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Forgiveness and Mercy and Yom Kippur

FORGIVENESS AND MERCY AND YOM KIPPUR

John the Baptist was the messenger that had been sent by God to prepare the way before Jesus, preaching repentance and the forgiveness of sins that would come through Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world 
Luke 7:29 When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, and were baptized with the baptism of John, but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.

One of those Pharisees who had rejected the teaching of John the Baptist that day afterwards invited Jesus to his house for a meal where there were many guests, and among them was a woman of ‘the city’ who was one of those who had repented and been baptised along with some of the other guests. Such dinners of hospitality were often open and public for the Jewish community with both local and regional guests and where many topics of the day were discussed.

Luke 7:36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”
“A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

The Pharisee that had invited Jesus to his house and many of the company that were there would have rejected the call to repentance and the offer of baptism from John and there would have been an awkward division in spirit between those who had accepted John’s teaching about Jesus and those who had scorned it. Nonetheless because of the growing reputation of Jesus as a prophet and a teacher, as well as the reports of his working of signs and wonders there was due respect given to him by the host and by other guests that were there.
When the woman began to wash and anoint the feet of Jesus the Pharisee whose name was Simon said to himself, either by muttering or just by thinking silently, that Jesus’ behaviour was scandalous, and as the host, he was aware of the other guests who were also looking askance at the spectacle. Whether or not Jesus heard Simon mutter or whether he simply perceived the obvious disapproval in his spirit it does not say. Jesus broke in on the awkward moment with a tantalizing hypothetical for Simon about two people having debts cancelled, with one debt ten times larger than the other and asking Simon which debtor would have the greatest love for the moneylender. 

Simon was compelled by logic to give the correct answer and Jesus uses the situation contrasting Simon’s lack of courtesy and honour to Jesus as his guest by ignoring him, compared to the sinful woman’s extravagant act of loving appreciation and gratitude. 
The woman continued to wash and anoint the feet of Jesus with an outpouring of gratitude and love that were sentiments born out of her transformed soul. Her extravagance in honouring Jesus with such a greeting of love outshone the Pharisee’s unceremonious welcome to Jesus as his guest and she was able to now acknowledge Jesus as the forgiving Messiah God that John had proclaimed him to be. 
Some guests asked the question who is it that can forgive sins because only God can do that’, but Jesus then brings home his point that the women who had sinned so much and who was forgiven so much had also loved so very much in return. 
The woman is traditionally believed to be Mary Magdalene because in the verses directly following the above account, Mary Magdalene who had seven demons cast out from her is mentioned along with two other prominent women in the community who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities and they as well as others provided for Jesus and his disciples out of their means.

In this outstanding story of contrasts, we see the extremes of utter sinfulness and utter forgiveness which are only possible in the expansive love and mercy of God. And in this mighty comparison we have the major point of the story which is that God has always desired oneness with us as his sinful creation, and yet sin has separated us from him. 
But sin has not separated him from us. He pursues us relentlessly into our repentance and faith because forgiveness and mercy are always on God’s mind and heart. Jesus lived forgiving and he died forgiving - Forgive them father for they know not what they do.

From the moment Mankind first sinned it was God’s loving and determined intention to make us aware of his forgiveness for our sinfulness. Our yes to that resolute appeal is our repentance. Sinfulness was Mankind’s wilful self-determination to pursue its own self-interest, expressing its independent mindset of separation from God. 
God formalised his commitment to bridge the gap of separation that sin had caused between humanity and himself by making a Covenant of partnership between himself and the nation of Israel, and Israel became the test case for all of humanity. 
The Old Covenant was all about sin and forgiveness through a ritualised structure of blood sacrifice being made as an offering for their sins, and instruction in wisdom and righteousness being given to them though the Law so that they would know explicitly what sin was because of the Commandments that they had to obey, but never could and never did. That Covenant also offered many blessings for obedience and a Promised Land for an inheritance.

This arrangement was as close that God could get to bridging the gap that sin had caused. It was not perfect because it was only in the strength of the human will that people could try to stay in line with what God had commanded, and no one could ever manage to stay in alignment with God’s requirements.
But day after day sins were committed and day after day the sacrifices were offered, and day after day sins were forgiven. this went on for fifteen hundred years. Many were able to draw close to God over that time, but no one throughout that time could ever achieve the oneness with God that was his eternal purpose.
The day after day sacrifices were offered to obtain forgiveness for explicitly known sins but there was another kind of unclassified sin called ‘unintentional sin’ and this also marred the conscience because people knew they were falling short and were not sure of what sacrifice brought them forgiveness. This kind of sin required not so much forgiveness but mercy and such was the mercy of God that he instituted a special day once a year called the Day of Atonement for the cleansing of all the unintentional sins of all of Israel. (Hebrews 9:7 the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people)
Unintentional – agnoema – shortcoming - error. a sin of ignorance or thoughtlessness.

These sins were offered up by the High priest on behalf of all of Israel and the blood of the sacrifice was offered with the sprinkling of blood seven times on the mercy seat upon the Ark of the Covenant (Leviticus 16), ‘seven times’ speaking of the fulness of mercy on offer from God. ‘Seven times’ is also a Biblical code for events that occur in the end time fullness of time and Jesus told Peter to forgive seventy times seven times, so forgiveness and mercy are both to be an emphasis in God’s end times purposes. 
That was the greatest day in their year (Yom Kippur) and it speaks to us not only of the abundance of God’s mercy upon their ‘sins of ignorance’ but it speaks to us of God’s mercy upon us today where we unwittingly keep falling short while intending to be faithful. It shows God’s eternal purpose for us as his children to know oneness with him through our faith in Jesus who is our atonement (however you wish to pronounce it). 

The new Covenant tells us that the Law is now written on our hearts, so the Holy Spirit can now clearly show us what sin is and reveal how great God’s forgiveness is and to turn our hearts away from sin and turn our hearts towards God (repentance). We do not have to offer sacrifices all the time because of the one sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary.
The New Covenant also tells us that our sins and our iniquities he will remember no more! It also tells us that he will have mercy on all of our unintentional sins of ignorance, our constant falling short that puts us out of alignment with his perfection. Our Day of Atonement is all day every day. We still have sin within us in our humanity and God still closes the gap of separation by giving us the bridge of forgiveness and mercy. We often walk across the footpath of the bridge of forgiveness with a heart of repentance, but we mostly move along a moving footway of mercy for our unintentional sins. We all need that moving footway all the time and we all need to be consciously aware of its gracious provision all the time.

So this story about Mary Magdalene had to be extravagant and emotional because it is a story of God’s most determined intention for our lives, that we are at one with him and with peace in our hearts. Only by knowing this inner peace can we possibly love him back, and Jesus sealed that reality for Mary by telling her that her faith had saved her and that she could go in peace – the peace of oneness with Jesus. 
So if you feel at any time that you need to be closer to God than you are, remember God’s bridge of determined love for us. It is still about sin and forgiveness and mercy but it is God’s bridge, and it is for us to move confidently across this bridge of his grace into his Kingdom life where all things are made new.

Water into Wine

WATER INTO WINE 

The first miracle believed to be performed by Jesus is the changing of the water into wine at the wedding at Cana in Galilee. Mary the mother of Jesus is an invited guest, and it is held that Mary and Jesus were actually present as family, along with other relatives and friends and some disciples of Jesus. This is supposed because Mary the mother of Jesus takes a very close familial role of responsibility in noticing that the guests were running out of wine and sees herself as being in the place to give orders to the servants, as it is the place of family to attend to the needs of the guests for the bride and bridegroom and their parents.

John starts his account of the events at the wedding by saying ‘On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there (John2:1), which prompts us to go back and read what had been happening on the first and second day of whatever Jesus had been doing. It states in chapter one that John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus who had been baptizing people in the Jordan River and telling people that there was One coming that was greater than himself then saw Jesus coming towards him and proclaimed him as ‘The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world’. 
This was the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus, so this is what happened on the first day. Two of John the Baptist’s disciples asked Jesus on that first day if they could now become his disciples instead of John’s and Jesus tells them to follow him. Andrew is mentioned and he goes to get his brother Simon Peter who also becomes his disciple that day.
We then read in verse 43 ‘The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee’ and we take this as the second day. He found Philip there and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Then Philip found Nathanael. That second day was about Jesus gathering disciples.
The next day would have been the third day where the next verse starts in John Chapter two with the story of the wedding feast in Cana where Jesus and his new disciples are guests. 

John 2:1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until last.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
This miracle is the first of what are believed to be the seven ‘signs’ of the coming of the Kingdom of God through Jesus in John’s Gospel. The other six signs are said to include three major healings, the miraculous feeding of the five thousand, Jesus walking on the water, and the raising of Lazarus from the dead. (John 4:54) (John 5:18) (John 6:1-14) (John 6:28) (John 9:16) (John 12:18).

The word for ‘sign’ in the original language is semeion. A sign is a supernatural event just like a miracle (dynamis), but a sign is also a ‘signpost’ pointing to the coming of the Kingdom of God with the mighty and dramatic change that comes to humanity when the divine being of God is joined to his created being of humanity through Jesus. This is the Father’s gift of the Holy Spirit into his Kingdom, through his Son. 
Mary had told Jesus that they had run out of wine for the guests and Jesus was taken aback by her pointed remark which implied that he had the power to miraculously change the situation, and he commented that this didn’t have anything to do with him, because his hour had not yet come. Mary seems to disregard his comment and tells the servants to “Do whatever he tells you.” The Bible then relates how Jesus goes into action and tells the servants to fill six stone jars with water. 
The Master of Ceremonies then tasted the excellent miraculous wine and makes the legendary statement to the bridegroom “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until last.”
There were six stone jars at the entrance of the house and these were for the religious ritual purification of the washing of each person’s hands and feet as they entered. 
The number six symbolises our fallen human nature - Mankind was created on the sixth day of creation and the water represents the waters of chaos with creation beginning with the Spirit of God hovering above the waters 
Genesis 1:2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep (thom - an abyss as a chaos of surging mass of water) and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The water speaks of the disorder of our natural human life which waits to be creatively touched by the Spirit of God. The water in the six stone jars being changed into wine symbolises an inner supernatural transformation where we become a New Creation, being made one in spirit with God. The water does not cease to exist but it becomes transformed into a new creation reality.

On this occasion, Jesus did what his mother asked him, but the Bible says that Jesus did nothing unless he was told by his Father to do it. Jesus would have understood  that his mother had been told by his Father what he was to do (Mary had indeed heard from Father God on many occasions before this).
This speaks to us not only of a family occasion at a wedding, but it speaks of Father ‘s family plan for humanity on earth which is that through Jesus, mankind was destined to dwell with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for all time. 
The Family in Heaven always was a family that lived with one another and for one another as one. Theirs is the perfect state of relationship and that was forsaken by Adam and Eve for all of humanity when they believed Satan who charged God with being self-interested and not perfectly loving to us. Jesus has reversed this lie into the truth of God’s perfect and inclusive love for us.
1John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one.
We are now part of the three in one God Family and we share their life and being and purpose and meaning. Jesus had explained to his disciples shortly before his death and resurrection that their lives would forever be intermingled with himself and his Father and the Holy Spirit.
John 14:20 In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. 26. And the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things.
John has been unfolding the Kingdom truth in this story that Jesus would be the one who contains the Father and the holy Spirit within his earthly being and so he is 
central to our being included in the Trinity because while being fully God, he took upon himself and into himself our human nature with all of its limitations, as we see in the following Scripture
Colossians 2:9 For in Christ the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.
Jesus is the one who causes us to know that the love the Father has for us is the same as the love that the Father shares fully with Jesus himself. Jesus was also the one through whom he sent the holy Spirit, and it is to Jesus that we continually pray to be filled with his Spirit. John the Baptist had just previously said ‘I baptise with water but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit’ and this supernatural act of God of the water being transformed into wine within us is the intermingling and the flow of God’s life in us and though us. 

We are fulfilled in our lives when we go with that flow and do not resist it and then we become like it and reflect it and all the while we try to observe what is in us that is resisting it. We can now have faith that this flow of life is acting towards us, and as we yield to this flow of God’s life it empowers and heals wherever it touches us, in spirit soul and body. Belonging to the Heavenly family of God through Jesus becomes the realm or sphere in which we now live towards his human family in the earth. It is Jesus himself, who is the Lord of peace, who is to be present and ruling in our midst.
Ephesians 1:4 This was the way God planned it before he even created the world, choosing the destiny of us as humanity being joined to divinity in Jesus, complete and innocent and unashamed of who we are in our close love and intimacy with him.
The love and joy and peace of Jesus is to hold sway over every aspect of our lives, and instead of pouring out of our own weary humanity we can now invite people into this family by offering the life-giving new wine of His Spirit of grace and love to everybody around us, and always being aware of ourselves as water being mingled into wine.

 

Labourers in the Vineyard

LABOURERS IN THE VINEYARD 
Jesus spoke about the kingdom of Heaven in parables. The word parable’ comes from the two Greek words, para which means ‘alongside ‘and bole which means ‘to throw’, so a parable is an Illustration or symbol of a certain reality that is forcefully thrown down beside a known truth. It is more than just an approximate likeness of something because it mysteriously contains a higher truth and has the power when it is thrown beside a known truth to turn our thinking upside down and to make us rethink our perceptions of reality. 

Matthew 20:1 The kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

This parable throws all of our perceptions of fair work policies into disarray, not just for trade unionists but for any fair-minded person. The Kingdom of God does not seem to obey our ideas of merit-based earning or reward. That is because the parable is about the grace of God, and our conventional way of thinking does not understand God’s gifts of love and grace and mercy. God’s gifts come without anyone earning them or deserving them.

The owner of the vineyard seems fair and just in the beginning of the story and then he seems incredibly generous towards the end of the story but then he seems unfair and unjust when those who came to work early compare themselves with those who came to work late, and they complained with a whole range of emotions common to all of us like anger, self-pity, or resentment or fear.

The owner of the vineyard for some reason had a compelling need for more and more workers to come and work in his vineyard and he went out time after time till very late in the working day to get as many people into his vineyard as he could. There must have been something special apart from wages that he thought that vineyard had to offer, and he contends with the workers for them to try and accept things the way they are, and to be satisfied with what he had to offer them. 

When Jesus told this parable about everyone getting the same wages no matter what hours they were working he was teaching us to trust him and to be satisfied that, what he has to offer us is far greater than anything we think we can do to make life work the way we want it to.  

Adam and Eve had everything they needed to fulfill their lives by having God’s loving care and protection and provision and presence, with them every moment of their lives. 
But they were tempted to believe that they could be more satisfied if they went their own way, and to get something better for themselves than what God had to offer them.
They were told by the serpent that God was unfair and unjust, so they took on a mindset of separation from God’s will for themselves and they believed Satan’s lie of darkness for them.
Mankind ended up with a desperate sense of unfulfillment in the soul, but God already had a magnificent plan in place to redeem humanity and to bridge the gap of separation that their disobedience had caused and that had damaged their soul.

Father’s love responded to the desperate sense of unfulfillment in the soul of humanity by sending his Son to die on the cross and rise again for us and to plant his life in us through the holy Spirit. That inner life grows and grows according to our simple faith in believing in its power to meet that uttermost need in our life and not the self-fulfilling needs that we think are more important and that we work so hard for to achieve. 

God created us for our lives to be fulfilled by responding to his desire to draw us closer to himself and to make our lives one with his life as a new creation by simply believing and receiving his grace and love. But our old creation humanity had designed its own self-help programs of working out how to be fulfilled in life in ways that vary from person to person. Those programs are hard work for us in our emotions and confuse our value systems and our mindset and they end up failing.
That is why repentance means being changed from the old mindset of separation from God into the new creation mindset of oneness with God. And God grants this as a gift of grace rather than through our well-intentioned self-effort.

You can erase your lifelong self-help programs and be reprogramed by God’s grace instead of your effort. You simply learn to recognise the upsetting emotion that you experience when you feel that you are in reaction to the adverse things that are happening or that threaten to happen in your life. It could be anger, self-pity, or resentment or fear just like the labourers in the vineyard.
You will recognise it by the words that come out of your mouth or that you say internally to yourself. There is usually a familiar commentary as in for Anger; ‘I’m going to let everybody know I’m just not putting up with this!’ or self-pity; ‘Not again, Why me? Its just not fair!’ or fear;’ Oh no what am I going to do now?’
If you try and erase a computer program you get a message on the screen ‘are you sure you want to erase this program?‘ and you say yes and put in your password.
With God you get the same message and you say yes and the password is ‘help me Lord I need to find grace to help’ – and even though the old program keeps wanting to restart you are now on the journey and God will complete what you asked him to.

Paul summed it up in Romans 4:4 If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay and we don't call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God, his gift not your work.

When we look at how this parable speaks to us spiritually it reveals how God is continually extending his invitation of grace to all of us just as the owner of the vineyard wanted as many people as he could get into that special vineyard. God desires for everyone to receive his good news of love and grace because he sees the desperate need in every human soul to be fulfilled by the gift of his own life working within them. 

Being satisfied with what God offers us is the perfect test of surrendered faith in our Father God through Jesus, especially in times of difficulty and adversity. When we surrender in faith to God’s goodness working for us in every situation, we will find his wisdom to make the right choices for a way through that situation. As well as letting God reprogram our self-fulfillment programs there is a simple prayer we can offer as often as we can remember to. It is ‘Thank you Lord for your desire to draw me closer to you and to make me one with you in everything that happens in my life.’ 
That prayer of faith becomes God’s work and our rest. 

 

The Good Samaritan

THE GOOD SAMARITAN
Wherever Jesus walked with his disciples, crowds would follow him, and he would sometimes instruct them and sometimes pray for the people and sometimes answer their questions. On this particular occasion there were Lawyers and Pharisees in the crowd and a Lawyer asked Jesus a question.
Luke 10:25 Now, a lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”
He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind’ and your neighbor as yourself.’
Jesus said, ‘You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live.’ (IE. a fulfilled life, not just an existence!)
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus answered, “A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. By chance a priest came down that way. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to that place, looked at him and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. Then he set him on his own donkey and brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day when he departed, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said to him, ‘Take care of him. I will repay you whatever else you spend when I return.’
“Now which of these three do you think was a neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”
He said, “The one who showed mercy on him.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” 

This seems like an abrupt ending, “Go and do likewise.” as if Jesus had given a perfectly tidy answer and was ready to look at the group and say, ‘Next question?’
But what he said was a stinging blow into the conscience of each one that heard him. That story would have lived on in their minds, as it lives on in people’s minds all over the world even to this day – ‘Go and do likewise’.

Jesus had answered the question from the legal expert of ‘who is my neighbour?’ but that was not the original topic of conversation. The lawyer’s original question was ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ The lawyers and Pharisees, as well as the priests were the ones who were the custodians of the theological and ceremonial culture of Judaism at that time and they were violently resentful and resistant to the wisdom and the power of the teachings of Jesus. They were forever trying to trap him in some incorrect interpretation of the Law and the Scriptures.
Jesus often put them on the wrong foot by answering their questions with another question and on this occasion, he asked the lawyer ‘What is written in the law? How do you read it?’ and the lawyer correctly answered, that to inherit eternal life was all about loving God with your whole heart and loving your neighbour as yourself, and this is precisely what Jesus wanted to discuss, which was about love between us and God and between us and one another. That was because Jesus was teaching about God’s Kingdom of love in the earth. That love comes to us from God and is to be lived through us and to remain for all time on the earth and then from age to age in eternity. This is the inheritance of eternal life.
So Jesus told the lawyer that he had answered correctly concerning God’s eternal Kingdom love, and he told him to go and live out of that love and he would have the eternal life he was seeking. However, the lawyer did not like being given that penetrating answer, so he deflected Jesus with another question and said ‘Who is my neighbour?’

Jesus then spoke the parable of the Good Samaritan, and the story was set within the current religious and cultural customs and moral standards of Judaism of the day. 
When Jesus related how the priest first and then the Levite both ignored and even avoided having anything to do with the man who had been beaten up, that would have stung the ears of any priests and Levites who were listening, but the rest of the Jewish listeners could perhaps have been thinking ‘that poor guy could have been me!’ And they probably had an expectation that some good Jewish person, probably someone just like themselves, would come to the rescue and be applauded as being a good neighbour and be rewarded by God for their virtue.
But that didn’t happen. It was a hated and religiously despised Samaritan, a betrayer of the Jewish faith - and that would have stung everybody! That admonition from Jesus about their Jewish tribalism targeted all of their narrow wrongheadedness because Jesus was telling them that every other human being was their neighbour, even the unworthy Gentiles and the hated Samaritans. The coming Kingdom was open to everyone. The Lawyer even had to admit that the Samaritan was the one who showed mercy and therefore was the true neighbour to the poor beaten up Jewish man. 

That alone would have been offensive enough to everybody’s ears, but there was more yet to come because Jesus was talking about more than just ‘who is my neighbour?’ Jesus was talking about loving your neighbour. What the Good Samaritan did was more than being a good neighbour, he was a loving good neighbour and what he did was beyond any reasonable thing for all of them to imagine. Jesus told them that when the Samaritan traveller saw the man ‘he had compassion on him, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. Then he set him on his own donkey and brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day when he departed, he took out two denarii (two day’s wages) and gave them to the innkeeper and said to him, ‘Take care of him. I will repay you whatever else you spend when I return’.

The Good Samaritan’s virtuous act of love drew no applause from he crowd that day. The Good Samaritan simply did what he did, and no reward is mentioned for what he did other than he acted in love and compassion. Jesus was telling them, and he is telling us today that this kind of love is its own reward even when it is not appreciated. That story of the loving Good Samaritan is clearly a picture of Jesus himself who sees us beaten up by life and left by the roadside and who takes us to a safe place of rest (which the Bible says is an Inn) where we can be cared for at his expense, and who has paid the price for our full recovery till his return. 
The Inn, pandocheion is translated as ‘a place where all are received, and no one refused’.

This story is first and foremost about God’s love for us. That love never ceases, even when it gets no appreciation or applause or thanks. 
God’s Love is its own reward for God himself, as it continues irresistibly till it finds someone to receive it and then it is completed, because love yearns to be received. 
It doesn’t suit a lot of people that God’s love works that way because they have their own concept of justice about who deserves God’s love. 

This story is also about our love for one another. Jesus said in the parable that this kind of love is to be our fulfillment in life as a glimmer of the reality of God’s love for us And we can be empowered by grace to not only live IN but to live OUT that love, just as Paul testified that he was compelled by God’s love to do what he did in serving others (2Corinthians 5.14).

How do we experience that love? 
We ask God to make HIS love real to us as we sit in his presence and thankfully receive it. That love implants itself deep into our spirit and grows there through the Holy Spirit.

How can we know that we have loved with that kind of love?
We measure how we’ve loved by being willing to measure how much we haven’t loved, and then we pray for more grace to receive even more of his love. God yearns to answer that prayer, so we continually put that on top of our list with quiet assurance, because we were created to complete God’s love to us by receiving it. This is the ultimate understanding for us to have in order to be fulfilled in life on this earth. 

Our faith in God is actually our faith in his love, and that love contains all of God’s wisdom and justice and discipline and mercy and forgiveness, and his ‘no’ to us is as loving as his ‘yes’. That implanted love becomes the spiritual energy centre of our life that guides us through all circumstances and completes the goal of our salvation.

1Corinthians 13:4 Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut,
Love doesn't have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," doesn't fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn't revel when others grovel, Love takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, and always looks for the best, never looks back but keeps going to the end.
Love never dies. 
Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know truth only in part, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompleteness is cancelled.

The Sower and the Seed

THE SOWER AND THE SEED 
Today I would like to share the parable of the Sower and the seed.

Matthew 13:3 Jesus told the people many things in parables, saying, ‘A Sower went out to sow. While he sowed, some seeds fell beside the roadway, and the birds came and devoured them. But other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up because they did not have deep soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched. And because they did not take root, they withered away. Some seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. But other seeds fell into good ground and produced grain: a hundred, sixty, or thirty times as much. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.’

Jesus explained the parable of his Kingdom to his disciples, and he described the seed as the Word of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is the realm of the activity of God where he reorders everything to be aligned to his will and purpose for life on the earth through his Word. That living Word was Jesus (the Logos), who spoke the creative Word that brought the Universe into being. Jesus likens the seed that is being sown in this parable to that same living Word logos, which has the power to transform our lives when we receive this seed that is planted into our hearts.                                                                                                                               
James 1:21 … receive with meekness the implanted word (Logos), which is able to save your souls.
Paul said that he planted seed and that those that received it with faith were God’s field. He said it was a team effort - he planted the seed and Apollos watered it and God gave the increase (1Corinthians 3:6). 
The parable describes the way that farmers sowed the fields with seed. The sower was scooping seed out of a satchel that hung around his neck in front of him. He was walking on well prepared soil in a field and scattering seed as he went. There is a roadway beside the field and beside the roadway there was rocky ground in a shallow layer of soil, and between the rocky ground and the field was a deeper layer of soil that had grown random thorns and thistles. The only place where the seed can properly take root is in the good soil of the field of the hearts that are prepared to bear the life-giving grain. 
But seed will be scattered everywhere, and the seed is precious to God. Each one of us has a roadway seed challenge in life, and a rocky ground seed challenge and a thorns and thistles seed challenge. And each one of us has a prepared field challenge to accept God’s invitation to receive the life changing seed of faith and hope and blessing. 
Jesus has built redemption into every parable of the Kingdom because of the power of his resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit into our hearts and he can redeem every barren roadway seed challenge and clean up every rocky ground obstruction and uproot every thorny ground chokehold upon our faith.

Jesus explained that the seed that fell on the well-trodden roadway of the world was not able to take root in people’s hearts because the seed was snatched away by birds, which represents Satan blinding people minds and hearts from God’s love and truth. 
The roadway (hodos) also means ‘the journey’. The world has been on a journey for thousands of years with roadways and pathways of good and evil. There have been pathways of good intention and valuable discoveries and astounding humanitarian progress and achievement. There have also been roadways of ambitious greed and self-advantage and political power and corruption. Each one of us has had to tread the well-trodden paths of the world and have seen the dangers of the places where they may lead, and we have all had our own journey that started within a certain culture or religion or influence that sent us in directions that have resulted in a mixture of successes and failures.

The routine of roadways also tends to lock people into a sense of movement from the past and into the future with only a fleeting sense of the present moment, and we can wonder where the time has gone and where it is all leading. And until we stop and ask ourselves these hard questions and ponder our ways, we have little chance of allowing the seed of God’s loving future and hope to be the implanted seed that saves our souls and to not be snatched away by the devil. 
We can’t avoid being in the world, but we do not have to be of the world, with its political activism and intensely strong opinions that cause emotional distress and anxiety of the soul. We can debate issues with Godly wisdom and even hold positions of power or be skilful problem solvers in the marketplace with both feet on the ground, and still live with the assurance that our hearts and minds are planted in God’s field of life and truth. When we know who we are we know where we are. The only way we get on the right path when we’re on that roadway is when we see The light of the Holy Spirit that exposes the darkness and gives the grace to walk in faith.

Jesus also explained that the shallow, rocky soil represents the heart of a person who hears the seed word and receives it joyfully, but who hasn’t given enough attention to removing the rocks and stones of emotional obstacles in their life that have held them back from going deeper in God. In the words of Jesus, ‘he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution (diogmos – trouble and harassment) arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles’. They stumble on the rocks of conflict with other people, and these become rocks of offence, and harm the quality of relationships. They lose heart and walk away. 
With courage and encouragement, the relational rocks can be removed through reconciliation and commitment to loving relationships and the soil can settle, the seed can remain, and the roots go deeper and a humble commitment to faith and truth and love can make one stand strong in times of adversity. And today’s text  encourages us. 
‘receive with meekness the implanted word (Logos), which is able to save your souls’ (James 1:21).
Jesus goes on to describe the ground covered with thorns and thistles. ‘Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the delusion of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful’.
The choking activity of thorns in this illustration has two points of attack. The first point of attack is the ‘cares of this world’. The word for cares is ‘merimna’ and the root meaning of this word is ‘to distract and to disunite’. This speaks of the inordinate amount of time that can go into trying to control the circumstances of life that distract the soul from pursuing the deeper inner life of faith. It also speaks of the worry that fragments and fatigues the soul.  
The second point of attack is the ‘delusion of riches’. When pursuing financial gain that holds out promises of success and profit we must always factor in the need of diligence and effort and risk, and without a proper balance of these three things the success and profit turns into failure and loss. Another delusion of riches is that they are what bring happiness and fulfilment to our lives. These delusions choke off the fruitful life of the faith and love within the implanted seed.

The thorns and thistles can be uprooted and die off if we seek the Lord for wisdom in our financial priorities and if we set in order our relationship to God and to                                                                                                                                                                                      those in our care. ‘for where your treasure is there will be your heart also (Matthew 6:21)
Neither will the thorns and thistles choke off the good seed if we set our hearts to find his grace to help concerning the cares of this world. 
humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. (1Peter 5:6)

Jesus spoke simply and profoundly about preparing our hearts as the good ground. 
‘But other seeds fell into good ground and produced grain: a hundred, sixty, or thirty times as much. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.’
We can picture the sower in the field as we did before, walking on well prepared soil in a field and scattering seed as he goes. Furthest from him is the roadway and a little closer is the rocky ground and a little closer still is the slightly deeper layer of thorny soil. In from the thorny ground the soil would become richer and richer the further on in you go. Right next to the thorny ground the soil might only yield thirty-fold, and then a bit further in it would yield sixty-fold, and then a little further in where the sower was walking a hundred-fold, as the differing distances from the sower signify the different qualities of the soil.  This speaks to us of the various stages of the preparedness of our hearts to receiving the word of God, which is the logos, the living seed that contains the spiritual DNA of the life of Jesus within us. So, we get off the roadway, then we remove the rocks and stones then we dig up the thorns and thistles and then we become his field.

But note those final words of Jesus that speak to us clearly about ‘having ears to hear’.
Whenever Jesus says ‘whoever has ears to hear let him hear’ he is telling us that there is a truth that he is teaching here at a deeper level than what people are hearing. He is teaching us how to overcome the distractions and disturbances at the emotional and mental and material levels of our lives that prevent us from hearing what he is saying.
God wants to teach us how to learn his language of silence and stillness so that we will know how to hear his voice. We practice a ‘presence prayer’ attitude of receptivity and allow our usual busy emotional and mental activity to be put in brackets while we draw nearer to God and become his rich field in the deeper spiritual level of our being. And it is in this place of faith where we believe in our hearts that we are receiving into our spirit his seed of life that is changing us into his likeness.

 

 

 

Go and Sin No More

GO AND SIN NO MORE - (The power of Grace over sin)
Today we will be talking about sin, and how Jesus told a person to ‘go and sin no more’. How and why can you say that to someone?  
The answer goes back to how and when humanity lost its innocence when sin first began and how humanity can regain its innocence through the forgiveness and mercy of God through Jesus. I will discuss the fuller meaning of innocence in a few moments.
John 8:1-11 Early in the morning Jesus came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So, what do you say?” they said this to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
The scribes and Pharisees were trying to catch Jesus out. If he had said ‘yes, stone her’ they would say ‘why have you stopped preaching forgiveness and mercy?’ And if he said ‘don’t stone her’ they would say that he was preaching against the Law of Moses.
Jesus knew they had corrupt motives for their questions, so he began writing with his finger in the dirt, but they kept demanding an answer - determined to catch him out in some incorrect ruling of the Sacred Law.
The Bible does not say what Jesus was writing - some say he was writing out the Ten Commandments, but I am inclined to think he was perhaps trying to catch them out with the deeper aspect of personal sin, which is what the conscience deals with, not with the aspect of general sin which is what the Law and Commandments deal with. As they pressed him further, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” In saying this he was saying that they could stone her if they wished, so he was not compromising the Law, but he put a condition upon the stoning, and that was that whoever had a clear conscience about their own sinfulness was qualified to judge her sin. He was challenging them to judge themselves, but they had been avoiding this all their lives and preferred to stay in the shadows of their shame and guilt by judging others instead.
And when he bent down again and continued to write in the dirt they began to leave, from the oldest to the youngest. It is conceivable that he wrote their names in the dirt, and next to each one’s name the personal sin that was hidden in the darkness of their heart. The older ones left first with their heavily laden burdens of guilt and shame and the younger ones then decided to get going before the going got too tough.

Why do people cover their sin under darkness?
In Johns gospel in chapter one John talks about Jesus being ‘the light’ and that ‘men loved the darkness more than the light’. That is because darkness hides them from that intolerable light that uncovers sin and shame and guilt which are all too painful to bear. There are devious ways that darkness covers shame. One way is to cover the shame with virtuous performance. Another tactic is to falsely claim the role of victim and then shame others as perpetrators. Another way is to uncover someone else’s sin and heap shame and guilt onto them, which is what these accusers were doing, and Jesus caught them at it.
Jesus came to do more than just forgive us our sin. He came to help us turn from sin and turn towards the light and the love of God (repentance) and to live above sin by living in a loving family relationship with God, and for God, where we are not only forgiven from sin but mercifully covered from shame so that we can ‘go and sin no more’. Mercy allows light to operate.
The first sin that was ever committed caused Adam and Eve to run and hide from their shame and guilt. Their sin was their violation of trust in the divine family relationship between them and God the Father. That violation of trust in God set the pattern for all sin that we commit as human beings. That is the overriding sin of not trusting God. Sin is the activation of separation from God. 
That is the sin of unbelief – The sin whereby humanity misses the mark. This sin drives humanity into isolation from God, other people, and their innermost selves. They are ‘lost’.

Innocence
Adam and Eve were completely innocent human beings, but their innocence was untested until Satan tempted them into not trusting God. As created human beings they could be tempted, and they could choose to sin because they were of a lower order of being than God who was uncreated Being and the Bible is clear that God cannot be tempted. (James 1:13). They failed the test and they sinned and that violation of relationship with God corrupted their human spirit, and they lost their innocence. Sin causes us to lose our innocence. The word for innocent is ‘innocere’ a Latin word that means ‘to not harm’ and it also means ‘not being harmed’. They had now been harmed and they could now cause harm to themselves and others, which they did.
  
The human seed
Adam and Eve were created beings and not born from human seed, no human parents, so the human spiritual seed did not actively operate until it was passed on by Adam and Eve – DNA began doing its thing. When God rebuked Satan after he had tempted Adam and Eve into sinning, he told him that there would be enmity and conflict between the seed of his darkness and the spiritual seed of all of humanity (Genesis 3:14)
This spiritual conflict between darkness and the flawed seed of humanity would lead to ongoing temptation and sin and shame and guilt and the fragmentation of the human soul for the rest of time upon the earth. Now their damaged human seed began to live on in their offspring and spiritually reproduce and it continues to do so.
Jesus was the only other completely innocent Being to live upon the earth, and he was born from a seed, but that seed was perfect and incorrupt. Jesus was born from above by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. The human spirit of Jesus remained incorrupt and when he spoke to his disciples about the work of darkness he said, ‘Satan has no part in me’ (John 14:30). He was tempted as are all human beings, but he never sinned. He never lost his innocence. He was never separated from the loving family bond with his Father whom he lived to please before himself.

Trees and seeds
There were many trees in the Garden of Eden and the two that are mentioned were the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the Tree of Life. Those two trees produced different fruit that bore different seeds. Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil and the effect of eating from that Tree gave the human soul a distorted perception of good and evil. The soul now perceived good as being what fulfilled humanity’s desires of self-interest rather than the desire to please a loving God, and that seed has passed on to all generations.
The Bible speaks about ‘Those who call evil good, and good evil, who change darkness to light, and light into darkness’ (Isaiah 5:20)

The other tree is the Tree of Life, and that Tree bears the fruit of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. Jesus is the incorruptible seed of the Word of God – the Logos, and the Bible says that we are born again from that seed.
1Peter 1:23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God (Logos) which lives and abides forever, That seed contains our eternal life.
That is why we are able to also live out of the fruit of the Spirit – the fruit of the Tree of Life that Jesus lived, and now lives through us by the Holy Spirit. We can express that fruit in our lives though our souls - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
We can regain that place of innocence before God as his children that we were destined for through the activity of his grace upon our souls. The loss of innocence from the first sin meant we were ‘able to be harmed and able to do harm’ but regaining our innocence means we are now able to ‘be spiritually blessed and to be a spiritual blessing’.
Ephesians 1:4 He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless (innocent) before Him in love.
We can be part of the reversal of Adam and Eve’s original sin – The sin of their violation of trust in the divine family relationship between themselves and God and between one another. They began the blame game that we all know so well. Adam said to God ‘The woman you gave me made me do it, and Eve said, ‘the devil made me do it’. That violation of trust in God set the pattern for all sin that we commit as human beings, where our first parents lost their innocence and where we lose ours, but through the faith of Jesus we regain our innocence, and through our faith in Jesus we share in his divine family life without any shame or guilt or distortion of who we are. Jesus can say to us – ‘Go and sin no more’.
Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

That lady knew in her heart that she was loved and accepted into the family of God through her brother Jesus. As she drew closer to that divine family life through Jesus, she drew more and more distant from her past life – she could now choose to go and sin no more even while living under the Law, because she now saw life from a new perspective, from an experience of the love and forgiveness of God through Jesus. 
And we who are under the grace of God can moreso choose to ‘go and sin no more’ because the Bible tells us that since Jesus rose from the dead and the Holy Spirit was given to us sin does not rule over us.
Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.  -  And that is the power of Grace.          

Grace and the Zadok Priests

GRACE AND THE ZADOK PRIESTS 

Ezekiel was a unique prophet in that he was not only a major prophet, but he was a priest after the line of Zadok who descended from the high priest Aaron. Zadok also served as a high priest during the time of King David. 
The ministry of the prophet/priest Ezekiel spanned two eras of God’s dealings with Israel. The first was the era of Israel’s falling away from God which led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple of Solomon and Israel’s exile into captivity in Babylon. The next era of Ezekiel’s ministry was his account of the work of God upon Israel as the captives came back after seventy years in Babylon to the city of Jerusalem where they rebuilt the temple and repaired the city and its walls and gates. 

Ezekiel tells us that many of the Levitical priests had become unfaithful in representing God’s heart to his people and had gone after idols and become corrupt and immoral, setting a bad example to the people. God finally lifted his anointing from them and did not allow them to come near him into his holy place in the temple. He chose the Zadok clan of priests who were faithful to God’s ways and who found Grace in his presence to receive God’s heart of love and truth for his people.

Ezekiel 44.12 The Levites who were unfaithful to me when Israel went astray from me in pursuit of their idols will suffer punishment for their iniquity: Because they used to serve people in the presence of their idols they caused the community of Israel to fall into iniquity, and for that reason I swear with an oath that they will have no access to me by acting as my priests or by having access to anything I hold most sacred. They are to suffer the shame they deserve and the consequences of the shocking practices they have perpetrated. 14 I will make them responsible for duties that pertain to all the labours of the temple area and to all the work that must be done in it.
15 "But the Levitical priests who descend from Zadok, who faithfully took care of my Sanctuary when everyone else went off and left me, are going to come into my presence and serve me. They are going to carry out the priestly work of offering the devoted (heleb - the best part for dedication) sacrifices of worship that is pleasing to God. They're the only ones permitted to enter my Sanctuary. They're the only ones to approach my table and serve me, accompanying me in my work.
When they enter the inner sanctuary of the inside courtyard, they are to dress in linen. No woollens are to be worn. They're to wear linen headpieces and linen underclothes - nothing that makes them sweat. When they go out into the outside courtyard where the people gather, they must first change out of the clothes in which they do the work of priests and leave them in the sacred rooms where they change back into 
their everyday clothes, and they are to make clear to my people the knowledge of what is pure and what is tainted. In any cause or contention, they are to be in the position of judging things in harmony with my heart and my will.

Spending time with God was the first thing the Zadok priests did, unlike the other priests, who did their work each day with people and with things but without the presence of God.  How long would these Zadok priests spend in God’s presence? We do not know but it’s clear that if they took so much time to put those special robes on to be in the company of God that it would not have been a fleeting five-minute visit with God. They were responding to God’s personal invitation of communion with himself and accompanying him in his work and the effect of their time with God stayed with them.
You might wonder about the choice of a linen headpiece instead of wool. The natural reason given here is that wool causes sweat. There’s also a spiritual reason why God went to so much trouble in the detail of things like this. There are many things in the Old Testament that hide a message for us in the New Testament. The Bible says that fine linen represents the righteousness of people who believe God and want to live close to him (Revelation 19). Righteousness means having our heart in alignment with God. This linen headpiece speaks to us of having our mind upon God, and having a mind of peace and order, and not causing sweat or anxious striving.

When the Zadok priests drew near to the Holy Place to be with God and discarded their ordinary outdoor clothing, it was like leaving the things of earth behind and allowing their spirit and soul and body to be covered with the presence of God.
When they went out to meet the people, they changed their spiritual clothes for everyday clothes so that they could identify with the people.
They had been in the presence of God and so they were able to carry this presence and impart it in the way they spoke and acted amongst the people. That is the work of a priest, to bring God into people’s hearts. 

The final verse says ‘they are to make clear to my people the knowledge of what is pure and what is tainted. In any cause or contention, they are to be in the position of judging things in harmony with my heart and my will’.

The Zadok priests were given God’s wisdom in their counsel to people who asked for help and advice and prayer. They were able to hear and comprehend a person’s need and were able to help people hear what God saying to them in their situations. 
This was a type of the priestly ministry of Jesus as he spent time with his Father so that he would have his Father’s heart and mind on what to say to the people. 

Ezekiel prophesied of a New Covenant work of God that would one day come upon his people to redeem mankind from their human failure. He prophesied of the Grace that God would give them when he said, ‘a new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my ways… You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God (Ezekiel 36:26).

We are told we are a spiritual priesthood, and we can do the same as these priests in a New Covenant way and bring God into people’s hearts with simplicity and grace.
This is the same picture as us climbing the mountain of God and leaving the things of earth down below to spend time with God on his Mountain of transfiguration where we leave all our earthly cares in his hands and let his grace act upon us. We then came down the mountain prepared for that grace to work upon the needs and challenges of the day. The more time we spend silently with him knowing he is within our heart the more his presence penetrates our soul. God wants to pour his life into us in those times and the effect of that time stays with us.

God is speaking to his church in this way today. He is saying to us, ‘You are to come into the holy place which is where my heart and your heart grow closer together as one in the Spirit. You will draw near to me in that place and receive my life and you will go out from that place and give my life to others’. 

God’s Grace in a Dark World

GOD’S GRACE IN A DARK WORLD

1Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am 
When Paul made that statement, he knew that what he had become through God’s grace was God’s doing, and not his doing. He also said it was not him doing the work of God, but it was the grace of Jesus working with him. That grace was God’s activity upon his soul that empowered him to respond to God in love and the surrender of his will and to know that Jesus was working through him every moment of his life. That was his faith.
So what did Paul think he was before the grace of God took over his life?
He thought he was a top-class man of God.
Philippians 3:4 If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh (natural humanity), I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

He goes on to say in another place in Galatians 1:14 … And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles…

Before Paul found grace, he was part of the disorder and violence of a treacherous world in a dark time in history. After he found grace, he became part of God’s answer of love and light that overcame the darkness of that world. Jesus had overcome the darkness through his death and resurrection, and then he sent forth messengers of his grace. God is doing the same thing today!

We might be inclined to think that Paul’s existence was of such significance and importance for what God called him to do, that the activity of God’s grace upon us could not be anything like God’s grace upon Paul. But we would be wrong to think that, as Paul wrote to Titus concerning the grace upon all of us through Jesus. 
Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has shone upon all mankind.

Grace is the loving activity of God upon a human soul, and when we know that we can access this grace through our faith we realize that it is sufficient for each one of us to do what God has called us to do (we don’t have to feel it – just know it). Like Paul we are what we are by the grace of God, and we do what we do by the grace of God. It is grace that bring us home.
God’s grace for Paul was waiting for him from before he was born, and he writes about this eternal aspect of grace in the Bible.
Galatians 1:15 But he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles…
You also find grace in the eyes of the Lord to live the life of truth and love that you were created to live in, even before you were born, and this new life involves allowing Jesus to be the number one player in a team called you.

Paul had seen himself as a religious man of great competence and great commitment to the cause of his Jewish tradition. He served God through his own strategy and ambition, and he took great pride in his own achievements. His competitive and committed human nature had created a power base that drove him to religious success in his own eyes and in the eyes of other zealous Jews. That was Paul’s former ‘I am what I am’ – his spiritual identity. But Paul’s religion did not put God’s love or mercy in his heart or a humble and surrendered will towards God in his soul, or a oneness with Jesus in the Spirit. He had to find that grace in the eyes of the Lord Jesus on his road to Damascus. There are multitudes of people who are committed to the cause of doing things for God that have a similar zeal and passion for success like Paul did and they live out of a misplaced spiritual identity like the Saul who had to become the Paul. They have yet to find the grace of God for whatever God has planned for them. 

That misplaced spiritual identity is working in the religious fervour in a multitude of ideologies in the world today with a superabundance of commitment to self-proclaimed noble causes and virtues that have nothing to do with a commitment to a loving relationship with the living God. The religious fervour of these ideologies has found a place in the power bases of society, in sport and in the corporate world, in politics and in the media, and in education of young children and university students. These power bases are capable of punishing through fear and intimidation any citizen who does not acknowledge the virtues of these ideologies. The ideologies revolve around intense perceptions of issues that have become extreme causes such as gender identity, climate theory, racial differences, Marxist philosophy and economics and other inflated issues. For example, eaxtreme climate ideologists predict doom for the planet in a few years if all nations do not pay their dues or offer the sacrifices required for us all to survive, and an entire generation of young people has an unhealthy fear that the world will end if we do not all comply, and fear is a powerful motivation. 
There are unhealthy fears and there are also healthy fears regarding obvious dangers that we need to be warned about. God also uses fear to motivate people to change their ways, and it has its place in bringing lawless and ungodly people to their knees, but fear is not God’s first preference as a motivation even though the church has been using it throughout the centuries to get people to go to church and obey church tradition. The Gospel of grace is God’s first preference and that offers people God’s love and forgiveness and mercy and a way to live a grace filled life. 
That grace can come upon anyone in any ideological powerbase and convert them sovereignly as seen in the life of Paul. That is the Lord’s doing and I pray we will see many such miracles in the days ahead.

The world today is beset with more ‘unlove’ and bitterness and rancour than ever before. The powers of darkness are hurling chaos and disorder and lawlessness into peoples’ hearts and bringing contention and division into every aspect of our culture.
The Bible speaks of times like these regarding the kind of darkness that will exist on the earth in the end times. Nobody knows when the end times will fully come upon us, but the way things are today gives us some indication of what they will be like.
Matthew 24:9 many will be offended, and will betray one another, and will hate one another, then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
Those things abound now in the days in which we live, and in amongst the violence and corruption the most ominous aspect of life today is ‘the love of many will grow cold’.

Jude writes urgently about how ungodly people should fear God’s judgement, but he especially urges us to live out our grace filled lives as his antidote to these lawless attitudes and behaviours. 
Jude1:14. Dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ told you, that in the last times there would come these scoffers whose whole purpose in life is to enjoy themselves in every evil way imaginable. They stir up arguments; they love the evil things of the world; they do not have the Holy Spirit life.But you, dear friends, must build up your lives ever more strongly upon the foundation of our holy faith, learning to pray in the power and strength of the Holy Spirit. Stay always within the boundaries where God’s love can reach and bless you. Wait patiently for the eternal life that our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy and grace is going to give you. Try to help those who argue against you. Be merciful to those who doubt. Save some by fear, snatching them as from the very flames of hell itself, but as for others, help them to find the Lord by being gracious to them

Satan gave humanity a rule of destruction to live by – a deadly commandment if you will – that you hate one another as I have hated you, and we are living in times where there is much fear and hatred, but God’s love which casts out all fear is on the rise today through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who has given us his new Commandment – that you love one another as I have loved you. 
 Paul tells us that it was God’s love that compelled his heart to serve him and to serve the people he was sent to. He writes Whatever we do, it is certainly not for our own gain but because Christ’s love compels us. (2Corinthians 5:14).
Paul’s soul was bursting with that powerful love and he could hardly contain himself when he said, May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love; and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God himself (Ephesians 3:17-19)

Paul lived within the intense yearning of God’s heart of love for him and that intense yearning of God’s heart is for us as well. That love is jealous for us which means that it wants the best for us and does not accept any harmful second best. That yearning wants to take anything out of the way in us that could stop us from responding to his love and stop us from spreading that love to others, as the Apostle James also writes, What do you think the Scripture means when it says that the Holy Spirit, whom God has placed within us, yearns jealously for us? But he gives us more and more grace to stand against all evil desires. (James 4:5)

Israel conquered the territory of Canaan to possess the wonderful blessings of the Promised Land. We have been given the territory of the hearts of men and women to conquer with God’s love. The activity of this love upon our hearts (God’s grace), is beginning to abound and it will continue to much more abound than the evil we see abounding in this dark world as we look forward to the moving of his Spirit in the earth. The Bible says that as we press on to know the Lord he will come to us like the rain, like the latter and former rain to the earth (Hosea 6:3).
There are two kinds of rain spoken of here. One is a gentler rain (former rain) and the other is a stronger rain (latter rain). The first rain is the gentle rain of God’s loving grace that softens the hearts of men and women as they faithfully receive the understanding of God’s love. The other is the deluge of God’s sovereign outpouring of grace upon the earth which will come in due time and where people of all ages will be touched by God and suddenly transformed by his grace. Let us remain constant in prayer and compelled by God’s love that we might witness these things. 

Finding Grace to Help

FINDING GRACE TO HELP

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then draw near with confidence (parresia) to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help (boētheia) in time of need (eukairos).

I believe that Scripture summarises the experience of the previous account of the Mountain of Transfiguration where I outlined the three stages of personal transformation (transfiguration). These stages were, climbing the mountain, being on the mountain, and coming down from the mountain.

What I’d like to share about today is ‘Finding grace to help’ which is the most significant aspect of stage two, about being on top of the mountain in the presence of God.

 

That Scripture starts off by encouraging us to ‘draw near with confidence to the throne of grace’, and that summarises the first stage of the process, of climbing up the mountain.

Our drawing near is the intention of our hearts to be closer to God. This happens as we climb and as we consider the issues of our daily life down below that are now going to be given to the Lord. We approach with confidence (parrēsia – frank and outspoken - the freedom of speech as from one citizen to another), being honest with the Lord about our doubts and fears and confusion about what to do or say in certain situations. We might question him by asking ‘why is this situation happening to me? Somehow, in one way or another we always get answers to questions like that, and they can be quite amusing. The Lord has a sense of humour and helps us to laugh at ourselves sometimes.

 

And all the while as we are climbing, we are ‘receiving mercy’. We would not dare draw near to him without knowing and believing that this mercy was available to us, and we would certainly not confidently discuss our weakness and failures and doubts and lack of faith in such an open and honest manner on the climb unless we were willing to receive this mercy.

On the climb we are anticipating reaching the ‘Throne of grace’, the place from where all the divine activity of God (which is what grace is) flows into the hearts of his human family in the earth. That is the mountain top where we will ‘find grace to help’.

 

God’s grace is always there for each one of us, and mostly we don’t know it.

That Is why we have to find it!

The Bible tells us that Noah ‘found grace’ in the eyes of the Lord’.

God told Moses that he had ‘found grace in his sight’

Being in God’s sight, or in the eyes the Lord means that those men knew that God was looking upon them, his countenance was shining upon them (countenance = face = presence). When something in our hearts tells us that God is mercifully and lovingly looking upon us, we know that we have FOUND GRACE! We are no longer self-conscious but God conscious, and that is GRACE (reflect upon that now).

 

We are simply experiencing God’s loving and powerful activity toward us as his children, and sometimes it comes to us by surprise - something happens in the core of our being that brings us closer to God. That is his sovereign grace. We could be empowered by his grace activity to soften our hearts and to surrender our will to him, or to ask him to change us and to create a clean heart within us. Sometimes it comes as an anointing of the Holy Spirit to bless and serve other people with a gift of grace from God. The Bible says that through Jesus we have access by faith into this grace where we can stand and rejoice in hope for the things God will do in our lives (Romans 5:2). We can ‘find grace’ at any time!

 

The Scripture goes on to says that we find grace ‘to help’. The word ‘help’ here does not simply mean to assist or to give aid in a general way. The word is boētheia and is of a very peculiar origin. It is defined as ‘a rope or chain for frapping a vessel’, and that entails the binding of four or five turns of a large cable or rope round a ship's hull when it is feared that the hull is not strong enough to resist the stormy sea.

The word boētheia occurs only twice in the Bible, here, and also in Acts 27:17.

Acts 27:14 But soon a tempestuous wind, called the northeaster, struck down from the land. And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along. Running under the lee of a small island called Cauda, we managed with difficulty to secure the ship’s hull. After hoisting it up, they used ‘helps’ to undergird the ship. (boētheia - frapping)

 

I had never heard of the word ‘frap’ in my life before but now I’m finding that it could be one of the most transforming and transfiguring words I’ve ever stumbled upon.

Paul took this word ‘helps’ from his experience on a stormy sea as a prisoner being escorted by ship to Rome. From Rome he wrote his letter to the Hebrews, and he used this same word help (boētheia) that we find in our text.

 

Holding our soul together

He uses this word to describe what kind of protective holding together that the ship needed on a stormy sea and applies it to the activity of God’s grace in holding our soul together when we face the uncertainties of times of need in our lives.

Our souls are comprised of our mind and our emotions and our will, and these three parts need to work in unity with one another and be reordered when they look like flying apart - and that takes more than a self-help program to hold our soul together.

 

We might have our routine tasks organized and stay calm, but our minds could be wandering all over the place, or we can have thought things through clearly and doing what needs to be done but find that our emotions are in a state of anxiety for no reason. And there are times when we find ourselves wearied in soul to the point that our will no longer has strength and we need to find rest for our souls. What holds us together is the activity of the grace of God that reorders our confused mind through the Holy Spirit, and the same activity of grace brings peace to our heart from the throne of grace as we draw near to God, and the same grace brings our will into a place of yielding to the will of God when we cry out to him.

 

Words of Grace from Jesus

This gives meaning to our hearing the words of grace from Jesus that say to us ‘come to me when you are burdened and heavy laden and I will give you rest for your souls’ (Matthew 11:28), and when we hear him say ‘my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you, so let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14:27

 

Grace seats itself first deep within our spirit and then it brings rest to our souls. That rest is not laziness or passivity but the soul’s relief from the nagging feeling of self-consciousness and the welcome enclosure of God consciousness.

 

Time of need - eukairos (the good moment)

Receiving mercy and finding grace are aspects of God’s love that are poured out in the provision of his protective help of holding us together. That provision arrives at the appropriate and appointed time. It is God’s eukairos – for the right time, the right moment, the right occasion. This grace that you have prayed for will hold your soul together (the frapping) at the time you ask for it, AND it will find you in a time of anticipated future challenge because you have prepared your heart of faith to receive it.

We can take hold of and embrace the activity of grace with all the energy within us, being grateful for having found grace in God’s grace filled world where he wraps us in his love. Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has shone upon all mankind.

 

Our rule of life

Finding grace becomes the rule of our lives and this amazing grace which is the powerful redemptive relationship between God and his human family merits our perseverance in faith and obedience. It is the discipline that makes the word disciple worthy of its description. We start each day with a time of finding grace in the loving gaze of the Lord, and then through the day we can have times of ‘recollection’ of this grace filled time of our souls being held together, that need only take a minute – twenty seconds of coming near and receiving mercy then twenty seconds of finding grace in his sight then twenty seconds of faith for the grace to help in the times of need ahead.

Grace has kept the church alive despite its being so much overlooked throughout the years, and in these days, God is holding it out to us to become the prize!

T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far
And Grace will lead us home

 

 

 

 

 

Down from the Mountaintop

DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAINTOP 

Mark 9:2 Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him up onto a mountaintop to pray. And as he was praying, he was transfigured before them, his face began to shine, and his clothes became dazzling white and blazed with light. Then two men appeared and began talking with him—Moses and Elijah! They were splendid in appearance, glorious to see; and they were speaking of his death at Jerusalem, to be carried out in accordance with God’s plan.
As Moses and Elijah were starting to leave, Peter, all confused and not even knowing what he was saying, blurted out, “Master, this is wonderful! We’ll put up three tents —one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah!”
But even as he was saying this, a bright cloud formed above them; and they were in awe as it covered them. And a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” Then, as the voice died away, Jesus was there alone with his disciples. He told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until after his resurrection from the dead, but they did not understand what he meant. 

The greatest show on earth
The account of the transfiguration of Jesus on the top of a mountain depicts what could be called the most spectacular phenomenon to be described in the Bible. It was a time and a place where Heaven was seen to touch the earth, where Jesus shone in glory as a kind of preview of his glorified resurrected Heavenly self in the presence of the Heavenly forms of Moses and Elijah. The Heavenly Moses represented the Law and Commandments which speaks of God’s wisdom to his people, while the Heavenly prophet Elijah speaks of God’s word of purpose for his people.
This was also an astonishing historical record of an event that confirms for all believers the truth of the word ‘Incarnation’ which means the joining of the Being of God with the being of humanity in the glorified person of Jesus Christ. To those standing by it affirmed that Jesus was from Heaven and that he was known by the prophet Elijah and by the lawgiver Moses as the one who was the destined Lord and King of Heaven and Earth. If ever any Jewish person were to take seriously this magnificent occurrence as an historical account of seeing Israel’s holy prophet Elijah and their revered Lawgiver Moses speaking with the glorified Jesus as their promised Messiah, they would fall on the ground and worship him as God. (And they all will in time!).
Three gospels recount this story. Matthew 17:1–8, Mark 9:2, Luke 9:28.

The background story
Just before going up the mountain Jesus had been teaching his disciples about his going to the cross and dying and being raised up again, which was difficult for them to receive, and he challenged them also about following him and that only by losing their lives would they save their lives – all difficult sayings. 
The final thing that he said in those teachings was a remarkable statement; ‘there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power (Mark 9:1).
The simple truth of that statement is that after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and the sending of the Holy Spirit the Kingdom Age was about to arrive on the earth, and then would begin the time for people to see the Kingdom of God and to live in its power. 
The Kingdom age of faith
The Apostle Peter was one of those people who would not taste death till he had seen the age of the new Kingdom and to enter into it. He also writes about witnessing the mountaintop transfiguration in the Scriptures. 
2Peter 1:10 For we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honour and glory from God the Father, and the voice was spoken to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice spoken from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

That mountaintop reality was the portrayal of everything Israel was and had been concerning their spiritual history and now it was to become the vision of humanity’s spiritual future in living a here and now Kingdom of Heaven life on the earth. And we are now living in that Kingdom age of God and experiencing it through our faith.
Luke writes an epilogue to the mountaintop event, when he shares in the next verse about what happened when they came down from the mountain.

Luke 9:37 The next day as they descended from the mountain, a huge crowd met him, and a man in the crowd called out to him, “Teacher, this boy here is my only son and a spirit has seized him… 
Luke is telling us that the next thing after the mountaintop experience was now the Kingdom work for Jesus to do on the ground, a life of getting in amongst the spiritual chaos and disorder of the world around him and bringing love and wholeness into the physical and emotional pain of the people. The same kind of Kingdom activity was waiting for the disciples to enter into, and the same kind of Kingdom activity is waiting for us to enter into as well. 

The Jesus model of mountaintop prayer
When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he modelled to them his way of exercising mountaintop prayer. That was always a place where Heaven touched earth in a very personal way, a time of inner transfiguration where the human heart of Jesus held the glory of God within himself.

Whenever Jesus went up onto a mountaintop to pray, he would mostly go alone, to be with his Father. That was the first of the three stages of his mountaintop prayer, climbing the mountain and leaving everything else behind. 
The second stage was being on the mountaintop in the presence of his Father.
The third stage was coming back down the mountain and engaging with the challenges of life below.

Jesus said to them ‘follow me’, and he is also saying the same to us in his modelling of mountaintop prayer to us.
The discipline of this personal devotional prayer is still a discipline that needs a willingness to attend to, but by following his guidelines this approach turns prayer into a rest and refuge for our souls rather than a struggle that wearies our souls.

The first stage of climbing the mountain is our willingness to take the trek towards the mountaintop while still carrying the struggles of earthly things to reach a higher place of being with God. It’s as though we have put all of our earthly burdens into a backpack that we are now going to lug up a mountain. And when we get to the top, we will place whatever we carried in our backpack into his hands as an act of surrender. Our minds will then be set upon him and not upon the problems. 
Colossians 3:2 set your minds on the things above and not on the things of the earth 
The more often our soul does that trek the easier it gets because we are exercising our souls into a more confident hope as we surrender those burdens to the Lord. We know that he hears our surrendered prayer, and we also know that he knows what is in our backpack before we even unload it onto him. It is the surrender that delights him, and it is the surrender that is our faith.

After placing all our cares upon him the second stage is completed by being on the mountaintop with the Heavenly Jesus as our brother and sharing time with our Father as his child. We now begin to have our souls transformed (metamorpho?? - transfiguration) by the power of the Holy Spirit as we sit and receive Kingdom of Heaven life from him. This is where the love and mercy of God captures our heart, and the wisdom of God orders our mind, and the purpose of God directs our way forward. This is where the Apostle Peter wanted to build three tabernacles for Jesus and Moses and Elijah and to stay there and not come back down, but there has to be a coming down from the mountaintop.

The third stage is coming down the mountain and finding faith to do the work of God in our simple everyday faithfulness to whatever task or whatever relational occasion will present itself. This is where we can allow his Heavenly life and love to bring words and deeds of meaning into the lives of those around us. 

A recollection process
If we start each day with a mountaintop time with Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit, we can have times of ‘recollection’ of this grace filled time of rest and refuge for our souls throughout the day for short periods of time. We recommit our surrendered prayer, and in this way, we maintain the flow of his kingdom purpose within our hearts. (It need only take a minute – twenty seconds reviewing the backpack trek up the mountain, twenty seconds receiving transforming grace, and twenty seconds preparing to re-enter the busy world while carrying his presence instead of a backpack of problems). Things will happen around us in the will of God that we could never have organized to happen by our own planning. 
But who qualifies for this kind of privilege? When I asked myself that question, I found the answer was a simple prayer.

A Kingdom Prayer
Dear Lord, 
I wish to see your Kingdom reality this day and to have entrance into your Kingdom activity. I believe I am qualified for this as I am an imperfect human being that you died for and rose again for and who is in constant need of your mercy. I delight to do your will O Lord but I need your help. I need the empowering grace of your Holy Spirit to do that. Thank you for hearing this prayer and attending to my cry at this very moment. 
I now surrender this day to you.
Your Beloved Child xo (see you on the Mountain)