacob had a wrestling spirit and God appeared to him as a wrestler.
Moses was a curious person and God appeared to him through wonderous things.

So whether you have questions about your identity or your intimacy…look at the other.

Both Peter and James use this phrase, in almost exactly them same words. The reason I was reading this verse is because I am going to be preaching in my church in the evening soon. This was part of the scripture I was given to talk from.

I suppose many would assume that the love it talks about is Christ’s love, since only his love through dying on the cross could atone for sin. Whilst in general it may be this, however I believe there is  more practical, useful truth to be learned from this verse.

You see it says “multitude”. When Christ died did he not die for all sins? Maybe its just referring to the sins of those who would believe in him and have their sins forgiven. But what got me thinking, was what if the ” love” is our love?
What if our love can “cover a multitude of sins”. “Surely not” you say, “We are not God!”. When Christ died he dealt with sin once and for all, he brought death to them so they no longer exist. He did not just “cover them up!”.

The truth I believe we can get from this verse, is that our love, our compassion for others and acts of kindness “cover” the sins in our lives. I do not mean they deal with them, or pay for them like we are Roman Catholics, but rather they are covered from sight.
After we have messed up, sinned before God and rejected his word, often the only way we can move on is to love. When we love we focus our attention on others, not ourselves and so we no longer see our sins.

Loving others help us move on from our sin, it helps us forgive ourselves and get peace of mind. For me personally, this is a very real truth. I have noticed a pattern in my life over the last few months, that whenever I have messed up, God has seemed to bless me, or give me an opportunity to glorify him. I thought it was odd, because I thought bad things followed sin, not the opposite. But very often, almost predictably, God would give me an opportunity to love him and others right after I have messed up!

This I know was God encouraging me and spurring me on. Pointing me in the right direction, helping me to my spiritual feet and giving me the hope to endure. And so whenever I followed God in that I quickly forgot about my sin, my heart was restored to peace and my conscience was clear. How great is God!

When thinking about it all, it all made sense really. Since God is giving us the opportunity to love after we mess up, He knows that his love is flowing through us and into the people around us. In the process of his love flowing through us, He heals and restores our soul on the way. We cannot help but feel restored when the love of God is flowing through us into others.

So if you are struggling to get over your mistakes, your sins and trespasses, divert your attention to others. Start to love other people and let the glorious love of God restore you as it flows through you.

God bless!

Often I will be reading the Bible and will suddenly stop at a verse, one that usually catches my attention or intrigues me. I can usually tell if God wants to teach me something from it and so I stop and think about it. This verse was one of those.
In this passage Jesus is talking about the John the Baptist, about his fulfillment of the prophecy in the Old Testament. In Malachi it prophesies the coming of John the Baptist as through the Spirit of Elijah.

Malachi 4:5 “See I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children…”

Notice how in Luke 1:17 it confirms this fulfillment in the life of John the Baptist
“And he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children…”
So we can definitely see that this prophecy is fulfilled in John the Baptist, and so clearly this is what Jesus is stating to his followers.

But what I find intriguing is the way Jesus says it. He does not state this as a definite fact, but rather makes it dependable upon the acceptance of the people.
He is saying that they choose whether John is the fulfillment or not, that there is no absolute truth. To those who do accept him, he is the fulfillment of the prophecy, and to those who don’t, he is not. And it is not just their opinion of him, it is almost as if their opinion changes the reality of his identity.
What is in their minds and hearts becomes real and truthful in their lives.

That’s why in John where the Pharisees question John the Baptist about his identity, he tells them he is not a prophet or Elijah. This would seem to contradict what Jesus was saying because he hinted to these things. However it does not contradict when looking at who they were talking to.

John 1:21 “They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah? He said, “I am not”.
“Are you the prophet?” He answered “No”

John was not lying to the Pharisees, because in their minds he was not Elijah or the prophet. Nothing he could have said would have changed that. The Pharisees did not accept him, and so John was not the fulfillment of the prophecy to them.
In verse 28 it says that their conversation took place in Bethany, on the other side of the Jordan. Looking back to the book of Joshua you can see that the Jordan is the boundary to the promised land, and so also represents the line of salvation. So these Pharisees were on the wrong side, they were on the unbelieving side and so had a different reality to those on the other side.
However Jesus was talking to his followers in the towns of Galilee, people who believed in both him and John. Their acceptance meant that John was the fulfillment of the prophecy to them. See how the two different opinions created two different realities.

This idea is also true with Christ. We say that He died for everyone, but only everyone who believes. The fact is, if you believe in Christ, then the reality is He died for you. If you do not believe in Christ then the reality is He did not die for you. Our acceptance and belief creates a totally different reality.
The fact that Christ died is an absolute truth, yet whether he died for you is dependable on what you accept.

So I feel we must ask ourselves, are we limiting what God is doing in our lives by what we refuse to accept?
The reality of our lives starts with what we believe and embrace, the reality we live in comes from the belief of our heart.